Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

Housing, Communities & Eviction Defense: Addresses systems change through litigation, policy and education aimed at creating and preserving affordable housing and homeownership opportunities; Increases economic power; Preserves civil rights; Seeks environmental justice on behalf of poor and low-income residents; Partners with community-based organizations to build healthy, economically vibrant neighborhoods. Eviction Defense Center: Provides free direct representation for indigent individuals and families facing eviction; Negotiates with landlords to ensure families can stay in their homes; Defends residents of public housing and Section 8 voucher holders against losing their housing or housing subsidy; Helps clients living in uninhabitable conditions to get reductions in rent. LAFLA closed 6,076 cases in this area of law in 2022.

Restoring Communities: Assists individuals with criminal justice involvement to remove legal barriers to employment, housing, and benefits by clearing criminal convictions, defending citations, and restoring drivers and occupational licenses. In 2022, LAFLA closed 1,448 cases in these areas of law.Survivor and Family Justice: Helps survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault get restraining orders, divorces, child custody, visitation and support; Secures the return of concealed and abducted children.Immigration Access: Supports torture victims seeking asylum in the United States with the immigration process; Represents survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assaults and other serious crimes to obtain protection and permanent residency; Protects vulnerable unaccompanied children throughout the immigration process; Provides comprehensive case management to victims of domestic violence and survivors of torture. In 2022, LAFLA closed 1,045 cases dealing with these legal issues.

Santa Monica Community Office: Funded through grants from the City of Santa Monica; Provides legal services to residents of Santa Monica only; Offers domestic violence clinic and Self-Help Legal Access Center; Attorneys work with local agencies and city services to provide family law, housing, veterans benefit and immigration services. This office closed 1,073 cases in 2022.

Veterans Justice Center: Obtains life-sustaining income, health, and housing benefits so veterans can thrive; Prevents veteran homelessness by fighting wrongful evictions; Removes barriers to employment to promote veteran self-sufficiency; Advocates to upgrade unjust less-than-honorable military discharges; Works with hundreds of pro bono legal volunteers annually to hold large-scale legal clinics for homeless veterans. This program closed 264 cases in 2022.

Asian & Pacific Islander Community Outreach Project: Advocates for language services in civil courts, administrative proceedings, and other government agencies for limited-English proficient clients; Provides legal help in all areas of practice including family law, immigration and government benefits in Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Khmer and Thai. This program closed 625 cases in 2022.

In 2022, LAFLA expanded its Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) program with the launch of a new Asian Pacific Islander-focused MLP at the Community Medical Wellness Centers USA. This is the first API-focused MLP in southern California and only the third in the nation designed to help improve API health outcomes through culturally competent and linguistically accessible practices. This complements LAFLA's MLPs at TCC Family Health and three Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) Medical-Legal Community Partnership (MLCP-LA) locations: Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center, Coastal Health Centers, and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. Through this project, anyone from a medical care team can refer patients to our attorneys as part of a comprehensive approach to improve health outcomes by addressing social determinants of health such as poor housing conditions, loss or denial of public benefits, immigration status, problems at school or work, or violence within the household.. In 2022, 1,095 cases were closed by our MLPs.

Legal VictoriesLAFLA achieved the following legal victories in 2022:Chancellor Apartment Disability Discrimination Settlement: LAFLA, along with co-counsel, represented 12 low-income individuals with mobility disabilities who reside at a 100-unit, five story apartment building served by an elevator, and the clients live or lived on the upper floors. The clients required the use of an operable elevator to access their homes and the community, without which they must choose between two undesirable options: either they climb as many as four flights of stairs, causing them pain and distress and risking their safety; or they become isolated in their apartments, restricting their engagement in the community and daily life activities (including critical medical appointments) because they cannot safely reach the ground floor to exit the building.The landlord failed to maintain an operable elevator, providing intermittent service from 2015, and ceasing operation altogether in 2018. After extensive arms-length negotiations which included three mediation sessions, LAFLA was able to reach a comprehensive settlement agreement. The settlement includes $570,000 for all clients and a broad injunctive relief agreement that remains in effect for 24 months. The injunctive relief agreement includes disability-related repairs to the building and elevator, an accessible emergency evacuation plan that includes physical changes to the building, training of staff on disability and fair housing laws, and a relocation plan when the elevator is out of service.Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action v. The California Department of Housing and Community Development and Gustavo Velasquez, in his official capacity as the Director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development. LAFLA, along with co-counsel, filed this case seeking relief on behalf of thousands of low income tenants who applied for COVID-19 rental assistance from the State of California. The case alleges that the state's Emergency Rental Assistance Program issued denial notices and handled appeals in a constitutionally deficient way and denied applicants due process of law. Further, these failures resulted in disproportionate harms on the basis of race, color, and national origin. The case also alleges the state's failure to adequately provide public records regarding the program. The goal of the case is to require the state to issue adequate notices and ensure that all people, regardless of race or language, are adequately informed of the reason they are denied assistance and have a meaningful opportunity to appeal. Plaintiffs obtained a preliminary injunction in July, 2022, enjoining the state from issuing denial notices until such notices are constitutionally sufficient. In October, 2022, we successfully defeated an attempt to lift or modify the injunction.Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles; Silvia Hernandez; Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus; Center for Workers' Rights; and Chinese for Affirmative Action v. California Employment Development Department and Nancy Farias, in her official capacity as Director, California Employment Development Department: California's Employment Development Department (EDD) failed to provide legally sufficient interpreting, other spoken/signed language services, and translated materials (written) to linguistically marginalized communities. Without language services, EDD applicants relied on untrained bilingual family and friends, community businesses who provide access for profit, or struggled through in a language they are not proficient in. Claimants who do not speak or read English struggled to find accurate information, file claims, certify for unemployment insurance, or troubleshoot issue with their benefits. This lack of meaningful language services also resulted in adverse credibility findings against our clients and denials, which have had to be resolved through additional levels of advocacy and appeals. LAFLA, as well as many other organizations, had to shift significant resources to assist claimants access EDD and obtain critical benefits.The parties entered into a settlement agreement addressing EDD's provision of meaningful language access through: proper identification and recording of language needs, providing timely spoken and signed language services in real-time, increasing multilingual telephonic access, expanding written translations of vital documents (including ensuring Babel notices are distributed), extending deadlines due to language barriers and good cause, developing a multilingual access portal, increasing staffing to coordinate language services, ensuring that modernization efforts include technology to capture language needs and can produce mass generation of translated personalized vital information, ensuring that third-party vendors also comply with language access obligations, enhancing community outreach to linguistically marginalized communities, forming of a Multilingual Access Advisory Board, enhancing data collection and internal monitoring, and requiring regular monitoring/reporting of efforts to advocates during the compliance period which extends to April 2024. These provisions complement and provide more detailed directives around many of the new legislative changes, as well as other existing legal mandates.George v. McDonough - Amicus Brief to the U.S. Supreme Court: LAFLA contributed to an amicus brief to Supreme Court of the United States on this case which involves an invalid denial of veterans benefits. A 2021 report from the Office of the Inspector General found that the Veterans Administration improperly denied more than 12,000 claims during the COVID-19 pandemic due to error. VA benefits including service-connected compensation and non-service connected pensions are often a veteran's only source of income, particularly if they are unable to work due to their disability. For veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, in particular, these benefits are a major part of their economic stability. Accordingly, denial of these benefits serve to further entrench veterans in poverty. The decision in this case will ultimately affect our veteran clients' ability to appeal previous erroneous denials of their VA Benefits based on the VA's invalid interpretation of applicable law.Garcia v. City of Los Angeles: The litigation centers on the civil rights of unhoused individuals who are living in tents and makeshift encampments in the City of Los Angeles. The litigation challenges the seizure and destruction of unhoused individuals' belongings. The case challenges the constitutionality of an ordinance in Los Angeles that allows the City to seize and destroy unhoused residents' belongings. Plaintiffs allege that the ordinance violates the Fourth and Fourteenth amendment. They seek declarative relief that the ordinance is unconstitutional, and injunctive relief to prevent the seizure and destruction of property. In 2020, plaintiffs obtained preliminary injunction enjoining ordinance targeting unhoused people; contempt ruling against the City for violating the preliminary injunction. Defendant appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2021, the preliminary injunction was upheld by the 9th Circuit.In 2022, the City of Los Angeles repealed the ordinance that was subject to facial challenge. The plaintiffs also obtained discovery sanctions against the City of Los Angeles.

Project Impact and LAHSA Measure H funds projects to supplement other programs within the organization, to support the continuing fight for justice.

Economic Stability: Assists vulnerable populations in obtaining and maintaining critical safety net benefits that helps them get food, housing, and medical care or services; Fights wage theft, wrongful terminations and discriminatory employment practices; Discharges student loans based on disability or school fraud. In fact, LAFLA is the only legal services organization in the country that, for over 30 years, has consistently sought justice for low-income student loan borrowers and worked to change a higher education system that increasingly ignores the needs and experiences of low-income borrowers. In 2022, LAFLA closed 1,888 cases in these areas of law.