Programs

Affordable housing only fulfills its promise when it remains financially accessible and the rights of residents are protected. Heartland works alongside tenant leaders, nonprofit partners, and public agencies to preserve affordable housing, prevent displacement, and enforce protections for tenants. We combine legal advocacy, policy work, and community partnerships to protect affordable homes, strengthen communities, and ensure these critical housing resources remain available for the families who depend on them.

By developing leaders from the communities most affected by injustice, we help ensure that those closest to the challenges are also leading the solutions. Heartland brings together community members who are ready to turn lived experience into lasting change. Workers and tenants receive training in leadership, organizing, public speaking, and storytelling and have the opportunity to work alongside Heartland staff to advance campaigns that strengthen housing and workers' rights.

We believe lasting change happens when workers have both strong legal representation and the collective power to advocate for themselves. Heartland represents low-wage workers in the courtroom and is a partner in building power in their workplaces and communities. Along with sister organizations such as the Missouri Workers Center and Jobs for Justice, we fight wage theft, support worker organizing, educate workers about their rights, and provide legal advocacy that strengthens campaigns for economic justice.

Heartland uses strategic litigation to challenge unlawful housing conditions and hold predatory landlords accountable. Our attorneys pursue legal strategies that not only secure justice for individual tenants. They improve living conditions for entire apartment communities and establish stronger protections for renters across Missouri. At the core of this work are tenant leaders and organizers who join us in our belief that every family deserves a safe, healthy home, and that lasting change requires changing systems, not just outcomes for one client.