For decades, there has been concern about the way that the United States measures poverty.   The current measure was developed in the 1960’s.   At the time, a family was considered poor if they had income below a line that was roughly equal to 50% of the median income.   Because of the way that the measure was calculated, as income and costs increased, the poverty line did not keep pace.   Under the current measure, a family must have a significantly lower income today as compared to the general population than when the measure was devised.

A family of four lives under the poverty line if they have income of less than $22,050.    There are many District families with incomes well above the poverty line who struggle to make ends meet.   The National Low Income Housing Coalition found that the average two bedroom apartment in the District costs nearly $20,000 per year.   Following the generally accepted affordability definition that housing should make up 30% of income, a District family would need to earn $60,000 per year, nearly three times the federal poverty measure.  

In 1995, the National Academy of Sciences developed an alternative poverty measure that more closely matches the actual costs that a family needs to meet in order to live.    The Census Bureau has collected data on the new measure and for several years has published it as a supplement to the official poverty data.   The Census is now seeking comments on the measure and how it should be applied. 

 Comments on the poverty measure are due Friday June 25, 2010.   See the public notice HERE. 

The impact of this docket is expected to be substantial.  More than 63,000 civil cases are filed each year in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.  More than two-thirds of those cases — in excess of 44,000 actions — are in the Landlord and Tenant Branch.   The Branch is a “landlord’s court.”  Tenants cannot initiate litigation. 

As a result, if a landlord seeks to evict a tenant, she or he need only complete a simple form and pay a small fee to bring a case.  By contrast, up until last week, a tenant who sought to enforce a landlord’s obligation under the housing code to maintain habitable premises had a much different experience.  She or he was required to file it in the civil division, pay a much higher fee, and contend with significantly more complex rules concerning the entry of injunctive relief.  These barriers were so high as to be wholly ineffective for all but a small number of tenants.

There is a crisis in decent affordable housing in the District.  Many low-income tenants are forced to live in decrepit and poorly maintained buildings with very little recourse.   The District’s code enforcement process is broken.  The lack of a remedy gave landlords a free hand to ignore maintenance for the most vulnerable tenants.  The Housing Conditions Docket will be an important tool for tenants and their advocates to protect their rights.

Legal Aid offered oral and written testimony in opposition to the bill at a public hearing before the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary on April 19, expressing several concerns about the bill as written.  First, the law is drafted so broadly that virtually any dispute between private citizens, including landlord-tenant and tenant-tenant issues, could become swept up in this process, potentially eviscerating the District's carefully-calibrated landlord-tenant laws.  This concern is heightened by the fact that any community-based organization could file suit and obtain sweeping injunctive relief – potentially including an order for an individual to vacate their home – on 10 days' notice without a showing of irreparable harm.  Based on the experiences of our colleagues across the country in jurisdictions that have adopted public nuisance statutes, one group of vulnerable citizens who can become caught up in such laws are survivors of domestic violence, whose calls to the police and efforts to ward off their abusers can be viewed as creating a "nuisance."  We also noted that the removal of the right to trial by jury, at least in cases involving the right to possession of real property, arguably is unconstitutional.  Legal Aid urged the Council not to rush to judgment and to consider amendments that would limit the far-reaching scope of the current proposal.

However, I have seen one serious and dangerous issue time and time again for which DCRA has no guiding regulations and for which there is little accountability in D.C.: house mold. 

The Center for Disease Control cites a study by the Institute of Medicine that found that exposure to indoor house mold has been linked to upper respiratory problems in otherwise healthy adults and children.  In DC, a city where approximately 6% of residents have asthma, one-third of whom are under the age of 18, the prevalence of house mold is particularly disturbing.  I have encountered mold issues in apartment buildings in all parts of the city.  In some apartments, the air quality was so poor that I found it difficult to breathe.  Many of our clients with severe mold report health problems consistent with those cited by the CDC: difficulty breathing, asthma, and sometimes even coughing up blood. 

Legal Aid’s housing unit is currently litigating several cases in which house mold is a central issue.  In one such case, I was tasked with finding out how to request an air quality inspection from the city on behalf of our client.  Though DCRA had already completed an inspection of the property, the reports did not address the problem directly, partially because the citations that can be applied to mold are limited.  Trying a different route, I contacted the D.C. Department of the Environment (DDOE) and eventually reached an indoor air quality specialist who used to complete air quality inspections in D.C. homes.  However, he informed me that the D.C. Department of the Environment has stopped performing air quality inspections.  The bureaucracy got in the way.

There has been a back-and-forth between DCRA and DDOE regarding the issue of house mold.  DCRA is the only agency that has been given enforcement authority by the city to fine landlords for violations of the D.C. Housing Code.  However, the D.C. Housing Code contains no specific regulations regarding mold or indoor air quality in residential spaces.  DCRA inspectors do not know how to cite landlords when they encounter a problem, and they have no certified air quality specialists on staff to be able to measure the extent of any problems that they might encounter.

For several years, DDOE air quality specialists would get calls from tenants suffering from poor air quality due to house mold.  They would “put on [their] masks and capes” (so to speak) and inspect for the toxic air pollutants that mold causes, then write up comprehensive reports and send them to DCRA.  However, DCRA rarely took action.  Eventually, DDOE insisted that DCRA take on the inspection responsibility.  DCRA and DDOE worked together to create the website, http://mold.dc.gov, and DCRA committed itself to be the key agency for mold enforcement.  Yet, over a year later, the calls are trickling back in at DDOE because DCRA has failed to keep its promise

What needs to be done to address this issue and work towards healthy living conditions for all D.C. residents?  The two components that seem to be lacking are guidance and accountability.  D.C. needs to create regulations regarding air quality in rental properties so that city inspectors have a regulation on which to hang their hats, and DCRA needs to be held accountable for properly citing landlords who rent unhealthy or unsafe properties.  To quote a DDOE inspector, “It’s not an adversarial relationship [between DDOE and DCRA].  It’s about accountability.”

Director of Pro Bono and Intake Programs

The Scoutt prize is awarded annually to an attorney who has worked for a significant portion of his or her career at a non-profit organization providing direct hands-on legal services to the needy in the District of Columbia; has demonstrated compassionate concern for his or her clients; and has exhibited a high degree of skill on their behalf. It is named in honor of Jerrold Scoutt, Jr., a founding partner of Zuckert, Scoutt & Rasenberger LLP, for his longtime support of legal services.

Eric Angel

Eric and Vytas accepted the award at the Judicial Reception at the DC Bar Conference on April 9. The Foundation conferred the rare joint prize for Eric and Vytas’s successful collaborative efforts to reform pro bono tenant representation in the DC Superior Court Landlord and Tenant Branch.

More than 44,000 cases are filed in the Landlord and Tenant Branch each year seeking the eviction of a tenant, most of whom have very low incomes. Fewer than 3% of tenants are represented by a lawyer. Eric and Vytas have worked effectively to increase the number of lawyers available to represent tenants, but also to change Court practices to ensure that unrepresented litigants have increased access to justice.

In his acceptance remarks, Eric noted that the Court still has much to do to improve the way it operates, but that there had been a great many accomplishments over the last several years. In particular, he commended the Court for the numerous reforms that it has made to improve the operations of the Landlord and Tenant Branch, including the addition of a second judge, the hiring of a permanent law clerk, the new morning announcement, the new Complaint, the new protective order rule, the new IFP rule, the new temporary appearance rule, the establishment of the Court-based legal services project, and the creation of a new affirmative conditions Court scheduled to start this very month. Eric and Vytas were at the forefront of tireless advocacy efforts to secure these and other important reforms.

Eric has served as Legal Aid’s Legal Director since 2001. He manages all aspects of Legal Aid’s legal operations, supervising, supporting and inspiring lawyers who have handled thousands of matters for people living poverty in the District. Prior to joining Legal Aid, Eric worked at the Department of Justice and in the Office of White House Counsel.

In a letter supporting Eric’s nomination signed by supervisors, senior lawyers and other Legal Aid staff, my colleagues and I described Eric’s role: “In nearly nine years at Legal Aid, Eric has led our program with great commitment, brilliance, energy and compassion. We cannot think of anyone more deserving of this award. Eric embodies the principle that clients living in poverty deserve the highest level of skill and professionalism. He takes Legal Aid’s work seriously, and his job revolves around ensuring that we give the best service to every client we represent. In some cases, the task might involve working through a legal issue; in others, addressing an ethics challenge; in others, finding a way to connect with a client struggling with mental illness. In every situation, Eric approaches the case and the client with respect and a determination to solve the problem in a client-centered way.”

It was a special treat to have Eric’s family join his Legal Aid colleagues at the recent award presentation. We could not have been more pleased and proud to see Eric publicly recognized for all of the remarkable work we see him do every day.

Defeat Poverty DC:
Putting Economic Opportunity on the 2010 Political Agenda

What:
Panel discussion, moderated by NBC News4 political reporter Tom Sherwood, and release of new report on growing poverty in DC during the recession.

When:
March 24, 2010, 9:00 –10:30 a.m.

Where:
The True Reformer Building,
Lankford Auditorium
1200 U Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20009

Defeat Poverty DC is a new coalition of organizations and residents in the District of Columbia working to bring greater focus during the 2010 election season and beyond to the damaging effects of poverty on our entire city. The District’s long-term economic vitality depends on helping families obtain good jobs, affordable housing, and quality health care and child care.

The 2010 mayoral and city council elections give us a chance to have a serious discussion about what our city must do to make work possible for low-skilled DC residents; make work pay enough to support a family; and make basic needs like housing and health care affordable for all.

The event will include a lively panel discussion among local officials and community leaders about the need for the city’s elected officials to formulate clear policies for defeating poverty in DC. We need leaders who will make defeating poverty in our city a priority!

Refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP by March 19 to Tamanna Mansury at Tamanna@thehatchergroup.com or 301-656-0348.

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Defeat Poverty DC is a non-partisan initiative that is bringing together advocacy groups, business, labor, faith organizations and residents throughout the city. It is led by a steering committee made up of organizations with a long history of advocating for those in need: the Children’s Law Center, the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, DC Appleseed, DC Fiscal Policy Institute, DC Hunger Solutions, the Moriah Fund, the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, and Wider Opportunities for Women.

Chief Operations Officer

The Legal Aid Society’s Consumer Unit continues to work to preserve affordable and sustainable housing despite the most difficult situations.  One area that Wendy Weinberg, Supervising Attorney of the Unit, and Jennifer Ngai, Equal Justice AmeriCorps Fellow, both focus on are foreclosures that result from fraudulent and/or predatory lending.  Jen shares the story of client with whom our Consumer Unit has successfully intervened on behalf of to prevent a foreclosure. 

Unfortunately, stories like the one shared here are all too common in the District of Columbia.  Funding cuts proposed in the District’s budget threaten to further limit the ability for legal services programs to continue at their current levels let alone grow the program to meet the increasing need.  Legal Aid is grateful to the opportunities provided by organization like Equal Justice / AmeriCorps program as it has allowed us to expand our staffing in this unit.

Executive Director

The December unemployment numbers show a worsening picture for the District of Columbia.   The official unemployment rate is 12.1%, up more than 6% since December of 2007.   African American unemployment far exceeds white, with 17.6% of African Americans out of a job as opposed to 5.7% of whites. 

The Economic Policy Institute has created a useful tool called Economy Track that provides quick access to employment and economic activity data.    Economy Track compares the current recession to prior economic downturns and shows that unemployment is worse and the recession more sustained that anything within the last 30 years.  The crisis is likely to deepen.   Unemployment has risen steadily with no sign of abating.   Even when it turns around, it will take a long time to recover.

During this crisis, it is important that the District implement measures to support those who lived in poverty before the recession as well as those driven into poverty by it.   Measures might include: 

• Implement expansions to the Food Stamp program that have already been authorized.   In June 2009, the District Council unanimously enacted legislation to expand the Food Stamp program to include families up to 200% of poverty (from 130%).   The expansion was to be in place with the new budget on October 1.   It has still not happened, leaving tens of thousands of people at risk for inadequate nutrition.  Protect TANF.   District officials attempted this summer to throw entire families off of TANF for program violations.   Under current law, sanctions are limited to a partial reduction in the grant.
• Adequately staff the Department of Human Services to ensure that applications for benefits are timely and accurately processed.  Staffing shortages are creating real harm to people in need. 
• Restore local housing vouchers that were eliminated from the budget in July.   Stable housing not only reduces homelessness, but increases academic success in children and reduces hunger
• Fix the Department of Employment Services and create a real plan to put District residents to work.   Increased access to jobs, living wages and child care are among the most effective strategies to move families out of poverty.   Rather than sustain families in economic limbo, the District should strive to create meaningful income through work for all residents.

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.

Executive Director

Every year the D.C. Bar Foundation awards the Jerrold Scoutt Prize to “an attorney who has worked for a significant portion of his or her career at a non-profit organization providing direct hands-on legal services to the needy in the District of Columbia; has demonstrated compassionate concern for his or her clients; and has exhibited a high degree of skill on their behalf.”  Eric Angel, Legal Director of the Legal Aid Society has been named as one of two winners in 2010.

Eric Angel

Eric joined Legal Aid in 2001 as Legal Director.  He had significant public service career prior to taking a position in the Department of Justice and in the Office of White House Counsel.  Over the last nine years, he has made his mark on Legal Aid with his vision, compassion, commitment and hard work. In a letter supporting the nomination signed by supervisors, senior lawyers and other Legal Aid staff, his colleagues described Eric’s role in the following way: “In nearly nine years at Legal Aid, Eric has led our legal program with great commitment, brilliance, energy, and compassion. We cannot think of anyone more deserving of this award. Eric embodies the principle that clients living in poverty deserve the highest level of skill and professionalism. He takes Legal Aid’s work seriously, and his job revolves around ensuring that we give the best service to every client we represent. In some cases, that task might involve working through a legal issue; in others, addressing an ethics challenge; in others, finding a way to connect with a client struggling with mental illness. In every situation, Eric approaches the case and the client with respect and a determination to solve the problem in a client-centered way.”

Eric shares the award with Vytas Vergeer, the Legal Director for Bread for the City. Vytas is a tireless advocate for low-income tenants. He leads the legal program at Bread, carries an active caseload and is engaged in law reform initiatives. He is a terrific lawyer and a frequent partner on many important projects. He is also the spouse of Legal Aid’s Appellate Director, Bonnie Robin-Vergeer. 

The Prize Committee specifically noted Eric and Vytas’s work to improve the Landlord and Tenant Branch of the Superior Court. More than 44,000 cases are filed in the Branch each year seeking the eviction of a tenant, most of whom are very low-income. Fewer than 3% of tenants have a lawyer. Eric and Vytas have worked effectively to increase the number of lawyers available, but also to change court practices to ensure that unrepresented litigants have a better chance at justice.

The Prize will be presented at the Judicial Reception of the D.C. Bar Conference on April 9, 2010.