Organizations Filed Purposes:
The mission of Mental Health Advocacy Services (MHAS) is to protect and advance the legal rights of low-income adults and children with mental health disabilities and empower them to assert those rights in order to maximize their autonomy, achieve equity, and secure the resources they need to thrive. MHAS provides direct legal services to children and adults with mental health disabilities, with an emphasis on obtaining government benefits and services, preserving housing, and fighting discrimination. MHAS also serves as a resource to the community by providing training and technical assistance to attorneys, mental health professionals, consumer and family member groups, and other advocates. In addition, MHAS participates in impact litigation and policy advocacy in an effort to improve the lives of people with mental health disabilities.
The mission of Mental Health Advocacy Services is to protect and advance the legal rights of low-income adults and children with mental health disabilities and empower them to assert those rights in order to maximize their autonomy, achieve equity, and secure the resources they need to thrive.
Medical-Legal Community Partnership: MHAS is a key partner in Los Angeles County's Medical-Legal Community Partnership ("MLCP"), a multi-organization collaborative administered by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) to improve the health outcomes of vulnerable populations by addressing legal problems, including matters related to housing, education, government benefits and consumer finance issues. Through the MLCP, MHAS and other legal services organizations provide legal assistance to clients referred by DHS medical facilities to ensure that these individuals have the resources and support needed to achieve better health outcomes and overall wellbeing. In 2020, MHAS provided legal and technical assistance to approximately 366 clients through this project.
Fair Housing Advocacy Project: MHAS fights housing discrimination against people with mental health disabilities by providing outreach and education to mental health consumers, housing and service providers, other advocates and the general public to increase awareness of fair housing rights and responsibilities. This project also provides legal assistance to individuals with disabilities who experience housing discrimination, as well as technical assistance to housing providers and other organizations. In 2020, the project's accomplishments included: (1) conducting 30 community training sessions for individuals and organizations; (2) conducting a "Fair Housing Tip of the Month" email campaign, which distributed fair housing information to 3,634 individuals and 359 organizations; (3) assisting 76 individuals with fair-housing related legal problems; and (4) providing technical assistance to 18 organizations.
Consumer Advocacy Project: MHAS' consumer protection efforts seek to ameliorate the effects of discrimination against communities of color and people with mental health disabilities in the financial sphere. Stable credit is at the base of many of the issues clients bring to MHAS: it is necessary to obtain and keep housing, obtain educational and other loans, pay court fines and fees, and afford to live with dignity. MHAS advises and represents clients in matters of identity theft, creditor harassment, collections suits, and predatory lending. The Project, which began in July 2020, directly represented 39 clients in legal matters in 2020, consulted in one instance of technical assistance, and established relationships with partner organizations, setting the stage for the training of scores of caseworkers in the community during the year to come. In addition, MHAS began creating materials in English, Spanish, and Korean to support the further dissemination of consumer protection knowledge in the community.
Executives Listed on Filing
Total Salary includes financial earnings, benefits, and all related organization earnings listed on tax filing
| Name | Title | Hours Per Week | Total Salary |
|---|
| Jenny Farrell | Executive Director | 40 | $101,137 |
| Renee Cook | Director of Administration and Finance | 40 | $86,181 |
| Jerome Wilhort | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Jessica Walker | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Peter Swain | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Andrew Spitser | Director, President | 2 | $0 |
| Laura Schwartz | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Bradley Schneider | Director, Secretary | 2 | $0 |
| Elyn Saks | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Francis Ryu | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Neil Rubin | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Teri Paul | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Jeromie Park | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Michael Murtagh | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Dean Lewis | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Jill Kennedy | Director, Treasurer | 2 | $0 |
| Lisa Harris | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Douglas Hall | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Lucy Eisenberg | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Rita Deboer | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Lauren Cruz | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Edward Casey | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Joel Braslow | Director | 1 | $0 |
| David Bower | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Shoshana Bannett | Director | 1 | $0 |
| Emily Aviad | Director, Vice President | 2 | $0 |
Data for this page was sourced from XML published by IRS (
public 990 form dataset) from:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/irs-form-990/202121339349302937_public.xml