ECLAA helps low-income residents of Newark and other Essex County (NJ) cities for free when they have To assure that all low-income residents of Essex County seeking free emergency legal help with civil law matters get immediate assistance with those legal crises that challenge the health and wellbeing of our clients and their families. Ideally, any income-eligible resident who needs such advice could get it from ECLAA. The problem is huge, and the current funding resources are small. ECLAA helped 1,339 clients in 2016, of which 89% faced imminent evictions. Sadly, there were more than 40,000 Landlord-Tenant court matters in Essex County that same year -- so we were able to help only about 3% of tenants facing eviction. More funding means that more low-income Essex County residents who need help can get it.