On Tuesday, Bronx Defenders staffers and supporters gathered to celebrate and raise funds for an “audacious” idea: giving money directly to clients who dictate what they need most.
The Bronx Defenders, founded in 1997, is a nonprofit public defense organization that represents 27,000 low-income Bronxites each year. The Client Emergency Fund, now in its 10th year, is open to all Bronx Defenders clients. It operates on what fund manager Noel Valerio called a “dual mandate” to provide immediate relief and help clients get on a sustainable path for the long run.
Over the past three years, 1,572 client requests for everything from cell phones to groceries to furniture have been fulfilled via the fund. With city agencies understaffed and unable to keep up with community needs, “clients have no other recourse but to come to us,” Valerio said.
At Tuesday’s cocktail party overlooking the city from the 45th floor of 7 World Trade Center, $13,000 was raised for the fund via a text-to-donate campaign, according to Michael Paul Jackson, communications director for the public defense nonprofit.
The goal for the evening was to raise $1,000, but with on-the-spot donations from those in attendance, that amount was easily surpassed.
Organizations like Bronx Defenders say they’re under tremendous strain due to the underfunding of public defense services and that overwhelming caseloads and high attrition make it all the more difficult to protect the rights of low-income New Yorkers.
In March, the Bronx Defenders rallied at City Hall with other public defense organizations to demand a combined $125 million in city funding to increase wages, plus more than $300 million to boost the budgets of other legal service providers.
According to a City Council spokesperson, over $40 million was included in the fiscal year 2024 budget for funding legal services, including Right to Counsel, plus about $6 million in total discretionary funds to the Bronx Defenders.
1,572 requests fulfilled
Valerio told the Bronx Times that applying for the Emergency Fund is an easy process for clients that’s nearly always successful. Clients communicate their needs through a survey that goes to a decision committee, and according to Valerio, “99.9%” of requests are approved.
The fund is more than a quick fix. While it does help “take out fires,” Valerio said that advocates also support clients in their broader, more long-term needs and goals.
Valerio has worked with the Bronx Defenders for about a year and a half, and as a South Bronx native whose family had their own harrowing experience with the legal system, he said, “That’s the only relevant experience I need to understand what our clients go through.”
At Tuesday’s event, Valerio spoke about his family’s past investigation by the Administration for Children’s Services.
“They interrogated my mother,” he told the crowd, calling the experience “torture” as he, his mother and his younger brother did their best to prove that the family was safe and happy.
Addressing his colleagues, Valerio said, “I wish I had had you. I wish the Client Emergency Fund was available to me and my family when ACS was on our case.”
“Lifesaving”
One former client who requested anonymity talked with the Bronx Times about her “lifesaving” experience with the Client Emergency Fund.
When she was 18 and living in Alaska, she became pregnant and had no support. Her family was opposed to her mixed-race relationship and the fact that she was pregnant but not married, and they refused to help in any way.
She said she’d always had jobs and was already living independently, so she decided to come to the East Coast, where she had some social connections and felt it might be easier to find help. But instead, she said when she arrived, she “face–planted” and fell into depression.
With nowhere to stay and her one year old in tow, they slept on buses and trains. Even though she had friends locally, none could provide more than a short-term solution.
Eventually, in desperation, she called 911 and asked for her son to be placed in temporary foster care. But by asking for help, she said, “I got put into a trap.”
Her son was in foster care for about nine months, and during that time, she took the necessary time to heal while seeking medical and mental health care.
“It gave me time to recollect myself,” she said. She eventually began to feel normal again, finding joy in singing and performing and receiving encouragement from others at the hospital.
Once she was back on her feet, she said she received “a little over $1,000” from the Client Emergency Fund in March 2023 to buy furniture, including a couch, bookshelf and dining table for her Prospect Heights apartment.
Now she’s 22 and her son is three years old and living with her full-time again. She said having her own comfortable, furnished home — as opposed to staying in a shelter — was critical to getting her son back.
While stories like these are encouraging, Valerio said he and his colleagues are “always worried” about the sustainability of the fund — which is dependent on donations from individuals and organizations — and the failure of many city services.
With few other ways for clients to meet their needs, the Client Emergency Fund is working overtime. However, “We don’t just implement Band-Aids,” Valerio said. We’re trying to suture the wound.”
Reach Emily Swanson at emily.swanson63@journalism.cuny.edu. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
