Western Center on Law & Poverty

Housing: WCLP enforces and expands Californians' rights to: easily find and move into affordable housing; maintain their existing low-income housing; have stable housing and avoid homelessness; and live in inclusive and equitable communities. WCLP focuses on improving the rights of low-income renters, promoting equitable land use policies, preventing displacement, furthering fair housing, and ensuring that there is adequate production of new affordable housing.

Health Care: WCLP works on behalf of low-income Californians to defend health care reform; create new state based health care programs; extend coverage to the uninsured; strengthen county indigent health care programs; expand mental health services; stop illegal debt collection practices; and ensure appropriate consumer protections when accessing health care services.

Public Benefits and Economic Justice: WCLP works to expand access to jobs, income, and opportunity for the poorest Californians; to reduce the criminalization of poverty and racial bias in anti-poverty programs, public institutions, work environments, and financial services. WCLP also works to ensure that the public safety net is actually available when needed, and that people struggling to gain independence from welfare actually receive the supportive services the law affords them. WCLP guarantees that the voice of poor people is heard in the policy debates that affect their lives.

In all of our programs, WCLP actively seeks to promote racial equity in California. We forcefully challenge, through our advocacy work, structural racism embedded within public and private systems; work collaboratively with legal services and other community based organizations to ensure racial equity; and actively engage in regional and national coalitions for racial equity.