Services
The primary geographic focus of HERA’s direct consumer education and client services work is the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, including Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, and other surrounding areas. Statewide, HERA provides technical assistance, trainings and other capacity building services to a wide range of organizations.
As part of its overall mission, HERA seeks out various sources of funding to meet its goals to provide many of its services at little or no cost. For example, limited, over the phone advice and counseling services to agencies and consumers are free. However, more in-depth services (i.e., for agency training, technical consultation and capacity building) are provided on a fee for service basis. Please contact us for information. Specifically, in the areas of both fair housing and predatory lending, HERA offers the services listed below.
Consumer and Public Education
Throughout California, HERA works with local housing counseling, fair housing and government agencies, as well as other community-based organizations, to provide information to residents in a way that is clear and easy to remember. To arrange for HERA to provide trainings or workshops in your area, please contact us for more information.
Legal Services
Fair Housing HERA provides legal advice and
counseling in-person and over the phone to the public on housing discrimination
problems. If you believe you have been the victim of discrimination in trying
to access or maintain housing or in connection with homeownership, please
call us at (510) 271-8443. You may also email questions to: inquiries@heraca.org. Staff of fair housing organizations, other community based organizations, and governmental entities may also contact HERA with fair housing questions.
Predatory Lending HERA provides legal representation
to low and moderate-income residents who have fallen prey to predatory lending
abuses, primarily in the greater Bay Area. We also provide legal advice and
counseling to consumers all over California both over the phone and (for those
close to our office) in-person.
HERA’s Case Referral and Acceptance Policy HERA
accepts consumer cases through referrals from other service providers, government
agency staff, et cetera. We do not require pre-screening of referrals. We
also accept calls from consumers directly, many of whom have learned about
us through other consumers, our website, and foreclosure education events
we have participated in.
If necessary, based on the caller's needs and geographic location, as well as HERA's capacity, HERA will refer cases to local legal services or private attorneys (sometimes with an eye to collaboration/co-counseling) or housing counseling agencies.
HERA's legal services for consumers include legal advice and counseling in-person and over the phone on foreclosure, fair housing and predatory lending issues (including advice to tenants in buildings that have been foreclosed on), and legal representation for low- and moderate-income victims of predatory lending and foreclosure related abuses. Our direct representation of consumers is at this time, primarily in the Greater Bay Area but also extends into California's Central Valley.
Training for Organizations and Legal Professionals
We believe that expanding the pool of trained resources available to victims is essential to combating fair housing and predatory lending abuses. We also believe that people are more likely to turn to trusted advisors in the community or social workers with whom they have contact than a lawyer. Part of HERA’s work, therefore, is to train those advisors, who include housing counselors, fair housing agencies, legal service providers, paid and volunteer staff of seniors’ centers, community-based organizations, churches, meals programs and others with whom likely victims have regular contact. Please contact us to arrange for these services.
Technical Assistance and Capacity Building
We realize that fast access to legal advice can be critical to protecting individual and consumers’ rights. Because most housing counseling and fair housing agencies do not have attorneys on staff or have relationships with other attorneys to fulfill this need, HERA makes itself available for consultations to agencies. Please call us for assistance. Limited, over the phone advice and limited key document review is free.
Research and Documentation
Discovering who the bad actors or predators are in a local area and documenting their "family tree", as we call it—who their various partners are who facilitate the abuses—is essential to our targeted efforts to successfully combat predatory lending practices. If you would like to consult or work with HERA on such an effort in your area, give us a call.
Legislative and Policy Advocacy
HERA employs policy and legislative advocacy on the local, state and national level when appropriate. All such work is in partnership with other agencies, attempting to create legal structures that protect consumers better. Our work with community members directly and with other community organizations will inform our policy advocacy. If you have a particular fair housing or predatory lending policy concern which you would like to work with HERA on, please give us a call.
Creating Alternative Consumer Institutions
At HERA, we believe that community economic development strategies could provide alternative structures that compete with and replace the network of abusive lenders and con artists who engage in predatory lending. After researching and documenting how the predators are doing business, HERA works with community groups to assess what types of alternative institutions or structures could compete with and/or give consumers clear choice and access to services they need so that they do not turn to the predators.