NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

The staff and board at NLSLA believes everyone—regardless of race, zip code, income level, sexual orientation, religion, immigration status, or gender—deserves access to safe, affordable housing, health care, education, economic security, and justice.

NLSLA works to reduce the effects of poverty in Los Angeles’ low-income communities, support the development of opportunities for individuals and families to move themselves out of poverty, and protect and enforce the legal rights of poor people by ensuring access to our justice system.

Today NLSLA meets the legal needs of nearly 160,000 people each year. We do this through a combination of individual representation, high impact litigation, education, and public policy advocacy. Our pillars of work focus on housing, health, economic security and access to justice.

Housing - NLSLA believes access to safe, affordable housing is a human right. The organization works to preserve and increase affordable housing, prevent unlawful evictions and foreclosures, and fight discrimination in Section 8 and other government-subsidized housing. NLSLA leads a collaborative of four Los Angeles programs that provide legal representation to people facing eviction in some of Los Angeles’ poorest neighborhoods—the largest of seven projects approved by the state Judicial Council to ensure representation for the poor when critical civil rights are at stake. NLSLA is also a partner in a County-wide effort to create access to housing and other services for people who are homeless.

Health - NLSLA is at the forefront of health advocacy in California: we are the largest member of a statewide network of programs offering free assistance to people struggling to get health insurance coverage and resolve problems with health plans. We utilize policy advocacy and impact litigation to resolve widespread health access and health equity issues, and run the nation’s largest network of Medical Legal Community Partnerships, which place lawyers in clinics and hospitals to address the social determinates of health.

Economic Security - Helping low-income individuals, families and communities attain economic security is at the heart of much of NLSLA’s work. We work with clients to remove barriers to education and employment, protect and resolve family relationships, and ensure meaningful access to public benefits. We also help workers expunge criminal records that often date back decades and stand in the way of a job, occupational license or certificate that could help move a family toward greater economic stability.

Access to Justice - NLSLA believes justice depends on equal access to the courts and to the protections of the law. The organization leads the nation’s largest network of self-help centers, where each day 565 self-represented litigants receive help navigating complex housing and family law issues. Our advocates help victims of domestic violence navigate complex family law matters in the aftermath of abuse; fight for appropriate language services and access for people with disabilities in LA County courts; and work with community-based organizations to advocate for environmental justice in low-income communities.

NLSLA has more than 140 full-time staff members, including 60 attorneys, who speak the 12 threshold languages in Los Angeles County.
NLSLA staff members are housed in four regional offices located in Pacoima, El Monte, Boyle Heights, and Glendale - where the program’s administrative offices are also located.  In addition, NLSLA advocates are co-located in courthouses in Van Nuys, Lancaster, Chatsworth, Pomona and Downtown LA; Hospitals and health centers in Sylmar, Van Nuys, North Hollywood and El Monte; and with social services providers in the Antelope Valley.

NLSLA is particularly known for its innovative programs and collaborative models for delivering services across the County. Among those are the NLSLA Health Consumer Center (HCC) and Medical Legal Community Partnership projects ensuring that everyone receives the health care they need; Shriver Housing - LA providing right to counsel for evictions; Self-Help Legal Access Centers assisting the un-represented with domestic violence, family law and eviction cases in nine courthouses; People Experiencing Homelessness Project (PEHP) providing legal help to the homeless in Antelope, San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys; and Disaster Legal Assistance providing support and help to low-income disaster survivors.

Yvonne Mariajimenez is the President & CEO, and began her career at NLSLA more than 40 years ago. She has a demonstrated background in litigation and policy advocacy in those areas that most impact the poor: housing, Domestic Violence and Family Law, Immigration, public benefits and health.

Mariajimenez was NLSLA’s Deputy Director for more than 20 years, and has played a critical role in all of the organization’s accomplishments. Her enduring commitment to expanding access to justice has made her a fierce advocate for people living in poverty throughout Los Angeles.

Mariajimenez oversees a staff of talented, experienced advocates who specialize in areas of the law that most impact people living in poverty.

In the last few years alone, NLSLA has secured significant legal victories on behalf of low-income people living in Los Angeles County. In a series of successful lawsuits, NLSLA won critical protections for millions of Medi-Cal recipients across the County, halting unlawful terminations of benefits and ensuring that patients with chronic and serious conditions have access to specialized care. NLSLA attorneys also increased protections for the residents of Section 8 housing, shielding 45,000 families in Los Angeles County from sudden, illegal rent hikes and ensuring Section 8 residents in certain parts of the County are not unlawfully terminated because of discriminatory local policies.

NLSLA significantly expanded healthcare access, in part by launching the Health Consumer Center. The center provides assistance for any resident of Los Angeles, free of charge, who has an issue with their health care coverage. The organization also leads a network of Medical-Legal Community Partnerships, which place lawyers in community clinics and hospitals to address the legal issues standing in the way of health. The model recently became a permanent part of the Los Angeles County health delivery system.

NLSLA leads an eviction defense program that includes Los Angeles’ most prominent legal services programs and significantly expands access to lawyers for people facing eviction in Los Angeles’ poorest neighborhoods. The project has helped countless people avoid eviction and homelessness, and is poised to grow in the coming years.

NLSLA built considerable expertise in disaster legal services. The organization is one of just eleven legal aid groups across the country to receive federal funding for legal services in the aftermath of disaster, and it has focused those efforts on helping the low-income victims of the Southern California fires.

In 2020 NLSLA will expand the Medical Legal Community Partnerships, adding two county hospitals and three clinics to the growing network. The organization also plans to increase its health advocacy efforts around medical debt, and to further develop its advocacy around substandard housing and lead poisoning. NLSLA will continue to focus on increasing services in the Antelope and San Gabriel Valleys, and will continue to work with the city and county to address homelessness, increasing the number of lawyers dedicating their time to these services.