Family Stabilization Project 

The Family Stabilization Project

The Family Stabilization Project is a collaboration between Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New (LASNNY), The Legal Project, the Justice Clinic at the Albany Law School, and the Rural Law Center of New York providing direct legal services to the region and its families to survive the downturn of the economy due to the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Across the country, the pandemic has drastically increased economic and health disparities, further highlighting the need for civil legal services. In addition to access to justice within the courts, our services offer economic stability for the most vulnerable. The goal of the Family Stabilization Project is to expand the use of civil legal services to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic on impoverished and low-income working families by focusing on the following areas: eviction prevention, access to public benefits and income maintenance, denial of unemployment benefits, consumer debt and bankruptcy, and the reentry of formerly incarcerated people.

The Rural Law Center will provide bankruptcy representation in rural areas of the state. Consumer debt is on the rise. The pandemic has caused a wave of job loss, pay cuts, reduced hours, and other adverse financial outcomes. While there are many protections for some debt, they defer rather than eliminate the debt. And while bankruptcy laws may offer some reprieve, the project will also offer legal assistance around frozen accounts, fair debt collection, and managing debt to assist families in achieving economic stability.