Legal Aid Adds Millions to Ohio Economy
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Legal aid in Ohio generates millions of dollars of economic activity for the communities it serves, finds a new report from the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation.
Entire communities and neighborhoods benefit when low- income Ohioans are helped by legal aid attorneys, the foundation said.
“Legal aid helps not only the individual served, but the people who live down the street,” said Angela Lloyd, executive director of the foundation. “Home prices are stabilized and local governments save the tax dollars typically lost to home foreclosure each time a legal aid attorney helps a homeowner prevent foreclosure. Everybody benefits from legal aid.”
Strength in Justice: Ohio’s Legal Aids Energizing Our Economy and Building Our Communities concludes that every dollar spent on legal aid operations generates an additional 115% of economic activity in Ohio communities. “Legal aid societies are a great return on investment and contribute positively to Ohio’s economy,” noted Ritchey Hollenbaugh, foundation board president.
In 2010, Ohio’s legal aids employed more than 620 attorneys and staff and generated $106 million in total economic impact, including $5.6 million in state, county, and municipal tax revenue, a return of 115% for every dollar invested. Legal aid affects all 88 Ohio counties.
In 2010, legal aid saved almost 1,000 homes across the state from foreclosure, saving local governments millions in vacant property costs. Even one foreclosed house in a neighborhood may lower property values for other homes by as much as 2.1%. A house worth $135,000, the average value in Ohio, would lose $2,835 of its value.
By saving houses, legal aid helped to protect more than $2.7 million in home value in 2010, the foundation says.
The study also reports that legal aid helped protect victims of domestic violence by obtaining nearly 1,000 civil protective orders in 2010. “We now have hard statistical data that should fundamentally change the discussion about the importance of legal aid,” Lloyd said. “In addition to the issues of fairness and justice, legal aid should now be looked at in light of its economic benefits and its ability to stabilize Ohio families, neighborhoods and communities.”
The Ohio General Assembly created the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation in 1994 to fund and to enhance civil legal aid for low income Ohioans.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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