For Tenants and Legal Practitioners

The Tenant Advocacy Project (TAP) is a student practice organization at  Harvard Law School.  Under the supervision of two attorneys, student advocates provide free legal advice and representation for tenants at hearings before local housing authorities. Our clients are:

• Current public housing tenants
• Public housing applicants
• Section 8 or MRVP voucher recipients
• Section 8 or MRVP voucher applicants
• Tenants who need advice on landlord-tenant problems (for tenants in the Greater Boston area who are Section 8 or public housing applicants or tenants)

If you need legal assistance 

 We are happy to discuss your situation via telephone. Unfortunately, we cannot take walk-ins.  

If you are not able to speak with someone when you call, please leave a message and someone will return your call as soon as possible.  The telephone number is 617-495-4394.

TAP’s Service Area  

Boston (including Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury); and the following communities:  Arlington, Belmont, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Dedham, Everett,  Malden, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Newton, Quincy, Revere, Waltham, Watertown, Wellesley, Winchester, Winthrop, and Woburn.

Types of Cases that TAP Handles

TAP provides representation at administrative hearings at public housing authorities/agencies regarding:

• Public housing eviction
• Application denials for public housing, Section 8 and MRVP
• Reasonable accommodation requests
• Residual tenancy
• Transfer denials
• Subsidy terminations   By subsidy we mean only the subsidies (Section 8 and Mass Rental Voucher Program) that are administered by housing agencies and in which tenants have the right to a hearing at a public housing agency.

TAP also provides telephone advice on general landlord-tenant problems, such as code violations and security deposit violations, to tenants in the greater Boston area who are Section 8 or public housing applicants or tenants.

Cases Not Handled: TAP does not provide any representation in court.  TAP does not accept cases where the housing subsidy is not administered by a public housing agency (e.g. HUD-subsidized or MassHousing-subsidized housing).  TAP does not handle Home Base cases.