The Missouri counties of Franklin, Warren and Washington cover a swath of about 2,200 square miles west of St. Louis, where the suburbs give way to small towns and farmland. The area includes both affluent exurbs and neglected former mining villages; in Washington County, in the Ozark foothills, the poverty rate is almost twice the national average.
But as Jon Althauser can attest, serious poverty exists throughout the region. Althauser should know: For nearly 10 years, he’s seen those problems up close as managing attorney of the tiny Union, Mo., outpost of Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (LSEM), about an hour west of St. Louis. The office provides general civil legal aid to all three counties, along with family law assistance in a fourth county to the north.
