Antonia Fasanelli, the current director of the Homeless Persons
Representations Project, talked to me about the work that she and her company do for the homeless denizens of Baltimore.
Founded in 1987, HPRP Law is private nonprofit organization modeled along the lines of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless model, which also provides pro bono help to the homeless in Baltimore, Maryland.
Antonia Fasanelli was always interested in working with the homeless. While pursuing her undergraduation, she came to the view that the most effective way to make an impact on the lives of the homeless would be by providing them legal assistance. As a result, she went to law school and eventually found herself working at the Washington Legal Clinic as an attorney under Patricia Fugere, a tireless advocate for the homeless. After spending some years working for Fugere, she was asked to serve as the Director of the Homeless Persons Representation Project in 2007, a non-profit institution that was facing hardship. Fassanelli believes that Baltimore city is the perfect area for implementing policies that would make a change in the lives of the homeless, both because of its location and the small size of its population.
HPRP Law is a statewide organization, catering to all of the Marylands homeless population. The overarching aim of the program is to provide free legal assistance to the homeless and to those who are at risk of becoming one. The clinics are located at about seven different community intake sites in Baltimore city, providing easy access to legal assistance for the homeless. HPRP assists people with getting into or keeping their housing, securing public benefits (e.g food stamps), and in expunging criminal records. Many homeless people are often arrested for merely being homeless, and these criminal records can often hurt them in job and housing prospects.
Similar to the Washington Legal Clinic, HPRP is staffed with about twelve paid attorneys, in addition to a network of over 500 volunteer lawyers, law students, and paralegals. The law students conduct intakes and research at the legal clinics, and the cases received are then presented to the volunteer attorneys.
When discussing the primary factors causing homelessness, Fasanelli underscored the lack of affordable housing and sufficient incomes to pay for the basic necessities. How can these issues be addressed? Primarily, the government must invest in creating affordable housing. Fasanelli explained that over the past several years, the government has chosen not to invest in social housing, which has caused many people to live on the streets. HPRP addresses this issue by pursuing systemic solutions to ending homelessness. They advocate for policies to create more affordable housing, improve public benefit program, and raise the minimum wage, as well as filing class action related to the operations of social welfare programs. Essentially, HPRP plays two roleslitigation services and advocacy. -