Adopt A Neighborhood Project (Law firms make great neighbors!)

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

Back in February, the Kansas City Business Journal ran a cover story about the work that the Stinson Leonard Street law firm is doing in the Marlborough Neighborhood.

About five years ago, Stinson adopted the low-income neighborhood in southeastern Kansas City, which is part of the Center School District. By working together, neighborhood leaders, local non-for-profits, the City and Stinson attorneys, with the support of Legal Aid, have achieved many remarkable successes in the neighborhood. Abandoned houses have been repaired and are now high quality housing. There is now a medical clinic in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is the home of a new grocery store (for many years the neighborhood had been a food desert. The only places people living in the neighborhood could buy “groceries” were gas stations and convenience stores).

The project has not only been a success for the community, it’s had great benefits for the firm as well. It has allowed new attorneys excellent training opportunities and created a signature project for the firm’s Kansas City office that everyone can be proud of.

The Bryan Cave firm for years has done a similar project addressing abandoned properties in the Ivanhoe neighborhood. Husch Blackwell has also recently adopted the Mannheim neighborhood.

There are, however, scores of other neighborhoods that need similar help and attorneys have the power to make a tremendous difference in these neighborhoods.  If your firm is interested in finding out how to get involved, please give me a call at (816)474-1413 x5224.

Without a home, your whole life can shatter...

By Jane Worley, Supervising Attorney - Central Office Housing Plus 

Every person we represent on the Housing Plus Team has one thing in common. They are asking for help with one of the basic needs for human beings—shelter.

Sometimes they have a home, but a landlord or a government agency has decided they have broken the rules. Sometimes the rules actually were broken, but it is for circumstances beyond their control, such as an abusive ex-partner who won’t let a locked door keep them from their target. There may be no money for rent or utilities because the car needed to get to work breaks down or your child needs new school items in September. Some of our clients cannot get into subsidized housing to relieve a rent burden of 60 to 80% of their take home income because they have an old eviction or there just isn’t anything available.

Without a home, your whole life can shatter in no time at all.

Here is one example of a client’s problem which we were able to help him resolve:

Jerry has an anxiety disorder which causes him to lash out at when anyone who comes into his apartment. He complained frequently to the manager about maintenance coming into his unit, taking his things or moving or breaking things. He said he never got notice that maintenance was coming. His landlord responded by telling him he was a nuisance and filing for eviction. A Legal Aid Housing Plus attorney asked for a reasonable accommodation of his disability to which the landlord did not respond. Jerry’s Legal Aid attorney then filed a Fair Housing Complaint with HUD, resulting in a Conciliation Agreement allowing him to stay if he provided the landlord with an alternative person with whom to discuss problems relating to maintenance.

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Legal Aid of Western Missouri's housing advocates provide a broad array of legal services, focusing primarily on public housing and Section 8 housing. Our housing counselors regularly provide advice or representation to help our clients avoid wrongful evictions and improper rent calculations. Landlord/tenant disputes and uninhabitable housing conditions are other legal challenges facing our clients. Housing advocates also assist people who are disabled with accessibility issues, and we help other clients with disputes over eligibility for public and subsidized housing.