(Founders Video)
BACKGROUND
Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA) and its predecessor agency, the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, have a long standing history of noteworthy service in East Palo Alto and neighboring communities. Since East Palo Alto’s incorporation in 1983, the legal services offered to the community have continuously expanded in response to evolving needs.
We are an organization that is both rooted in East Palo Alto and that serves diverse communities outside of East Palo Alto, particularly where the challenges facing these communities are interrelated. For many of the individuals we assist, our services are a necessary first to help community members attain personal security and stability. However, our ultimate goal is to empower individuals to attain a thriving future and to have a transformative impact on the broader community.
East Palo Alto and neighboring communities face daunting challenges – in particular, widening regional inequality, increasing displacement of families to outlying areas, and a growing underclass of undocumented immigrants subject to abuse and predatory practices. For many years, East Palo Alto was the only city between San Francisco and San José with a rent stabilization ordinance, and it remains one of the few pockets of relative affordability in San Mateo County, which is among the top three most expensive counties in the country. But, East Palo Alto may undergo drastic transformation in coming years, as potentially thousands of community members are forced out of the city and region because their incomes fail to keep pace with the skyrocketing cost-of-living.
IMPACT
CLSEPA is a $2.5 million (FY17) organization that operates in two locations in East Palo Alto, with its headquarters located in a modular office building that it owns. In recent years, the organization has more than doubled in size. Our growing staff of twenty-eight includes nineteen attorneys with expertise in immigration, housing, employment, reentry, and consumer law. We reach community members on a broad scale by recruiting, training, and mentoring volunteers throughout Silicon Valley to assist with cases. In 2015, over 700 volunteers donated more than 23,000 hours of legal services (with a market value of over $7 million) to local community members.
<<Infographic about impacts of different programs – immigration/housing/EAP>>
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