Laura Graham, Deputy Director, and John Whitelaw, Advocacy Director, Community Legal Aid Society, discussed their free legal services, working with the poor, the disabled the elderly and the vulnerable residents of Delaware, including immigrants, both legal and undocumented. We began with a conversation from an earlier show about changes to the definition of Public Charge, since our last program the definition has been extended to include Section 8 housing and other non-cash benefits, benefits that can affect a residency application and impact harshly on mixed-status families. They described the confusion many are experiencing, noting that food programs are not included. They discussed the bulk of their services, work with civil issues regarding benefit denials, eviction and elder abuse and fraud. They work with housing agencies to enforce HUD fair housing laws and partner with area health providers to train home-visitors to look for the social detriments to health, landlord issues, benefit loss, and discrimination issues that can be addressed by volunteers from local law schools.
