At Legal Aid, helping those who can't afford it
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Jeb Wallace-Brodeur/Times Argus |
Toolbox
By Mel Huff Times Argus Staff - Published: December 19, 2008
MONTPELIER – It would be understandable for someone who grew up surrounded by privilege – the son of a successful lawyer and a psychiatrist – to be uninterested in the lives of those less favored. But Christopher Curtis has found his place in the world in the spare offices of Vermont Legal Aid, representing the poor.
He calls his work "a small return on the investment and confidence" of a long line of mentors and role models, starting with his father, David Curtis, a Montpelier native and lawyer who became an unflagging advocate of human rights and civil rights in Vermont.
David Curtis represented Charlotte as a Republican member of the Vermont House early in his political life, before changing his political affiliation. He was a founding member of the Vermont Women's Health Center; served on numerous boards, including those of the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Dismas House and of the national board of the AIDS Action Council; and was chairman of the Vermont Democratic Party. Gov. Madeleine Kunin named him the state's Defender General.
"My father had a long career in public service. I watched that growing up," his son said. "I watched his efforts to help Vermonters who needed it most. It had a powerful impact on me."
Like his father, Christopher Curtis attended the University of Vermont, taking time off to manage Don Hooper's campaign for secretary of state in 1992 and Doug Racine's first campaign for lieutenant governor in 1994. Curtis says that Hooper taught him the value of civic participation. "He really reached out to Vermonters – we registered hundred of voters," he said. Racine, whose passions center on health care and poverty, taught him diligence.
After Curtis graduated from college, he went backpacking around the Dominican Republic and crossed over the border into Haiti, where he encountered stark poverty. "You can see up close what real poverty looks like, and especially how that affects children," he said. "It's so crucial to be able to have a roof over your head and a hot meal – just those basic necessities."
While Curtis was in the Dominican Republic, he got a call from Hooper that resulted in his being hired as national coordinator for Earth Day 2000. A couple of years and another job later, he realized, "If I really want to have access to the levers that control policy areas, I need a background in law."
He came home and enrolled in Vermont Law School, and by the time he graduated, knew he would be working either in public defense or legal services.
"It was connecting that interest in people with my interest in law that brought me to legal services," he said, "and boy, did I make the right choice!" It has been a kind of "coming full circle" – a way of having the kind of impact on "real people's lives that my father (and other role models) had."
Vermont Legal Aid has seven projects: poverty law, which encompasses housing and family law; disability law; senior citizens law; Medicare advocacy; mental health; and two health and consumer projects, the long-term care ombudsman project and the office of health care ombudsman.
Curtis works on housing and benefits issues.
"While all of our clients have great need, I think the cases that have affected me the most are the housing cases, because it's such a critical, basic need to have a roof over your head," he said. .
Curtis represented one woman with young children who rented a house with raw sewage bubbling up in the front yard. The toilets wouldn't flush, and there was no running water, so the family had to tote water from a creek and boil it for drinking and bathing. One of the children was too embarrassed to have anyone come to her home for a birthday party.
"We think that people don't live like that any more, and yet it's out there – it's very real," Curtis said.
There was more.
The wood stove was improperly vented and the smoke detectors didn't work. The landlord, who was notified of the problems, did nothing about them. The town health officer, a doctor, called the place "uninhabitable." Eventually, the roof caught fire, but because the family was awake and smelled the smoke, they escaped.
"People should not have to live in these kinds of unsafe and unsanitary conditions," Curtis declared.
Curtis describes the present environment for Legal Aid's clients, who have incomes under 200 percent of the federal poverty level, as "very challenging." He notes that resources to support them are shrinking while demand for those resources is growing.
"Vermonters are rightly concerned about what the impact of budget cuts might be, particularly for seniors and low-income folks," he says. "If those programs are cut, the cost down the road may be greater to the state."
Legal Aid's call volume has risen more than 20 percent since 2006.
"We had a big spike starting last year," Curtis said. "We went from about 8,000 calls in 2006 to now over 10,500 for this past year. We are very concerned that the resources available to help those folks are being squeezed."
Curtis says policymakers should do everything possible to preserve budgets that affect the vulnerable and make policy choices to help them weather the present times: making more affordable housing available and making it easier for people to stay in their homes, increasing incentives for energy efficiency to lower utility costs and preserving access to health care. "Legal Aid will continue to advocate for these things on behalf of our clients," he said.
Curtis says he's an optimist. "There's an opportunity here for people to come together and develop priorities that are going to benefit the state for a long, long time," he maintains. "If we keep in mind the long-term consequences of the choices that we make today, we will maintain that safety net for people and the programs that are so essential."
Curtis, who has been at Legal Aid for three years now, has deep regard for the agency's seasoned and passionate attorneys, who are living "quiet lives of contribution. I look at some of my colleagues who have been doing this for 20, or in some cases even 30 years, and that's inspiring!" he declared. He calls their commitment to economic justice "a pretty powerful thing to be around. It makes it a joy to come to work," he adds.
Want to help?
To help support legal services for low-income Vermonters
around the state, send a contribution to Vermont Legal Aid's
administrative office: P.O. Box 1367, Burlington, VT 05402.
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