State to Provide $11.7 Million for Housing-Related Legal Services
“ANNAPOLIS, MD—Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh and Governor Larry Hogan today announced that $11.7 million in general funds will be directed to the Maryland Legal Services Corporation to provide legal services to families facing eviction and other housing security issues.
‘These funds could not have come at a more critical time for the preservation of Maryland’s civil legal aid safety net,’ said Susan Erlichman, executive director of the Maryland Legal Services Corporation, the state’s major funder of civil legal aid. ‘MLSC is experiencing an unprecedented funding shortage due to the impact of COVID on our main revenue sources, and the action taken today translates into literally tens of thousands of Marylanders facing evictions and other matters who otherwise would have had no place to turn, now able to get the legal help they desperately need.'”
“We are incredibly grateful to Attorney General Frosh, Governor Hogan and their staffs who worked to make this funding available. MLSC’s nonprofit grantees are providing critical services that help low-income Marylanders stay housed,” said Natalie McSherry, MLSC’s board chair. “At a time when the best way to stay safe during the pandemic is to stay home, stable housing has never been more important.”