Our Work
The core of the Legal Clinic’s work, through our Legal Assistance Project, is the representation of individual low- and no-income clients through a network of over 200 volunteer attorneys and legal assistants. Volunteers obtain clients on a referral basis or, most often, at one of seven intake sites run by the Legal Clinic at meal programs, health clinics, and day programs throughout the District. Volunteer attorneys conduct intake interviews and take responsibility for representation in cases requiring follow up. The Legal Clinic’s staff attorneys provide advice and guidance on all volunteer cases. Volunteer attorneys participating in the Legal Assistance Project represent people on issues arising primarily in the following areas (no prior expertise is required): public benefits (e.g., Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income, medical assistance, food stamps and TANF); shelter and housing (e.g., shelter placement, conditions and expulsions, public housing, Housing Choice Voucher Program eligibility and terminations, and housing condition disputes); street rights; and consumer debt/credit.
The Legal Clinic also works on such wide-ranging issues as the criminalization of homelessness, budget advocacy, and the social service safety net. Legal Clinic staff and volunteer attorneys also provide significant advice and representation in connection with the following major initiatives, which have a systemic impact on programs and opportunities throughout the District:
- Affordable Housing Initiative, working to prevent homelessness by representing tenants with low- and no-income who live in buildings threatened by gentrification, foreclosure, loss of subsidy, poor conditions or illegal sale or conversion to condominiums;
- David M. Booth Disability Rights Initiative, assuring the accessibility of local shelters and housing programs to people with physical and/or mental health disabilities;
- Permanent Supportive Housing Initiative, working to move the District’s local shelter system from one rooted in large emergency shelters to one that instead provides housing and wrap-around services to both individuals and families; and
- Veterans Initiative, helping homeless veterans overcome the multiple barriers in their efforts to secure permanent housing.
Each of these efforts provides vital support to those who live in the deepest poverty in the nation's capital.
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