The Street Lawyer

Michael and Mordecai set up to do their first stint as street lawyers together at the Samaritan House, in Northeast DC. As Mordecai drives, he informs Michael about his expected clientele. He tells him to expect employed people, families with children, mentally disabled people, and veterans. They will have minimum-wage jobs and no hope of private housing. They will be used to moving frequently, desperate for permanence but rarely finding it. Some will be afraid to go to a shelter because “not all shelters are good. There have been assaults, robberies, even rapes” (169), and many will be drug addicts. All of this information makes Michael feel unsafe, but Mordecai assures him that the work will be fairly straightforward.

Mordecai laments the vicious cycle that unhoused people fall into because of implicit bias in government systems and law enforcement: they get a minimum-wage job and try to find housing and sustain a life, but then they get arrested for sleeping in a public place, so they go to jail and have to pay bail to get out, which “kick[s] [them] down another notch” (171). When Michael asks if they would be better off in jail, Mordecai describes another set of issues with the overcrowded jail system.