HOMELESS PERSONS REPRESENTATION

PROJECT, INC.

ANNUAL REPORT

FY 2002
[July, 2001 Through June, 2002]
Homeless Persons Representation Project, Inc.

Homeless Persons Representation Project, Inc.

300 Cathedral Street, Suite 204
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
(410) 685-6589 ! Toll Free (800) 773-4340 (Maryland only)
Fax: (410) 625-0361

Project Staff

J. Peter Sabonis, Esquire

Executive Director

Dianne Pasternack, Esquire

Deputy Director

Carolyn Johnson, Esquire

Staff Attorney

Marita Etcubanez, Esquire

Staff Attorney

Yoanna Moisides, Esquire

Staff Attorney

Tammy Brown, Esquire

Staff Attorney

Dawn Landon
Legal Advocate

Loretta Gaffney
Caseworker

Debra Gonzalez
Legal Assistant

Kevin Baker
Administrative Assistant

Amelia Lazarus, Esq.

Coordinator of Volunteers

Annual Report: FY 2002 2

Homeless Persons Representation Project, Inc.

Board of Directors
John C. Eidleman, Esquire, President Legal Services Corporation, Inc.
750 First Street, NE, 11th Floor
Washington, DC 20002

Mark Neumann, Esquire Professor Computer LLC

321York Road
Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Jeff Singer, LCSW Health Care for the Homeless

Chief Executive Officer
111 Park Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Eric McLauchlin, Esquire Hetsch, Gessner & Snee

11 South Main Street
Bel Air, Maryland 21014

Karen Czapanskiy, Esquire Professor of Law

University of Maryland School of Law
500 W. Baltimore St.
Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Curtis Price 310 Homeland Southway, 2B

Baltimore, Maryland 21212

J. Peter Sabonis Executive Director

Homeless Persons Representation Project
300 Cathedral St.
Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Annual Report: FY 2002 3

Homeless Persons Representation Project, Inc.

Mission and Focus

HPRP’s mission is to eliminate, ameliorate and prevent homelessness in

Maryland. It does this by sending lawyers to those places where the poor congregate--
shelters, day labor pools, welfare offices--and providing direct representation in legal
disputes. Broader based, systemic advocacy is derived from this outreach, which is
accomplished through the work of a small group of full-time attorneys on staff and a
larger panel of volunteer, pro bono attorneys.

Through experience and a recently completed strategic planning process, HPRP

has chosen to concentrate its activities on the areas that cause and exacerbate
homelessness:

C the lack of affordable housing;

C the lack of adequate earnings or access to public assistance; and
C the barrier that criminal histories pose to housing, employment, and public
assistance.

Direct legal representation is targeted to potential clients in these arenas. (For

example, HPRP engages in early morning outreach to low wage workers, many of
whom are homeless, at temporary Day labor businesses in Baltimore.) As important,
however, is how HPRP addresses the systemic issues that this experience reveals.

HPRP is not under the allusion that lawyering alone can end poverty. Yet, in
the times when the poor have successfully achieved social change — in the labor, civil
rights and welfare rights movements— lawyers played key roles. Providing labor or
community organizing “handles” to collective efforts of the poor themselves, filing
individual cases for a significant number of similarly situated claimants, bringing well-
timed high profile impact litigation, or working to pass legislation are advocacy tools that
can, at the appropriate time, be used to further and realize the interests of the poor.

HPRP is striving to lawyer in this manner, with a premium on efforts that develop
leadership and power among the poor themselves. For instance, HPRP attorneys are
actively working with a group of day laborers who meet weekly to discuss ways to
improve working conditions and wages, and with a group of ex-offenders who meet
regularly to discuss obstacles and strategies to re-integration. HPRP seeks to use a
broad array of legal advocacy skills to build and empower the group, so as to ensure
that any change achieved is directed and can be maintained by non-lawyers.

Eligible Population

HPRP serves those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Annual Report: FY 2002 4

Homeless Persons Representation Project, Inc.

Services Provided

HPRP staff and pro bono attorneys opened 663 cases on behalf of homeless
persons or those at risk of homelessness from July, 2001, through June, 2002, and
closed an additional 607. The breakdown for types of cases closed is as follows:

CINA (Child In Need of Assistance) 8

Consumer/bankruptcy/debt collection 33
Education 3
Employment 154
Family & domestic 78
Health 10
Housing 172
Immigration 2
Income Maintenance/Admin. Law 95
Individual Rights (other than immigration) 2
Wills/Power of Attorney/Trusts 10
Miscellaneous** 40

*Major miscellaneous case areas include MVA/Traffic issues, brief advice and referral for persons with
criminal matters, misplaced or stolen property, military discharge upgrades, or collection/judgments.

C Approximately 98% of the cases were opened on behalf of persons between the
ages of 18 and 59; 2% of the cases were opened on behalf of minors and
persons over the age of 60.

C African Americans made up 85% of HPRP’s served population in FY 2002, while

Caucasians constituted 12%. Two out of every three HPRP clients were women.

HPRP provided the following levels of service for clients: Advice/Information/Referral

(36%), Counseling (24%); Negotiations (11%); Administrative Remedies (8%); Judicial
Litigation (17%); Other Appropriate Remedies (2%) (include, but are not limited to, research, investigation,
document preparation, advocacy, sending letters or making calls on behalf of client).

SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

C Publication of Ex-Offenders and Employment, a 65 page study on

Maryland’s Public Policies relative to ex-offenders and employment, with a
comparison to other states.

C Direct service to 225 persons via telephone advice, and an additional 607
cases closed, in which substantive legal work was rendered.

C Successful advocacy with the Maryland Department of Human Resources

that resulted in the inclusion of a “lack of child care” exemption to welfare

Annual Report: FY 2002 5

Homeless Persons Representation Project, Inc.

to work requirements.

C Successful representation of over 100 persons who were denied publicly

subsidized housing because of criminal histories, and legal support and
guidance to a group of ex-offenders who meet with Housing Authority of
Baltimore officials to change housing policies.

C Weekly pre-dawn outreach to temporary day labor pools that resulted in

weekly meetings of day laborers at HPRP offices. Meetings involve
discussion of working conditions, legal rights, and strategies of change.

C Judicial involvement in almost 20% of all cases. (The subsidized legal

services to the poor community gets into court in 13% of its cases, on
average. The bulk of service in the community is primarily advice,
information, and referral.)

BUDGET

In FY 2002, HPRP operated on a budget of $354,399. HPRP received approximately

41% of its funding from the Maryland Legal Services Corporation, Inc., a public
corporation that is a conduit for IOLTA monies (Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts) that
are directed by law to organizations that serve the legal needs of low-income persons.
HPRP also received funds from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, the Abell Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and private contributors.

HPRP is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation, and is registered as a charitable organization

with the Maryland Office of the Secretary of State. All contributions are tax-deductible.

Annual Report: FY 2002 6