News Archive

A news story on the uptick in evictions throughout the Midwest features commentary from IU McKinney Professor Fran Quigley, J.D. ’87. The piece was broadcast February 1 on NPR affiliate WSIU in Iowa.

Renters at risk of eviction often have trouble finding assistance that would keep them in their homes. Nonprofit legal aid programs are attempting to fill in the gap, as Professor Quigley and his students do through their work in the Health and Human Rights Clinic at IU McKinney.

But more than diversion programs are needed to combat this growing public health crisis, Professor Quigley said in the story. He’d like to see major policy changes, like stronger rent protection laws and more funding behind federal housing vouchers. “We, as a nation, make a mistake of treating housing as a commodity and not a right,” he said in the story.

The story was a collaboration between Indianapolis NPR affiliate WFYI and its Side Effects Public Media and other public broadcasting stations in the Midwest.

IU McKinney’s Health and Human Rights Clinic students advocate for the rights of the poor, with a focus on individual and systemic barriers to accessing healthcare and the social determinants of health. Professor Quigley’s latest book, Religious Socialism: Faith in Action for a Better World, was published in September 2021. He is the author of several academic journal articles on social justice and human rights, multiple mass media articles and columns, and five books including this most recent work. Prior to his work at the law school, he served as the first Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Julia Carson and as the executive director of ACLU of Indiana.  He edits the newsletter Faith in Healthcare and contributes to and helps edit the publications of the Religious Socialism working group of the Democratic Socialists of America.