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| Advocacy
Criminalization of Homelessness
By Ann Marie Staudenmaier, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Staff Attorney NOTE: The Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, has scheduled a hearing entitled “Crimes Against America’s Homeless: Is the Violence Growing?” for Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. It’s open season these days in Georgetown, and I’m not talking about the federal health plans. Instead, the specter of anti-homeless police activity is rearing its ugly head in one of D.C.’s top tourist destinations once again, just as it did more than 10 years ago… Read more…
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| Update
Our Great Volunteers
By Nick Cassalbore, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Volunteer Coordinator In 2009, volunteers with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless assisted clients with over 740 legal issues. It is our pleasure to share some of their recent victories. The problem: A single mother and her four children are threatened with a termination notice by their transitional housing program. How we helped: WLCH volunteer secures housing and a lease for the client and her family. The problem: An elderly man is told by the Social Security Administration that he has been overpaid by $54,000. How we helped: WLCH volunteer… Read more…
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| Update
Hypothermia: Believe it or Not, it’s Just Around the Corner!
By Patty Mullahy Fugere, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Executive Director As we trudge through these dog days of summer, it’s hard to imagine the mercury dropping below 80 for more than a twelve hour stretch at a time. Yet the calendar tells us that’s just around the corner…and so, too, do the preparations of DC’s Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) for hypothermia season 2010-2011. This past winter will forever be memorable on a number of accounts: record snowfall; record school and government closures; record sales of Bengay for muscles aching from endless shoveling. Yet some of the most… Read more…
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| Advocacy
A Victory on the Landlord/Tenant Front – But Still a Long Way to Go
By Andy Silver, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Staff Attorney Imagine that you have lived in the same apartment for 12 years. One day you go to the rental office to ask if you can pay your rent a few days late because you get one check at the beginning of the month and one check in the middle. You have asked for this favor several times before and it has always been granted, but this time the new property manager says she just needs to check to see if you are current in rent before she can say… Read more…
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| News
Legal Clinic Intern Greg Zlotnick Offers His Reflections
By Greg Zlotnick, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Intern Ten weeks later, I’m just getting started. Not on everything, mind you. My internship this summer at the Legal Clinic has provided me with an invaluable education on many fronts. The staff attorneys have mentored me as I have developed and added to my legal skills. With their guidance, my writing has become more incisive and persuasive. Orally, my confidence and clarity have grown, both speaking with, or for, clients. Perhaps most importantly, I have practiced and improved my listening: focusing on the concerns and desires of our clients, understanding… Read more…
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| Update
Can you help a family with no safe place to sleep tonight?
By Amber Harding, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Staff Attorney A mother walks the city in 100 degree heat with her 10 year old son and 2 year old daughter, desperately searching for help to get her family off the streets. They have spent the last five weeks repeating this pattern since losing their housing; told daily that there is no room for them in shelter. This mother lives in fear that she will lose custody of her children because she cannot provide a safe place for them to rest their heads. After being evicted from their home in… Read more…
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| Update
Housing is a Human Right
By Patty Mullahy Fugere – Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Executive Director Welcome to “…with Housing and Justice for All,” the new blog of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. As our friends already know, the Legal Clinic is deeply committed to a vision of a just and inclusive District of Columbia. We dedicate ourselves to building a community that respects the rights and honors the dignity of all of her members, no matter the ward of their residence nor the balance of their bank account. For nearly twenty-five years, we have used the tools of the legal… Read more…
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