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Tired of candidates discussing issues that are not really important to our day-to-day lives? What could be more important than making sure there is enough housing for everyone across income levels?  Yet the issue of  housing affordability has rarely been a key issue in electoral politics in Virginia and elsewhere in the nation. With the […]

  Virginia Poverty Law Center (VPLC) and Central Virginia Legal Aid (CVLAS) Successfully Working Against Housing Discrimination The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing throughout the United States on the basis of disability.  One important facet of this protection against discrimination is that the Fair Housing Act can require a landlord to make […]

  Thanks to the House of Delegate voting down HB 1248, Virginia will not be baiting for loansharks. Unfortunately, there is another big threat out there and this time it’s Bills in the U.S. Congress, including one sponsored by own Senator Warner. H.R. 3299 and S. 1642 are Bills in both Houses of Congress that […]

Every year at the Virginia General Assembly, VPLC supports, opposes and/or works to amend legislative initiatives that affect domestic and sexual violence victims. This year is no exception. As we approach Crossover (the point at which each chamber—the House of Delegates and the Senate—must finish hearing its own bills), we’ve highlighted some of the bills […]

  The Online Lending Alliance–a group of internet loansharks is circling Virginia and telling your Delegate to vote for HB 1248.  Tell you Delegate to vote NO to keep the internet loansharks out. HB 1248 will allow internet lenders with no locations in Virginia to get a license under the Virginia Consumer Finance Act.   This […]

Keeping families together by helping relative foster families become legal guardians When a child is placed in foster care by the court, sometimes a relative is approved to become the foster parent of the child. After the child has been placed in this relative foster home, in some circumstances—if the court determines that the child […]

In 2017, Virginia had enough affordable housing units for only 54 of every 100 low-income families,  according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.  This means almost half of low-income Virginians—more than 188,000 households—did not have access to housing they could afford.  This shortage is most pronounced among extremely low-income households, i.e., those earning less than […]

If Congress and President Trump won’t do their jobs, Virginia must. SB 624 and SB 625 will update Virginia law to address online lending abuses.   It’s no secret that every year the payday loan industry finds new ways to exploit legal loopholes and skirt regulators. Once new rules are implemented, they try another tactic […]

600,000 Virginians have lost their drivers licenses simply because they are too poor to pay their court fines and costs.   This effectively deprives them of reliable, lawful transportation necessary to get to and from work, take children to school, keep medical appointments, care for ill or disabled family members, or, paradoxically, to meet their financial obligations to […]

Imagine paying $700 a month for 14 years on a student loan, only to watch its balance continue to rise.  Or making eight years of payments on a $28,000 debt whose balance remains unchanged.  Or being told your struggle to meet monthly payments can be put off, only to find out much later that doing […]

The 2018 General Assembly Session began Wednesday, January 10th, at 12 pm. You may recall VPLC reorganized last year into a center service delivery method to better serve the legal aid community and the greater community’s needs.   Therefore, this year’s Legislative Agenda reflects the center model, with the main issues listed under The Center for […]

When people have access to health coverage and can take care of their medical needs, they are more likely to get needed care, and to be more financially secure and more productive. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of Virginians remain without insurance and are stuck in the health coverage gap because they make too little to […]

Three hundred people in Manassas almost became homeless because of a faulty sewer system earlier this year.  Almost all of them were homeowners, and none of them had caused the sewer system problem or were responsible for fixing it.  And, had the City of Manassas taken the action they’d threatened to take, most of these […]

“When Pauline H, then 95 years old, moved back to Virginia so her grandson could help care for her… she took out what she thought was a ($450) payday loan.   A year later, she had paid $597 toward her $450 loan and the lender, Allied Cash Advance, said she still owed $776.” He borrowed $100 from […]