Library hosts VLSP

Here's yet another reason to love our library...

Sure, the Bayview library has books. But look more closely and you’ll find so much more: history archives, computer access, community-building gatherings, even life-changing services.

Take, for example, Volunteer Legal Services Program, or VLSP for short, which holds weekly office hours at our library, providing legal assistance to low income residents for free.

“The grannies are my weakness,” says Hali Reiskin, VLSP’s Community Lawyer.

One such woman struck Reiskin as the “quintessential granny…showering unconditional love for her grandbabies and looking forward to the next bingo outing.” But this woman “goes to bed at night [in Hunters View Housing Project] where gunshots can be heard regularly, she’s had to bury a child and grandchildren and has raised others in buildings that can generously be described as dilapidated.”

Reiskin advocated for the woman who had been overcharged several thousand dollars in rent by the San Francisco Housing Authority. She was able to keep the woman in housing that would have been lost otherwise.

VLSP also provides legal services at a housing project and a church in Bayview Hunters Point, and even makes house calls for those with mobility issues. If you need legal assistance, call 415.989.1616, visit www.sfbar.org...or simply stop by your Bayview branch library and say hello to Hali Reiskin!