The Clark County Volunteer Lawyers Program, in partnership with Council for the Homeless, recently received about $1.7 million in federal funding to use toward preventing evictions and homelessness.
The funding comes at a dire time. Washington saw record eviction filings across the state last year, according to a report by national data project The Eviction Research Network.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $40 million to 21 recipients through the Eviction Protection Grant Program. The local volunteer lawyers program was the only Washington agency to receive funding.
The two Clark County agencies said they will use the funding to streamline efforts for people who are navigating both the legal and homeless support systems.
“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,” said Amy Hernández, housing director for the volunteer lawyers 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 Wonder, Council for the Homeless’ deputy director, said the housing nonprofit has worked closely with the volunteer lawyers program in the past to prevent evictions, especially after the eviction moratorium ended. It continues to collaborate by combining legal expertise with the council’s experience in coordinating support for those at risk of homelessness.
The grant will also allow the agencies to expand staffing.
Hernández said the volunteer lawyers program currently has one person staffing its Housing Justice Project, which assists residents on the brink of housing instability. The program also has four volunteer lawyers working at its legal 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 said.
For Council for the Homeless, Wonder said the funding will help add a staffer who will be devoted to providing assistance in resource navigation and supporting people with the long-term planning needed 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,” Wonder said.
Both Wonder and Hernández said the funding and partnership will help create a comprehensive support network. The hope is then to create more opportunities for outreach and tenant education programs to raise awareness of rights and build trust in legal aid.
“This funding isn’t going to solve the eviction crisis we’re experiencing,” Wonder said. “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.”
