Becky originally came to the PJC in the summer of 2004, at the age of 15, as a Law Links intern. As a Law Links intern, Becky worked with the PJC for eight weeks during the summer before her junior year of high school. The University of Maryland School of Law’s Law Links program places high school students as interns with organizations in the legal field and offers regular opportunities to reflect upon their experiences with fellow participants and faculty.
She has since graduated from St. Mary’s College of Maryland (2010) with a major in Psychology and a minor in Women Studies. She has since worked as a Housing Paralegal and Development Associate at the Public Justice Center, and is now the Administrative Coordinator.
Phone: (410) 625-9409 x226
Email
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Kathleen Gregory joined the Public Justice Center’s development team in July 2019 to lead its fundraising efforts. Prior to PJC, Kathleen served as Director of Development & Communications for Paul’s Place. She has also raised funds for Central Scholarship, Baltimore Community Foundation, Maryland Food Bank, and Strong City Baltimore (then Greater Homewood Community Corporation).
She is chair of the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Political Action Committee, serves on AFP’s U.S. Government Relations and Finance Committees, and volunteers as a Tax Preparer for CASH Campaign of Maryland.
Kathleen earned the Certified Fund Raising Executive credentials in 2007, demonstrating her mastery of fundraising principles, techniques, and ethics and her commitment to lifelong learning. She graduated with honors from Allegheny College with a major in Environmental Studies and minors in Communication Arts and Psychology and from North Park University with a Masters’ in Nonprofit Administration.
Phone: (410) 625-9409 x239
Email
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Erin Brock is the Development Manager at the Public Justice Center. Since joining the PJC in 2010, she has contributed to the organization’s fundraising efforts and managed communications with supporters. She enjoys sharing the stories of how PJC staff, clients, allies, and donors are working for justice in Baltimore and beyond. She has also served as a volunteer in various capacities with the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Maryland Chapter. Prior to serving at the PJC, Erin worked for Lutheran World Relief in communications and constituent engagement. She graduated summa cum laude from Luther College with a major in religion and a minor in international studies.
Phone: (410) 625-9409 x242
Email
she / her
Everyone should have a place to call home. Yet renters face many challenges to securing stable, safe, and affordable places to live:
- Landlords often charge predatory, unexpected fees, making rent unpredictable and expensive.
- Landlords frequently don’t maintain properties in low-income neighborhoods, forcing tenants to live with mold, broken furnaces, leaks, and other threats to health and safety.
- Rent court practices favor landlords, making it difficult for tenants to get a fair hearing when they’re in danger of eviction.
- Development efforts fail to address the needs of people with limited incomes and neighborhoods where residents are predominantly people of color and have lower incomes. Development projects ignore the needs of these neighborhoods or gentrify them, driving up rents that force people out.
The Human Right to Housing Project takes on these challenges. We stand with tenants to protect and expand their rights to safe, habitable, affordable, and non-discriminatory housing and their rights to fair and equal treatment by Maryland’s landlord-tenant laws, courts, and agencies. We defend renters facing eviction, demand repair of unsafe housing conditions, and represent renters seeking systemic relief from predatory landlord practices. We advocate to change the law regarding evictions and to demand the development of equitable and sustainable affordable housing.
The Public Justice Center provides free legal assistance, depending on capacity, to 1) renters in Baltimore City who are facing eviction or have questions about their rights and 2) renters statewide whose landlords are in foreclosure. Please call us at (410) 625-9409 for more information. If you are a renter outside of Baltimore City and your landlord is not in foreclosure, please contact the Maryland Court Help Center or another nonprofit legal services provider. You can also find information on our Get Legal Help page.
Campaigns
Rent Court and Eviction Reform
Permanently Affordable Housing and Fair Development
As a member of the Fair Development Roundtable (formerly the Baltimore Housing Roundtable), we advocate for Baltimore City to invest in neighborhood-driven development that doesn’t price residents out. We are advocating with the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Commission to ensure that funds are directed to residents who have the greatest need and neighborhoods that have faced decades of racial segregation and redlining, fueling plans for community-oriented development. In particular, we hope that these funds will fuel development of community land trusts (CLT). A CLT keeps properties affordable and in the hands of the community by holding onto the land permanently and only allowing people with low incomes to buy or rent.
Impact
Co-wrote the Fair Development Roundtable’s report, Community + Land + Trust: Tools for Development Without Displacement. The report details how Baltimore’s development policies have failed to create affordable housing and good paying jobs for low-income residents and offers an alternative vision that prioritizes human rights and human needs.
Together with co-counsel, represented five residents and organizations in a complaint against Baltimore County for decades of policies that have reinforced racial segregation and had disparate impact on people with disabilities. The complaint resulted in a settlement that will provide 1,000 new units of affordable housing in communities of opportunity in the County and assist 2,000 County residents who have vouchers in moving to communities of opportunity.
Worked in coalition to pass a ballot initiative that established an Affordable Housing Trust Fund in Baltimore City.
Negotiated an agreement with Baltimore City and passed legislation committing the City to allocate between $15 and $20 million annually over five years to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
Contributed to the Fair Development Roundtable’s report, Fair Development, Race Equity and Baltimore’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The report provides proposals for how money in the trust fund should be allocated, outlining criteria for housing development such as permanent affordability, race equity, employment of Baltimore residents, environmental sustainability, participation of neighborhood residents, and accessibility.
