BREVARD HONORS NONPROFIT FOR 60 YEARS OF LEGAL ASSISTANCE

• The Brevard County Commission honored the nonprofit Community Legal Services for 60 years of service.
• CLS provides free civil legal representation to low-income families and at-risk individuals in 12 Florida counties.
• CLS assists with issues such as housing, domestic violence, disaster recovery, and financial instability.

Brevard County Commission Tuesday honored the nonprofit Community Legal Services for 60 years representing low-income Florida families and at-risk individuals who wouldn't otherwise afford legal representation in civil matters.

"Human safety, right to shelter, food, these are basic human rights, and oftentimes people have to walk across across the street to the courthouse to address certain issues involving those rights, and we're here to make sure people aren't alone in court," said Joe Colombo, a Melbourne attorney representing CLS told commissioners Tuesday after commissioners approved the proclamation.

CLS was founded in 1966 as Volusia County Legal Services. Since 2004, it has grown to provide civil legal assistance to residents of Brevard, Citrus, Flagler, Hernando, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Putnam, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties, making it one of the largest nonprofit law firms in Florida.

The proclamation notes:

• Annually, 75% of low-income American households experience at least one civil legal problem, "and yet 92% of these households do not get any or enough legal help for their civil legal problems.
• Community Legal Services has served the residents of Brevard, Citrus, Flagler, Hernando, Lake, Marion, Osceola, Orange, Putnam, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia counties for six decades since its founding, through free legal services for those who could not otherwise gain access to counsel.
• They serve low-income Floridians and their families, seniors, veterans, survivors of domestic violence, children with disabilities, disaster survivors, and other at-risk individuals facing critical hardships, such as the potential loss of a home, fraudulent contracts, financial instability, denial of benefits, barriers to securing housing, challenges in disaster recovery, and the need to obtain legal protections.
• CLS staff and its hundreds of pro bono attorneys have volunteered their time over the decades, serving clients with more than 300,000 civil legal cases, committing more than one million hours of direct legal assistance for Floridians over the past six decades.

"Thank you so much for what you do for our community," said County Commission Chairman Thad Altman. "It's so important to help those who can't afford an attorney, and our society's so much based on the ability to have representation."

According its website, CLS's primary funding comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), individual donors, law firms, businesses and state and local governments.

Waymer covers environment and government. Contact him at (321) 261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatodaycom.