Western Center on Law and Poverty

We know that in an economy as robust as ours, taking care of our most vulnerable is not only the right thing to do, it is our collective responsibility. Western Center leverages all of our tools and focuses on the critical needs our clients are facing every day, namely housing, health care, and financial security.

HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
We ensure that Californians have access to healthy, sustainable and affordable housing in neighborhoods of their choosing, and we advocate for strong, clear, and enforceable anti-displacement protections. All of our work seeks to address California’s housing crisis and its disproportionate effects on the most vulnerable Californians and unhoused individuals by:

Protecting tenants from eviction and landlord abuse, and ensure access to housing.
Preserving the existing housing stock.
Promoting equitable planning and development.

HEALTH CARE
We believe access to health care is a human right. California led the way in implementing the Affordable Care Act, but many Californians still do not have care, and even more are paying too much for the care they have. We work to preserve and expand access to health care for all Californians regardless of immigration, age, or health status by:

Expanding Medi-Cal to cover all Californians who need it, and ensuring that Medi-Cal plans and providers deliver equitable, quality care.
Advocating for improvements to health programs that serve low-income Californians.
Enforcing health consumer rights and protections.

FINANCIAL SECURITY
Western Center provides a roadmap to financial security for the people who need it most by expanding access to jobs and income, demanding that state and local governments provide nutrition assistance and other public benefits that our clients are entitled to, and ending unjust court-ordered debt, fines and fees, and financial services that strip Californians of their precious assets. Our priorities include:

Increasing enrollment and retention, and where applicable, benefit levels across all safety net programs that serve low-income Californians such as CalWORKS, CalFresh and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
Expanding access to jobs, take home income, and opportunity for Californians experiencing poverty.
Fighting to end the high costs of poverty by reducing or eliminating high fees, fines and costs associated with the criminal justice system, traffic courts, parking tickets and towing of cars.
Ending predatory financial services and laws that allow debt-collector-take-all practices.

By applying a coordinated concert of tools including legislative and policy advocacy, high impact litigation, administrative advocacy, and technical assistance and education for legal service and community-based organizations to each of our priority areas, Western Center ensures that low-income Californians receive the support they are entitled to, and fights for them to keep the precious assets they do have. Our tools include:

SUPPORT CENTER ASSISTANCE
We directly serve 1,000 legal aid attorneys at nearly 100 legal services organizations throughout California, and scores of community based networks and organizations, through in-depth legal support, including technical assistance, on-site trainings, conferences, webinars, publications, and litigation support.

ADMINISTRATIVE ADVOCACY
We monitor, advocate, negotiate and work collaboratively with federal, state and local agencies to protect and expand the rights of the most vulnerable. Our administrative advocacy efforts and support center activities are buttressed by both our ability to participate in class action litigation and our fluency in legislative and budget advocacy.

LITIGATION
We work with local legal services programs and pro bono co-counsel and file class action and other high-impact cases that address basic rights for all low-income Californians.

LEGISLATIVE AND POLICY ADVOCACY
We sponsor and support bills—43 in 2019 alone, oppose harmful legislation and educate policymakers and other stakeholders on behalf of those living in poverty. Our legislative activity informs all of our work, much of which is achieved quietly through administrative processes.

Western Center was formed by a passionate group of attorneys and legal scholars who sought to create a unique organization, driven by the belief that all Californians deserve the finest possible legal representation before the institutions that shape their lives.

Western Center was founded in 1967 and is a 501(c)(3) organization with offices in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Oakland. Our operating budget for 2019 is $ $4,710,380 and our diverse revenue model includes grants and contracts, individual and corporate contributions, event revenue, attorneys' fees and cy pres awards to ensure access to services and entitlements for more than eight million Californians living in poverty each year. Our supporters include regional and national funders, such as the California Health Care Foundation, California Wellness Foundation, and the California Community Foundation. Western Center also values building on its current endowment as a means to provide financial sustainability for the organization.

Our 31 staff members, community and legal services partners and pro bono attorneys serve all 58 counties in the state, focusing on low-income Californians living at or below 125% of the federal poverty level. Western Center's issue teams of health care, housing and public benefits include 14 attorneys and advocates with leadership and advice provided by our executive director, an active member of the California bar, director of litigation, special counsel and general counsel. Our 46-member Board is drawn from industries including law, finance, health care and the creative economy.

In 2018, through impact litigation, 24 signed bills, and countless administrative advocacy accomplishments, Western Center was able to tangibly improve the quality of life for California’s most vulnerable residents. Among our many accomplishments last year:

• Ended money bail. SB 10 (Hertzberg) removes the consideration of wealth in determining freedom or incarceration for those individuals pending trial. It eliminates the predatory commercial bail industry, and makes conditions of pre-trial release non-monetary.

• Defended Medi-Cal expansion against backdoor federal cuts such as work requirements, waiting periods, time limits and coverage lockouts, or any other condition that prevents low-income Californians from accessing health care services.

• Largest CALWORKS grant increase in 40 years was achieved, benefiting 400,000 households, including one million children and a CALWORKS cost of living adjustment was restored

• LA Courts stopped from automatically suspending driver's licenses simply because people are living in poverty (Alvarado vs. Superior Court of California)

• Over 1.2 million aged, blind, or disabled SSI recipients in California became eligible to apply for CalFresh food stamps benefits

• California tenants have increased notice and more time to respond in eviction lawsuits as a result of AB 2343 (Chiu)