Webinar date: September 12, 2024
ACL’s Office of Elder Justice and Adult Protective Services and the Housing and Services Resource Center hosted a webinar on The Role of Legal Assistance in Enhancing Housing Stability. Older adults represent the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population, with nearly half of all unhoused older adults experiencing homelessness for the first time after age 50. Addressing homelessness requires collaboration across systems, including housing, health care, and social care systems, and legal assistance providers can be a valuable addition to these partnerships. This webinar highlighted how legal assistance providers can reinforce a valuable rights-based perspective and ensure older adults receive equal treatment and access to housing. Speakers shared practical examples of how legal assistance providers can integrate into an existing social service network fighting for housing rights. Representatives from Justice in Aging presented on legal assistance providers’ role in housing matters, while presenters from CCSI Case Coordination, LLC and Prairie State Legal Services (which receive funding from ACL’s Legal Assistance Enhancement Program) provided real-world examples of how the aging network can form sustainable collaborations with legal assistance providers.
Through the Older Americans Act (OAA) and the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (DD Act), ACL funds programs that provide legal assistance to uphold the rights of older adults and people with disabilities. Each state and territory has a DD Act-funded Protection and Advocacy system, and there are approximately 1,000 OAA-funded-funded legal services providers nationwide.
ACL’s Office of Elder Justice and Adult Protective Services administers programs which ensure that the rights of older adults are protected.
Materials available from the HSRC and Office of Elder Justice and Adult Protective Services webinar The Role of Legal Assistance in Enhancing Housing Stability from September 12, 2024: