The event was keynoted by Skadden partner and former White House Counsel Greg Craig.  Mr. Craig reflected on his years of work to advance civil rights and open the ballot box and elected office to all Americans.   He urged those present to extend gains in political rights to end poverty and inequality.

Florence Roisman and Vernon Jordan received Legal Aid’s Servant of Justice Award.   In receiving his award, Mr. Jordan reflected on his early days as a civil rights lawyer and powerfully emphasized the role of legal advocates in bringing about social change.   Professor Roisman ended the evening with a moving and powerful call to action.   She urged everyone in the room to use their collective power to find justice for people who are homeless, living in poverty, or experiencing discrimination.

The evening also honored the volunteer contributions of Randy Brater  who received the Klepper Prize for Volunteer Excellence.  The Fair Budget Coalition was recognized with the Partnership Award for its effective and persistent anti-poverty budget advocacy in the District.

The Dinner raised almost $750,000, nearly one-fourth of the Legal Aid budget.   We are tremendously honored and humbled by the support we receive from the legal community and the partnerships we enjoy to bring equal justice to District residents.

Many thanks for the wonderful evening go to the Dinner Co-Chairs:  Deborah Brand Baum, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, David R. Berz, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, Anne Coffey Proctor, Covington & Burling LLP, and Kurt Richter,Cassidy Turley; and to Legal Aid’s President, Martin Klepper, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

Why? Because the Mayor's proposed budget for FY2011 makes cuts to vital programs like child care vouchers, adult job training, and domestic violence services. Our safety net is already in tatters, after more than $100 million in cuts in the last two years. We can't afford to cut any more.  

What? Rally in front of City Hall. Hear Councilmembers speak at the rally about their plans to save the safety net through progressive revenue proposals. Visit Council offices to show the community is behind safety net programs.  WEAR RED!!! 

When? 11:30-1:00 Wednesday, May 5th 

Where? 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Close to Federal Triangle (orange/blue) and Metro Center (red, orange/blue).

Please contact Kristi Matthew to RSVP and get additional information: Kristi@legalclinic.orgor 202-328-1262.

Note: We will not hold a Fair Budget general membership meeting that day.

Joni Podschun

Campaign Manager, SOS-DC
202-553-7248

@SaveDCSafetyNet

Executive Director

With the Mayor poised to release his proposed budget on April 1 and the prospect that the growing projected gap between expenses and funding needs, advocacy groups are gearing up for the budget process.   There are a number of important events coming up that address the needs of low-income or other vulnerable communities.

Defeat Poverty DC:   A broad coalition, including Legal Aid, has come together to push poverty reduction onto the political landscape.   The campaign launch event is March 24 at 9:00 at the True Reformer Building.   For more information, see our prior blog posting on the event.  

 Also on March 24, activists concerned about how the government disposes of surplus property will have a briefing.  The Demand the Plan Campaign event is March 24^th, 6:30-8:30 PM, Reeves Center, 14th & U Sts, NW.   The event will cover:  “How the absence of a facilities plan has assisted the give-away of public property and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions in wasteful leases; How this plan could help under-served communities get the resources they are demanding and deserve; What DC residents can do in the next 60 days to pass legislation requiring the plan, and hold the city accountable to carrying it out.”  RSVP or for more information contact Parisa (parisa@empowerdc.org) at Empower DC.  (202) 234-9119, . 

The ARC of DC and the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute are holding a forum on What’s in the Proposed 2011 Budget for the DC Department on Disability Services? on Tuesday April 13, 2010,  4:00 PM – 6:00 PM at   1200 U Street, NW – True Reformer Building, Marsh Conf. Room (U St./ Cardozo Station on the Yellow/Green Line).   Please send any advance questions for the Department Director to advocacy@arcdc.net or 202-636-2963 by 12 noon on Monday, April 12^th.  Sign language interpreter services will be provided.   More info at:  www.arcdc.net · www.dcfpi.org

Executive Director

On April 1 the Mayor will send his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2011 to the Council.   With the District facing a budget gap of at least $500 million, we are concerned that the Mayor’s proposal will contain cuts to critical safety-net services as well as programs that are necessary to help people move out of poverty.  At a time when the need is the greatest, these cuts will be especially painful.  Past experience has taught us that at times like these, the cuts will fall disproportionately on people living in poverty.

The Fair Budget Coalition, which is made up of more than 60 organizations, has developed a set of recommendations to close the budget gap in a fair and equitable fashion.    The report, entitled “A Balance Approach for Challenging Times” makes a specific set of recommendations regarding spending, non-monetary program changes and strategies to raise additional revenue.   The goal of the proposal is to spread the burden so that those with the least don’t pay the largest price.  (In the interest of full disclosure, Legal Aid is an active member of the Fair Budget Coalition and will be honoring the Coalition at our annual Servant of Justice Awards Dinner). 

The following is from the summary of recommendations:

Restoring Budget Cuts and Providing Cost-of-Living Adjustments

1. Restore $2 million cut from the Local Rent Supplement Program after the FY 2010 budget was adopted.
2. Restore all cuts made to homeless services in FY 2010.
3. Maintain funding for the Home Purchase Assistance Program, Emergency Rental Assistance Program, and Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program at FY 2010 levels.  All programs were funded in 2010 with one-time funds.
4. Provide a cost-of-living adjustment to the Department of Mental Health Bridge Housing Program.
5. Provide a cost-of-living adjustment for rental subsidies in the Permanent Supportive Housing program.
6. Restore $250,000 cut from the campaign to provide free tax preparation assistance and Earned Income Tax Credit outreach.
7. Restore automatic cost-of-living adjustments to the income tax standard deduction and personal exemption and the property tax homestead deduction.

 Non-Monetary Policy Changes to Improve Programs & Services

1. Require the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to track and report the number of Child and Family Services Agency wards on whose behalf OSSE pays tuition to a public school located outside the District.
2. Improve monitoring of mental health services provided to children.
3. Designate an existing key staff person in the Executive Office of the Mayor to lead and coordinate all anti-hunger and nutrition efforts in the city.
4. Support efforts to promote use of electronic health records among all health care providers.
5. Require a spending plan for the Department of Mental Health, the Child and Family Services Agency, and the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services for specialty services for children with high mental health needs.
6. Set new rules for the Nuisance Abatement Fund to ensure that it is used to address rental housing code violations.
7. Ban recipients of D.C. funds from categorical discrimination against ex-offenders in housing and employment.
8. Identify best practices used in other communities to expand permanent supportive housing.
9. Improve data collection on demand and capacity to provide homeless services.
10. Expand the definition of allowable educational activities in the TANF employment program.
11. Repeal the law which mandates that TANF applicants attend orientation sessions.
12. Restructure TANF employment services to better meet recipients’ needs.
13. Adopt the Exemptions and Abatements Information Act of 2009.
14. Require legislation to be funded for before it is adopted.

 Finding Additional Resources

1.  Identify ways to increase federal revenues
   a) Increase residents’ access to food stamps and benefit levels
   b) Seek federal funding for selected Child and Family Services Agency services
   c) Use federal stimulus funds for electronic health records
   d) Fund Opportunity Accounts at $200,000 to obtain federal matching funds
2. Use D.C.’s rainy day fund and work with Congress to change restrictive rules
3. Raise new revenues
   a) Establish new tax income tax rates for high-income residents
   b) Expand the sales tax to cover more services
   c) Eliminate the tax exemption for D.C. residents who invest in out-of-state bonds

With the District’s budget in free fall, the next few months will be critical to preserving safety-net programs.   Please consider attending this important briefing:

 ******************************************
What’s In Store
For FY 2011?

 A forum on the D.C. budget outlook
for fiscal year 2011.

 ******************************************

 Monday, March 8, 2010

Registration and Coffee: 9:00 a.m.
Program: 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.

Charles Sumner School, Great Hall
1201 17th Street NW

Speakers include:

•  Ed Lazere, Executive Director, DC Fiscal Policy Institute
• Eric Goulet, Budget Director, Council of the District of Columbia
• Fitzroy Lee, Chief Economist, Office of the Chief Financial Officer
• Dawn Slonneger, Chief of Staff, Office of the Honorable Vincent C. Gray
• T.J. Sutcliffe, Director of Advocacy & Public Policy, The Arc of the District of Columbia

 R.S.V.P. requested to Tina Marshall, marshall@cbpp.org

Sponsors:

The Arc of DC
DC Fiscal Policy Institute
Fair Budget Coalition
Think Twice Before You Slice

Legal Director

Legal Aid is pleased to announce the Fair Budget Coalition (“FBC”) as the 2010 recipient of Legal Aid’s Partnership Award.  Legal Aid’s Partnership Award was created to recognize significant collaborations between Legal Aid and other non-legal organizations that directly increase our ability to serve our clients.  The FBC will accept the award at Legal Aid’s Servant of Justice Awards Dinner, scheduled for Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at the JW Marriott Hotel.

 The Fair Budget Coalition is a worthy organization which has provided extraordinary advocacy on behalf of communities living in poverty in the District of Columbia.  The Fair Budget Coalition mission is to “fight[] for a just and inclusive District of Columbia through advocacy and organizing and by advancing budget and public policy initiatives which reflect the interdependency of the District’s community and economic development systems.”  Last year, the FBC worked hand in hand with Legal Aid to oppose changes to the TANF program that would have hurt families living in poverty.  Every year, the FBC is a powerful voice at the City Council focusing on issues of economic justice.  To read more about the FBC’s work, click here: http://www.fairbudget.org/.  Or, better yet, come to the SOJ dinner on April 27 and hear about the Fair Budget Coalition in person.

Staff Attorney

 With Council about to undertake planning for the FY 2011 Budget Year, the Legal Aid Society and other members of the Fair Budget Coalition will be the voice for DC’s most vulnerable residents. This year, Fair Budget advocates will be encouraging Council members to consider the needs of our client community as we trudge through another year of budget cuts and decreased services that have pushed an already struggling population further into economic despair.

The issue briefings are scheduled to begin this week and present an opportunity for advocates to have a conversation with council staff about the current crisis facing poor District residents in areas such as housing, health care and income support programs. Fortunately, Legal Aid, along with several other members of the Fair Budget Coalition, have created solutions to help the city resolve some of the economic challenges it faces. These solutions include changes to the welfare to work program’s job training component that would make it possible for those living on welfare to obtain employment that pays a livable wage. Hopefully, Fair Budget’s advocacy at the issue briefings and committee hearings will have a positive impact on the shaping of the FY 2011 budget for the sake of low-income individuals and families that live and work in the District.

The schedule for the issue briefings is as follows: 

• January 22 – Hunger & Nutrition
• January 29 – Tax and Revenue
• Feb. 5 – Workforce Development and Income Support
• Feb 12 – Youth and Families
• Feb. 19 – Housing
• Feb. 26 – Health

Briefings are tentatively scheduled to be held in Rooms 103 or 104 of the Wilson Building -1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. All interested parties must send an RSVP to Kristi Matthews  and indicate which sessions you wish to attend.