Veteran's Legal Corp Program

The Veterans Legal Corps (VLC) Program seeks to provide legal assistance to low-income and homeless veterans with issues related to disability benefits claims, barriers to housing and employment, debt, family law, and other legal issues, through placement of lawyers and law students across the country.

These evaluations sought to assess homeless and low-income veterans served by the program with similar veterans served by non-VLC programs in the areas of outcomes, methods of providing services, and reporting data at the site level.

The 2013 Evaluation found:

• 491 veterans had a barrier to housing removed and 104 veterans obtained housing;·
• 10 veterans obtained employment or vocational education;
• 5 reestablished a relationship with their children;
• 89.5% of survey respondents said the program had a positive impact helping to stabilize or otherwise improve the lives of veterans who have been served; and
• That the program could be improved by better data collection and data-sharing with other veteran-serving organizations, and incorporating follow-ups and other small program changes outlined in the report.

The 2015 Final Evaluation Report found:

• Served on average 70-100 veterans each year per site, with 87% of clients being assisted to a positive resolution (rates are comparable to non-VLC programs, but study notes VLC clients on average faced more difficult circumstances);
• Obtained for its clients approximately $851,000.00 during the study year (this includes found benefits and successful case resolutions). Compared to the $30,410.00 required to run this program at the treatment site, the evaluator calculated an 8,389% return on investment (also not found to be statistically different from comparison sites, but evaluator noted differences across sites in calculating benefits made comparison infeasible).