Legal
Access to justice shouldn’t depend on your income.
Bread for the City’s Legal Clinic provides advice and representation in three main areas to DC residents living with low-incomes:
HOUSING LAW: helping tenants in landlord-tenant and subsidized housing cases.
FAMILY/IMMIGRATION LAW: helping survivors of domestic violence in Civil Protection Orders, family law cases (like custody and divorce), and immigration cases (like VAWA self-petitions, U visas, and SIJS), plus helping custodial and non-custodial parents in child support cases.
PUBLIC BENEFITS LAW: helping individuals facing problems with getting or keeping public benefits, like TANF, Food Stamps, and Medicaid.
Get legal help by calling (202) 386-7616
Please leave a voice message about your legal issue. Someone from our Legal On-Call team will call them within 48 hours to screen them and figure out the best legal resource for the client.
If you’re having a Landlord-Tenant issue, call (202) 780-2575. Bread for the City attorneys, along with other legal services providers, staff that phone line.
Legal Impact Stats
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Access to justice should not be limited by one’s ability to pay for help. Unfortunately, 86% of low-income households in the United States receive little or no help with civil legal challenges.
With Bread for the City’s help, individuals…
- Receive same-day advice and representation in court during critical stages of child support cases,
- Receive legal services while escaping domestic violence,
- Receive same-day advice and representation when facing eviction or loss of a housing subsidy,
- Overcome barriers in getting a government-issued ID, and
- Organize to achieve legal solutions to effect systemic change on community-identified issues.
Access to Justice Projects
The Movement Lawyering Practice leverages the law to support Black and brown people who are organizing for systemic and transformative social change in D.C. We believe change is transformative when it:
- Improves the material conditions of people’s lives
- Affirms people’s sense of their power, and
- Increases community power*
As the Movement Lawyering Practice, our role is to provide legal support to groups that are also committed to transformative social change. Here’s our commitment to you:
- We are committed to moving at the speed of trust by taking the time to listen to the ideas of our clients and community actively.
- We are committed to centering and elevating the voices of community members and organizers.
- We are committed to taking direction from community members closest to the issue they are organizing around.
*Thanks to the amazing Movement Law Lab for this framework
In the News:
The Accessing Identifying Documents Project helps residents who hit barriers in getting a DMV-issued ID, which is necessary to pursue critical opportunities like employment and housing.
Check out our latest ID packet below to receive guidance to:
- Obtain a Non-Drivers ID
- Obtain a Limited Purpose ID
- Obtain a Replacement or First-Time Social Security Card
- Obtain a DC Birth Certificate
- Or find assistance with paying for Identification Documents.
The Child Support Community Legal Services Project, in partnership with the Legal Aid Society of DC (Legal Aid), provides same-day advice and representation to parents at a critical stage of their child support case. Our attorneys often meet these new clients for the first time in court.
The Housing Right to Counsel Project, in partnership with Legal Counsel for the Elderly and Legal Aid, expands access to representation to tenants at risk of eviction and losing an invaluable housing subsidy that is the only way they can afford to live in the District.
The Landlord-Tenant Court-Based Legal Services Project, in partnership with Legal Aid, offers same-day advice and representation to tenants facing eviction from their homes in a part of the court where 90-95% of landlords are represented by an attorney and only 5-10% of tenants have an attorney by their side.
The Immigrant Justice Project provides direct legal representation to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and family abuse in humanitarian-based immigration petitions. The Project also provides legal advice and brief services to immigrant DC residents on a range of immigration-related matters.
Legal Clinic Blog
Mr. Edmondson’s Journey to Reclaim His Identity
Continued Challenges: DC Access System and Public Benefits Enrollment
Bread for the City attorney Allison Miles-Lee had the opportunity to testify at a Council roundtable hearing on the DC Access System, the platform used for public benefits and medical insurance application and processing, and the operations of DHS/DHCF. During her testimony, she highlighted several critical issues that our patients and clients at Bread have been facing. Her full written testimony can be read below.
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Bread for the City’s services are made possible through the support of thousands of donors like you. Without your support, we would not be able to provide the food, clothing, social, legal, advocacy, and medical services that we do to 10,000 DC residents every month. Thank you!