Daniel Bondavalli and Dennis Smith have joined The John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Legal Support Center as managers for two new projects.
The two positions, funded by Fair Housing Initiatives Project (FHIP) grants, enable the Center to do educational outreach. The grants were awarded through March 2012.
Daniel Bondavalli
Bondavalli, project manager for the Fair Housing Internship Program, will give undergraduate students in the Chicago area an introduction to fair housing law, with hopes of instilling awareness and knowledge to help eradicate discriminatory housing practices.
Smith, project assistant for the Fair Lending/Home Preservation Law Project, organizes U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reports, interacts with students and supervises completion of all requirements for HUD and the city of Chicago.
Bondavalli and Smith, both 2010 graduates, became interested in fair housing while attending John Marshall.
“I volunteered at the Fair Housing Legal Clinic for two semesters,” Bondavalli said. “I always had hoped I’d be able to come back, and I was lucky enough to get that chance.”
Bondavalli was chosen for his experience in higher education and interactions with college students. He had worked as an adjunct instructor of Italian at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill. In the internship program, Bondavalli said students are going to learn about fair housing law, as well as the sociology and history behind racial discrimination in housing.
Dennis Smith
Smith got involved with fair housing work after taking the Predatory Lending course at John Marshall and wrote a paper on elder law and reverse mortgages.
“It was an area of law that’s not my general practice, but an area of interest,” Smith said.
Nancy Fehr, administrative director for the Center, said Smith’s research has found information on HUD empowerment zones and factors the Center should be aware of and should incorporate in the Fair Lending/Home Preservation Law Project.
The FHIP funding is made available through HUD. The new higher education program award is $99,980, and the Predatory Lending program is funded at $124,994.
“Both grants have allowed us to hire additional staff and we’re thankful for that,” Fehr said.