To the Editor:
Re “Homeless, Because They Are Abused at Home” (front page, Nov. 11):
As the shelter population rises to accommodate abused women, so do needless financial costs to the city and locations around the country because of the penny-wise and pound-foolish slashing of already scant budgets for civil legal services for the poor.
Defendants in criminal cases have the constitutional guarantee of legal representation as a result of Gideon v. Wainwright, the 1963 landmark Supreme Court case that unanimously ruled that state courts are required under the 14th Amendment to provide counsel to those who cannot afford to pay their own lawyers.
The same is not true in civil proceedings, and the legal services agencies that try heroically to represent such clients cannot keep up with the demand.
Inadequate representation, and often none at all, has a cascading effect. In the case of domestic violence, as the article cites, it often means children put in foster care. In the case of wrongful foreclosure, it could mean homelessness and, again, foster care.
Various reputable studies show that providing lawyers to these victims would be far cheaper and much kinder besides.
JANE GROSS
New York, Nov. 11, 2014
[For more letters to the editor about this issue go to http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11...or-the-homeless.html]
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