Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas has suffered significant losses in funding as it moves into 2012.
One of the largest legal aid programs in the country, it has 15 offices covering more than 107,000 square miles in North and West Texas. From Waxahachie to McKinney, west through Dallas and Fort Worth, to the borders of New Mexico and Oklahoma, Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas' service area includes 1.6 million individuals whose incomes are low enough to be eligible to receive free legal assistance in civil matters.Generally, this means that an individual may be eligible for services with an annual household income $13,613 or less; a family of four may be eligible if its household income is $27,938 or less. In Fort Worth, Weatherford and their surrounding counties, nearly 370,000 individuals meet Legal Aid's eligibility requirements.Resources have always been stretched thin as the program attempts to provide the same level and quality of service to individuals and families, whether they live in Fort Worth, Denton or Lubbock. With the help of volunteer attorneys, staff provided legal advice, referrals and representation in administrative and judicial forums to almost 25,000 individuals in 2011. Civil legal problems included protection from domestic violence, landlord-tenant disputes, foreclosures, Social Security benefits, unfair debt collection practices, identity theft and a host of other challenges faced by many people, but whose effects can be particularly devastating to the working poor, newly unemployed or economically disadvantaged.Although assisting 25,000 people in one year sounds impressive, the demand in 2011 far exceeded that number. Increasing demand for legal assistance suggests, at least, a status quo level of funding, if not an increase, to meet the rise in applications. Instead, Legal Aid and other legal service providers nationwide received word in 2011 of a dramatic reduction in funding.Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas receives funding from the Legal Services Corp., a nonprofit established by Congress in 1974 to deliver free civil legal services to the poor. In April 2011, Legal Services notified Legal Aid of a 4 percent funding reduction.Just seven months later, that reduction was increased by 15 percent, a total of just more than $1.5 million. While we anticipated some cutbacks, no one expected such a drastic and historic level of reduction. Indeed, the 2012 Legal Services appropriation of $348 million to serve the poor's legal needs nationwide is the lowest annual appropriation in the nonprofit's history. By comparison, the appropriation was more than twice this amount in 1979.Combined with current reductions in revenue from both the private and public sectors, the Legal Services loss exacerbates the problem of delivering services to an ever-increasing population of those unable to afford legal assistance, including victims of domestic violence, the homeless and veterans.With 90 percent of program expenses going to the direct delivery of services to clients, the reductions will have to come from an already overburdened workforce and will have an obvious effect on client services. It is estimated that 3,700 fewer households will be served in 2012, directly affecting some 8,000 individuals in those households we serve programwide, not to mention those who support individuals and families in poverty, including extended family, healthcare systems, and other local and state agencies.The unfailing truth is that Legal Services and its grantees are the most efficient and productive public-private partnership ever created by an act of Congress. Despite the obvious need, the size of the appropriation diminishes at a time when the number of those living in poverty increases.While individual contributions have always played an important role in our ability to serve the community, sustained federal funding is crucial to maintaining continuity in our approach to providing legal assistance.Since the declaration of war on poverty in the early 1960s, congressional appropriations have helped ensure that the civil justice system is accessible to all. It is important that decision-makers in Washington understand its value and are reminded of its significant impact.Errol A. Summerlin is CEO of Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas. www.lanwt.orgHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
