The Shriver Brief : Poverty Law Commentary & Insights : Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law : Affordable Housing, Healthcare Reform

The Los Angeles Times recently posted an oddly inviting “state budget balancer" that allows you to have a go at balancing California’s $26 billion budget deficit by clicking on services to cut or items to tax. The “deficit meter” keeps track of how well you’ve done at solving the state’s massive budget shortfall at each click. Other states and cities have these online budget balancing tools as well—for example, in New Jersey, there’s the “You Be the Governor” challenge; for a crack at the federal deficit, see the American Public Media’s flashy “Budget Hero”.

Of course, the consequences of states’ fiscal distress are more complex and varied than these simplistic tools reflect. Among the consequences is an increase in demand for help from legal aid programs when people lose access to vital services (such as those available for “cutting” in the “deficit meter”).

Budget-related advocacy is underway across the country to help those affected by fiscal cuts. For example, the California Budget Project has reported on “Assessing the Impact: How Proposed State Budget Cuts Would Affect Women in California and What You Can Do to Help.” In Illinois, the Responsible Budget Coalition has an ongoing campaign to “Save Our State”; the Shriver Center is an active member of the coalition. And, in the District of Columbia, the Legal Aid Society is urging an equitable approach to the District's fiscal crisis.

What can legal aid do about state budget cutbacks? This is one of the article topics suggested by a participant in an April 20th conference call sponsored by Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy, a publication of the Shriver Center. Fifteen attorneys from eleven states offered ideas ranging from health care reform to obligor defenses in child support enforcement to medical-legal partnerships.

Which of these topics would you most like to see covered in an upcoming issue of Clearinghouse Review? Vote now in a new two-question survey. Or post your additional suggestions on the Shriver Center’s Facebook discussion page—we value your input!
 

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Federal and state governments are overwhelmed solving the unprecedented combination of problems caused by the distressed economy, health care reform, and crises in state and federal budgets. Even the experts cannot easily answer the complicated and overlapping questions raised by these difficulties. These same problems intensify the hardships of people already struggling in poverty. They lead to more people going hungry, and losing their jobs or homes.

Clearinghouse Review editors are looking to lighten the load of advocates whose hands are full helping struggling families and seeking social and economic justice for their client communities. For 2010, we plan to publish articles that will assist advocates in solving client problems related to income, jobs, housing, budget crises, and racial justice. Here are a few examples.

Pursuant to the settlement of a nationwide class action, the income of thousands of older adults and people with disabilities may be increased by more than $500 million in retroactive social security benefits.  Attorneys from the National Senior Citizens Law Center  describe the settlement in a recent Clearinghouse Review article. This article is part of a major outreach effort to ensure that eligible clients receive the benefits that they were illegally denied under the Social Security Administration’s “fleeing felon” policy. 

As foreclosures continue and more people lose their homes, advocates across the country are experimenting with different ways to help their clients. In two recent articles, one resourceful author makes the case for a right to counsel in foreclosure actions. In another article, authors from California approach advocacy from a different angle. They recommend that advocates explore the importance of “frames”--the stories and explanations embedded in our thought patterns about the way society and the world work--in how they communicate about the issues that matter to their clients and in their advocacy. Giving specific examples of what language to use and what to avoid, they present the theory and application of framing as an advocacy tool, in particular in race equity advocacy.

We are interested in your feedback on these article topics and your ideas for other topics we might cover this year. I invite you to connect with us by:

• commenting on this blog;
  
• signing up for one of our occasional readers' conference calls (look for dates in the free Clearinghouse Review News enewsletter);
  
• participating in our discussion group on Facebook;
  
• filling out the online readers' survey for the most recent issue of the Review.

Through Clearinghouse Review we hope to offer innovative and effective legal strategies in representing low-income people and their communities. The more we hear and learn from you, the better we are able to plan content that is meaningful and relevant to your practice.
 

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Dedicated advocates around the country are working furiously on behalf of clients who face foreclosure. Surely some of these creative minds have figured out how to solve the foreclosure crisis—haven’t they? Well, no. Lenders and loan servicers continue to resist loan modification, despite new federal incentives contained in the Home Affordable Modification Program, and advocates continue to grapple with the foreclosure monster.  

But promising efforts are underway. Philadelphia’s mandatory foreclosure diversion program, often held up as a model, can force lenders to come to the table. Of course, as advocates there point out, the program’s success relies on multiple pieces being in place: organizers (from ACORN, Philadelphia Unemployment Project, and other organizations) making personal contact with homeowners facing foreclosure, the Philadelphia Legal Assistance hotline, housing counselors, and representation in the actual mediation. While no panacea, a report on the program’s first year credits it with averting 1,400 foreclosures.

In areas where property values hit the stratosphere a couple of years ago many borrowers, to keep their homes, need not just loan modification but also principal reduction. In Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, advocates from Neighborhood Legal Services and community organizers from One LA joined forces to help homeowners negotiate collectively with their loan servicers; One LA used the data gathered to get the city council involved. The result is a pilot project through which, if the lender agrees to reduced principal and a fixed interest rate, the city will fund a “silent second” mortgage to reduce payments even further; the second mortgage is payable only upon sale or refinancing of the property.

Both these approaches were highlighted in a June 23 Shriver Center webinar, and the Los Angeles effort is also the subject of an article in the May-June 2009 issue of Clearinghouse Review. What innovative approaches are underway in your community? We’d love to hear about them. Email marciahenry@povertylaw.org  

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