NEWS RELEASE 02.14.23: IMPACT FUND MAKES GRANTS OF $156,250 FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
One grant funds a case challenging long-practiced policies of concentrating environmental harms and failing to provide open space access to residents of San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood.
Berkeley, CA 02.14.23 – The Impact Fund has made recoverable grants totaling $156,250 in its winter cycle to fund five impact lawsuits. These grants underwrite litigation to protect the rights of live-in caregivers in Washington, children in West Virginia’s foster care system, incarcerated individuals with disabilities in Texas, and low-income families in San Francisco’s Bayview community.
“We’re grateful today to renew our commitment to economic, environmental, racial, and social justice by supporting communities who are taking the fight to court.” said Impact Fund Executive Director, Jocelyn Larkin.
The Impact Fund provided funding to A Better Childhood, Inc. to support class action lawsuit against West Virginia’s Governor and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHR) and several DHHR executives for violations of foster children’s constitutional and statutory rights. The state fails to protect the 6,800 children in its foster care system. Rampant problems with the West Virginia foster care system include insufficient foster care placements, child maltreatment, a lack of mental health assessments and services, and inadequate training and extremely high caseloads for caseworkers. Shockingly the death rates of children in the system are double the national average.
Another class action case funded is brought by Disability Rights Texas on behalf of plaintiffs with disabilities who have been found incompetent to stand trial and who have been languishing in jail with no remedy. The Plaintiffs are defendants in criminal cases who have been ordered to be committed to a mental health facility for further examination, evaluation, and treatment toward the specific objective of attaining competency to stand trial. Despite the criminal courts’ orders, Texas Department of Health and Human services has not admitted these individuals into its mental health facilities, causing them to languish in county jails for months (in some cases close to one year) where they do not receive the competency restoration examination and treatment or the not guilty by reason of insanity evaluation that are the purposes of their confinements.
The Environmental Law and Justice Clinic at the Golden Gate University School of Law also received support for an environmental racism case against the City and County of San Francisco for failure to obtain permits required under the Clean Air Act for diesel-powered generators at a vehicle triage center intended for 150 RVs and other vehicles for unhoused people. Despite the need to connect each vehicle to electricity, the City now says supply chain problems prevent it from connecting to PG&E-provided power. The City’s solution to this problem has been to install diesel-powered generators, exposing residents of the historically redlined Bayview neighborhood to extremely harmful pollution. Many neighbors have come to see the center as emblematic and part of the City’s racist policies, of concentrating environmental harms and poverty in the neighborhood while failing to provide needed city services, including maintaining parks and open space. The center is located at one of the few greenspaces in Bayview, the Candlestick Point State Recreational Area, a state park.
In a multi-plaintiff case we funded, Fair Work Center is seeking to end the unconstitutional exclusion of live-in caregivers from basic wage-and-hour protections under Washington state law. Despite the precarious and dangerous nature of their work, live-in caregivers are categorically exempted from Washington State’s employment laws, including the Minimum Wage Act. Caregivers routinely receive subminimum wages and inadequate sick leave while they provide on-call, round-the-clock services for weeks on end. This lawsuit aims to close this loophole and provide live-in caregivers access to much-needed Minimum Wage Act protections.
Catherine Fisk of the Impact Fund’s Grant Advisory Committee, said: “With these grants, we are building a healthier planet and a safer world by standing with communities threatened by uncaring corporate interests and small-minded government.”
ENDS
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About The Impact Fund
The Impact Fund was founded in December 1992 to help advance economic, environmental, racial, and social justice through the courts. Originally envisioned as a purely grantmaking organization, the Impact Fund has made 750 grants totaling $8,754,546. Click here for Grant Criteria and information about Grant Deadlines.
Since its inception, the Impact Fund has grown to include both advocacy and education in its range of services. Today, the Impact Fund litigates a small number of cases directly, authors amicus briefs, provides a substantial amount of pro-bono consulting, and presents an annual conference for plaintiff-side class action practitioners, a training institute for budding public interest class action practitioners, and numerous seminars and webinars. Click here for the 2022 Annual Report.
What Is Impact Litigation?
Impact Litigation is a lawsuit, often a class action, where the outcome of the case will advance economic, environmental, racial and/or social justice for a community or a large group, which may not have access to the courts on its own.