The report, New Yorkers In Crisis, is more a panorama of the social landscape for the 3.1 million New Yorkers living below 200 percent of the federal poverty line – meaning those earning $36,620 for a family of three – than a plan of action. According to the Legal Services Corporation, a federal organization whose grantees include Legal Services NYC, more than half the low-income people who need legal help don’t get it because of a lack of providers. That situation is likely to worsen in New York City, where the municipal budget for legal services was slashed in half last year. Another important source of funds, the state IOLA account, which is funded by a statewide tax on legal services, has shrunk along with falling interest rates.
“Low-income people need the same things all people need to lead healthy and productive lives: shelter that is safe and affordable, easy access to quality healthcare, safety from personal harm and opportunities for employment and education,” says attorney Raun Rasmussen, the author of the report. “Lack of sufficient income makes all of these essential needs much more difficult to secure. Housing is unaffordable, substandard, and fear of eviction constant; city agencies are more likely to threaten to remove your child; adequate healthcare can only be found in emergency rooms; protection from violence is much more difficult to secure; and discrimination is more likely to adversely affect your ability to access necessary benefits and services. Well-coordinated, carefully targeted legal assistance is essential to help low income people solve these problems.”
Rasmussen is familiar with the effects of economic meltdown on low-income families. Before becoming chief of litigation and advocacy at Legal Services NYC, he worked for 18 years as a housing attorney in south Brooklyn. In a phone interview, he spoke with City Limits about staying motivated despite the budget crunch.
Your report covers the role of legal services in food stamps, housing, health, education and many other areas. Why publish such a wide-ranging overview right now?
We started planning this report in the fall of ’07. It was the beginning of the Spitzer administration, and we thought there’d be lots of money for new programs. We wanted to look at the needs of low-income New Yorkers across the city, and to start some strategic planning so that we’d be ready if more money came down the pipeline.
Of course times have changed radically. Now we in the poverty advocacy community need to be even smarter about filling the needs of our clients. [Legal Services NYC] provides legal services in a large number of areas that we studied, so it made sense to take a thorough look.
Still, there’s no way to be totally comprehensive. There are new reports almost every day about some specific demographic or policy. [CL: For example, NEDAP's new look at Ensuring Access to Fair and Affordable Financial Services.) In New York we have such an incredible community of advocates, analysts and activists, so it was important that we acknowledge all the great work that other people have done.
