Law Project

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless Law Project works with the Women’s Empowerment Project and visits family shelters on its own, making presentations to shelter residents and staff. At these shelter visits, the Law Project distributes brochures and other information about the legal rights of families and children. During the shelter visit, residents also have a chance to discuss any legal problems with the attorneys or a paralegal.

The Law Project makes special outreach efforts in the summer and early fall as part of back-to-school outreach. In recent years, the outreach has broadened outside of shelter settings to try to reach families in homeless situations who are not living in shelters.

Law Project staff attends community back-to-school fairs in Chicago and the suburbs. The Law Project also provides information about educational rights in a variety of settings, such as libraries, schools, soup kitchens, stores and other locations that serve families. Beginning in 2006, the Law Project submitted a number of letters to the editor that were published in community newspapers advising readers of legal rights.

Youth Futures, the Law Project’s mobile legal aid clinic for homeless youth, conducts a variety of outreach to connect with youth on the street. This outreach has consisted of regular visits to schools, youth drop-in centers and youth shelters.

Beginning in the spring of 2007, Law Project staff assisted the launching of a new outreach program called HELP (Homeless Experiencing Legal Protection). The HELP project is spearheaded by Federal District Court Judge Jay Zainey of New Orleans. Judge Zainey already established HELP projects in New Orleans and a number of other cities. Judge Zainey visited Chicago in April of 2007 to speak with lawyers and law firms here about the program. The Law Project helped organize the April meeting, which was held at the Chicago Bar Foundation.

Currently, the HELP program operates at REST Shelter and Deborah’s Place. A private law firm volunteers to visit the shelters weekly for one month of the year. Law Project staff has accompanied the private lawyers to the shelter visits.