Tacomaprobono Annual Report 2021

ANNUAL REPORT 2021 TACOMAPROBONO COMMUNITY LAWYERS 621 Tacoma Ave S, Suite 302 Tacoma, WA 98402 (253) 572-5134 www.tacomaprobono.org

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2021 was a year of unprecedented growth and challenge for Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers. We nearly tripled in size, beginning the year with just over 10 staff and ending with close to 30 employees. Along with the addition of nearly twenty people, new programs and two new office spaces, came the need to expeditiously retool, reinvent, and refine policies, office infrastructure and organizational values.

The values we identified as central to our mission included Anti-racist practices High quality legal services Sustainable infrastructure New funding from a variety of sources was essential to fuel this rapid growth.

Although many new grants and opportunities came with restrictions and limited overhead, continued funding for general operations allowed us to recruit and retain the administrative staff needed to foster a robust anti-racist, sustainable, high-quality program with improved capacity to continue our mission in the community -- combating systemic racism through expanding access to civil legal justice.

MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS New programs, new hires, new spaces, new infrastructure, new grant requirements, new laws and the continued need to maintain COVID restrictions while providing high quality legal services -2021 was the year of “building the plane while flying it.”

In the summer of 2021, Tacomaprobono’s Housing Justice Project was appointed Pierce County’s provider of Right to Counsel representation for low-income tenants in eviction hearings, and awarded nine attorney and three support positionss, for a total of twelve additional staff.

Along with other new programs including Emergency Eviction Defense Funding, the Ballmer Fund Project, and Homelessness Prevention funding from Pierce County Human Services, Tacomaprobono rapidly added new personnel, nearly tripling our roster in six months.

To successfully hire, onboard, train and sustain a healthy environment for a larger staff, we were challenged to build an infrastructure that appropriately reflected our mission. We focused on the concept of community lawyering to promote race equity in our hiring and training, and supported BIPOC staff to assume leadership roles within our organization. We intentionally cultivated an egalitarian culture sustained by candid feedback, high quality work product, and communication.

Infrastructure work undertaken included writing a 30+ page employee handbook, communicating clear sick leave, COVID and vacation policies, assembling onboarding and training processes, reassigning staff into middle management and administrative roles, creating an equipment use and check-out policy, hiring an accountant, and improving our intake system -all completed while delivering services, actively negotiating leases and occupying new spaces, and purchasing equipment. Perhaps the most daunting challenge facing us in 2021 was finding the capacity to manage a long list of grants, each with its own tracking, reporting, invoicing and scheduling requirements.

Thankfully, we have a strong, honest, humble group with a well-developed sense of humor, committed to getting that plane built. By the end of 2021, we had created a solid aircraft capable of taking off and staying airborne. We look forward to spending 2022 adding seats, landing gear, and building a runway!

OVERVIEW & CHANGES IN LEGAL SERVICES In addition to all the administrative work accomplished in 2021, we continued providing quality representation, advice, and volunteer clinics. Our staff also dramatically increased outreach, participating in multiple events every week in all corners of Pierce County. These events were focused on housing in partnership with the Pierce County Library System, Pierce County Rental Assistance and other community organizations. At the events we connected with people regarding all their civil legal needs, establishing trust, education, and TPB name recognition.

Unfortunately, our Native American Legal Aid Program closed at the end of November 2021. Thankfully, we maintain a positive relationship with the Puyallup Tribe and have hosted events in partnership with them since the program’s closure.

Furthermore, having built trust between our organization and the Tribe - Native American clients know we are here to assist and will be helped through our other programs.

Despite that closure and the other time-consuming infrastructure work, our delivery of legal services in 2021 – direct representation, hosting clinics, and recruiting volunteers – increased. Given the nature of our new housing programs, we had an improved capacity to answer to serve clients facing eviction. However, our ability to serve family law clients remained essentially the same in terms of our staffing levels – despite increased need. To remedy that issue, we focused on recruiting family law volunteers to patch the gap.

That required us to navigate COVID, virtual volunteering and returning to the office.

Our team did this successfully, increasing our volunteer hours by about 30% as compared to 2020.

449 clinics in 2021 209 Family Law Clinics 81 Family Safety Clinics 53 Housing Clinics

OUR WORK - Case Summaries Case No. 1 The Housing Justice Project (HJP) received a referral for client living in a motel who was defaulted on an unlawful detainer action. Although the eviction moratorium—which provided protections from eviction from transient accommodations—had expired, new laws were enacted in May 2021 providing some limited continuing protections to motel residents.

HJP determined the motel owner did not follow these new protections prior to defaulting this motel resident and obtaining an eviction order.

Upon speaking with the client, HJP learned the motel owner had also defaulted six other motel units—all without following the new legal protections for motel occupants. Now the HJP had to begin a race against the clock.

The HJP attorney, along with an HJP paralegal, sent numerous emails and phone calls to inform the motel residents facing imminent eviction. All the contacted motel residents were overwhelmed with the outreach for assistance. A case that began as one improper eviction now turned into seven improper evictions from one location.

The HJP attorney successfully moved the court to stay all seven evictions for hearings on the merits.

At this return hearing, our HJP attorney successfully argued for the court to dismiss all seven cases.

The motel owner moved for revision of all seven cases and our HJP attorney consolidated all seven cases into one hearing (because the legal issue was common to all the residents). On revision, the court upheld the dismissal of all seven cases. The motel owner then appealed to Division Two. After the notice of appeal was filed, the motel owner moved the court to eject—a legal proceeding different than an unlawful detainer—all seven motel residents. Our HJP attorney referred the seven ejectment actions to HJP’s newly-formed HELP (Homeless and Eviction Legal Protection) team. As a summary judgment hearing was set to occur, HJP’s HELP attorney negotiated a settlement that provided the motel owner with access to available rental assistance funds to cover arrearages as well as provide a suitable amount of time for the motel residents to find new accommodations.

This is a great example of effective advocacy by HJP attorneys defending eviction matters working together with HJP attorneys providing non-eviction legal assistance, preventing numerous families from becoming homeless.

OUR WORK - Case Summaries Case No. 2 Our VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) program assisted a crime victim who initially contacted TPB about a parenting plan. However, she had previously filed a petition for a domestic violence protection order (“DVPO”) on her own. Upon meeting with client, with the final DVPO hearing pending, it became apparent that the more pressing need was to assist her in getting her DVPO petition granted. VOCA worked closely with the client, helping her gather and organize evidence documenting years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of the father of her autistic, twin toddlers, in a way that would make clear for the court her need for protection. In communicating with the court, it was made clear that the QR code provided by the court for petitioners to submit photographic evidence resulted in black & white photographs that often failed to relay the severity of bruising and injuries. Despite the technological obstacles encountered, we were able to successfully submit clear and convincing evidence to the court, which granted the DVPO. Afterwards, VOCA has helped her prepare her parenting plan petition and made periodic contact with the client in an effort to support her decision to leave and not return to the Respondent, as many battered women do return to their abusers, often making several attempts to escape before they are finally free of them.

Case No. 3 Native American Legal Aid Program attorneys assisted an enrolled Puyallup tribal member with several emergency filings after the client’s child was kidnapped by the biological father who was court-ordered to have no contact with the children due to findings of neglect and drug addiction.

NALAP had previously secured the custody orders placing the children with the mother and restricting the father’s visitation. Despite the clear custody orders, once the child was removed from the mother’s home, tribal and county police declined to act until the mother took several steps to secure court orders directing the return of the child and/or a police pick-up order. NALAP represented the client in two actions in Tribal Court—a Show Cause Hearing and a Protection Order Hearing—and assisted the client in preparing and filing a Petition for Habeas Corpus in Pierce County Superior Court. The Tribal Court found the respondent in contempt of court and ordered the child returned to the mother’s care. The same Court, in a separate proceeding, issued a permanent order of protection prohibiting the father from entering the mother’s property and interfering with the mother’s care and custody of the children. Faced with potential financial penalties and possible jail time, the father returned the child to the mother’s home, negating the need for a Writ of Habeas Corpus.

OUR WORK - Case Summaries Case No. 4 Our client had lived at an apartment in Sumner for nearly a decade. Up until the pandemic, the client had not had any major issues with his landlords nor his neighbors. But when the client began having trouble paying rent during the COVID-19 pandemic, his relationship with the landlord deteriorated. During September 2020, the client informed the landlord that he would not be able to pay his full rent amount due to a loss of income related to the pandemic. Although the client offered to make partial payments, the landlord expressed frustration and refused to accept partial payments of rent. Shortly thereafter, the landlord served the client with a 3-day Notice to Quit based on several unfounded allegations of misconduct. A Complaint for Unlawful Detainer was filed in late November 2020, and a Show Cause hearing was set for January 7, 2021. With a Housing Justice Project attorney representing the client at the Show Cause hearing, the landlord’s complaint was dismissed with prejudice. The landlord subsequently filed motions for revision and reconsideration, respectively. Both motions were denied.

Shortly after the original complaint was dismissed, the client was served with a 60-day notice to vacate based on the landlord’s alleged intent to occupy the property. From January to March 2021, the landlord continued to harass the client by showing up at the property unannounced, verbally accosting the client and his guests, and covering the client’s windows with black sheeting for no apparent purpose. With representation by a Tacomaprobono attorney, the client petitioned for and successfully obtained an Anti-Harassment Order against the landlord.

Just days after the Anti-Harassment Order was issued, the landlord filed a second Complaint for Unlawful Detainer. The new complaint advanced two causes of action. First, the landlord reiterated the same allegations contained in the first Complaint for Unlawful Detainer. The landlord’s counsel based this cause of action on the same notice and declarations filed in support of the first Complaint for Unlawful Detainer, notwithstanding the fact that the first complaint was dismissed with prejudice. The second cause of action was based on the landlord’s alleged intent to occupy the premises. A Housing Justice Project attorney represented the client at the Show Cause hearing on April 19, 2021. At the Show Cause hearing, the court dismissed the cause of action regarding the prior 3-day Notice to Quit. As to the cause of action based on Landlord’s alleged intent to occupy, the court stayed the case indefinitely pursuant to the CDC Eviction Moratorium. No further action was taken against the tenant until September 2021. Through Tacomaprobono’s representation, the client was able to remain housed at the premises for an additional nine months following the initial Show Cause hearing.

THE CHALLENGE OF COVID-19 When COVID-19 shut down our office in 2020, we focused on pivoting from in-person services to assisting our clients remotely. We shifted our client intake procedures, equipped our staff with the tools to work remotely, adapted our volunteer programs and continued our service delivery.

While we never imagined we would continue facing the virus’s impact throughout 2021 and into 2022, the benefit has been that, by adapting our services to meet people where they are, we’ve been able to expand our services to those most impacted by COVID-19.

Using our intake data (online, phone, and in person) we were able to track clients who self-identified as having been impacted by COVID-19. In 2021, of the approximately 4,900 clients seeking our services, 2,993 indicated their legal issues stemmed, at least in part, from COVID-19. Although most of these clients sought counsel for family law and housing issues, our data taught us that COVID-19 impacted virtually every one of our legal clinics.

Breakdown of our clients’ 2021 COVID-19 impacted legal problems: Consumer: 138 Education: 3 Employment: 51 Family Law: 1009 Juvenile: 11 Health: 11 Housing: 1030 Income: 38 Immigration: 5 Individual rights: 61 Miscellaneous: 196 Total: 2993

WHO WE ARE

BY THE NUMBERS Our Staff & Volunteer Attorneys Staff Attorneys 16 Staff Attorney Hours 9,999 Volunteer Attorneys 44 Volunteer Attorney Hours 817

and WHO WE ARE BECOMING

In addition to the unprecedented growth in staff attorney numbers, we made a concerted effort to recruit and recognize volunteers during 2021.

When COVID numbers finally dropped and staff were vaccinated, we reopened the office to in-person clinics.

We also continued offering virtual volunteer options. Our Volunteer Coordinator worked hard to identify areas of client need not addressed by our other staff, recruit volunteers, and provide opportunities to meet in-office or virtually. As a result, we saw a nearly 30% increase in volunteer hours as compared to 2020.

2021 also saw significant progress towards reflecting the communities we serve. At the beginning of the year, 7% of our staff identified as people of color. As TPB expanded throughout the year, we made it a point of emphasis to hire and retain diverse employees. We recruited candidates through the Minority Bar Association and encouraged interns to apply from local community colleges and programs like Legal Pathways at the University of Washington Tacoma. By the end of the year, 32% of our staff identified as people of color. While this is a significant single-year increase in diversity, we understand that hiring a diverse workforce is just the beginning. In 2022 and we look forward to actively fostering an inclusive work environment, creating opportunities for professional development, and continuing to expand our hiring reach to reflect the communities we serve.

CONNECTING WITH OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPSINTEGRATED SYSTEMSACCESS TO JUSTICE

showing up

creative engagement with new and old partners

Through an innovative 3-way partnership with the Pierce County Library System and the Pierce County Human Services Rental Assistance Program, in-person outdoor ‘Housing Help Pop-Ups’ at library locations were made possible even when libraries were closed due to the pandemic. Later, as restrictions relaxed and weather worsened, we moved inside to continue the program for more than 150 total ‘pup-up’ events.

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Being physically present in nearly every corner of Pierce County on a regular schedule, we were able to meet clients in person, listen to their stories and learn about their needs, give them information about their rights, make referrals and sign them up for our services online and on the spot, as needed.

using technology

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Pierce County Library System Pierce County Human Services Rental Assistance Program Crystal Judson Family Justice Center Catherine Place Our Sister’s House Center for Dialog & Resolution Fair Housing Center of Washington Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office Pierce County Court Systems Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Assoc.

JBLM Legal Assistance Office Tacoma Refugee Choir Stressed Out Entertainment Comprehensive Life Resources Tacoma Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness Tacoma Housing Authority Salishan Association Brotherhood RISE Arms Around You Northwest Community Bail Fund New Connections Monarch Consulting, LLC Mi Centro Tacoma Tenants Union Northwest Justice Project

2021 brought unprecedented opportunities to engage in significant outreach throughout Pierce County, from Buckley to Key Peninsula.

A 2021 goal of improving our infrastructure was to increase access for clients. One of our major undertakings was improving our intake system. We started the process of an all-in-one intake integration easily accessed and completed from our website. Previously, clients filled out an introductory intake, staff processed and entered the information, then reached out the client, at which point we lost contact with many clients or their issues had become moot. Now, clients enter information which is transmitted directly to LS. Our staff can work much more efficiently to complete the intake process and schedule the client.

This reduces time between a client’s initial intake and our return contact, therefore increasing the likelihood that we catch them before their hearing date.

COMING INTO OUR OWN REORGANIZING FOR SUCCESS IN 2021 AND BEYOND Recognizing that the growth of the program would require independent nonprofit status to effectively manage grants, personnel and staffed legal programs, Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers took the significant step of reorganizing into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization separate from the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association.

Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Foundation d/b/a Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers EIN 02-0596124

2021 Board of Directors

As of January 2021, the ofifcial name of the program became the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Foundation, d/b/a Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers.

As part of this process, members of the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association committee which had previously overseen the program and the board of the Bar Foundation which had be been dedicated to fundraising, were invited to join the newly established Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers Board of Directors, overseeing both program development and finances.

2021-22 Officers & Board Members, from left James McCormick, Ret. Judge Ronald Culpepper, Dominique Crisp, Jennifer Ammons, Heather Swann, Miranda Baner, Robert Taub (not pictured, Ken Blanford )

MAKING OUR WORK POSSIBLE

2021 GRANTS & DONATIONS LEGAL FOUNDATION OF WASHINGTON PUYALLUP TRIBE OF INDIANS STATE OF WASHINGTON OFFICE OF CIVIL LEGAL AID

RIGHT TO COUNSEL

FAMILY SAFETY

BALLMER GROUP PIERCE COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES

EMERGENCY EVICTION DEFENSE

PIERCE COUNTY LAW FIRM CAMPAIGN FOR EQUAL JUSTICE TACOMA-PIERCE COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

VOLUNTEER LEGAL CLINICS

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

DIMMER FOUNDATION