The Ocean Avenue branch of a legal services nonprofit may soon close after the mayor’s office proposed to slash the city’s civil legal services budget.
The nonprofit Open Door Legal, which first formed in 2013 in the Bayview and receives roughly one-third of its revenue from the city, has been pioneering universal access to civil legal representation in neighborhoods across the city and is facing a potential $2.2 million budget cut.
If the cuts come to pass, the nonprofit would have to close its Ocean Avenue location in the Excelsior and lay off at least 15 staff. The cuts would mean turning away 900 clients per year.
Open Door Legal Executive Director Adrian Tirtanadi is on a hunger strike to protest the proposed cuts.
“It would be utterly devastating to us, to the community, to homelessness and poverty and many other things,” Tirtanadi told The Ingleside Light.
Tirtanadi and his team were shocked by Mayor Daniel Lurie’s budget announcement last week, noting how they’ve made multiple efforts to bring awareness to the work general civil legal services has done throughout the city and to saving its funding including providing public comment during Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development meetings and speaking with Lurie and MOHCD’s Chief of Health, Homelessness and Family Services Kunal Modi directly.
Tirtanadi said he feels that their efforts made no difference and began the hunger strike on June 11 to show the impact the loss of funds would have on the community. He plans to continue until funds are restored, which he hopes will happen by the time the budget is finalized in July.
Several of his staff and a few dozen Open Door Legal supporters and those who attend their congregations across the city are also protesting by fasting.
“I think one reason why they feel like they can cut access to justice from the budget is because the injustice that will result will be mostly hidden from public view,” Tirtanadi said. “By making the suffering public and putting it out there, it makes it hard for them to ignore.”
Going on this hunger strike is not the only way the nonprofit is fighting against the cuts. Tirtanadi said they rallied in front of City Hall on Wednesday to raise awareness on keeping general civil legal services funded. Five supervisors, including District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen, joined them.
“During a time when we say that we want to safeguard prevention services, we need to put our money where our mouths are and fight to reinstate funding to the many organizations, including Open Door Legal, that provide these services,” Chen told The Ingleside Light.
Chen also said she spoke with Lurie after he announced his budget, stating that restoring these funds is among her top priorities.
“Without them, I fear we will see increased displacement, hunger and exploitation,” Chen said. “With so much uncertainty around us, we must send a clear message to our most vulnerable communities that we will fight for them."
Open Door Legal will host a special drop-in clinic on June 14 at their Excelsior location from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for people who are seeking legal advice. They are also inviting the press to hear from those who will be impacted by these budget cuts.
“We still live in a democracy,” Tirtanadi said. “The more people who hear about this and email their elected officials, the better. We’ve got two weeks to reverse this, so we need to do everything we can.”
