Author: Joan Bellistri

The Anne Arundel County’s Homeless Resource Day will receive the Pro Bono Resource Center Herbert S. Garten Special Project Pro Bono Service Award this year.  The award will be presented to Christine Poulsen, Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services Program Manager Community Initiatives Unit, Coordinator Homeless Resource Day at the Annual Meeting of the Maryland State Bar Association on June 16, 2012.

The Anne Arundel County Homeless Resource Day was initiated in 2008 at the request of County Executive John Leopold.  Christine Poulsen of DSS is responsible for the creation and ongoing development of the program.

Homeless Resource Day provides one location where those who are homeless or those who are in danger of becoming homeless can take advantage of a wide array of services.  The issues that affect homelessness are many and the agencies that can help are varied.  Having many of these service providers in one place makes it easier for the homeless to address those issues. Examples of the services include medical care, mental health counseling, social security benefits, birth certificates, and even hair cuts.  Food and clothing are available for distribution and lunch is provided each year. Volunteers act as guides for the clients and assist the participants in finding the service providers needed.  Over the last 5 years the event has grown to provide service to more and more individuals.  The first year there were 411 homeless served, 300 volunteers and 56 service providers.  In 2012, there were 654 individuals served, 474 volunteers and 83 providers.

After the first year, the Anne Arundel County volunteer coordinator reached out to the Anne Arundel Bar Association to see if legal services could be added.  The Anne Arundel Bar Association Pro Bono Committee was able to recruit four volunteer attorneys to provide legal services.  Legal services in the form of brief legal advice and referrals have been provided by Anne Arundel County volunteer attorneys since that second Homeless Day in 2009. The number of participants seeking legal assistance has increased each year.  In 2009 the four volunteers provided services to 50 and in 2012 there were 13 volunteer attorneys who saw 80 clients.  Those seeking legal assistance were referred to appropriate legal service providers or given advice on how to deal with their legal issue.

The Anne Arundel County Homeless Resource Day Planning Team  lead by Chris Poulsen has made it easy for the attorneys and the other providers to participate in the Homeless Resource Day.  Each year the services provided have been reviewed and needs assessed.  There were 56 service providers on the first Homeless Resource Day.  This year there were 83 as the gaps in services needed have been identified.  It is through this process that the legal services became a part of the Anne Arundel County Homeless Resource Day.

In 2011, Governor Martin O’Malley asked that all Departments of Social Services replicate the event so the Homeless Resource Days be held throughout the state.  Organizers of those events have sought to follow the model of Anne Arundel County by working with their local bars to provide legal services.

The Anne Arundel County’s 5th Annual Homeless Resource Day was held on March 31, 2012 at Glen Burnie High School. This was the fourth year that Anne Arundel County attorneys participated in the event by providing brief, limited legal advice.  This year 13 attorneys served 80 clients (1o more than last year) by answering 89 legal questions.  Again this year, questions about criminal records and expungement were the most asked.  Family law questions, as in previous years, were a close second. Detailed statistics can be found on the statistics wiki page.

This year the Local Pro Bono Committee worked to create a program where those who needed to file a petition for expungement would be able to get assistance in filling out the form with the waiver of costs and financial statement.  The Homeless Persons Representation Project had provided training for the Homeless Day volunteers in the library.  HPRP Executive Director, Antonia Fasanelli and Danielle Cover, HPRP Director of Pro Bono Programs, even came to Homeless Day to offer their expert assistance on the spot.  As a result, 2 clients were recommended for HPRP intake and 4 petitions with waivers were filed in the District Court on Monday.   Many did not have criminal records that would qualify for expungement.   Others were able to take advantage of going through intake by the Office of the Public Defender thanks to Bill Davis.

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It helped that there were 13 attorneys on hand to help this year.  With  the nine attorneys who volunteered in the morning to help, wait times for the clients were minimal.  As in past years the afternoon is slower and the four afternoon volunteers were kept just busy enough.

Morning volunteers were Bill Davis of the OPD, Anne Leitess of the SAO, Andrew DiBlasio, Kurt Roper, Kathy Hughes of Legal Aid, Chris Brown, Jessica Qunicosa of Legal Aid, Lonni Summers of Legal Aid and Kari Fawcett with her associate, Ann Marie Dunn.  In the afternoon, Denis O’Connell of the OPD took over for Bill with three attorneys from Legal Aid: Amy Siegel, Lisa Sarro and Anita Bailey.