Get to Know Erika Boyer-Kern

As we’ve been in the community facilitating trainings and providing services to clients at various locations, we have heard from several agencies who stated they would like to know more about our staff and the work we do. Because of that, we will be highlighting some of our staff and interns to increase our communities’ awareness of our agency and its wonderful and dedicated staff and interns who work at SMRLS. Meet Erika our Social Worker who also works in our Healthcare Legal Partnership.

What do you do at SMRLS?
I help clients with their non-legal needs and barriers. My work is primarily focused on connecting clients to community resources, assisting in housing navigation, mental health navigation, and providing victim support.

What are some trends that you are seeing in your work?
A lot of the work I do with housing clients is assisting them in their housing search after an eviction or agreed upon move-out-date and since starting in this role I’ve noticed some difficulties in this work. It’s difficult for several reasons. One, because even understanding the world of affordable housing is difficult. Knowing the difference between all of the different subsidized housing programs is a barrier in and of itself for folks. Two, requesting applications, filling out applications, and turning them in is a confusing and time consuming process. For someone who has kiddos, a job, or barriers like a lack of transportation or little access to internet, it can be almost impossible to complete several applications before they need to leave their home. And third, is the availability of housing for folks who are very low income. Most of the time, when I’m assisting folks to apply for subsidized housing that determines rent based on 30% of one’s income, they are getting on awaitlist. Finding housing quickly that is affordable is a huge challenge.

Why did you choose to work at legal aid?
I worked at another nonprofit before SMRLS, and in that role, collaborated in getting clients connected with SMRLS. I saw firsthand the transformative power of people having the help of a legal team, in bettering their situation. I am so proud to work at an organization with such amazing people who serve others every day!