Blog

Caitlin Ewing is a former LCBH staff member and Young Professional Board (YPB) Chair. While at LCBH, she served as the pro bono coordinator during the height of the mortgage foreclosure crisis. We recently had time to chat with Caitlin and she shared some of her experiences.

How did you first get involved with LCBH?
Full credit goes to Claire Battle. We were Craigslist roommates during law school and she was involved with LCBH during her undergraduate career. By her invitation, I attended the Hearts for Housing event in 2007. This led me to connect with a lot of people affiliated with LCBH. Upon graduation, I was looking to find opportunities to get my feet wet as an attorney. I started volunteering with LCBH in late 2008. I started volunteering as a staff attorney and the opportunity presented itself to apply for a pro bono coordinator position, which I started in 2009. I stayed for about a year and loved it. I got to work with Mark Swartz, LCBH's Executive Director, when he was relatively new to the agency and I learned a great deal from him. At the time, I was heavily involved in eviction court; it gave me a new perspective and a much more tangible respect for the people that we serve.

What was happening that led you to need LCBH's services?
We were renting an apartment and started to notice that people were coming to see the building pretty frequently. My sisters took notice of these strangers and eventually asked them why they were routinely stopping by. To our surprise, they said the building was in foreclosure. Meanwhile, we were still paying rent. I called the landlord and he said that he was behind in some of his payments, but it was nothing to worry about. Some months down the road, we finally learned that he no longer owned the building and he wasn’t paying the mortgage. One of my landlord's siblings lived upstairs so we thought we were fine. We weren’t. The landlord took a bank offer and we were almost immediately served with eviction papers. I reached out to Legal Aid Chicago and they connected me with LCBH.

Farihah Syed joined LCBH in July 2021 as our new Rentervention Staff Attorney. We are so excited to welcome her to the team. We recently sat down with Farihah to talk about her background in the legal field.

What have you done prior to joining LCBH?
I graduated from Chicago-Kent in May of 2019. I specialized in criminal prosecution in and out of law school. Following graduation, I served as a law clerk at the Cook County State's Attorney's Office Juvenile Delinquency, Child Protection, and Felony Trial divisions. I also was a City prosecutor law clerk at the City of Chicago Department of Law.

How did you become affiliated with LCBH?
I saw a great opportunity as LCBH’s Rentervention Staff Attorney and was interested in seeing what it was about. I reached out and LCBH showed interest in having me on the team.

How do you feel connected to the mission?
I feel like I'm genuinely helping people who are dealing with difficult circumstances and providing them with some semblance of justice. It’s a very fulfilling role. I like that I'm helping people navigate difficult times in their lives. This is most important for me.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented significant challenges for many Chicago renters, where widespread employment cutbacks and shelter-in-place mandates have made paying rent burdensome and nearly out of the question. Like many tenants, emergency rental assistance came as a relief to Kimberly A. As the sole provider for herself and her daughter, Kimberly was forced to take leave from her job to care for her daughter due to school closings. Her savings dried up and she was left with only a small portion of her earnings. When she no longer had enough to cover her rent, she turned to LCBH, where she received help applying for emergency rental assistance. The funds not only helped Kimberly to get back on track but she was even able to get ahead in her financial obligations.

Today, Kimberly is a licensed realtor. She credits an early round of emergency rental assistance for allowing her to prioritize rental payments while staying focused on her professional goals. "You just don't know what a difference those funds made in me and my daughter's life; it put me ahead of the game and things are looking up," said Kimberly.

To learn more or to apply for emergency rental assistance, visit https://chicookilrenthelp.org.