(Watch the PBS feature)

For most law students, Saturday mornings are prized opportunities for studying…or sleeping. But for members of Project No One Leaves, Saturday mornings are prized opportunities of a different kind: advocacy.

Each Saturday, HLS students head out into the neighborhoods in Greater Boston hit the hardest by the foreclosure crisis. Armed with information—and smiles—the students inform tenants of their legal rights under Massachusetts. The name of the movement, No One Leaves, is a simple ode to its mission of ensuring that no one is forced to leave his or her home without an exhaustion of all legal rights.

“ Project No One Leaves reaches out to foreclosed properties in Boston to inform tenants and former homeowners of their legal rights,” said Marielle Macher, a 3L HLAB member. “ We also work to connect residents in foreclosed properties to City Life/Vida Urbana, our partner community organizing group, where residents can access free legal services and get involved in the broader anti-foreclosure movement.”

The canvassing effort was launched in 2008 by two HLAB students, Nick Hartigan ’ 09 and David Haller ’ 09, along with another HLS student Tony Borich ’ 09. What originally begun as a spin-off HLAB has evolved into its own full-fledged student organization. And yet, the connection to HLAB remains strong, as Bureau members lead the group’ s efforts and heavily populate its membership. Project No One Leaves has proved to be a strong linkage between HLAB and the Law School, allowing for collaboration with other student groups and serving as a powerful recruiting tool for the next generations of Bureau attorneys.

Each week, students gather the list of newly filed foreclosures in Boston, create a database, and organize students from HLS and eight other Boston-area law schools and colleges to knock on those doors and inform the homeowners and tenants of their legal rights. Project No One Leaves, which in 2009 contacted more than 1,000 people living in properties being foreclosed on, is a key part of HLAB’ s attack on the foreclosure crisis in low-income areas. Its strategy also includes direct representation of clients in need, legislative advocacy and pressuring banks to change their tactics.

In partnership with City Life and other community organizations, the HLAB students have also participated in successful eviction blockades, and they are now using a new tactic of moving families back into properties from which they have been kicked out. The students are also involved in drafting and supporting three bills currently before the Massachusetts Legislature that would put a moratorium on foreclosures and take other actions to halt the crisis.

HLABers working on Project No One Leaves are drawing the attention of more than tenants in need. This fall, a film crew from PBS followed the canvassers around for a day of advocating. The show aired on October 19th.

“ The national exposure, and what it means for No One Leaves is amazing,” Macher said. “ We aim to reach every foreclosed property in Boston on a weekly basis, and the national attention through PBS is amazing.”

See what the nation is talking about by watching the PBS feature!