Boston study looks at practical impact of legal representation in eviction cases

Without representation by counsel, many vulnerable tenants forfeit important rights, lose possession of homes they could have retained, and forego substantial financial benefits — according to a study released today by the Boston Bar Foundation (BBF).  Funded by The Boston Foundation, the Massachusetts Bar Foundation, and the BBF, this study, “The Importance of Representation in Eviction Cases and Homelessness Prevention,”  comes as a follow-up to Gideon’s New Trumpet , a 2008 Boston Bar Association (BBA) report examining the civil right to counsel in Massachusetts.

“We funded this study because we felt it was important to take a good, hard look at the practical impact of legal representation in an area where losing a case means losing your home,” said BBF President John Donovan. “What’s unique about the final product is that it measures the results of representation in a segment of eviction cases involving low-income families using rigorous data collection techniques and analysis.”

To read the report, click here.

The mortgage settlement and Maryland

Last week, Midday with Dan Rodricks on WYPR-FM looked at the $25 billion mortgage settlement reached with major banks and 49 attorneys general. Panelist Vicki King Taitano, director of Maryland Legal Aid’s Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project, called the settlement “positive.”

“I think refusal [by banks] to do principal reduction has been a big problem,” Taitano said. “This is a lot of money. If loans can be reduced to fair-market price . . . I’m hopeful this will make a big difference for a lot of people.”

To hear the broadcast, click here.

More seek Legal Aid in hard times

From yesterday’s Washington Post: As Maryland Legal Aid celebrates its centennial this year, the national housing crisis, which has hit suburban Washington hard, is making the work it does even more vital.

At the same time, the agency, like similar organizations across the country, is grappling with funding cuts that make it harder to help the increasing number of people in need of assistance in civil cases.

For example, Prince George’s, the second-most-populous jurisdiction in the state, has endured more foreclosures than any other in Maryland. And the economic downturn has brought Legal Aid prospective clients that the organization would not have seen 10 years ago.

“I review a lot of the intakes, and we’re getting people from Potomac calling us,” [said Legal Aid supervising attorney Teresa Cooke]. “But these individuals are now actually financially eligible for our services.”

To read the article, click here.

Social workers team up with Legal Aid lawyers

When clients come to Maryland Legal Aid, they’re often desperate. In addition to a pressing legal problem, they’re grappling with other issues that drive their lives into a crisis — no money, no housing or no medical care. Sometimes all of the above.

You could say they need a social worker almost as badly as a lawyer.

And you’d be right.

That’s why Legal Aid and the University of Maryland School of Social Work created a program that integrates first-year graduate social work students into the nonprofit law firm’s practice in downtown Baltimore.

“Clients come to us with a host of problems — the presenting legal problem, plus community-based needs,” said Cornelia Bright Gordon, chief attorney of Legal Aid’s administrative law and intake units. “For example, many people have barriers, such as mental health issues, that may interfere with the success of the legal problem. They need access to services to make the legal work stick.

“Since Legal Aid is the law firm of last resort, our clients are in true crisis,” Bright Gordon said. “They come in with threats of immediate eviction, no money or food in the house, and some are desperately ill, with no access to medical services and no insurance.”

The three-year-old project helps stabilize clients and bring their lives back to a state of equilibrium. “It’s a collaborative process between a lawyer and a trained social worker with hands-on, clinical therapeutic experience who is supervising four interns,” she said.

To read the entire Daily Record column, click here.

Baltimore Sun: A Busy 100th for Legal Aid

The lead story in the business section of today’s Baltimore Sun focuses on Maryland Legal Aid on its centenary.

“As Marylanders lose jobs, homes and savings, they are turning in record numbers to the state’s largest provider of legal services to the poor,” wrote reporter Andrea Seigel. “The Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this month, enters its second century with a growing caseload involving the newly needy.”

“They are coming out of the woodwork,” said Wilhelm H. Joseph Jr., the agency’s executive director. “You have people who are formerly middle class and for the first time in their lives, they have lost their jobs.”

To read the article, click here.

Legal Aid scores at top court on centenary eve

Maryland Legal Aid scored a win for low-income Marylanders at the Court of Appeals on the eve of its 100th birthday (celebrated at a gala in Baltimore Saturday night).

The top court held that the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development must give state residents a full contested case hearing before revoking their federal low-income housing vouchers, the Daily Record reported.

“We’re real happy about the decision,” said Maryland Legal Aid lawyer Robert McCaig, the chief attorney of the Lower Shore office in Salisbury. “Hopefully this is going to help a lot of low-income people who really need to have a disciplined and fair hearing.”

Friday’s decision arose from the case of Tonya Walker v. Department of Housing and Community Development in the Wicomico County Circuit Court.  McCaig represented Walker in her fight against the revocation of her housing voucher.

To read the article, click here.

Know Your Rights! A new brochure for farmworkers

Maryland Legal Aid released a series of new brochures for farmworkers in Maryland and Delaware. “Know Your Rights!” was prepared by Legal Aid’s Farmworker Program, which provides free and confidential legal services to migrant and seasonal agricultural workers at farms, orchards, canneries, pack houses, poultry processing plants in Maryland and Delaware.

Basic rights include:
• written description of the terms of the work
before you travel
• minimum wage or the promised wage
• pay for all of your work and waiting time
• the amount of work promised
• safe and sanitary working conditions
• safe and sanitary housing
• safe transportation
• free medical treatment in case of injury at work
• freedom from discrimination and retaliation
• legal advice

The brochures are available in English, Spanish and Creole.

Woman homeless after Section 8 wants her to move into condemned house

Vanessa Davis had to sleep in a park for a few nights while waiting for repairs to an apartment that Baltimore City’s Section 8 had not approved for occupancy. Meanwhile, the housing department made rental payments to the landlord for a year on the unoccupied Reservoir Hill apartment, WBAL-TV reported last week.

Davis, who is disabled and is staying with relatives, had been dropped by Section 8 after it discovered she hadn’t moved in to the condemned house, but was reinstated last week after investigative reporter Barry Simms called.

“Someone dropped the ball,” Maryland Legal Aid staff attorney Kay Harding told Simms. “Someone approved this house without verifying the use and occupancy permit was there. This property should never have been rented, but they were trying to penalize my client because she didn’t move in.”

To see the report, click here.

HUD secretary highlights energy efficiency at Baltimore affordable housing

U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan visited Poppleton Phase II Apartments Friday to highlight how the development is promoting energy efficient innovation and creating jobs in Baltimore, supporting President Barack Obama‘s goal of helping America “Win the Future.”

Secretary Donovan, U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake toured and held a press conference at the 86-unit apartment complex that received $1.56 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009′s Assisted Housing Green Retrofit Program. The Green Retrofit Program is providing funding for the installation of high-efficiency heat pumps for heating and cooling, new high-efficiency windows, a EnergyStar cool roof with added insulation, low-flow toilets, shower heads and faucets, and EnergyStar gas water heaters, refrigerators and bathroom exhaust fans for dozens of low and moderate income families.  The project was jointly developed by the Poppleton Cooperative, a client of Maryland Legal Aid.

When the project is complete at the end of this year, 180 jobs will have been created for Baltimore-area residents directly from the project’s funding. Additionally, many more clean-energy jobs will be created through the University of Maryland’s BioPark, a new $300 million biotech campus that is situated near the Poppleton Phase II Apartments.

“The Poppleton Phase II Apartments is a reminder of the targeted investments that President Obama spoke about during his State of the Union speech this week,” said Secretary Donovan. “This development represents the type of innovation we need, by bringing clean energy investments to the homes of many low-and-moderate income Americans who will be able to save hundreds of dollars on their utility bills for many years to come I am delighted to have visited the development today to see an example of how communities across America are renewing their commitment to securing prosperity for ourselves and future generations of Americans.”

Reena Shah honored by Daily Record

Chris Eddings, Wilhelm Joseph

Maryland Legal Aid staff attorney Reena K. Shah, who joined the Housing/Consumer Law Unit in Baltimore in 2008, was one of The Daily Record‘s 50 Leading Women honored last night in Baltimore. The honorees are all 40 or younger who are accomplished in their careers, involved in the community and show a commitment to making change.

Shah, 34, concentrates on housing in her legal work, representing clients dealing with eviction or other residential problems. “It’s about trying to deal with people in a very human way,” she said.

Throughout her career, Shah has shown a commitment to human rights, volunteering in AmeriCorps and later the Peace Corps in Nepal. She is currently launching a U.S. chapter of an Indian nonprofit, Odanadi, which rescues victims of India’s illegal sex trade.

Shah was unable to attend last night’s event. Accepting her award was Legal Aid executive director Wilhelm Joseph (right in the photo, along with the Daily Record’s publisher and president, Christopher A. Eddings).