Homeless Persons Legal Assistance Project Returns

The Homeless Persons Legal Assistance Project was founded in 2016 with a mission to “advocate for and support people experiencing homelessness in our community, to provide a forum for discussion of the many challenges facing residents of our community who are unable to find nightly shelter and to serve as a legal resource for our unhoused friends and neighbors”. The project is a registered California public benefit corporation and we enjoy federal tax exempt status through a fiscal sponsorship provided by the United Nations Association of Santa Cruz County.

Our original mission envisioned providing an informational and self-help service to assist homeless residents navigate the criminal justice system with a goal of reducing the legal obstacles to employment, housing, medical and mental health services and public benefits. In this, to be candid, the project was only minimally effective. Nevertheless, the need for legal assistance among our unsheltered friends and neighbors has remained unaddressed by other resources. And despite federal court action that seemingly protected the right of people experiencing homeless to pursue available shelter without overt criminalization, the current political climate has created a culture designed to drive the unsheltered from our community.

Beginning Monday, June 1, the project will once again be offering regular office hours at 903 Pacific Avenue in Downtown Santa Cruz. Hours will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:30am to 12:30pm. The program will be staffed initially by Steve Pleich in his capacity as Executive Director. Steve holds a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Peninsula College of Law and is bar eligible but not a member of the California State Bar Association. His role will be limited to local Ordinance violation citation review and general criminal court navigation.

The project is asking local attorneys to pledge one (1) hour a month to provide legal consultation to project participants as needed. Participation would take the form of one forty-five (45) minute teleconference consultation with a fifteen (15) minute follow up with project staff. Houseless community participants would be expressly advised and sign a waiver to the effect that the consultation is one-time only and does not in any way create a legally cognizable attorney-client relationship.