Our other offices are located at:
40 Worth Street, Suite 606
New York, New York 10013
111 Centre Street Room 103
NY, NY 10013
2272 2nd Avenue (btwn 116th and 117th)
New York, NY, 10035
5030 Brpadway, Suite 664
NY, NY 10034
The mission of Manhattan Legal Services is to fight poverty and seek social, economic and racial justice for low-income residents of Manhattan through the provision of free legal representation, systemic advocacy and community education. We empower our clients by providing holistic representation which address the multiple legal needs of clients and are deeply committed to working in partnership with community-based organizations in Manhattan’s low-income neighborhoods.
On one of the richest islands in the world, 85% of Manhattan Legal Services (MLS) clients live on less than $15,000 year. We fight poverty and seek economic, social and racial justice for low-income borough residents through the provision of free legal representation, systemic advocacy and community education. Each year, MLS’s advocates represent and advise thousands of low income residents of Manhattan facing crises with basic needs such as:
Access to Education
Civil Rights & Language Access
Consumer Rights
Disability Advocacy Project
Disaster Recovery
Elder Law
Employment Law & Workers' Rights
Family Law & Domestic Violence
Government Benefits
HIV Advocacy
Housing & Tenants' Rights
Immigration & Immigrants' Rights
LGBT Advocacy
Reentry
Veterans Justice Project
We especially focus on vulnerable populations including people living with HIV or a disability, elderly people, families with children, domestic violence survivors, immigrants and people who are unemployed. We empower our clients by providing holistic, culturally competent and linguistically appropriate legal services which address the multiple legal needs of clients (housing and public assistance or filing for an order of protection while seeking custody, for example).
Our advocates seek permanent change in the lives of the low income clients they serve by working with community residents and providers to identify problems and to find solutions to the multiple problems which impact their communities. MLS has a long and successful history of working collaboratively with community-based organizations in the low-income communities of Manhattan including Chinatown, the Lower East Side, Harlem, East Harlem, West Harlem and Washington Heights/Inwood. to address systemic problems such as the treatment of mentally ill people by the welfare system, gentrification and the loss of affordable housing, language access for LEP clients and illegal debt collection. We proudly trace our long history back to Harlem Assertion of Rights (later Harlem Legal Services) and MFY Legal Services, both neighborhood-based anti-poverty efforts arising in the 1960’s, and strive to continue that legacy.
The mission of Manhattan Legal Services is to fight poverty and seek social, economic and racial justice for low-income residents of Manhattan through the provision of free legal representation, systemic advocacy and community education. We empower our clients by providing holistic representation which address the multiple legal needs of clients and are deeply committed to working in partnership with community-based organizations in Manhattan’s low-income neighborhoods.
