Housing and Economic Rights Advocates

HERA opened in 2005 focused on stopping predatory mortgage lending, helping victims and teaching more advocates (e.g. housing counselors, attorneys, community organizers, social workers) how to spot abuses, and how to help people.  We grew our work into addressing wrongful foreclosures and other mortgage servicing abuses depriving seniors, people with disabilities, women, people of color, immigrants and others of their home and a lifetime of investment both emotional and financial.   And we opened our doors 4 years ago to protecting against other forms of wrongful debt collection and unfair credit reporting.  You can not contact HERA about virtually any kind of debt or credit problem, and we will provide you with guidance, advice and other assistance, including counseling on your current financial problems and financial future. We have assisted over 11,000 Californians, about half of whom live in the Bay Area, since opening our doors.

We are full spectrum in our approach to serving the public- from individual legal assistance across the State of California (phone, fax, email or in-person), and advocacy for individuals (litigation and non-litigation negotiating), to community education workshops, trainings for other professionals to increase the pool of available resources to the public, collaborating with many different kinds of entities to expand our impact, to policy work that is born of what we learn directly from the clients we serve.