CBJC Holds Successful Immigration Law Clinic for Homeless Families

“You don’t need to be afraid of us,” said Laura Berger in Spanish to the room filled with homeless families at Nelson Avenue Family residence. “We’re here to help you.” Most of the households included one or more family members who were undocumented and residing at the shelter.

Berger, a staff attorney from CBJC’s Immigrant Women and Children Project, was volunteering at a recent immigration law clinic. These clinics are a partnership between the CBJC’s Legal Clinic for the Homeless and Immigrant Outreach Project, and they provide general immigration screenings to one of the most vulnerable and oft forgotten segments of our population:  New York City’s homeless immigrant population.  Our Fragomen Fellow Danny Alicea and LCH’s Director Lisa Pearlstein have brought volunteers to four different NYC shelters and found that on average more than 75% of the non-citizen shelter residents qualify for some type of immigration benefit.

Undocumented immigrants are not authorized to work in the United States. Without ‘on- the- books’ stable employment, it is difficult for homeless undocumented parents to secure affordable stable housing and/or rental assistance to move their families out of the shelter system. The NYC Housing Authority routinely denies applications from undocumented parents because of insufficient income. That is why it is critical to bring lawyers into NYC shelters to identify homeless immigrants who may be eligible for immigration status.

At the most recent homeless shelter immigration clinic, our staff identified several individuals who qualify for immigration relief or needed assistance with a basic application. At least three clients are potentially eligible for immigration relief because they are victims of domestic violence, human trafficking or a violent crime. Others interviewed arrived in the U.S. before they turned 16 or are the parents of citizen children; they may be eligible for administrative relief in the not too distant future.

“In the past few months, I have referred dozens of homeless shelter residents to our immigration units, either for intakes or general screenings,” said Lisa Pearlstein, Director of the Legal Clinic for the Homeless, who runs monthly legal clinics in shelters in Manhattan and the Bronx.  “We are one of the only legal services providers in New York that actually visits a number of shelters monthly to meet the clients and identify their legal needs.”

Pearlstein’s project represents homeless families on public benefit issues and also identifies their other unmet legal needs and refers them to lawyers who can help them. The Immigrant Outreach Project seeks to provide immigration assistance to communities that are often left out of mainstream legal services.  Adding homeless shelter clinics to the Project’s programming was a natural fit.