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ELCA Outreach Center seeks CDBG support to sustain volunteer legal advice service
Summary
ELCA Outreach Center outlined a long‑running legal advice service that offers 30‑minute consultations with volunteer attorneys; staff said the program is seeing growing demand for family‑law and rental‑rights assistance and requested funding to pay coordination/staff costs (not attorney fees).
Representatives from the ELCA Outreach Center asked the committee to support their legal advice service, which connects low‑income residents to volunteer attorneys for short consultations and document assistance.
Carter Erickson (ELCA) said the organization has operated the service for 14 years and is on pace to handle roughly 275 client consultations this year. ELCA staff reported that about 73% of cases this year have been family‑law matters, 21% small‑claims and about 6% rental‑rights issues; they said rental matters have risen in volume as rents increase.
Raul Hernandez, the program coordinator, described the intake process: clients complete an application, ELCA screens for conflicts and the organization matches the caller with one of 6–8 local volunteer attorneys; typical on‑site consultations run about 30 minutes but attorneys sometimes spend up to an hour if needed. Hernandez said ELCA does not pay the volunteer attorneys; if a client requires retained counsel the program provides referrals and the attorneys sometimes refer to other local counsel for reduced‑fee consultations when available.
During committee questions ELCA clarified it does not use grant funds to pay outside attorneys, that 100% of the requested grant would support program coordination and staff time, and that the applicant has historically requested similar funding levels in prior cycles. The committee asked for additional justification for the requested increase and for outcome metrics to support the funding request; ELCA agreed to follow up with supporting materials.
