The Center for Family Representation Inc. (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that serves primarily Black and Brown families and youth in Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx with an interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every year. In 2024, CFR will expand our family defense practice to Richmond County. CFR was originally founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent parents being prosecuted by the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Our goal is to defend and protect our clients’ rights, reduce the harm of family separation and prevent or minimize the time any child spends in the foster system.
CFR provides interdisciplinary family defense with a model that was unique at our founding and that is now being replicated nationally: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams have the support of parent advocates, who are parents with direct personal experience of being investigated and prosecuted by ACS. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with lived experience into legal teams and now has 7 parent advocates working in all three of our family defense locations. CFR’s Community Advocacy Project represents parents during a child protective investigation (to avoid court involvement where possible) and assists parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records.
As an agency committed to securing justice for families, we built the Youth Defense practice (YDP) to defend youth at risk of family separation through incarceration. YDP uses the same interdisciplinary model to represent youth being prosecuted in Queens and Manhattan in Supreme Court Youth Parts, during Probation Adjustment and in Delinquency proceedings in Family Court. CFR’s Home for Good program provides legal and social work services to CFR clients in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters, to afford clients an efficient and well-coordinated one-stop solution to a range of issues that threaten family stability.
Recognized as experts in our fields, we annually train over 500 practitioners in the city, state and around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and interdisciplinary representation, and we provide community based “Know Your Rights” presentations to parents, youth and service providers. We advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that reduce the harm of family separation, and promote parent engagement and justice for youth and families.
Under the supervision and guidance of CFR’s Civil Defense Supervisor, the Staff Housing Attorney’s core responsibilities will be to help us further expand our interdisciplinary work and assist our clients in a wide variety of matters, including preventing eviction, securing repairs and otherwise maintaining safe housing, and obtaining and maintaining public benefits. Staff attorneys will work closely with Family Defense, Criminal & Youth Defense attorneys, Social Work and Parent Advocacy staff, Housing Specialists, Client Coordinators and other support staff. Therefore, strong interpersonal and communications skills are required. This is a unique opportunity for a competent and creative professional to assist CFR in expanding its civil practice and improving the stability of our clients and families.
This position will have a docket of housing cases in Manhattan, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island, including holdovers, nonpayment proceedings, HP actions, NYCHA and other administrative hearings.
The Staff Housing Attorney will:
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respond to client referrals from CFR staff, provide advice and counsel, and open cases for litigation where appropriate;
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monitor housing and other civil legal developments and create advisories, best practices and other resources for CFR staff;
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assist clients in completing necessary paperwork and attending appointments if appropriate; participate in Civil Practice team meetings as well as agency wide meetings;
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identify systemic housing and public benefits issues impacting CFR’s clients and explore advocacy to address those;
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maintain data on their work and outcomes, including deliverables related to funding for civil legal services work;
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and assist with external legal education efforts, including the planning and provision of workshops, drafting and development of legal education materials, and outreach to social service and community based organizations.
Qualifications
- Candidates for this position should have a minimum of two (2) years of experience representing indigent clients in housing court and administrative fair hearings related to housing as well as public benefits.
- Experience with social security benefits, including administrative hearings, is a plus.
- Candidates who are bilingual in Spanish are strongly encouraged to apply.
- Candidates should be able to demonstrate strong interpersonal and communication skills, an ability to work as part of a team and a desire to share in both the exhilaration and challenges of a growing endeavor.
Candidates should submit their cover letter and resume through CFR’s Career Portal. |