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Poverty Lawyers Look to Faith-Based Resources
In the fight for justice, faith-based institutions have become important resources for poverty lawyers seeking to better understand the needs of their clients.
“In low-income communities, those [who have the] most contact with the people are religious institutions propelled by religious instinct,” said Martin Needelman, project director and chief counsel for Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation. “Religious based organizations have the access to the poor, the power and the means [to help].”
Needelman spoke during a seminar on Religious Values and Poverty Law: Clients, Lawyers and Communities on Jan. 31.The one-day conference at Fordham’s School of Law brought together poverty lawyers and legal ethicists from different religious backgrounds and professional viewpoints to explore the issues facing contemporary poverty lawyers.
“There are certain rituals, guides and principles that we live by that may be different. But ultimately our goal in terms of our faith and belief is to serve humanity,” said Huq. “So, it’s not a question of should we use faith-based organizations, it’s how do we [use them].”
Faith-based organizations offer not only resources and access for poverty lawyers, but they allow for a convergence of faiths working together to overcome social injustice, according to Huq.
“The role of faith institutions in meeting legal needs in the community is … full of possibility and yet they are largely untapped as a resource,” said Melanie Acevedo, coordinator for New York Christian Legal Services.
A prominent issue that has come to the surface is whether poverty lawyers should consider their clients’ religious backgrounds and use a specific faith institution as a meeting ground.
In 1968, Charles Hogren, J.D., co-founder and former director of Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic, saw the need for legal assistance in poverty-stricken communities when he helped the South Street Church in Chicago develop after-school programs for African Americans. To his disbelief, he found that many of the kids could not read and were in dire need of assistance. Meanwhile, there were obstacles facing those outside the community who were trying to reach these children.
“Poverty lawyers should seek relationships where the community is; it’s about creating a partnership that fosters the right relations, not inequity among religion, race and gender,” said Chaumtoli Huq, J.D., staff attorney with the New York Taxi Workers’ Alliance.
With social service embedded in religious belief, faith institutions offer a place for day-care centers, after-school programs, substance abuse counseling and other services. These services provide opportunities for people who are unable to gain support elsewhere in society.
“Congregations have a historic role in meeting social needs and have been active in the fight for social justice,” said Acevedo. “They have internal diversity [where members provide] viewpoints, resources, skills and voices that need to be heard.”
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