We Will Survive says the Law Centre

"We will survive" shouts the cover of Camden Community Law Centre's annual report with a picture of its premises being buffeted by crashing waves as lightening strikes it overhead.

Changes in Legal Aid reform is forcing the closure of many centres says its report: "While the legal Services Commission may put forward a perspective that the reforms are actually leading to more clients being assisted, the difference between acts of assistance and proper legal representation is significant."

Whereas law centres used to be paid for the time it took to do a case, now it's paid only a "small fixed sum" which has hit organisations hard, many closing its doors while Camden itself has had to reduce its services.

There's a greater incentive to do short cases "which often will be inappropriate for complex time consuming issues such as homelessness" Ah, so this is why he couldn't get behind my urgent issue and fight my case with all the evidence I have.

"The consequence for many legal aid providers is that they find it no longer viable to do publicly funded work whilst maintaining a proper standard of service."

I am well aware that if I wasn't on benefits, I would have no recourse to legal help. That I am on benefits however, has not helped mine or my son's needs. The law does not work in favour of homeless people, with councils now giving precedence for those in the private sector, said my lawyer, who had piercing green eyes. It is well within the law for the council to put us in a hostel or else be forced into the private sector in order to manipulate the true number of homeless families and individuals.

I'll never know what happens to Bangladeshi dad and after an hour, my lawyer looked at his watch and told me to come back should I need any more advice. He didn't agree with anything the council was doing in the borough and emphathised with my situation. How many people does he see like me? How many people does he turn away? How many people is he able to help? On what grounds? "You need to know the ingredients to get to the treasure," Supermario told me yesterday. I don't know them. I'm so sorry my son but mummy doesn't.

Oh the cost of human lives, the cost of mine to the taxpayer. You'll see what happens to me but what's going to happen to everyone else? I mustn't look forward, I mustn't, where I see us all drowning in those buffeting waves.