November 16, 2018 by Clarissa Ayala
Lone Star Legal Aid Awarded Grant from Rebuild Texas Fund to Help Recover and Rebuild Harvey Impacted Community
Houston, TX – Lone Star Legal Aid has been awarded a 2.3 Million dollar grant from the Rebuild Texas Fund to help with the recovery and rebuilding of the Harvey impacted communities in its service area. This grant will allow Lone Star Legal Aid to assist Harvey survivors with various legal services necessary for recovery. LSLA will use grant funds to 1) conduct outreach and education, 2) dispatch mobile technology to community partners to screen and refer survivors to LSLA, and 3) provide disaster legal services in 25 Harvey disaster-designated counties. LSLA will help disaster survivors gain stability, recover, and rebuild by addressing a variety of problem areas including property ownership disputes, tenant rights, and contractor fraud.
The Rebuild Texas Fund was launched just days after Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas communities. A collaborative project of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the OneStar Foundation, the initiative is dedicated to the economic recovery of hard-hit Texas communities. Funded organizations such as Lone Star Legal Aid, play a critical role as rebuilding continues in the community.
“We are grateful for the Rebuild Texas Fund’s dedication and passion for rebuilding and revitalizing communities, including those in our service area impacted by Hurricane Harvey,” said Saundra Brown, Directing Attorney over Disaster Legal Services at Lone Star Legal Aid. Through this generous grant, we will be able to assist survivors with evictions, lease terminations and other landlord problems; mortgage difficulties, such as foreclosure; repair scams; insurance claims and appeals; property rights, title-clearing, probate, estate matters, and tax problems; lost/destroyed documents; appealing FEMA decisions; income maintenance; access to health care; education; unemployment benefits; and family law issues.
Additionally, the grant will include Community Outreach and Education through:
- Presentations in the community to educate the public and potential clients about their individual disaster legal rights and responsibilities, common disaster legal issues and remedies, and the array of disaster legal services available;
- Working in collaboration with a variety of local social-service agencies and other organizations serving Harvey survivors to make these presentations, conduct intake clinics, and distribute multi-lingual informational materials to people seeking disaster services from these partner agencies; and
- Project staff traveling to conduct on-site outreach and, when appropriate, legal intake and counsel clinics for survivors who cannot travel to an LSLA office, who do not have a phone to call LSLA, or who may have literacy issues that require face-to-face contact.
“We are excited to give Lone Star Legal Aid this grant to continue our collective mission of helping communities rebuild after Hurricane Harvey,” said Neeraj Aggarwal, Program Director of Rebuild Texas Fund. “We know that rebuilding requires strong, creative partners from business, government, non-profit and philanthropy working together, and are excited to see how Lone Star Legal Aid’s project positively impacts the community.”
The Rebuild Texas Fund supports organizations across all five regions impacted by Hurricane Harvey and that provide services in six focus areas: community and economic development; health; housing; education and childcare; transportation and workforce; and capital for rebuilding small businesses.
For more information, to apply for a Rebuild Texas Fund grant, or to learn more about how you can help our neighbors in need, please visit www.rebuildtx.org.
The Rebuild Texas Fund is a collaborative project of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the OneStar Foundation, established to support the rebuilding efforts in communities impacted by Hurricane Harvey. The Rebuild Texas Fund works alongside organizations within the impacted communities that are making an impact in the following six focus areas: community and economic development; health; housing; education and childcare; transportation and workforce; and capital for rebuilding small businesses. The Rebuild Texas Fund will continue to fund projects and organizations within these areas through the end of 2019. Funding through the Rebuild Texas Fund is provided to eligible nonprofit, government, corporate, and philanthropic organizations working on the ground in Texas communities, that have been affected by Hurricane Harvey. More information about the Rebuild Texas Fund is available at www.rebuildtx.org.
Lone Star Legal Aid is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit law firm focused on advocacy on behalf of low-income and underserved populations. Lone Star Legal Aid serves the millions of people at 125% of federal poverty guidelines that reside in 72 counties in the eastern and Gulf Coast regions of Texas, and 4 counties of southwest Arkansas. Lone Star Legal Aid focuses its resources on maintaining, enhancing, and protecting income and economic stability; preserving housing; improving outcomes for children; establishing and sustaining family safety and stability, health and well‐being; and assisting populations with special vulnerabilities, like those who have disabilities, or who are elderly, homeless, or have limited English language skills. To learn more about Lone Star Legal Aid, visit our website at www.lonestarlegal.org.
Media contact: Clarissa Ayala, cayala@lonestarlegal.org
