A Hackney charity which provides free legal advice to residents has less than six months to solve a funding crisis which could force its clinic to close after 32 years.
The Hoxton Trust has offered help to thousands of Hackney residents since 1993.
Its Hoxton Street clinic are now at risk, with the charity struggling to replace a grant which has paid its three part-time advisors for the last five years.
Paul Fleming, the Trust’s CEO, said the charity now needs to source approximately £40,000 to keep its services running.
“If we haven’t got that money, we will have to stop,” he said.
The clinic is open on Mondays and Thursdays from 10am-12pm and assists five residents a day with a range of legal problems including housing, benefits, and immigration on a first come, first served basis.
Fleming says the Hoxton Trust is already able to help fewer people than the organisation would like. "I think if we opened more, we'd see more clients, but we open when we can afford to," he said.
If the clinic closes, it could put more pressure on other services nearby.
The Citizens Advice Bureau on Hillman Street can only see 20 people per day and asks them to arrive early due to ‘very high demand’.
The Trust’s clinic also covers the two weekdays that the Citizens Advice service is closed.
Fleming said there are only a few organisations who will fund legal advice. “I can count them on my hand. My options are now quite severely limited,” he said.
For the last five years, most of the charity’s funding has come from the City Bridge Foundation, which owns five Thames crossings including Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and the Millennium Bridge.
That support will end next year as the foundation has already provided funding to the charity for two more years than it normally does.
Hackney resident Baby Bila received advice from the clinic and was concerned to hear it might have to close its doors. She said: “We need it - the service is very good.”
The service is one of the few in the area people don’t need to book ahead to use.
For Bila, this made it easier to get to help. She said: “I tried somewhere else, they said: ‘Go away, you need an appointment.’”
Germa has volunteered on the clinic’s front desk for two years.
He said there are many people who find it easier to drop in at the Trust than to make an appointment at other centres.
In addition to the grant, the charity receives money from the rent of two nearby commercial properties it owns.
That income helps pay the wages of staff like the Trust’s gardener, who runs community activities in the Hoxton Trust Community Garden next door.
The Hoxton Trust continues to offer free legal advice from 10am-12pm on Mondays and Thursdays at 156 Hoxton Street, N1 6SH.
