Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC)

The “Meanest Cities” toward homeless people

BeenieMum — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:19:11 +0000

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless recently released Homes not Handcuffs, a nationwide survey and report on the criminalization of homelessness in 273 jurisdictions. The report focuses on data gathered on local measures enacted or actions taken in 2007 and 2008 that make it illegal to eat, sleep or sit in public places and concludes, among other things. The report also notes that as an apparent result of the economic crisis and growing number of homeless people, there has been a significant increase in anti-loitering and anti-camping laws enacted since the last report released in 2006.

The current report lists the top ten “meanest” cities as: Los Angeles, CA; St. Petersberg, FL; Orlando, FL; Atlanta, GA; Gainesville, FL; Kalamazoo, MI; San Francisco, CA; Honolulu, HI; Bradenton, FL; and Berkeley, CA.

Other helpful components of the report include a city-by-city “Prohibited Conduct Chart” and a compilation of case citations and summaries of cases filed over the last several years to challenge policies and laws that criminalize homelessness. “Criminalizing homelessness is not only an inhumane way of approaching people who are poor and vulnerable, but it is counterproductive in dealing with the problem of homelessness,” says Tulin Ozdeger, NLCHP Civil Rights Program Director. ” It costs more to jail a person than provide permanent supportive housing.”

Underemployment: The Reality

Webdog — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:48:08 +0000

The worst kept secret in metric-driven analysis of unemployment figures is that a broader, more commonsensical definition of “joblessness” means the real rate of unemployment, when one includes underemployment, effectively doubles the figures normally reported. The New York Times today highlights this difference with its front-page article, Part-Time Workers Mask Unemployment Woes.

How bad is it out there? For perspective, take an gander at the superb NYT interactive national map: Broad Unemployment Across the U.S. Hover your mouse over the state of choice to get quick figures. For example, “I.O.U” California has an official unemployment rate of 11%, among the worst in the nation, but the broader definition of joblessness kicks the rate up to 20%.

Welfare-to-Poverty

Queenie — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:04:19 +0000

The Bitter Fruit of Welfare Reform contains a review of the studies an data on caseload decline and post-aid employment. Much of the 2/3’s caseload reduction is from declines in participation by eligible families, often due to procedural barriers (or in Georgia, anecdotally, by outright lies and threats). Extreme poverty has increased, and the majority of post-time-limit families remain below poverty, with 30-50% of families being unemployed. Since welfare reform, the caseload closings based increased earnings has actually decline.

… and you thought your bar application was voluminous

Webdog — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:43:26 +0000

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary has posted a 173-page version of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomajor’s responses to the Committee’s questionnaire. And that’s not counting the appendix, supplement, supporting public record related to her responses, as well as the documents related to her 1992 and 1997 hearings and questionnaires from her earlier district court and circuit court nominations, also posted there.

The consequences of impoverishing the already impoverished

Webdog — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:53:02 +0000

A few weeks ago the Washington Post gave us all a course in Poverty Economics 101, explaining why “you have to be rich to be poor.” The bad news in California is that it looks like the poor will need to be even “richer” than they are now, as the budget crisis in California deepens and proposals are on the table to eliminate the entire CalWORKs (TANF) program.

The consequences of such a decision, if made? The non-partisan California Budget Project (CBP) continues to cut through the economic babel and in recent days has published several focused fact sheets about the practical, economic consequences of the budget proposals being considered. One includes a simple but pointed summary that the proposal to eliminate CalWORKs in California would affect more than 1.4 million low-income children and their parents.

Real consequences for real people.

Library of Congress: Sonia Sotomayor

Webdog — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:24:44 +0000

For those interested in more about Sonia Sotomayor than the prevailing high-carb media burn-off for those with short attention spans, you may be interested to know the Library of Congress has long had a Supreme Court Nominations page, which has posted research resources about nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Your tax dollars at work.

Free Practising Interest Law online trainings for LSC-funded attorneys

Webdog — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:28:16 +0000

It’s hard to argue with free. But you need to act by June 1.

LSC has arranged with Practising Law Institute (PLI) to provide free memberships to all attorneys at LSC-funded programs. “Members will have unlimited access to the Institute’s upcoming and archived ‘CLE Now’ web-based and audio trainings, many of which provide CLE credit. To take advantage of this offer, program attorneys must individually express their interest by completing an online application, which must be submitted no later than June 1. Please direct any questions to Cynthia Schneider in LSC’s Office of Program Performance.”

Did we mention, you need to fill out the application by June 1?

LAAC: The hits keep comin’

Webdog — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:03:10 +0000

A quick video shout-out to the prolific Legal Aid Association of California. You can find a steady stream (pun intended) of the newest additions to their online training archive, regularly posted at Vimeo. Among the recent additions: Ethics Issues for Community Lawyers and Alphabet Soup I: An Intro to Benefits for Children in Foster Care.

Searching for and comparing population and unemployment data

Webdog — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:30:37 +0000

Google search has added a new “wow” feature: Adding search power to public data. It’s an embryonic example of where Google is going, to make it easier to search for and compare select types of public data. In this current feature, you can search for population or unemployment data by geographical location, and then select to compare that data with another geographic area. For example, need to know the population of Sacramento County, California? Search for population sacramento, then click on the link at the top of the Google search results and you get a graph illustrating the population growth over time. Want to compare that data with another county or state? Select the corresponding check box on the left.

Ya gotta love the Google!

Report on foreclosure and renters posted

BeenieMum — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:54:53 +0000

Hidden Impact: California Renters in the Foreclosure Crisis, released by renters’ advocacy organization Tenants Together on March 31 is now posted on Legal Services of Northern California’s housing webpage. The report estimates, conservatively, that 1 in 3 residential units in foreclosure in California are rentals. The report also contains a useful summary of existing California law and procedure regarding the rights of tenants renting homes in foreclosure and a number of recommendations for strengthening renter protections.