DC Access To Justice Commission

D.C. Access to Justice Commission Impact of Access to Justice Funding

Legal Services Address Basic Human Needs

Legal services are a critical strand in the safety net for low-income families, seniors and other District residents. Advocates help address basic human needs, including:

 preventing evictions and forcing landlords to fix code violations;  representing seniors who have problems related to drug benefits, foreclosure, probate, and other matters;  ensuring that children have access to health care;  assisting domestic violence victims and their children to escape violent relationships;  enabling disabled individuals to secure disability benefits;  ensuring that low-income workers maintain employment; and  making sure families have a base level of income sufficient to feed and house their children.

District Funds Have Placed Lawyers in Offices in the Community to Make Legal Services More Accessible

In 2007, the District created the Access to Justice grant program and has appropriated funds to the program each year. A primary goal of the program was to create and expand offices in neighborhoods to make it easier for clients to seek services. The grant has:

 Dramatically expanded geographic access, including more than doubling the number of attorneys working East of the Anacostia River. There are now five legal services programs with offices East of the River.  Supported more than 30 lawyers across the District who provide assistance to low-income and underserved communities.  Created a Community Legal Interpreter Bank, which recruits and trains community interpreters. The Interpreter Bank, which has become a national model, permits the many non-English speakers who reside in the District to communicate with their attorneys.

The public funds have successfully leveraged other grant funds to augment the publicly- funded services, as well as established a framework that makes it possible for pro bono lawyers to supplement the core work done by full-time legal services lawyers.

The Access to Justice Funds Provide Important Services Across the District

Through the support of the Access to Justice funding, indigent residents across the District have received critical services. Five organizations – Bread for the City, the Children's Law Center, the Legal Aid Society, the Neighborhood Legal Services Program, and Whitman Walker Clinic -- are now serving clients through neighborhood Access to Justice Funds 1 April, 2010 offices and Children's National Medical Center Clinics East of the River. Thousands of tenants across the city have received services through the Court-Based Legal Services Program which provides same day legal services at D.C. Superior Court to tenants with emergent housing issues. In addition to providing direct legal services, the publicly funded attorneys performed extensive outreach and community education activities, worked with tenants' associations and community groups, and performed needs assessments for District residents.

A description of some of the publicly funded programs is attached. The following is an illustration of the assistance that has been provided:

• Whitman Walker Clinic has been able to place legal staff at the Max Robinson Center and increase its representation of residents living with HIV. • The Children's Law Center has been able to assist an increased number of vulnerable children by providing on-site services at Children's National Medical Center Clinics. Lawyers collaborate with medical personnel to identify and remediate legal barriers to children's health. • Legal Counsel for the Elderly established a program to provide legal services to home-bound seniors by sending a lawyer to their homes. The lawyer provides a broad range of services on key elder law issues. • The Employment Justice Center has hired a bilingual staff attorney to represent Spanish-speaking residents with unpaid minimum and/or overtime wage cases and to advocate for the establishment of a Worker's Center in Ward 5. • WEAVE has placed attorneys at the Lighthouse Center for Healing to provide legal assistance to domestic violence victims. The publicly funded attorneys collaborate with co-located victims services agencies including the District Alliance for Safe Housing, the D.C. Rape Crisis Center, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, and the Crime Victims Compensation fund.

Legal Services Builds Stronger Communities and Saves the District Money

In addition to the critical individual interventions that legal services attorneys provide, legal services help to build stronger and safer communities. For example, legal services attorneys enforce the city's building codes, preserving property value and maintaining neighborhoods. They uncover predatory lending schemes that prey on elderly and other vulnerable residents. They help parents secure child support orders which can help keep those families from having to rely on TANF and other state government benefits.

Providing legal services also saves the District money. For example, last year attorneys in the Court-Based Legal Services “Attorney for the Day Project” conservatively saved 200 people from wrongful evictions. Since it costs more than $25,000 to house a family in an apartment-style shelter for a year, this represents an estimated savings for the District of more than $5 million in return for a public investment of $575,000. Money is also saved when legal services attorneys help eligible clients to receive Federal rather than local disability and other benefits. Access to Justice Funds 2 April, 2010 Because of the Recession, District Funds are More Important than Ever

The District has been hit hard by the recession and those at the bottom of the economic scale have been hit the hardest. The unemployment rate in Ward 8 is 28.3%, nearly ten times the Ward 3 rate of 3.2%. Foreclosures are on the rise and the hardest hit areas are East of the River. The incidence and severity of domestic violence is on the rise. Homelessness is increasing and shelters and other prevention services are strained.

Residents in these neighborhoods are facing new legal problems caused by the recession. Legal services lawyers estimate a 20% increase in demand for help. This probably underestimates the actual need since many clients never make it to a provider at all

At the same time, funding for legal services is plummeting. The Access to Justice Commission and the Consortium of Legal Services Providers recently released a report – Rationing Justice: the Effect of the Recession on Access to Justice in the District of Columbia – that shows that funding for legal services is shrinking dramatically just as client needs are skyrocketing. In the last year alone, $4.5 million in funding -- which represents 25% of total funding -- was lost. As a result, the network has decreased by twenty-one attorneys (12.5% of the network) and thirty non-attorney staff (37% of the network) who provide critical client support. The loss of these lawyers means that approximately 1050 fewer cases per year are handled before the courts or an administrative agency and 2100 fewer clients receive counseling, advice or brief services. In addition, programs have had to reduce intake hours, restrict intake criteria, reduce provision of extended representation in favor of providing brief assistance, narrow priorities, and reduce or eliminate crucial supportive and social work services.

Funding for FY 2011 is Critical

This year is expected to be worse. Every key funding source for legal services is expected to decrease in 2010. Law firm and individual giving, already down by 20%, is expected to remain flat or decline. Foundation giving is expected to decrease due to drops in endowment equity. Because IOLTA funds are tied to interest rates, the recession has devastated this source of critical funding. The District has already decreased funding for civil legal services by $700,000 – a 20% cut. District funding is vital to ensuring that we keep lawyers on the ground in the most underserved parts of the city. Without District support, fewer and fewer clients will receive desperately needed legal assistance.

Access to Justice Funds 3 April, 2010 Access to Justice Funds Have an Impact Across the City

When the Access to Justice funds were created, a principal goal was to increase access to counsel for underserved populations. In making funding decisions, the D.C. Bar Foundation has given priority to program expansion East of the Anacostia River and to projects that reach underserved communities. Access to Justice funds currently support:

Court-Based Legal Services Project: Public funds support eight lawyers from three different legal services providers (Bread for the City, Legal Aid, and the Neighborhood Legal Services Program) who collaborate to assist tenants at Landlord-Tenant court who have immediate critical needs for representation. Through same-day and extended representation, their work helps clients navigate the complex court system, keeps clients in housing, addresses dangerous housing code violations, and keeps housing affordable. These attorneys are often the last line of defense in preventing homelessness and have kept hundreds of people in their homes. The project is engaged in a special initiative to assist tenants of buildings in foreclosure because landlords failed to pay loans.

Community Legal Interpreter Bank: The publicly funded project is a critical tool for making legal services and the justice system accessible for limited-English proficient (LEP) residents. The bank, which has become a national model, identifies and trains qualified legal interpreters, makes those interpreters available to legal services providers free of charge, and trains providers to better serve LEP communities. Twenty-six local providers currently utilize the bank to provide a range of vital family law, immigration, housing, public benefits, employment and other services. The bank has experienced an explosive growth in service requests as providers have become familiar with its services. In FY 2008 alone the bank provided over 2600 hours of interpretation services to over 350 clients. It translated approximately 150 legal information, client correspondence and case-related documents. It has made available approximately 50 interpreters who speak 23 different languages, including American Sign Language, to legal services organizations. It also trained 20 providers on how to best work with interpreters.

The Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center Housing and Community Justice Project: A publicly funded attorney provides direct legal services to low- income and limited-English proficient Asian-Americans. The project, which is currently focused on Asian seniors in low-income housing, recently helped to organize a tenant association at a building primarily housing low-income, limited or non-English proficient Chinese seniors and families. Attorneys also work with the community to preserve affordable housing, address emergent neighborhood issues, support equitable community and economic development work, and perform outreach and education activities.

Whitman Walker’s Southeast Legal Services Program. Two publicly funded lawyers are co-located with medical and behavioral health professionals at the Max Robinson Center to provide vital services to low-income residents who are struggling with HIV-and AIDS- related issues. Attorneys provide assistance with a broad spectrum of health insurance, disability, public benefits, health access, discrimination and estate planning issues.

Access to Justice Funds 4 April, 2010 Legal Counsel for the Elderly Alternatives to Landlord Tenant Court: This legal/social work collaborative addresses the root causes of eviction to prevent displacement of District seniors. The attorney works with public and private housing managers, judges, agencies and community social workers to identify elders who are in danger of eviction and take remedial action. District agencies rely heavily on the project which receives numerous referrals form the D.C. Office on Aging and its lead agencies, local hospitals, DCHA property managers and the D.C. Superior Court.

Bread for the City’s Community Lawyering Project: Public funds support a community lawyer who works primarily on housing and public benefits cases in the most underserved parts of the city. The project is currently providing direct representation to over thirty tenants at Marbury Plaza who were part of a large-scale rent strike to protest long-standing poor housing conditions. Because of the project, long-term egregious code violations are being remedied and the tenants have been able to remain in their homes.

The Employment Justice Center’s Bilingual Workers Rights Project: A publicly funded bilingual staff attorney represents Spanish-speaking, D.C. residents, predominantly in Wards 1 and 5, with unpaid minimum and/or overtime wage claims in D.C. Superior and Small Claims Court. She also educates workers about wage and hour laws and wage theft prevention at community meetings and trainings. Since June 2009, she has assisted D.C. resident workers in recovering over $50,000 in unpaid minimum and/or overtime wages.

Legal Counsel for the Elderly, Project HELP: The Project HELP attorney makes house calls to low-income housebound elders across the city, and conducts outreach in senior apartment buildings, houses of worship, and community centers. With the help of pro bono attorneys and lay volunteers, the project provides critical assistance with a wide range of civil legal issues, including housing, public benefits, medical insurance, drug benefits, powers of attorney, wills, and guardianship matters.

Children’s Law Center Health Access Project: CLC lawyers are based in National Children’s Medical Center clinics and work with the medical staff to solve the legal problems that clinic patients and their families experience. On-site attorneys take referrals directly from pediatricians and nurses, and early intervention often prevents small health issues from deteriorating into emergencies.

University Legal Services Jail Advocacy Project: A publicly funded attorney works together with a social worker, supportive housing coordinator and peer advocate to enter the D.C. Jail and address the legal advocacy needs of incarcerated residents with serious mental illness transitioning from behind bars back to the community. The attorney ensures access to quality, individualized treatment, benefits and reentry supports and protects against abuse, neglect and discrimination in order to interrupt the cycle of repeated incarceration and hospitalization. In addition to in-reach at the jail, the team is stationed in Ward 8 weekly at the Unity Reentry Healthcare Center where returning residents of both Ward 7 and 8 frequent the clinic for wrap around social/medical/legal

Access to Justice Funds 5 April, 2010 services. ULS also conducts legal rights educational workshops across the city, including at substance abuse treatment sites in Ward 7.

WEAVE: Publicly funded attorneys collaborate with co-located victims services agencies to assist domestic violence victims at the Lighthouse Center for Healing. The cooperative efforts of these agencies helps victims to obtain a wide range of supportive services at one location. The Project recently began a collaboration with the D.C. Rape Crisis Center, the District Alliance for Safe Housing, and the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners to provide legal services for sexual assault survivors.

Access to Justice Funds 6 April, 2010