Janet Werkman

Janet is an attorney who moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Mountain View, California in 2015 with her husband. She served a term on the Seeds of Hope Silicon Valley Board before moving back to Cambridge in 2026.  While on the Board of Directors she was a key contributor to setting up the legal and regulatory compliance in place for our organization.

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Janet's legal experience includes work for non-profits, and in private practice, helping individuals with legal issues related to housing, employment, consumer rights, and problems with debt and credit. 

 

Janet believes that our nation’s homelessness crisis is not only a social problem but a moral failing; a wealthy nation has a moral obligation to ensure that all human beings have access to the basic necessities of life. Janet is committed not only to ending homelessness but to creating a society that recognizes the right to safe, healthy, and affordable housing as a fundamental human right. 

 

Janet has worked with Mountain View Housing Justice, an all-volunteer, grassroots organization that advocates for housing for all residents and for the rights of people living in vehicles on the City’s streets.  Janet has litigated wrongful foreclosure and lender liability claims against predatory lenders. 

 

Janet served for 17 years as legal counsel to government watchdog agencies charged with detecting and preventing waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending. As chief legal counsel to the Massachusetts Inspector General and to the City of New Orleans Inspector General, Janet planned and directed data-driven evaluations of government operations and projects and worked on investigations into government corruption. 

 

Janet graduated from the University of Colorado with a B.A. in Psychology in 1980 and from Harvard Law School with a J.D. in 1984.