Op-Ed: How the COVID-19 pandemic has created dire legal problems for the poor (via latimesopinion)
People who are poor and struggling economically often have dire civil justice problems: the threat of eviction and homelessness; the prospect of having their families broken up in a child custody hearing; and the struggle to get food stamps and avoid going hungry. It’s almost impossible for these individuals and families to defend their rights without having a legal advocate, which the vast majority simply cannot afford.
the deluge of desperate pleas for help — from victims of domestic violence, which is spiking severely; from tenants fighting landlords despite emergency rules that prohibit evictions; and countless people trying desperately to get healthcare that they are entitled to.contains only $50 million of emergency aid for the Legal Services Corp., the nonprofit organization created and funded by Congress to deliver federal money to agencies that provide free legal representation for low-income Americans.
Ninety-five nonprofit legal service providers in California received $37 million in grants. The providers helped keep 4,895 families in their homes, avoiding $19.6 million in emergency-housing costs for clients, and helped obtain 4,874 restraining orders to protect survivors of domestic violence. With 231 orders obtained after hearings, they helped save between $2.9 million and $3.
Not being able to afford a civil lawyer is not a standard measure of inequality, but it should be. The effect on the lives of low-income families and their communities can be long-term and severe. The pandemic’s personal, economic and social wreckage has already magnified this inequality.Tripling the budget of the Legal Services Corp. would be a long-overdue step toward giving the poor a shot at the promise of equal justice.
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