HSRC Webinar: Role of Legal Assistance in Enhancing Housing Stability

August 20, 2024

Thursday, September 12, 2024 | 3:00-4:30 p.m. ET
Register for the webinar

Older adults now 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 will highlight how legal assistance providers can reinforce a valuable rights-based perspective and ensure older adults receive equal treatment and access to housing. Speakers will share practical examples of strategies for legal assistance providers to integrate into an existing social service network fighting for housing rights. Representatives from Justice in Aging will present on legal assistance providers' role in housing matters, while presenters from Community Care Systems, Inc. and Prairie State Legal Services (which receive funding from ACL's Legal Assistance Enhancement Program) will provide 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 & Advocacy system, and there are approximately 1,000 OAA-funded legal services providers nationwide, which provide nearly one million hours of assistance each year.

This webinar is hosted jointly by ACL's Office of Elder Justice and Adult Protective Services and the Housing and Services Resource Center (HSRC). ACL's Office of Elder Justice and Adult Protective Services administers programs that ensure that the rights of older adults are protected. Through its grant portfolio addressing elder abuse, financial exploitation, elder rights (including the Legal Assistance Enhancement Program), long-term care ombudsman programs, and elder economic security, as well as eight elder justice resource centers, the office seeks to create a world where everyone has safe places to live and can participate fully in their communities.

Launched in partnership between the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development, the Housing and Services Resource Center fosters cross-sector partnerships between the organizations and systems that provide housing resources and homelessness services, health care and mental health services, independent living services, and other supportive services. The HSRC is part of an interagency initiative to streamline and expand access to affordable, accessible housing and the critical services that make community living possible.