Community Legal Services’ Post

From shared recipes to the permanency of family love, we all benefit from having lifelong connections to our families. But each year, 50,000 families experience termination of parental rights and lose their right to know each other as family. In the latest edition of the Family Justice Journal, CLS Managing Attorney in the Family Advocacy Unit Kathleen Creamer advocates to repeal the Adoption and Safe Families Act and to end the harm it perpetuates. CLS is grateful to be working alongside United Family Advocates to keep families together and center lifelong family connection as the North Star of the child welfare system. Read Kathleen's full article here: https://lnkd.in/eWt4DTsf

A new Pennsylvania law recently expanded Philly’s protections against “We Buy Houses” scams. Predatory wholesalers target homeowners who are going through financial hardship and pressure them into selling their family homes for less than they are worth. Under the new state law, wholesalers must have real estate licenses and inform homeowners of their right to an appraisal and legal counsel. Homeowners will also have 30 days or until the property is transferred to back out of a deal. CLS Managing Attorney in the Homeownership and Consumer Rights Unit Michael Froehlich explains how CLS will be able to help clients hold onto their homes and preserve intergenerational wealth. https://lnkd.in/gD_9U9bb

This month, CLS staff members Dacil Keo, Ari Schoenburg, and Anaga Srinivas gave presentations on SSI/Social Security Overpayments at both the South Philadelphia and North Philadelphia offices of the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia. The audience members were senior citizen Cambodians, several of whom said during the presentation that they had received SSI overpayments notices. Overpayment notices are sent when SSA believes that a recipient was paid too much in benefits and now must pay SSA back. The overpayment amount can be in the thousands or even tens of thousands. One common reason that overpayment occurs is because of the strict income and resource limits for SSI. Many recipients are unaware of what resources count toward the limit and/or do not realize they’ve exceeded the limit. SSA finds out months or years later that someone exceeded the income or resource limit. The presentation explained the causes of overpayments and actions recipients can take (appeal, request waivers, and payment plans). The audience members asked a lot of questions and even made jokes! CLS provides free legal assistance in all languages, including Cambodian. We help with overpayments in addition to other legal problems. To learn how access our services, visit https://lnkd.in/eyrGKADQ Image description: CLS staff members (standing) pose in front of senior citizen Cambodian audience members who are seated classroom style.

9,000 PA workers are owed wages that their employers did not pay them! Are you one of them? Check out this Philadelphia Inquirer article to learn more: https://lnkd.in/ega54qAf Act fast! Time is running out to claim this money. If you think you are owed money, visit https://lnkd.in/eAwS8_R to submit a claim. Each year, CLS represents hundreds of workers who have experienced wage theft in individual and group cases in industries like home health, restaurants, and construction. Learn more and see if we can help you by visiting our website at https://lnkd.in/egMynihr To learn more about your rights as a worker, visit https://lnkd.in/eHa4reJK Image description: Screenshot of Inquirer article headline and photo. The photo is of the exterior of a home care agency building and the headline reads, "Thousands of Pa. workers are owed money from wage theft cases but the U.S. Labor Dept. says it can’t find them. So we did."

New research from the University of Michigan shows what CLS hears from our clients every day: That even when tenants win in court, they are routinely denied for rental housing and suffer devastating consequences in other parts of their lives for years to come. In the report, tenants describe how their eviction filing threatened their immediate and long-term housing stability, contributed to income loss and job insecurity, harmed their physical and mental health, and strained relationships with family and friends. To address this crisis in housing access, CLS is calling on the PA General Assembly to seal eviction records across the Commonwealth and help hundreds of thousands of families move forward with their lives. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eBUHcHvv