We Started Open Door Legal to
Dramatically Reduce
Poverty
What Our Solution Has Achieved
People Served
Direct Assets Obtained
Value of Non-Cash Outcomes*
*Non-cash outcomes include family conflicts resolved, immigration statuses advanced, or victims protected.
Last updated July 2026.
Imagine a general hospital for legal help
Like a general hospital, we are a single point of entry where everyone who needs can get help. We have a wide network of staff and volunteers who help us ensure that nobody is turned away.
1
in
5
1 in 5
Within the first 10 years of operations, around one in five residents of Bayview came to us for legal help. We’ve represented 5-10 families on every block in the neighborhoods around our first office.
Deterrence is what makes our work so cost-effective. Here’s how:
Let’s say there was a landlord who was neglecting his entire apartment complex, because his tenants were low-income and he knew he could get away with it.
Just having one tenant with legal help will improve the conditions of all of the units the landlord manages. This is because legal action leads to long term behavior change that improves outcomes for the entire community.
We prevented 1 person
every 2.4 days
from being homeless
We prevented 1 person every 2.4 days from being homeless
Based on findings from the first academic study on homelessness focused on San Francisco, our model is at least 6x more cost-effective at reducing homelessness than the next best alternative.
Let’s Ensure The Law Belongs to All of Us
