Patricia Mullahy Fugere, Esq.

Patricia Mullahy Fugere has been involved in affordable housing and homelessness issues since 1980, when as a college student, she supported low-income DC renters seeking to purchase their homes and convert them to cooperatively-owned housing. She was inspired by that experience to attend law school, seeking to use the tools of the legal profession to expand affordable housing opportunities for community members with limited resources. After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center in 1984, Patty went on to co-found and, from 1991 until late 2022, serve as the executive director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. She believes deeply that housing is a human right and is committed to ensuring that the wisdom and voices of those who experience homelessness or severe housing insecurity are a vital part of the policy conversations that impact their lives. 

While having recently stepped down as the Legal Clinic’s executive director to spend more time with her family, Patty remains involved in housing justice advocacy in the nation’s capital. She has been engaged in a number of initiatives that promote justice for unhoused and low-income community members, both in DC and at the federal level, serving on the boards of directors of Community Spring, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice and The Center for Social Housing and Public Investment. She was a founding member of the DC Access to Justice Commission, a co-founder and long-time steering committee member of the DC Fair Budget Coalition, and a member of the governing or advisory boards of the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project, the National Center for Housing and Child Welfare, and the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. Patty also is helping build a new generation of justice advocates as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University, where she co-teaches a course on “Homelessness, Poverty and Legal Advocacy.”

The importance of Patty’s work has been recognized both nationally and locally, with awards from the National Homelessness Law Center, the DC Bar, the Legal Aid Society of DC, the DC Bar Foundation, the People for Fairness Coalition and the Gray Panthers of Metro Washington. In addition, Patty holds honorary degrees from Georgetown University Law Center and Kings College (PA).