Antonia Fasanelli

Antonia Fasanelli, the current director of the Homeless Persons

Representations Project, talked to me about the work that she and her company do
for the homeless denizens of Baltimore.

Founded in 1987, HPRP Law is private nonprofit organization modeled along
the lines of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless model, which also
provides pro bono help to the homeless in Baltimore, Maryland.

Antonia Fasanelli was always interested in working with the homeless. While
pursuing her undergraduation, she came to the view that the most effective way to
make an impact on the lives of the homeless would be by providing them legal
assistance. As a result, she went to law school and eventually found herself working
at the Washington Legal Clinic as an attorney under Patricia Fugere, a tireless
advocate for the homeless. After spending some years working for Fugere, she was
asked to serve as the Director of the Homeless Persons Representation Project in
2007, a non-profit institution that was facing hardship. Fassanelli believes that
Baltimore city is the perfect area for implementing policies that would make a
change in the lives of the homeless, both because of its location and the small size of
its population.

HPRP Law is a statewide organization, catering to all of the Marylands
homeless population. The overarching aim of the program is to provide free legal
assistance to the homeless and to those who are at risk of becoming one. The clinics
are located at about seven different community intake sites in Baltimore city,
providing easy access to legal assistance for the homeless. HPRP assists people with
getting into or keeping their housing, securing public benefits (e.g food stamps), and
in expunging criminal records. Many homeless people are often arrested for merely
being homeless, and these criminal records can often hurt them in job and housing
prospects.

Similar to the Washington Legal Clinic, HPRP is staffed with about twelve
paid attorneys, in addition to a network of over 500 volunteer lawyers, law
students, and paralegals. The law students conduct intakes and research at the legal
clinics, and the cases received are then presented to the volunteer attorneys.

When discussing the primary factors causing homelessness, Fasanelli
underscored the lack of affordable housing and sufficient incomes to pay for the
basic necessities. How can these issues be addressed? Primarily, the government
must invest in creating affordable housing. Fasanelli explained that over the past
several years, the government has chosen not to invest in social housing, which has
caused many people to live on the streets. HPRP addresses this issue by pursuing
systemic solutions to ending homelessness. They advocate for policies to create
more affordable housing, improve public benefit program, and raise the minimum
wage, as well as filing class action related to the operations of social welfare
programs. Essentially, HPRP plays two roleslitigation services and advocacy.
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