While for some the effects of the pandemic may finally feel as if they are waning, for Legal Services’ clients and low-income New Jerseyans, the pandemic continues to disproportionately exacerbate health crises, employment and income challenges, and housing, custody, and other issues.

Moreover, many pandemic-related moratoriums, special assistance programs, and other protections designed to help keep New Jersey’s most vulnerable afloat, have since expired, creating a new wave of hardship in bankruptcy, debt collection, and foreclosure. But, while the need for Legal Services is great, we believe there is cause for even greater hope.

Across the state, Legal Services advocates and volunteers stepped up to meet unprecedented increases in the need for our services, assisting more clients in more cases every year since 2019. And, as our communities confronted urgent and unknown challenges, we responded with innovation, collaboration, and powerful advocacy.

As we commemorate the 55th anniversary of Legal Services in New Jersey, we must all recommit to the struggle for economic, social, and racial justice. Though we may not see the end of this struggle in our own lifetimes, the pandemic has helped us all to envision new, needed, and more hopeful paths forward.

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