The Clark County Volunteer Attorneys Program, in partnership with Council for the Homeless, lately acquired about $1.7 million in federal funding to make use of towards stopping evictions and homelessness.
The funding comes at a dire time. Washington noticed document eviction filings throughout the state final yr, in line with a report by nationwide information undertaking The Eviction Analysis Community.
The U.S. Division of Housing and City Improvement awarded $40 million to 21 recipients via the Eviction Safety Grant Program. The native volunteer attorneys program was the one Washington company to obtain funding.
The 2 Clark County companies mentioned they may use the funding to streamline efforts for people who find themselves navigating each the authorized and homeless help programs.
“I think we will be able to see a reduction in the percentage of tenants who ultimately end up with an eviction, and also bridge, hopefully, the gap of people who go unrepresented,” mentioned Amy Hernández, housing director for the volunteer attorneys program.
“This is going to be the start of something that we hope to be very promising for the future of Clark County,” she added.
Sunny Marvel, Council for the Homeless’ deputy director, mentioned the housing nonprofit has labored intently with the volunteer attorneys program prior to now to forestall evictions, particularly after the eviction moratorium ended. It continues to collaborate by combining authorized experience with the council’s expertise in coordinating help for these prone to homelessness.
The grant will even enable the companies to increase staffing.
Hernández mentioned the volunteer attorneys program at present has one particular person staffing its Housing Justice Undertaking, which assists residents on the point of housing instability. This system additionally has 4 volunteer attorneys working at its authorized clinics.
“As you can imagine, the challenge with that is that we only have one person who can provide legal representation on the pre-eviction side, and that one single person alone cannot handle all of that work,” Hernández mentioned.
For Council for the Homeless, Marvel mentioned the funding will assist add a staffer who might be dedicated to offering help in useful resource navigation and supporting folks with the long-term planning wanted to stabilize.
“These funds are not going into rental assistance. It’s really about the legal services and the legal aid that is being provided. Then also the opportunity to coordinate more effectively and to have a staff position, which is often a struggle that we have,” Marvel mentioned.
Each Marvel and Hernández mentioned the funding and partnership will assist create a complete help community. The hope is then to create extra alternatives for outreach and tenant teaching programs to boost consciousness of rights and construct belief in authorized help.
“This funding isn’t going to solve the eviction crisis we’re experiencing,” Marvel mentioned. “But I feel like this is such a promising start to move us in the direction of recognizing this is absolutely a crisis, and we are really invested in being creative and thoughtful about how we can more effectively address this crisis.”