Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

The Legal Aid Foundation of Long Beach was founded in 1953 and merged with Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) in 2001. Today, LAFLA's Long Beach community office provides free legal services for thousands of low-income residents seeking justice, including medical patients, survivors of domestic violence, veterans, immigrants and refugees, and more.

LAFLA's pioneering medical-legal partnerships with the Long Beach Comprehensive Health Center, Long Beach Community Medical Wellness Center, and TCC Family Health improve health outcomes for residents throughout the Long Beach community. Social problems like poor housing conditions, housing insecurity, issues with immigration status, loss or denial of public benefits, problems at school or work, or violence within the household all threaten patient health. Our partnerships bring attorneys and healthcare workers together to address the legal and medical needs of our clients.

LAFLA is committed to language justice, and all services are available in clients' preferred languages, including Spanish, Khmer, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, and many more.

Testimonials

LAFLA performs life-changing work through our Greater Long Beach Medical-Legal Partnership, improving outcomes for low-income patients. Ana (pseudonym), an immigrant and domestic violence survivor, came to one of our clinics in Long Beach after her ex-husband fractured her neck. Like many of our clients, in addition to her injuries, Ana was facing numerous legal issues.

Since 2018, LAFLA attorney Erin Gunter has been assisting Ana with her annual work permit renewals so she can support her family while her permanent visa is pending. But last year, Ana became terrified when she received a notice that her Section 8 voucher was being terminated, which would leave her unable to afford her rent. Since LAFLA had helped her before, she came back for further assistance.

Erin discovered that the Housing Authority of the City of Long Beach (HACLB) had been sending Ana communications only in English, despite knowing she was a monolingual Spanish speaker. As a result, Ana hadn't understood that she needed to complete paperwork every year to keep her voucher. Erin assisted Ana in submitting her completed packet, allowing her to keep her housing subsidy and stay in her home. She also successfully advocated for the Housing Authority to reimburse Ana $1,648 in rent from the time it took to resolve the issue.

At the same time, Ana was facing another problem: She had been denied CalWORKs benefits even though she qualified. Erin filed a case complaint to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) to restore Ana's benefits resulting in her approval and $1,024 in retroactive benefits from DPSS's error.

Ana came to LAFLA facing serious instability in her housing, food, health, and immigration status-a terrifying combination that is unfortunately common for thousands of low-income residents. But Ana was able to tackle every single one of these issues at LAFLA. With your support, LAFLA can continue to help clients like Ana with whatever challenges may come their way.