Right to Counsel passed unanimously in Philadelphia City Council on November 14! This bill guarantees low income tenants an attorney in eviction cases and is a critical step towards stabilizing communities, stemming the effects of gentrification, and addressing systemic racism & housing discrimination in Philadelphia. Read more about this legislation here and here. Read CLS…
For years, Philadelphia operated an inefficient assistance program for low-income water customers, Philadelphia’s most economically vulnerable households. The program helped only 7,000 of more than 60,000 low-income Philadelphia households per year. Customers in that program received a small grant and fixed bill amounts for 12 months. If you were enrolled in that program and your…
For decades, the Family Advocacy Unit at Community Legal Services has provided holistic family defense for parents involved in child welfare cases, pairing attorneys with social workers and paralegals to provide wrap-around support to our clients. Recently, there has been a growing recognition that children do better when their parents are provided with intensive, tailored…
CLS Deputy Director of Operations and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Brenda Marrero on what it means to belong.
Update, June 15, 2020: Great news from the U.S. Supreme Court! The Supreme Court just ruled that that a federal law banning sex-based job discrimination covers LGBTQ+ Employees. Original post: It’s Time for the Supreme Court to End Employment Discrimination Against the LGBTQ+ Community. The following blog post was written by CLS Litigation Director Sharon M.…
This summer, Community Legal Services (CLS) was thrilled to establish the Senator Roxanne Jones Fellowship to enable future leaders in public interest law
The conversation about child welfare is changing, both locally and nationally. While over 440,000 children are in foster care on any given day in our country, society is beginning to question a model that for far too long has seen family separation as the solution to poverty and instability. In the words of our federal Children’s Bureau leadership,…
This afternoon, Community Legal Services (CLS) and Disability Rights Pennsylvania (DRP) filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of almost 12,000 low-income Pennsylvanians who will lose their only source of income once the General Assistance program ends. The Pennsylvania residents who will lose this vital support are people with disabilities, people fleeing domestic violence, people completing treatment…
Mr. Amos has a criminal record. Even though the charges against him were dismissed, they still remained on his record and affected his ability to find work. Today, Mr. Amos’ record is sealed
In 2018, Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania signed the Clean Slate Act. With its signing, Pennsylvania became the first state
