Our Work
The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless envisions a District of Columbia where housing is a human right, racial justice is a reality, and all people have true and meaningful access to the resources needed to thrive.
Our mission is to achieve justice for our neighbors experiencing the injustice of homelessness and poverty. Rooted in a client-centered framework, we utilize a community lawyering approach to provide low-barrier and comprehensive legal services. We seek systemic reform through zealous advocacy for public policies that reflect community needs, affirm racial justice, improve housing security, and expand the social safety net for people experiencing crises.
We aim to meet the following goals via integrated and varied strategies:
- Ensure that anyone who needs and desires shelter has access to safe, appropriate shelter;
- Ensure sufficient funding to maintain or increase stable, safe, and affordable housing: ; and
- Provide oversight and reform of government agencies, shelters, and housing programs so that high-quality shelter, housing, and services are provided quickly.
Legal Services
Legal Clinic staff and volunteer attorneys provide low-barrier, high quality legal information and representation in a broad range of civil legal issues, with a primary focus on helping them regain or maintain housing stability with shelter and permanent housing. We provide legal assistance through our main pro bono vehicle, the Legal Assistance Program, as well as through cases handled directly by our staff. Some of the staff cases come through our Attorney of the Day program, an on-call attorney program that responds to emergency legal needs such as family shelter denials.
Community Engagement
Our Community Engagement work ensures that members of our client community: know how to access our legal services; know their legal rights and how to access decisionmakers, including elected officials; and are able to provide input and feedback on our priorities as an organization as well as changes to the policies and programs that they are most impacted by. We do extensive outreach, engagement and legal rights education with our community stakeholders throughout the city in shelters, dining programs, encampments, and community events.
Systemic Reform
Legal Clinic staff, in partnership and coalition with our client community and other organizations, work to reform and improve institutions, programs, and laws impacting low-income D.C. residents, particularly related to homeless services and affordable housing. We engage in agency advocacy (including comments on policies and regulations); legislative advocacy (including testifying at hearings and meeting with elected officials); budget advocacy (primarily for increased funding for critical programs that end or prevent homelessness); and impact litigation.