Laura Slade Chiera (she/her) is the Executive Director and Managing Attorney of Legal Assistance to the Elderly (LAE), which protects the rights of San Francisco’s seniors and adults with disabilities to be housed, healthy, financially stable, and safe. LAE is the only legal services organization in San Francisco that focuses solely on this demographic. It serves over 1,900 low-income clients annually with free civil legal services to save their homes, stop financial or physical elder abuse, and retain vital benefits.
A lifelong Bay Area resident, Laura joined LAE in 2016 and has spent her entire legal career focused on eviction defense and homelessness prevention in San Francisco. Prior to LAE, she held roles at the San Francisco Bar Association’s Homeless Advocacy Project of the Justice & Diversity Center, the Eviction Defense Collaborative, San Francisco’s Shelter Plus Care Oversight Committee, and supervised the UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings) Homeless Legal Services Clinic located in San Francisco’s largest homeless shelter. During her tenure at LAE, Laura has grown the organization from a staff of seven with an annual budget of $670,000 to a staff of 38 and a budget of $5 million. “There is so much need – and that need will only continue to increase in the coming years,” says Laura. “Seniors will be 30% of San Francisco’s population within the next five years and unfortunately, they are the most likely demographic to fall into homelessness.”
Laura is looking forward to her sabbatical so she can “return with renewed energy to lead LAE through its next phase of growth.” In a sector with such acute, intensifying needs, she also wants to create an opportunity for LAE’s leadership team to “coalesce and take ownership of our work and the organization’s future.”