Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

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 1,054 cases in 2023.Restoring Communities: Addresses the core legal needs of communities impacted by the criminal justice system by providing direct legal services to remove barriers to reentry to society, providing community education, working with community partners to offer holistic services, and engaging in systemic change to support the restoration of impacted communities. In 2023, LAFLA closed 1,991 cases in these areas of law.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 413 cases in 2023. Asian & Pacific Islander Community Outreach Project: Provides legal help in all areas of practice including family law, immigration, housing, and government benefits in a wide range of API languages, including Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Khmer, Vietnamese, Tagalog/Filipino, and Thai; Advocates for language rights in civil courts, administrative proceedings, and other government agencies for clients with limited-English proficiency. This program closed 798 cases in 2023.Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) In 2023, LAFLA expanded its Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) program with the launch of a new Black Health Initiative focused MLP at the Inglewood Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles (PPLA). This is the first and only MLP located at a PPLA in the country. The newest legal clinic complements LAFLA's other MLPs including the Asian Pacific Islander MLP at Community Medical Wellness Centers USA and TCC Family Health as well as the three Los Angeles County of Health Services (DHS) Medical-Legal Community Partnership (MLCP-LA) locations: Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center, Long beach 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 of denial of public benefits, immigration status, problems at work, or violence within the household. In 2023, MLP closed 1132 cases. Unhoused People's Justice Project: This new project engages in impact litigation and policy work to combat the criminalization of homelessness, and to ensure the civil rights of unhoused people is protected. Legal Victories, LAFLA achieved the following legal victories in 2023:Source of Income Discrimination- City of Los Angeles: Plaintiff was denied available housing opportunities by 22 providers of rental housing in the City of Los Angeles. In all instances the denial was based on his receipt of Section 8 rental assistance. These denials constitute source of income discrimination in violation of FEHA, the Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Los Angeles Municipal Code. The purpose of this litigation is to obtain declaratory relief, injunctive relief, damages, and attorney's fees through enforcement of the source of income discrimination protections in FEHA and the LAMC. We seek to bring attention to the state and local SOI discrimination protections which are important tools in expanding housing opportunity because permissible discrimination against voucher holders is often a proxy for impermissible discrimination against the racial minorities who disproportionately make up the population using housing subsidies. 17 defendants have settled, agreeing to no longer to engage in source of income discrimination.Source of Income Discrimination- City of Santa Monica: The primary goal of this case is to preserve the Section 8 voucher and tenancy of plaintiff, and ensure non-discriminatory behavior from the landlord going forward. In this case a Santa Monica rent-controlled landlord refused to accept the Section 8 voucher of an elderly tenant, in violation of the Santa Monica source of income discrimination ordinance and the Tenant Harassment ordinance. Plaintiff is a long-term rent-controlled tenant of 38 years who is heavily rent-burdened and may lose her home and/or voucher. Accordingly, in 2020, Plaintiff brought the following causes of action: (1) Violation of the California Fair Employment & Housing Act; (2) Violation of the California Unruh Civil Rights Act; (3) Violation of the Santa Monica Anti-Discrimination Law (SMMC 4.28.030); (4) Violation of the Santa Monica Tenant Harassment Ordinance (SMMC 4.56.020); (5) Elder Abuse; and (6) Unfair Business Practices.During the reporting year, in 2023, LAFLA and co-counsel prevailed on claims 1, 3, and 6 in a Motion for Summary Adjudication and had a permanent injunction put in place to force Defendant to take Plaintiff's voucher, as well as vouchers from any other tenant Defendant either rents to, or seeks to rent from her.Civil Rights for Unhoused People: 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 2023 LAFLA and co-counsel defeated motions that challenged the standing of the organizational plaintiff as well as motions to dismiss the claims of that plaintiff. There was also a lengthy forensic examination of defendant's evidence in preparation for a spoilation motion.Medi-Cal Manual Revision to Improve Access to Power Wheelchairs other Durable Medical Equipment for Disabled Seniors - In collaboration with Disability Rights California, LAFLA spearheaded negotiations with the California Department of Health Care Services to revise portions of the Medi-Cal Provider Manual to correct language that Managed Care Organizations were exploiting to deny critical wheelchair and durable medical equipment to disabled seniors. The language at issue had been creatively interpreted by these insurance companies to empower them to deny authorizations for complex medical equipment for disabled seniors who had both Medicare and Medi-Cal coverage based merely on the order in which Medicare and Medi-Cal were asked to approve the request. This interpretation made it nearly impossible for dually eligible, disabled seniors to get critical mobility equipment approved without either undertaking a lengthy appeal process and asserting technical legal arguments. After successfully appealing one such denial for a severely disabled senior, LAFLA worked with DRC to escalate this policy issue with DHCS leadership, securing a key clarification to Medi-Cal rules that unequivocally prevented insurance companies from engaging in this practice.

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. In 2023, the Survivor and Family Justice Workgroup launched its shelter-based clinic program, delivering on-site family law legal services to survivors staying at domestic violence shelters. The Workgroup also piloted virtual family law clinics for survivors seeking assistance with motion and brief drafting. By the end of 2023, the Workgroup was hosting 5+ drafting clinics a week. Finally, the courthouse-based domestic violence clinic in downtown LA moved to a new, private space in the courthouse itself, allowing the team to provide survivors with a safer, more confidential space to receive legal assistance. In 2023, the Workgroup closed 605 domestic violence cases. 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. In 2023, LAFLA opened 333 new U Visa cases and 65 new Violence Against Womens Act (VAWA) cases. Of these, the majority were for survivors of domestic violence. In addition, LAFLA continued to work on 652 U Visa and 128 VAWA cases throughout the year. Of these, 73% were survivors of domestic violence/sextual assault. In 2023, LAFLA closed 1,430 cases dealing with these legal issues.

Housing and Communities and Eviction Defense Workgroup: The Housing & Communities workgroup takes a community lawyering approach to litigation and policy advocacy by supporting tenants and tenant organizations to enforce and enact housing laws. They also defend residents of public housing and Section 8 voucher holders against losing their housing or housing subsidy. It also provides legal support to community-based organizations seeking to build healthy, economically vibrant communities. The Eviction Defense Workgroup provides direct representation to low-income individuals and families facing eviction; negotiates with landlords to ensure families can stay in their homes; helps clients living in uninhabitable conditions to get reductions in rent; and empowers tenants to advocate for their tenants' rights, all while working towards a tenants' right to counsel. LAFLA closed 5,213 cases in this area of law in 2023.

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 2023, LAFLA 1,563 closed cases in these areas of law.