City Bar Justice Center Celebrates Civil Legal Services Funding Commitments in Final FY 2027 New York State Budget

New York, June 4, 2026 – The City Bar Justice Center applauds New York’s Governor, Kathy Hochul, and Legislature, especially Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and their many leadership colleagues, for making valuable investments in civil legal services in the final FY 2027 State Budget.

Among a range of important commitments in the newly enacted budget are the restoration of all funds – $102.5 million in total – that the Interest on Lawyer Account (IOLA) Fund had requested to support existing grants for 87 civil legal aid organizations, like the Justice Center, that carry out a range of essential services for a broad spectrum of New Yorkers in need. The budget also includes $40 million for the Homeowner Protection Program (HOPP), a network of more than 90 housing counseling and legal services organizations across New York State, that, like the Justice Center, work to preserve homeownership for those of modest means; expanded funding for the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program (EDCAP); and a record $179.5 million for Office of Court Administration Judiciary Civil Legal Services (JCLS) grants that help maintain the essential infrastructure that nonprofits like the Justice Center require to sustain services for New York’s most vulnerable communities and have the flexibility to rapidly respond to evolving community needs.

Restoration of full IOLA spending authority in particular has been a critical focus of the Justice Center, its affiliated New York City Bar Association, and New York’s broader civil legal aid provider community because these non-taxpayer dollars fund capacity-sustaining and capacity-enhancing programming that is more important than ever with federal funding instability, growing need among the most vulnerable in our communities, and a rare bipartisan consensus that affordability must center policy and political action. Likewise, renewed HOPP funding and expanded EDCAP funding, both of which help to support the Justice Center’s recently reformatted Homeowner and Consumer Debt Advocacy Project, advance the affordability agenda essential to addressing New York’s widening wealth gap. And robust JCLS funding gives providers like the Justice Center the capacity to provide a broad range of services addressing the most urgent needs, from support for New York’s unhoused and immigrant communities to protecting our seniors from predatory scams and ensuring they can preserve if not pass on the modest but meaningful resources they have worked a lifetime to build up.

“The civil legal aid funding commitments in the 2027 State Budget allow grass-roots providers like the City Bar Justice Center to continue mobilizing our access to justice mission with greater financial certainty amidst a rapidly evolving – if not at times demoralizing – sociopolitical and economic landscape. We thank Governor Hochul, the leaders, and our many mission allies in the New York State Legislature for their investments in the work we do, which each year benefits over 25,000 New Yorkers in need via high quality, free civil legal aid,” said Justice Center Executive Director Kurt M. Denk.

As we shared earlier this year, IOLA and other funding help the Justice Center proudly serve New Yorkers like “Anne” (alias), who as a Japanese American had been confined to an internment camp during World War II. Anne later became terminally ill and desperately wanted to prepare a will as her condition worsened. After working with our pro bono attorney-supported Elder Law Project, Anne completed the necessary paperwork one week before her passing. “I think she was able to go peacefully largely because the City Bar Justice Center was able to work with her to complete her legal documents,” Anne’s nephew later shared.

For Anne and the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in need who benefit from free legal aid from our organization and dozens of others across New York State, the final FY 2027 budget’s substantial funding for civil legal services represents an important tool for closing the access to justice gap.

About the City Bar Justice Center  

 The City Bar Justice Center furthers access to justice by addressing unmet civil legal needs of New Yorkers struggling with poverty and other systemic socioeconomic barriers. The Justice Center’s dozen civil justice projects are led by a staff of dedicated attorneys and support professionals who provide high-quality civil legal services through brief advice and information, referrals, and both limited scope and extended representation that benefit more than 25,000 New Yorkers each year who cannot afford to hire counsel. www.citybarjusticecenter.org