Legal Services Corporation Funding

March 17, 2017, NEW YORK— Yesterday, the first concrete details about the president’s federal budget proposal were released to the public. As we have anticipated for a few months now, the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is included among a list of longstanding national agencies slated for complete defunding.

At Legal Services NYC (LSNYC), and at sister organizations in towns and cities throughout the country, funding from LSC plays an indispensable role in protecting people when they are threatened with eviction, suffering from domestic violence, or denied their fundamental civil rights. Last year alone, 90,000 people relied on LSNYC for legal assistance needed to get and keep the essentials of life. The loss of LSC funding would have an immediate impact on vulnerable people in New York City, who would find themselves with nowhere to turn in the event of a crisis.

The work that we do has strong, bipartisan support throughout the country. And we are confident that Congress agrees that our services are consistent with the core values of our country: justice, fairness, and equality of opportunity. But although the current budget is far from final, the threat it represents is very real. You can sign up for more information and updates about the status of LSC funding here.

Read more about the potential impact of LSC defunding: The Guardian, The Atlantic, Gothamist, The Huffington Post, ABA Journal, International Business Times, The Intercept, ATTN, Above The Law.

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