It’s incredible that it’s already the end of 2023–time certainly does fly! I’m happy to report that here at Legal Aid, we have made the most of those twelve months by providing critical legal services to individuals, families, and communities throughout Southeast and Central Ohio. I’m grateful for the role you played in helping us.
There were many successful outcomes, but I want to highlight three that top my list.
First: Our clinics. We brought back our large-scale clinics—something we haven’t been able to do since the pandemic. In just one day, we served more than 300 clients at both the Franklin County Driver’s License Reinstatement Clinic and at the Milo-Grogan Expungement Clinic. We expanded our presence at Veteran’s Stand Down events and our senior wills clinics. We also added a quarterly asylum clinic, a Mauritanian-specific immigration clinic, and a two-day Haitian Resource Fair. These events provided opportunities to be in the community, work with partners, and directly respond to the changing needs of clients.
Next on the list is our appellate work. Again, this year we had a number of appellate decisions that changed court practices that impact low-income tenants for the better. In Patterson, the 10th District Court ruled against the use of batch evictions, a process that allowed property managers to combine eviction hearings for multiple tenants at once. In Fawley, the court ruled that tenants living in properties covered under the CARES Act are entitled to additional time and notice before they can be evicted.
Third, is our work addressing conditions issues at large apartment complexes. We quickly responded to the needs of tenants being harmed by negligent or absentee landlords. The most notable is Latitude Five25. Not only were we able to give the tenants a voice as a part of the nuisance abatement litigation, but we obtained substantial damages for them due to the terrible conditions, the loss of their belongings and their displacement from their homes on Christmas Day. While the company’s bankruptcy cast doubt on whether the tenants would see any funds, with the help of pro bono counsel in New Jersey, we were able to ensure that they were compensated.
Our staff have done an incredible job in 2023, and I’m looking forward to what we can accomplish with your help in 2024 to achieve our mission of overcoming unfairness and injustice, to reduce poverty and to increase opportunities.