Category: Update

Last Wednesday, November 13, the Interagency Council on Homelessness convened a special meeting to discuss and vote on the addendum to the District’s Winter Plan that would guide how homeless youth should be served this winter. The Legal Clinic, along with many others in the community, had expressed concern that the prior draft did not adequately plan to meet the need of unaccompanied youth, and that no District agency was embracing responsibility for serving these children in need if they were on the street with no safe place to stay in freezing temperatures. From the Legal Clinic’s perspective, we were particularly concerned that DC government… Read more…

The Legal Clinic is honored to announce our inclusion in the 2013-2014 Catalogue for Philanthropy as one of Greater Washington’s best community-based charities. We were selected to be refeatured in the 11th annual Catalogue, which has, since 2003, raised more than $21 million for featured nonprofits. The Catalogue’s vetting process is rigorous: members of a 120-person review team, made up of foundations, corporations, peer nonprofits and the philanthropic advisory community, evaluate charities on the basis of program impact and fiscal soundness and each featured charity is visited on-site by at least one member of the review team. Having the Catalogue’s endorsement is… Read more…

As of today, DC households that rely on food stamps will experience a decrease in their monthly benefit amount as a result of a change in federal law. The Food Stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is the largest federal nutrition program and serves millions of Americans annually. The cuts that go into effect today will impact all households that rely on food stamps, and as reported by the Washington Post, in DC alone the cuts will affect more than 144,000 people, or nearly 1 in 4 District residents. The amount of the decrease will vary depending… Read more…

To cap the end of National Pro Bono Week, The Legal Clinic thanks our amazing volunteers whose hard work and dedication ensures that nearly a thousand low and no income residents in the District are able to access justice each year. The following was written by one of our outstanding volunteer attorneys, Erin Kriynovich. The needs of the homeless population in the District are both great and immediate, and through the Legal Clinic, I believe a significant portion of those needs are being met. Here are five reasons why I believe the Legal Clinic has established an effective system to serve its… Read more…

The Legal Clinic mourns the recent passing of two champions of justice. Lois G. Williams Our first introduction to Lois was in the late 1980′s when, as the pro bono partner at then Howrey & Simon, she worked with Mitch Snyder and others at the Community for Creative Non-Violence, challenging conditions in DC’s singles shelter system at a time when the District of Columbia had a year-round right to shelter but operated facilities that were in deplorable condition. The case, Atchison vs. Barry, effected improvements in the shelters and also led to the development of permanent affordable housing through the Affordable Housing Trust,… Read more…

The Legal Clinic is sorry to hear that Fred Swan is leaving his role as Administrator of the Family Services Administration (FSA) at the Department of Human Services. For the past seven years, Fred has had oversight of the homeless services continuum of care in DC, and he is leaving DHS to become the Director of Resident Services for neighboring Montgomery County’s Housing Opportunities Commission. We first met Fred when he worked in the resident services office at the DC Housing Authority a number of years ago. His respect for the dignity of DCHA’s residents and his commitment to their… Read more…

Written by Tamika Hawkins, Legal Clinic summer law fellow and rising 3L at Howard University School of Law. She couldn’t have been a day over 25. As she sat on the cement steps of the Family Resource Center on N Street N.E., I wondered about her story. Because everyone has a story. Some believable, others hard to believe, but a story nonetheless. I had signed up to do outreach for the Clinic that week, so I was standing on the sidewalk to hand out fliers. I was initially drawn to her daughter, a precocious kid – I think she told… Read more…

Written by Shaina Lamchick, a Legal Clinic summer law clerk and rising 2L at American University, Washington College of Law. I cannot count the number of times I was told by family members and strangers alike to avoid law school at all costs. “Lawyers do more harm than good,” they would say. “There are too many lawyers already.” They were wrong. As of a 2009 report, there was one lawyer for every 429 people in the general U.S. population and one legal services lawyer for every 6,415 people in poverty.[1] According to the Legal Services Corporation, 80 percent of legal needs… Read more…