Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

Santa Monica Community Office: Funded through grants from the City of Santa Monica, this office provides legal services to residents of Santa Monica only. They staff a domestic violence clinic at the court and offer regular housing clinics. Attorneys work with local agencies and city services to provide family law, housing, government benefit and immigration services. This office closed 789 cases in 2024.Restoring Communities: Addresses the core legal needs of communities impacted by the criminal justice system by providing direct legal services to remove barriers to reentry to society, including employment barriers, by providing community education, working with community partners to offer holistic services, and engaging in systemic change to support the restoration of impacted communities. Holistic legal services provided by the Restoring Communities Work Group include record clearing, occupational license denial challenges and assistance with family law, housing, government benefits, fair chance ordinance violations and other legal needs. In 2024, LAFLA closed 2,281 cases in these areas of law.Veterans Justice Center: Provides holistic, trauma-informed legal support to low-income, homeless, and at-risk veterans, regardless of discharge status or length of service. Its experienced, culturally competent staff-supported by hundreds of pro bono volunteers-help veterans secure life-sustaining income, health, and housing benefits; prevent homelessness by fighting wrongful evictions; remove employment barriers; clear criminal records; and advocate for discharge upgrades.Through deep partnerships with Veterans Affairs, veteran service organizations, and community agencies, VJC combines outreach, needs assessment, education, and direct legal services to close the justice gap for veterans. In 2024, VJC closed 450 cases, and in 2024, it assisted 867 veterans with a wide range of legal issues, including housing, benefits, family law, and more. By leveraging a multidisciplinary team and robust data systems, VJC delivers high-impact, sustainable results, helping veterans achieve lasting stability, dignity, and opportunity. Asian & Pacific Islander Community Outreach Project: Provides legal help in all areas of practice including family law, immigration, housing, and government benefits in a wide range of API languages, including Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Khmer, Vietnamese, Tagalog/Filipino, and Thai. LAFLA's API Work Group advocates for language rights in civil courts, administrative proceedings, and other government agencies for clients with limited-English proficiency. This program closed 904 cases in 2024.Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP): This LAFLA special project embeds legal clinics within medical facilities to allow healthcare and legal professionals to identify and help patients reach their optimal health. The MLP team strives to provide high-quality, holistic legal assistance and representation across 6 health sites including TCC Family Health, Martin Luther King Jr. Outpatient Center, Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, Long Beach Comprehensive Health Center, Community Medical Wellness Centers USA, and PPLA Inglewood Community Center's Black Health Initiative. Through this project, anyone from the above-mentioned medical care teams can refer patients to our attorneys as part of a comprehensive approach to improve health outcomes by addressing social determinants of health such as poor housing conditions, long-term health planning, loss of denial of public benefits, issues with immigration, problems at work, or violence within the household. In 2024, MLP closed 839 cases. Unhoused People's Justice Project: This project engages in impact litigation and policy work to combat the criminalization of homelessness, and to ensure the civil rights of unhoused people are protected. This program closed 11 cases in 2024. Self-Help Centers: For over 20 years, LAFLA has partnered with the Los Angeles Superior Court to provide high-quality assistance for self-represented litigants. In 2024, LAFLA's Self-Help Center Workgroup helped over 31,400 litigants access the justice system across its four courthouse-based Self-Help Centers and remote self-help hotline. In-person and hybrid services included free legal information, assistance with court forms in multiple legal areas, and innovative remote tools, all of which empowered litigants through complex court systems.Legal VictoriesLAFLA achieved the following legal victories in 2024:Civil Rights for Unhoused People 1: The litigation centers on the civil rights of unhoused individuals who are living in tents and makeshift encampments in the City of Los Angeles. The litigation challenges the seizure and destruction of unhoused individuals' belongings. The case challenges the constitutionality of an ordinance in Los Angeles that allows the City to seize and destroy unhoused residents' belongings. Plaintiffs allege that the ordinance violates the Fourth and Fourteenth amendment. They seek declarative relief that the ordinance is unconstitutional, and injunctive relief to prevent the seizure and destruction of property. In 2024, LAFLA and co-counsel Obtained a ruling from the Federal Court that the City of Los Angeles spoliated documents and fabricated evidence related to Plaintiffs' claims and granting leave to Plaintiffs to file a motion for sanctions, following the completion of the forensic examination. Civil Rights for Unhoused People 2: LAFLA represents community organizations that work with unhoused people in Skid Row in an intervention in a lawsuit by property owners against the City of Los Angeles for alleged nuisance conditions that impact all unsheltered individuals in the City. In 2024, Intervenors successfully objected to a proposed revision of the settlement that would have resulted in a significant decrease in the City's obligation to create new shelter and housing units and expedited the City's ability to criminalize homelessness. Following Intervenors' objections, the City withdrew the proposed bed plan. Intervenors also successfully argued for a city-wide audit of City-funded homeless services to include the Los Angeles Police Department, in addition to third parties.Economic Stability Work Group (ESWG): LAFLA helped a 62-year-old client with a lifelong intellectual disability to successfully appeal the termination of his federal SSI benefits. We successfully represented this client before a Social Security judge and obtaining a reversal of the termination, establishing that this client was still disabled. This victory included a retroactive award that amounted to nearly $50K in benefits that had been wrongfully withheld from the client over the course of several years. Despite the judge's decision, the local SSA office tasked with implementing the decision then incorrectly sought to deny payment of the retroactive award, claiming without proper notice he was not eligible for a back payment because of a County housing subsidy he had received, and claimed that he had no appeal rights to challenge this determination. LAFLA engaged in informal advocacy to escalate the issue to a regional office within the Social Security Administration, which reversed this mistake, securing this substantial, life-changing back payment to this client.

Housing and Communities and Eviction Defense Workgroup: The Housing & Communities workgroup takes a community lawyering approach to litigation and policy advocacy by supporting tenants and tenant organizations to enforce and enact housing laws. They defend residents of public housing and Section 8 voucher holders against losing their housing or housing subsidy. They also provide legal support to community-based organizations seeking to build healthy, economically vibrant communities. The Eviction Defense Workgroup provides direct representation to low-income individuals and families facing eviction; negotiates with landlords to ensure families can stay in their homes; helps clients living in uninhabitable conditions to get reductions in rent; and empowers tenants to advocate for their tenants' rights, all while working towards a tenants' right to counsel. LAFLA closed 1,612 housing related cases in this area of law in 2024.