| WCLP Quick Facts |
- Founded- 1967 - providing over 4 decades of service
- 1st lobbying office in the U.S. dedicated to giving poor people a voice before the legislature
- Oldest and largest California legal services support center
- Over 150 years of public interest experience;
|
|
|
 |
Impact of the proposed budget cuts 06/11/2009--0 comments In the News: 2008 and 2009  “Under the governor’s proposal, no more education and training, no more moving families out of poverty, and absolutely no grant assistance for families, meaning that we’re going to see thousands of families move into homelessness.”
WCLP ANNOUNCES PAUL TEPPER AS ITS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 05/07/2009--2 comments In the News: 2008 and 2009  New Executive Director brings many years of not-for-profit community experience
(LOS ANGELES, CA) – May 7, 2009. Western Center on Law & Poverty, one of California’s leading advocates for the poor, is pleased to announce that after a nationwide search, it has selected Paul Tepper to be the new WCLP Executive Director. Mr. Tepper starts May 26, 2009.
CalWORKs Recipient Can’t be Forced to Choose Between Losing Welfare Benefits and Disobeying Family Court Order, Court of Appeal Holds 04/27/2009--4 comments Sucess Stories: 2006 to current  A family law judge may not force a parent to abandon her CalWORKs welfare-to-work plan by quitting school and seeking full-time work, the Court of Appeal has held.. Doing so would thwart the Legislature’s judgment on how best to move low-income parents from welfare to work, the court reasoned in an opinion ordered published Thursday.
Dental Care Debt: WCLP quoted in Capital Public Radio Story 03/03/2009--0 comments In the News: 2008 and 2009  The Capital Public Radio articles begins, "Not enough money to pay for that root canal? The credit card industry has an answer - charge it. Medical credit cards are popular, especially for dental work. But critics warn the cards are causing a lot of pain for some patients."
WCLP has been following with concern the growing problems of credit cards offered for specific dental care without patients understanding the negative financial implications. Read more, or listen at CPR's Website.
NPR's KPCC interviews WCLP on the Alexandria Hotel settlement 02/13/2009--0 comments Sucess Stories: 2006 to current  Legal advocates for the poorest residents of Los Angeles say they've won a victory in their battle to protect people displaced by development. KPCC's Frank Stoltze reports it comes in the form of a settlement with a Skid Row Hotel and the city's redevelopment agency.
Read more or listen to the story at KPPC's website.
WCLP sues Orange County on behalf of public benefits applicants and recipients 01/28/2009--0 comments In the News: 2008 and 2009  Four Orange County residents filed a class action lawsuit in federal court challenging Orange County’s unlawful delays in processing applicants’ requests for Food Stamps, Medi-Cal, and General Relief benefits and in maintaining recipients’ ongoing eligibility for these benefits. The lawsuit seeks to enjoin the County to process applications within the time frames mandated by federal and state law, as well as abide by the federal and state due process protections for continuing benefits. Despite already failing these standards, Orange County has recently laid off over 200 employees in the Social Services Agency and reduced the hours of all remaining employees.
Blackstar v. Orange County was filed on Friday, January 23, 2009 in Santa Ana federal district court. The plaintiffs are represented by the Western Center on Law & Poverty, the Public Law Center, and Rothner Segall Greenstoen & Leheny.
WCLP's Dick Rothschild to Receive Highest Public Interest Honor from State Bar 09/24/2008--0 comments In the News: 2008 and 2009  The Board of Directors and the staff of the Western Center on Law and Poverty are pleased to share this exciting news with you. Dick will receive this much-deserved award this Friday at the annual meeting of the State Bar in Monterey.
WCLP Obtains Relief for Low-Income Tenants of Residential Hotel 08/27/2008--0 comments Sucess Stories: 2006 to current  A federal district judge has issued a preliminary injunction that requires the City of Los Angeles and its Community Redevelopment Agency to provide relocation assistance to the low-income tenants of the Alexandria Hotel, including more than 100 tenants who were evicted over the course of the last year. Judge Margaret Morrow’s ruling also requires the owners of the hotel to provide habitable living conditions for all tenants and reasonable accommodations to tenants with disabilities.
WCLP Wins Education Support for CalWORKS Recipient 03/17/2008--0 comments Sucess Stories: 2006 to current  Despite it being a windy Monday, logic and fairness could not be blown over this morning as Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant granted our petition for a writ of administrative mandamus and a writ of traditional mandamus in Camacho v. Allenby. Wendy Camacho, a CalWORKs recipient, will be reimbursed by the Department of Social Services (DSS) for the books and supplies she needed for her self-initiated program (SIP). DSS must now also pay for all supportive services necessary for CalWORKs recipients to participate in their SIPs, even when purchased prior to the signing of a welfare-to-work plan.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| “There is no group in this state, in my judgment, who has done more for the poor and dispossessed than WesternCenter.” |
| - John Burton, former President Pro Tem of the California Senate |
| |
Our Mission:
|
|
| |
Western Center advances and enforces the rights of low-income Californians to the basic necessities of life by working statewide for systemic change. Through legislative and administrative advocacy and impact litigation, we improve the lives of our clients. And by working closely with and supporting legal and social services organizations, we ensure that our work is responsive to the most critical human needs, while enhancing CBOs’ capacity to work in their neighborhoods.
We effectuate broad-based change aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty. Leaving the representation of individual clients on individual cases to neighborhood legal aid offices, we take the lead on advocacy designed to make large scale improvements in the way low-income Californians receive the most critical services and benefits. Our successes help hundreds or thousands of people at a time.
History:
|
|
| |
WCLP opened its doors in 1967 in the midst of the nation’s “War on Poverty” as a joint legal clinic of USC, UCLA, and Loyola Law Schools. WCLP has won cases before the highest courts in the land. Many of our successful cases have become landmarks for poverty lawyers throughout the country – requiring government agencies to follow the law in implementing critical affordable housing, public benefits and health care programs. In 1972, WCLP opened one of the first legislative advocacy offices in the country dedicated exclusively to representing the interests of low-income people before the legislature so that our hard-won legal victories would not be undone by back-room political deals.
In 1996, Congress cut off federal financial support for programs like Western Center. Since then, WCLP has been supported by private donations, foundation grants, contracts for services, and attorneys’ fees awards.
|
|
| Team of 4 advocates working on: |
- Increasing the supply of affordable housing
- –Redevelopment, housing element and inclusionary zoning advocacy
- Preserving the existing supply of low-income housing
- –Enforcing government obligations to keep housing affordable and replace lost units
- Preventing Homelessness
- –Enforcing and expanding tenant protections
|
Team of 4 advocates working to:
|
Ensure that poor Californians will be able to
- Access affordable health care,
- Receive quality, comprehensive health care services, and
- Have consumer protections when accessing health care services.
| Team of 2 advocates working to... |
- Ensure public benefits safety net is actually available when needed
- Ensure people struggling to gain independence from welfare actually receive the supportive services the law affords them
- Ensure voice of poor in policy decisions that affect their Lives
|
WCLP’s Multi-Pronged Approach to Systemic Change:
Working across issue areas….
Building healthy communities in which residents have the opportunity to thrive requires a multi-pronged approach – one that WCLP has been employing for over four decades. At a minimum, Californians need:
- Safe and Affordable Housing. WCLP promotes the development of new affordable housing, preserves the stock of existing housing, and prevents homelessness by protecting tenants’ rights.
- Health Care. WCLP works to improve and expand health coverage, simplify eligibility and enrollment in Medi-Cal and indigent health care programs, and fight budget cuts to these critical programs.
- A Safety Net. WCLP ensures that CalWORKs and Food Stamps benefits are there for people when they need them, and that recipients get the educational and supportive services that will help them transition to independence.
Employing a variety of tools….
Effectively addressing the complex problems faced by low-income Californians requires creativity, flexibility and perseverance. WCLP uses:
- Legislative Advocacy. As “the voice” in Sacramento for poor Californians, we bring our in-depth expertise to bear in pursuing a realistic, incremental strategy for meaningful systemic change.
- Monitoring & Administrative Advocacy. Ever vigilant, we ensure that legislative intent translates into effective policies and procedures to benefit our clients.
- Impact Litigation. When necessary, we enforce our clients’ rights by bringing class action lawsuits. This credible threat of litigation has earned us a “place at the table” where life and death decisions impacting our clients are made.
|
|
With decades of collective poverty law experience, WCLP advocates are viewed as the state’s experts in legal issues impacting our clients’ health, housing, and welfare. Some of our recent work includes:
- Strengthening Health Access through Collaboration. WCLP is an integral partner in the innovative Health Consumer Alliance, funded for a decade by The California Endowment. The HCA helps low-income consumers access health care and uses their collective experiences to inform policy advocacy efforts to address underlying causes of health care problems in the state.
- Promoting the Creation of New Affordable Housing: We lead a ground-breaking Redevelopment Housing Collaborative, which works to enforce laws requiring California’s 400+ redevelopment agencies to set aside and invest at least 20% of their funds to preserve, improve and increase affordable housing. We also sponsored successful legislation that provided $2 billion in new affordable housing and homeless shelter beds.
- Preventing Homelessness: We won an appellate court victory requiring cities to provide tenants with relocation assistance when they are displaced through gentrification and to replace the affordable units lost in the process. We also achieved a landmark settlement against the City of Los Angeles and its Community Redevelopment Agency requiring both the payment of relocation assistance to several hundred low-income residents of the Alexandria Hotel and a policy change requiring the replacement of lost affordable units.
- Protecting the Safety Net. In the current state budget crisis, WCLP is leading a coalition of public interest groups in the court battle to prevent the state Controller from refusing to release funds to counties for the payment of CalWORKs benefits to California’s most vulnerable residents.
- Preservation of Affordable Housing. WCLP advocated and provided detailed analysis to successfully defeat Prop. 98, which would have eliminated protections such as rent stabilization relied on by our clients. We also worked to defeat numerous legislative bills that would be detrimental to our clients, including proposals to dilute low-income housing program requirements.
- Environmental Health. After years of advocacy by WCLP, the State of California adopted new regulations in May 2008 requiring lead-safe work practices in older homes, helping to significantly reduce lead levels in California’s children.
- Fighting Unfair Medical Debt: We won an appellate court victory ensuring that Medi-Cal recipients who pay out of pocket for medical care while waiting for their Medi-Cal applications to be processed get reimbursed for those expenses.
- Better Care for Foster Children: We reached an historic settlement with Los Angeles County to overhaul the foster care system – children will now be placed in homelike settings rather than institutions, they’ll be moved as little as possible, and they’ll be afforded the mental health services they need.
- Preserving Welfare Grant Levels: We won a court victory requiring California to pay higher welfare grants to families headed by those whose disabilities prevent work. In another case, we stopped an illegal policy denying teenage mothers full benefits. And we lead the annual fight in the legislature to prevent welfare cuts and preserve the annual cost of living adjustment.
- Health Care Access for People with Severe Disabilities: We secured a preliminary injunction preventing the closure of Los Angeles County’s Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Center, which provides the only specialized care available for the County’s severely disabled population.
- Supporting Legal Aid Programs: Our expert poverty lawyers have trained a generation of legal services advocates. We respond each year to thousands of requests for advice, research, trainings, and educational materials, helping advocates provide the highest quality representation they can for their clients
|
|
 |
| Legislative Blog and Notes
|
|
|
|
|
 |
WCLP Denounces Governor's Statement's on CalWORKs 07/01/2009--3 comments Legislative Blog  "Massive Fraud, Waste and Abuse"
Governor Taking California Right Off the Cliff 06/30/2009--1 comments Legislative Blog  New Details on the Governor's Latest Draconian CalWORKs Proposals
Governor Proposes Further HHS Cuts and Reforms and Western Center Responds 06/29/2009--0 comments Notes on the Legislature  Several times over the weekend the Governor met with Democratic leaders to discuss the budget. Saturday the Governor proposed new cuts ato nd "reforms" of health and human services programs including CalWORKs, Medi-Cal and IHSS. Attached are summaries of the three proposals. The Governor is proposing draconian changes to the CalWORKs program including an additional 6% grant cut and increased work requirements. He proposes to move the enrollment processes for Medi-Cal, CalWORKs and Food Stamps from paper applications submitted to counties to a statewide Internet-based system. The Governor is also proposing to either mandatorily enroll seniors and people with disabilities into managed care plans or develop a medical home model for these beneficiaries. He proposes 5% hospital fee to increase Medi-Cal hospital rates and help fund the General Fund. Western Center's letters on the CalWORKs and Medi-Cal proposals are attached.
Sunday night the Assembly passed on party-line votes a package of majority-vote budget bills in the Third Extraordinary Session which would take effect 90 days after the session is closed down. The Senate is currently (Monday) voting on the package. The Governor has said he will veto the bills.
IOU's Won't Stop Welfare Payments 06/26/2009--0 comments Legislative Blog  The Legislature and the Governor continue to search for an elusive solution to the budget crisis on Friday. The Assembly once again took up the main cut bill SB 62 but it again failed. The Senate is in session now and appears poised to take up revenue bills though it seems clear from preliminary floor jostling that the Republicans will oppose. The Assembly has announced session for both days this weekend at 10 a.m. The Senate has yet to announce plans.
Welcome to the Bottom of Grover Norquists Bathtub 06/25/2009--0 comments Legislative Blog  Governor Proposes Complete Defunding of Child Welfare and Foster Care
WCLP Urges Passage Of Conference Committee Report 06/19/2009--0 comments Legislative Blog  Please find attached our letter to the Legislature urging support by legislators for the Budget Conference Committee Report. As our letter explains, while we have many concerns with the budget plan, it largely protects the safety net, is more balanced and equitable than the Governor’s proposal and preserves opportunity. If not passed we fear the next version of the budget may fail to live up to those standards. We understand that not every organization will be able to support but we wanted you to know of our position.
Conference Committee Completed Action on Human Service Issues 06/16/2009--0 comments Notes on the Legislature  The conference committee has just completed action on human service actions. The committee rejected almost all the Governor's proposals but did make more than $300 million in cuts. The big action was relaxing welfare to work activities for 2 years for families with small children.
Conference Committee Takes Action on Remaining Health Items 06/15/2009--0 comments Notes on the Legislature  Today, the Budget Conference Committee reconvened and went through open items on a number of the subject-matter agendas, including health. Some of the actions taken by the committee in the health arena are:
Health Legislative Report as of June 10, 2009 06/12/2009--2 comments Notes on the Legislature
Til Death Do Us Apart 06/10/2009--1 comments Legislative Blog  This morning the Budget Conference Committee is taking up the human service budget. The Committee has been mostly closing small items and leaving big ticket items open and we anticipate more of that today though it is possible the conferees will reject some proposals.
Yesterday's hearing was puncuated by a steady drumbeat of questions from Democratic members asking variations of "If we do this will somebody die?". Yes California literally is at that barbaric a level.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Did You Know??
- A minimum wage worker in California earns only $1,340/month.
- In order to afford the fair market rent of a 2-bedroom apartment ($1,249/mo), a minimum wage worker would have to work 120 hours/week, 52 weeks per year.
- In Los Angeles, a tenant needs to earn $25/hour to afford the average 2-bedroom apartment.
- 6.6 million Californians lack health insurance – the highest in the nation.
- 70% of uninsured children are in families where the head of household has a year-round, full-time job.
|
|
|
|