Changemaker: Zach Neumann and Sam Gilman
The origin of the Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP), co-founded by Zach Neumann and Sam Gilman, dates to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Longtime friends and colleagues, Zach and Sam were alarmed by the rapid loss of employment experienced by Coloradans and what it meant for the housing stability of thousands across the state.
“When the pandemic first started, there was no eviction moratorium, no emergency rental assistance, and no special provisions at all,” Zach recalled. “I put up a post on Facebook that offered free legal representation and help with landlord negotiation for folks at risk of eviction. When I signed on the next day, there were literally hundreds of comments and messages from people I’d never met.”
Zach described this social media post made in March 2020 and the response it generated as a “crystalizing moment.” He and Sam founded what was then known as the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project in April 2020, which was birthed as an organizing and legal aid effort focused on keeping Coloradans stably housed amidst the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
As Sam and Zach began to work with clients and represent them, they identified a key issue causing people to be evicted, even despite their best efforts in court. Oftentimes, clients would qualify for some form of rental assistance funding, but the check would arrive weeks after the eviction order had been handed down. In many cases, had the funds arrived sooner, that client would have been able to pay their landlord and remain in their home.
An eviction is a profoundly destabilizing event for a household, with short- and long-term ramifications. Not only does it result in the immediate loss of housing, but a record of eviction can also mean that a person or family will struggle to obtain affordable and secure housing for years to come, leading to a persistent cycle of instability and hardship.
“There are so many problems in the world that are tough to solve, but getting checks delivered on time to people who need them is not one of them,” said Zach. “That is a solvable problem. So, we quickly set out to do that.”
The anti-poverty systems, the legal aid systems, the emergency aid systems, and the benefit systems often don’t connect, and they need to connect. The pandemic made this incredibly apparent and became the underlying foundation for our work.
Early on, CEDP obtained philanthropic financing from partners including an interest-free revolving line of credit from CHFA to begin issuing rapid rental assistance to clients at a time when traditional models of state and federal resources struggled to respond to the timely need. As CEDP worked with clients and listened to the challenges they faced, they also heard about how difficult it was for Coloradans to obtain the help they were seeking when they faced economic difficulty. Finding resources and aid meant navigating a laundry list of organizations and a tangled web of public and private systems that largely operated independently from one another.
“The anti-poverty systems, the legal aid systems, the emergency aid systems, and the benefit systems often don’t connect, and they need to connect,” Sam explained. “The pandemic made this incredibly apparent and became the underlying foundation for our work. The services that we provide today as CEDP emerged organically over time based on what our clients told us they needed. We believe that our clients deserve the dignity of being able to access the assistance they need with one phone call and with one organization that knows them as people.”
The organization quickly scaled and evolved to meet the needs of their clients. In 2022, to reflect their scope of services, CEDP rebranded as the Community Economic Defense Project. This name reflects not only their continued efforts to stave off evictions and foreclosures through the rapid delivery of financial assistance and legal aid, but an integrated response to economic hardship. This includes innovative service delivery models such as benefits navigation, state and federal advocacy efforts, homelessness diversion, assistance for those whose vehicles have been towed and impounded, support for mobile home residents, and taking on systems of predatory consumer debt.
“Our goal is to be a one-stop shop so that when somebody picks up the phone and calls CEDP, they can get the variety of services they need,” Sam said. “And if we aren’t able to provide what they’re looking for, we can provide a warm hand-off to another organization.”
As of 2024, CEDP has served more than 40,000 clients and paid out more than $200 million in emergency rental and mortgage assistance to keep Coloradans housed. What was once a small team comprised of mostly volunteers has grown to more than 100 lawyers, housing navigators, customer care agents, and policy experts partnering with clients to build economic and racial equity, confront economic injustice, and invest in community wealth.
“CEDP runs a financial emergency room,” Sam said. “And of course, we need funding for emergency rooms, and emergency rooms are important.” CEDP envisions a Colorado where clients can live in stable, thriving communities with a range of affordable housing options and ample opportunities for community wealth building. This vision fuels Sam, Zach, and the team at CEDP as they continue to fight each day for housing stability and economic justice for Coloradans.