Company Profile
Homeless Advocacy Project
Company Overview
Established in 1990, the Homeless Advocacy Project (HAP) is the only legal services organization dedicated to providing direct civil legal services to individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. HAP also advocates for the needs of the City’s homeless population, promoting positive changes in policies that impact those needs.
HAP’s work is guided by its vision, mission, and values.
VISION: All Philadelphians at risk of or experiencing homelessness have equal access to justice and the means to secure safe and stable housing.
MISSION: To provide free civil legal services and advocacy to reduce the frequency and duration of homelessness in Philadelphia.
HAP’S VALUES: Individuals and families experiencing homelessness have unique legal problems and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
HAP’S VALUES INCLUDE:
Service – Represent clients’ rights and interests with free, high quality civil legal services;
Outreach – Meet clients where they eat, sleep, and access services;
Advocacy – Advocate on issues affecting poverty and homelessness;
Integrity – Serve clients with professionalism, integrity and compassion; and
Community – Collaborate with legal and social service partners to reduce the occurrence, impact and frequency of homelessness in Philadelphia.
Company History
In 1990, HAP was founded in the belief that people experiencing homelessness have unique and complex legal problems that often are not adequately addressed by traditional providers of legal services to indigent and low-income individuals.
Individuals experiencing homelessness lead transient, unstable lives, and are often debilitated by mental illness, substance abuse, and/or inadequate education. They frequently lack an understanding of their legal rights and the ability to make effective use of the network of advocacy and service organizations that are available to assist them. Living in crisis, often without income or resources, persons experiencing homelessness are less likely, and less able, than other indigent clients to make use of Center City-based legal services programs.
Since its inception, HAP has conducted legal clinics by reaching out to its clients in places where they live and eat, such as homeless shelters, transitional housing sites, overnight cafes, and soup kitchens throughout Philadelphia.
By recruiting and training volunteer attorneys, legal assistants, and law students to staff these clinics, HAP is able to provide free legal counseling and representation to a population not adequately served by other legal services programs. HAP also collaborates with shelter providers, homeless advocates, and community service providers to connect clients with other social services.
Annually HAP holds over 100 legal clinics at 25 sites throughout Philadelphia. Since HAP’s first legal clinic in December 1990, HAP’s staff and 350 volunteers have helped more than 55,000 people and have provided more than $94 million worth of free legal services to clients experiencing homelessness.