Community Legal Services Explained
Community legal services play a vital role in ensuring access to justice, particularly in low-income communities where resources for legal assistance are scarce. In East Palo Alto, these services embody this mission: to ensure that vulnerable populations have access to affordable legal assistance. East Palo Alto has the highest concentration of low-income residents in the Bay Area, yet alone the peninsula. The demand for low-cost legal assistance outweighs supply every month , and community legal services organizations address this reality by providing a broad range of affordable immigration and legal services. Tenants in East Palo Alto benefit from both the free legal advice nights and low-cost legal assistance provided by SVCF and the law clinic organized with California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA). These local resources provide much-needed assistance for tenants in East Palo Alto facing eviction and other housing issues.
A Brief History of Legal Aid Provision in East Palo Alto
In 1965, community members partnered with the Stanford Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP to create the Peninsula Legal Assistance Project (PLAP), a small legal aid clinic in Palo Alto. The clinic, founded by Mary Sutton, provided four hours of free legal advice each week on a range of civil legal matters, including family law, immigration and housing.
In 1971, PLAP moved from Palo Alto to East Palo Alto. The new clinic, called the East Palo Alto Legal Services Project, was incorporated as a non-profit organization. No longer community run, PLAP was funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and led by a Tri-Agency Board made up of three community representatives, three local bar association representatives and three Stanford law school student representatives. The OEO funding required that the clinic be independent in all but funding and control, but also required PLAP to assist with on-site legal service projects at day labor work sites in East Palo Alto, distribute pamphlets about legal rights and set up a referral network for those seeking legal assistance. PLAP hired Rodolfo Herrera as their first paid attorney to manage the clinic. Respected and well-loved, Rodolfo was known for his accessibility and commitment to serving the needs of the community and supervised his staff with care. He led the organization for almost ten years.
In 1974, PLAP opened its doors five days a week and offered client representation in addition to legal advice. By 1981, the clinic extended its services to San Mateo County. In 1981, PLAP changed its name to Bay Area Legal Aid. The clinic which served more than 800 clients annually in East Palo Alto was almost defunded, but in 1989 the clinic received a contract from the Legal Services for Children (LSC), a nonprofit that supports underserved children and youth.
In 1993, the East Palo Alto clinic moved to its current location, Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence. The clinic has continued to grow to meet the needs of the community today.
What Legal Services Are Available?
Community legal services in East Palo Alto offer a variety of legal assistance to residents in the area. Among the types of cases that these services handle are family law, housing disputes, immigration matters, and public benefits.
Family law encompasses a wide range of issues, including child custody and visitation, child and spousal support, domestic violence, and divorce. Family law attorneys in East Palo Alto may represent clients in domestic violence restraining order hearings or assist with child custody matters. They may also help clients modify post-judgment orders related to child support and spousal support.
Housing matters that community legal service attorneys may assist clients with include unlawful detainers, evictions, rent control issues, and tenant rights. These attorneys may also help with informal negotiations with landlords, as well as represent tenants before a judge.
Immigration matters that attorneys in East Palo Alto handle include applying for citizenship, seeking asylum, applying for special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS), obtaining U Visas for immigrant crime victims, obtaining Green Cards for refugees, and working with law enforcement agencies to combat immigration fraud. Attorneys may also assist immigrants with applying for employment authorization.
Public benefits that attorneys may help clients obtain include Social Security Disability (SSD), Social Security Income (SSI), MediCal, health care coverage for children, MediCal, Regional Center services, and food stamps. Legal services may also help with planning for and obtaining coverage for all necessary medications and equipment such as wheelchairs.
Some other types of cases includes tax issues and consumer law. Academic and research institutions in East Palo Alto may also provide clinical services to residents in the area.
How to Obtain These Legal Services
Residents of East Palo Alto and surrounding areas wishing to access legal services through these community organizations can do so by contacting them directly for more information regarding their eligibility requirements, specific programs offered, and any necessary documentation that may be needed to initiate the process.
InnVision Shelter Network schedules a phone interview in advance of providing services. Those interested in receiving services are encouraged to call for an appointment. Several shelters are run by this organization, so individuals are often referred to a location nearest them. Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto offers an easy intake process to determine client needs. Individuals are urged to contact the office directly. Free legal assistance services through the Mission College Foster Youth Program are available on a one-time basis. Interested individuals must contact the attorney directly to request services. Movementsbeat Law Center provides an intake form on its website. Office hours are limited; however, new clients are accepted through referrals in person and by phone.
Case Studies and Success Stories
Alongside a rich history of community activism and advocacy, the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County (LASSMC) has unmatched prominence in the Bay Area both in its regional advocacy through wide-ranging programs in areas of family law, domestic violence, immigration, housing, and public benefits, as well as in its state-wide advocacy through application for grants and funding to provide free legal resources, like phone numbers to call during an emergency. LASSMC’s steadfast commitment to ensuring equal access to justice for all has helped countless people, and has fortified East Palo Alto as a foothold for justice in the Bay Area.
Consider, for example, LASSMC’s recent efforts on behalf of Jaime R. Under California’s Paid Family Leave Law, Jaime was able to take time off from work to care for her ailing father, to seek counseling after her stepmother died, and to seek mental health services. However, LASSMC recently represented Jaime in challenging her employer’s refusal to pay her the wages she earned while on leave. With LASSMC’s assistance , Jaime successfully challenged the denial of her earned wages.
Or consider the story of Rosa M. One day, while Rosa was at a store with her 6-month old son, she encountered a man who began to follow her and her baby home. He followed them all the way to a busy street corner that was nearby their house and started shouting, threatening, and calling her names. Rosa thought that the police would do nothing about it, but she called anyway.
They came and arrested the man. Since he had been arrested, the police did not think they could provide a restraining order for Rosa. Nonetheless, Rosa called LASSMC for help in getting a restraining order against the man who had stalked and threatened her. Later that evening, a LASSMC lawyer filed a petition for a restraining order to protect both Rosa and her baby from future attacks. Rosa was able to obtain a restraining order and return to the corner she had been harassed to without fear. Both she and her baby felt safe once again.
Issues Facing Community Legal Services
Like every nonprofit across the nation, community legal services in East Palo Alto face the challenge of scaling their services to meet their local need. This is exacerbated by the fact that, while low-income people in East Palo Alto are in critical need of legal services, there is a shortage of lawyers offering free or low-cost legal advice to low-income people and families. Financial support for nonprofit legal services is always a challenge, as are the other perpetual demands of running a nonprofit – recruitment, training, and compensation of staff, board development, and fundraising.
In addition, unlike many nonprofit organizations in the country, community legal services in East Palo Alto must not only provide vital services to a large, resource-strapped population, but also have the legal infrastructure necessary to enable them to effectively recruit, train, and compensate lawyers to provide that service to those in need.
The Role of Legal Aid in East Palo Alto’s Future
The future of legal aid in East Palo Alto stands to grow more accessible and comprehensive as an increasing number of organizations begin to work together and the community works together to help resolve the often complicated issues that face its citizens. Organizations like the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, the Stanford Community Law Project, Pro Bono Project of San Mateo County, the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation and others have worked to expand their services – and as old barriers and bottlenecks are eliminated, these further help to make services more accessible.
The future of legal aid in East Palo Alto is one in which , through increased cooperation and understanding, the city no longer has 85 public housing units and residents living below the poverty line have access to a legal aid community that can assist with the many issues – such as predatory lending, divorce, child support, domestic violence, foreclosure, discrimination, illegal evictions, bankruptcy, credit repair, wills and other estate planning issues and a host of others – that would otherwise keep them trapped in the cycle of poverty and unable to enjoy and embrace the rights promised to everyone living within the United States.