We are thrilled to present the first issue in the 32nd volume of the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy. GJPLP was the first law journal in the nation to focus our publication on issues related to poverty law, antipoverty policy, and economic and racial justice. Since our founding days, we have centered the stories and experiences of the most marginalized individuals in our communities to help us articulate a vision for a more just future. Whether publishing works written by poor and working class authors, learning from the research of practitioners on the ground, or lifting up the bold ideas of scholars and students, our journal cares deeply about making systems work better for everyone.

Issue 1 of Volume 32 has a running thread: we have the power, with law as a tool, to implement real change that has a positive, material impact on peoples’ lives. Our authors write about housing, public benefits, health care, family planning, climate, education, access to justice, and more. And each work expertly lays out what lawyers and others can do about the problems they discuss.

Our first Article, written by Professor Ashley Bassel Griffith, proposes a federal requirement that states provide the costs of estate recovery to Medicaid applicants and enrollees on the front end. As a practitioner, she saw first-hand the detrimental impact of the program’s lack of transparency regarding estate recovery, and this experience led her to compile first-of-its-kind research on this issue. Our second Article, written by Professor Andrele Brutus St. Val, argues that under- standing the origins of distance education can help build robust conceptual frameworks for effective, equitable, and just online education—including for the legal profession. Her piece explores building a more inclusive student body and profession, which could have ripple effects for students of underrepresented socioeconomic backgrounds.

Our Notes are written by two students and two practitioners. First, Madison DeLuca writes critically about the growing demand for adaptive reuse projects—where old (often office) buildings are renovated for a new purpose—to help reduce low-income housing shortages around the country. She outlines ways jurisdictions can implement these transformative changes effectively. Second, Diana Kenealy examines the burgeoning issue of climate gentrification by assessing a case study in Miami, Florida and proposing an integrated approach to sea level rise and housing insecurity to protect disadvantaged communities from further displacement. Third, Simone Obadia contemplates the past, present, and future of international family planning service initiatives and proposes a modern, equitable advocacy framework to better shape access to reproductive healthcare for low- and middle-income families around the world. Fourth, GJPLP editor Adela Oldham addresses how components of social security benefits programs—like spend-down requirements and the estate recovery program discussed by Professor Griffith in her Article—incentivize Medicaid planning, a practice that disproportionately shifts the burden of the negative effects of these policies onto lower-income retirees and perpetuates economic inequality.

This issue of GJPLP can serve as a roadmap and a reminder. Although our politics and the law feel precarious in this moment, we do know two things. First, we know that the most vulnerable and marginalized communities will be the most impacted by major upheavals and changes to our administrative state, public benefits regimes, civil rights laws, and more. Second, we know that making space to imagine and build the components needed for a more just world has value even in the darkest of times. We hope our journal can be a place where we can focus on both of those truths.

Thank you to our remarkable staff for their invaluable commitment to editing this meaningful scholarship. Thank you to the authors who granted us with immense trust and patience to care for and work with their articles and notes. Thank you to our Executive Editors and Executive Articles Editors for spending many hours with authors and staff editors to perfect these pieces. Thank you to our Faculty Advisors and Board of Advisors for their support and guidance.

Finally, thank you to our readers for diving into our journal; we hope to continue the conversation with you.

Sincerely,

Sarah Clements, Editor in Chief, Vol. 32

Renée Cordio, Co-Managing Editor, Vol. 32

Maya Hamblin, Co-Managing Editor, Vol. 32