HOMELESS COURT - LA COUNTY - UPDATE

http://www.ladpss.org/dpss/grow/homeless_court.cfm  UPDATED FEB 2016

READ THIS AND FIND OUT IF YOU ARE ELIGIBLE. YOU WILL NEED A LETTER OF SUPPORT and THAT IS TO COME FROM A CASE MANAGER SO LIKELY YOU ARE IN A PROGRAM WHEN YOU CAN USE THIS OPPORTUNITY.

"The Homeless Court (HC) program was created by the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office and advocates for the homeless including Public Counsel and the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA).

This program helps impoverished individuals with a history of homelessness to clear tickets and warrants for minor offenses such as traffic tickets, infractions, and various minor misdemeanors including jaywalking, riding the metro without a fare, sleeping in public places, illegal use of shopping carts, possession of an open container of alcohol in public, obstructing traffic on the sidewalk, sleeping on a bus bench, as well as any warrants that arise for failure to resolve these offenses..."

Here is a blog by a law student at Loyola about HOMELESS COURT!


LOYOLA STUDENT BLOG on HOMELESS COURT

"The session I went to was hosted at People Assisting the Homeless (PATH), a non-profit organization that offers a wide variety of services to people without housing. Judge Tynan, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, was presiding. Individuals are invited to participate when they have met the program requirements and undergone the application approval process. By participating in Homeless Court, they have the chance of having some of their outstanding warrants and tickets recalled and quashed "in the interest of justice." The tickets and/or warrants can only be the result of the commission of an eligible minor and non-violent "quality of life" offense, traffic infraction or misdemeanor; felonies cannot be set aside. The "interest of justice" here is simply the ability to allow people to get their lives back on track by removing the impediments of quality-of-life tickets (urination in public, sleeping in public) or traffic tickets (traveling solo in a carpool lane) that they are unable to pay. I found the process to be a reasonable outgrowth of a simple idea: Whether you are still homeless or not, if you fit the criteria and are ready to move your life forward, you should not be prevented from doing so because of an unpaid loitering ticket. Some clients I talked to had been waiting for two years to address three traffic tickets that have prevented them from getting a job. Therefore, when they were invited to the Homeless Court session, they similarly jumped at the opportunity..."