Homelessness Prevention and the Shriver Project

In 2011, Los Angeles’ most prominent legal services programs – led by NLSLA – launched the Shriver Housing Project, a collaborative effort to expand legal representation to people facing eviction in Los Angeles’ poorest neighborhoods. The program is the largest of seven pilot projects approved by the state Judicial Council to ensure representation for the poor when critical civil rights are at stake. As part of the Shriver Project, NLSLA and its partners launched the Eviction Legal Assistance Center at the downtown Stanley Mosk Courthouse, where more than 25 percent of the County’s eviction cases are filed each year, and where poor families facing eviction have no legal representation and are facing landlords represented by attorneys. As a result of this work, NLSLA is at the forefront of policy efforts to expand a “right to counsel” in housing cases in response to Los Angeles’ escalating homelessness crisis.