Public Counsel's Homelessness Prevention Law Project (HPLP) strives to reduce the number of homeless individuals in our community by focusing on the needs of populations that are at high risk of becoming chronically homeless. HPLP has provided pro bono representation before administrative agencies to over 20,000 homeless individuals and families to secure food, shelter, clothing, and other vital benefits. Public Counsel also engages in impact litigation and provides pro bono legal services to the growing homeless and at-risk youth population, and acts as a resource to service providers working with such youth. HPLP also offers regular legal clinics, including joint clinics with the Barristers organization of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. In addition, HPLP conducts clinics at veterans' facilities to assist homeless veterans who are trying to overcome legal difficulties that prevent them from finding work and housing. Volunteer attorneys, law students from local campuses, and summer associates from local law firms participate in these clinics and in our advocacy efforts.

Emergency Food and Shelter Advocacy

Public Counsel operates the largest and longest established legal advocacy program on-site in multiple offices of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS), where impoverished, hungry and homeless individuals are most likely to need advice and advocacy assistance. Each year hundreds of volunteer law students and attorneys assist clients with shelter, food, health, transportation and social service needs through this effort. Without these volunteer advocates, many of Public Counsel’s clients would not receive the benefits and services to which they are legally entitled, and which play a vital role in preventing chronic homelessness by helping people stay off the streets and move towards self-sufficiency. The project also attempts to impact policy decisions affecting this desperately poor population through testimony before government agencies, dialogue with DPSS officials, and collaboration with community-based organizations.

Homeless Youth Project

The project strives to help stabilize the lives of homeless and runaway youth and youth at risk of becoming homeless. The project provides a broad range of free legal services, training for volunteer attorneys on legal and developmental issues relevant to the lives of homeless at-risk youth, education workshops for at-risk youth, trained volunteers to staff walk-in clinics that are held weekly at community-based youth services organizations, and legal and technical assistance to other nonprofit community organizations that provide social services to youth.

Juvenile Court Intervention and Advocacy

The project provides direct legal services and policy advocacy for youth under the supervision of the juvenile justice system, as well as for young people formerly associated with this system who are now homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless. The project provides education, outreach and training both to the youth and to the nonprofit and government agencies that assist them. HPLP works closely with the Los Angeles County Probation Department, the Los Angeles Commission for Children and Families, the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Juvenile Court Task Force, and other community-based service providers for at-risk youth to promote awareness and create solutions to address the challenges faced by youth in the juvenile justice system and those leaving that system. The project’s efforts are focused on housing, mental health and other after-care services available to youth in order to assure their successful transition back into the community. In addition, the project works directly with youth in the juvenile halls and probation camps to ascertain and address issues arising from their confinement.

Homeless Court Project

Public Counsel has worked closely with the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the Los Angeles City Attorney, and the Los Angeles County Public Defender to establish a procedure that will reward homeless and formerly homeless individuals for connecting with residential and rehabilitation programs by resolving minor traffic and quality of life offenses to help facilitate their efforts to reintegrate with society.

Foster Youth Legal Assistance Project

Public Counsel provides legal services to youth who are emancipating or have emancipated from the foster care system, helping them access government and other benefits to which they are entitled. Public Counsel conducts outreach and trains youth and community-based organizations about legal issues impacting foster youth as they prepare for independent living. Public Counsel has formed partnerships with agencies and community organizations to provide mentoring and special services for foster youth in an effort to prevent homelessness among this vulnerable population.