Hilary’s House offers legal help to the struggling
by Dan Heilman
Year-old nonprofit seeks to bridge the gap for ‘in-between’ clients not financially eligible for Legal Aid.
When Minneapolis attorney Jessica Wassenberg worked in a daycare center during the 1990s, one of her co-workers was a single mother and social worker named Hilary, who, despite working hard and having the best intentions, could never seem to get out from behind the financial eight-ball.
Wassenberg happily accepted the chips and other snacks that Hilary would bring in to work, only to find out later that she was buying them with food stamps.
“That broke my heart a little,” said Wassenberg, 29. “She’s lived in that gap area forever, and has done an amazing job raising her child.”
Jessica and Hilary stayed friends and talked for years, “mostly in fantasy terms,” according to Wassenberg, about doing something that could help single moms or people who are in that gap.
And since April 2007, Wassenberg has been doing that with Hilary’s House, a source of inexpensive legal representation for people who have fallen in the economic cracks. More than half the organization’s clients have a gross monthly income of $1,700 or less.
“I wanted to honor her, because she’s the epitome of people we help out,” said Wassenberg, who is godmother to Hilary’s daughter. “She’s a hard worker and a good person, but she just struggles with that cycle where you can’t get ahead.”
“We stay away from felonies and anything greater than a first-time DUI,” Wassenberg said. “Other organizations such as Legal Rights and Neighborhood Justice Center do a good job of covering those.”
House rules
Most nonprofit sources of Legal Aid use the Federal Poverty Guidelines as a way to determine who they can help and who they must turn away. For instance, Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis and Volunteer Lawyers Network set their limit at 125 percent of the poverty guideline, according to Sue Pontinen, assistant director of VLN. That means a single person must have an annual income of $16,250 or less to get anything more than advice from those organizations.
Wassenberg — who previously worked in Hennepin County Juvenile Court and as a student-certified attorney in the Ramsey County Child Support Enforcement Office — feels there’s a place for low-cost representation for people in the gap between that federal guideline and having the means to hire a private attorney. She’s the organization’s only source of representation, but gets help and counsel from a five-person board of directors consisting of volunteer attorneys.
Juggling about 30 cases at any given time, Hilary’s House will represent clients making up to 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, and will take into account mitigating factors when determining their income — such as whether court-ordered child support is a source of a client’s income, or if a client’s source of income is a spouse who has moved out.
“We don’t put as much emphasis on assets, such as the equity someone has in their home,” she said. “With the market the way it is now, most people can’t get at that money anyway.
“The first thing we do is make sure they’ve been turned down by other Legal Aid nonprofits in the area,” she said. “They offer free services and we don’t. I don’t want to get in anyone’s way. I don’t want to take cases that could be handled by other organizations.”
Pontinen of VLN said there’s always a place for another provider of low-cost legal help, because during tough economic times, people who don’t have the money for an attorney aren’t always considered “poor” according to state or federal guidelines.
“There’s a whole range of individuals who need help, but they’re above that 125 percent threshold and can’t afford an attorney,” Pontinen said. “So we always appreciate having another resource to refer those clients to.”
VLN funnels two or three clients a week, and Wassenberg said Jewish Family Services, Hennepin Family Court Services, Legal Rights Center and Chrysalis are among the other organizations that regularly send her referrals.
A typical case was that of Ann Brown of St. Paul, a state employee and single mother who was embroiled in a custody dispute over her 5-year-old son. After finding that she didn’t qualify for free representation but knowing she couldn’t afford to hire an attorney, she stumbled upon Hilary’s House.
“I just started calling a bunch of women’s organizations, and a few of them recommended Jessica,” Brown said. “I wouldn’t have known where to even start getting help if she hadn’t been able to take my case.”
Getting 501 classification
The fact that Hilary’s House is indeed a house — the south Minneapolis home Wassenberg shares with her husband — speaks to the bare-bones nature of the enterprise. Wassenberg only makes between $1,000 and $1,500 a month.
“That covers our expenses if you don’t count my salary as an expense,” she said.
Most of the income goes to maintaining a website, paying for electronic fax and cell phone service and the expense of traveling to meet clients off-site.
Wassenberg’s frugality and generosity is typified in that she takes pains to meet clients either in downtown Minneapolis or the Mall of America — two locations with ample access to public transit. The latter location is especially popular because it offers free parking, Wassenberg said.
“Things get put into perspective for me on a regular basis,” she said. “I’ll ask someone to fax me something, and they’ll say, ‘I can’t — I don’t have enough for the fax machine at Kinko’s.’ I get caught off-guard, and I realize that all they can afford to do is mail it.”
Hilary’s House is classified as a nonprofit in Minnesota, but is in the process of receiving a federal designation via 501(3)C classification — a process Wassenberg put off partly because of the $800 filing fee.
“Honestly, when I started this, I didn’t know how far it was going to roll,” she said.
Wassenberg said she’s never forgotten the words of Court of Appeals Chief Judge Edward Toussaint, Jr., who reminded her William Mitchell law class how privileged they were, and how important it was to give something back.
“You get people at the worst time,” she said of her clientele. “They’re so desperate and frustrated. But they really appreciate whatever we can do.”
