SBIF Spotlight: Grant keeps Chicago Legal Clinic in its long-time home

Chicago Legal Clinic co-founder Ed Grossman poses in front of the former church at 2938 E. 91st St., a building his nonprofit has operated out of since 1983.

Two years ago, the roof of the Chicago Legal Clinic’s building was sagging, the front stoop was crumbing and its walls were starting to fail. With $135,000 in repairs out of reach for the modest nonprofit, clinic co-founder Ed Grossman knew where to turn: DPD’s Small Business Improvement Fund.

SBIF covered $100,000 of the repairs, which kept the former church building at 2938 E. 91st St. safely open.

Repair work included the complete rehab of the roof, including the drainage system and the building’s parapets.

“There is no way possible the work could have been done without those funds, so we may have had to abandon the building and let it become an eyesore to the neighborhood,” said Grossman, whose organization has called the building home since 1983.

In 1981, Grossman co-founded the Chicago Legal Clinic with the Most Rev. Tom Paprocki, a law school classmate of his who is now the bishop of Springfield. The clinic began as a neighborhood office offering legal help to families hit hard by downsizing at the U.S. Steel South Works site.

Since then, it’s grown into one of the region’s largest providers of low cost and pro bono counseling and representation, with a focus on poor, disadvantaged and at-risk populations.

In addition to its main office in South Chicago, the clinic has outposts in Pilsen, Austin and The Loop, as well as a number of advice desks at county courthouses. The clinic has helped nearly 450,000 people since its founding, and 24,000 people last year alone.

2938 E. 91st St.

Originally built in 1943 as a church and school, the 26,000-square-foot building at the corner of 91st Street and Exchange has acted as a community center for decades. The Archdiocese of Chicago donated the building to the legal clinic in 1996, and just recently, the Chicago Family Health Center opened an office on the first floor, which supports five clinics across the south and east sides of the city.

“The fact that the City has the SBIF program was a marvelous benefit not only to us but to the entire community,” said Grossman.

In 2016, SBIF financed $7.38 million in grants for Chicago businesses and nonprofits, and it’s available in nearly 90 of Chicago’s Tax Increment Financing Districts. Contact Somercor for more information.