News and stories about our work to protect and advance the civil legal rights of low-income Texans.
HOUSTON (Jan. 20, 2021) — Residents of Northeast Houston are calling on the company responsible for decades of creosote contamination in their community to move them out of harm’s way after the state of Texas found high numbers of childhood cancers. The Department of State Health Services’ findings come 13 months after it identified 10 census tracts in Houston’s 5th […]
Houston, TX – Lone Star Legal Aid is excited to announce the launch of the new Texas Crime Victim Legal Assistance Network website (“Network”). The fresh face website features new functions for both partners and survivors, and a more user-friendly interface for the dashboard. In addition to the upgrades being made to the existing features, there is also a new […]
Houston, Texas – Lone Star Legal Aid is hosting a Facebook Live event on Thursday, December 10, 2020, at 12:00 PM CST to discuss the Center for Disease Control and Prevention order preventing eviction for the remainder of 2020. As the end of the year rounds the corner, Texas tenants are anxious about their rights in eviction cases. The federal […]
The Coastal Texas Study is a proposal from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to spend approximately $20 billion to protect the Texas Gulf Coast from flooding during storms and from rising sea levels. Its impacts will be broad, and affect many aspects of life on the Gulf Coast. The US Army Corps of Engineers recently released a “Draft […]
Houston, TX- Lone Star Legal Aid joins #GivingTuesday, the national day of giving. Occurring this year on December 1st, #GivingTuesday is held annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday to kick off the holiday giving season and inspire people to collaborate on improving their local communities and to give back […]
Houston, TX – Lone Star Legal Aid has been awarded a $40,000 grant from the Texas Bar Foundation that will support its Eviction Right to Counsel initiative. The concept of the program came to fruition after the pandemic pushed Houston and the rest of America into an eviction crisis. The Eviction Right to Counsel initiative (ER2C) is similar to a […]
Every year, Texas Veterans Legal Aid Week offers the opportunity for legal aid programs, bar associations, law schools, and more, to amplify awareness of civil legal aid available to veterans. This year, LSLA is excited to announce that it is part of the Texas Veterans Legal Coalition working with several other legal aid programs throughout the state to create educational […]
Texas legal aid providers collaborate on one-stop-shop to support Texas renters Millions of Texans are struggling to pay rent and face possible evictions. Stop TX Eviction, a new online portal, is a guide to help tenants understand their legal rights and the remedies available to keep them housed. A project of Texas’ three primary legal aid providers, Stop TX Eviction […]
Thanks to the generous support of the Legal Services Corporation, Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA) is proud to announce two important online tools through the new Texas Disaster Legal Help portal to help Texans affected by Hurricane Harvey. Developed in partnership with Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas (LANWT) and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA), these tools will be available statewide […]
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order on Tuesday, September 1, 2020, protecting low to moderate-income renters from eviction for nonpayment of rent throughout the remainder of 2020. The order’s eviction moratorium protects only renters who meet all of the following: The renter must expect to earn no more than $99,000 in annual income in 2020 […]
Houston, TX – Lone Star Legal Aid is working with a coalition of eviction defenders in partnership with Harris County and the City of Houston to offer a pilot program, the Eviction Right to Counsel Project, in certain jurisdictions – on a small scale. The coalition is comprised of Lone Star Legal Aid, Houston Volunteer Lawyers, South Texas College of […]
Houston, Texas – Lone Star Legal Aid is hosting a Facebook Live event on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, at 1:00 PM CST to discuss the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s order preventing eviction for the remainder of 2020. Leaders in their field, Dana Karni, manager of LSLA’s Eviction Right to Counsel Project, and Jon-Ross Trevino, manager of LSLA’s Houston […]
Galveston, TX – Lone Star Legal Aid is going to Washington, D.C. to fight for Sandpiper Cove tenants in Galveston, Texas. On Tuesday, June 30, 2020, LSLA’s Fair Housing team and housing civil rights lawyers Mike Daniel and Laura Beshara of Daniel & Beshara, P.C. filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for intentional discrimination […]
Lone Star Legal Aid’s online intake is now available in Spanish and Vietnamese. According to the Texas Tribune, “Of the nearly 24 million people in Texas five years or older, 65 percent speak only English at home. The rest speak more than 160 languages combined.” Spanish and Vietnamese are numbers 1 and 2 in the top 10 languages spoken in […]
Lone Star Legal Aid was awarded an emergency grant to expand its military and veteran services to all of Texas. Lone Star Legal Aid’s Military Veterans Unit (MVU) provides free civil legal services to low-income United States military veterans, their dependents, and surviving spouses- now, throughout the State of Texas. The MVU can help with veterans benefits, housing issues (evictions, […]
Lone Star Legal Aid is pleased to announce LSLA CARES, a property research and documentation tool that will help tenants search the many public databases currently available to find out if your property is subject to the CARES Act. The CARES Act temporarily protects some renters from eviction for nonpayment of rent. It also stops late fees for rent for […]
Houston, TX – Lone Star Legal Aid announces a new grant provided by the Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund. This grant is made possible as a result of the United Way of Greater Houston and the Greater Houston Community Foundation, standing together to help support those impacted by COVID-19 and those who may be impacted in the future due to […]
Lone Star Legal Aid announces the launch of its Eviction HELP Project. This project is a self-guided tool that helps Texas renters to fight evictions during the COVID 19 Pandemic. Right now, thousands of renters across Texas are facing evictions. But there are protections for renters. The Eviction HELP Project helps eviction litigants prepare for court by giving renters legal […]
What Is The CARES Act? The CARES Act temporarily protects some renters from eviction for nonpayment of rent. It also stops late fees for rent from March 26, 2020 until July 25, 2020. Landlords cannot issue notices to vacate for nonpayment during this time. You still have to pay rent even if your home is covered by the CARES Act. […]
Rural TX – Lone Star Legal Aid was awarded a new grant from Texas Access to Justice Foundation to serve struggling Texans in rural communities. LSLA serves 47 designated rural counties and the remaining 25 counties are designated urban with rural areas. Many communities are long distances from LSLA offices, and they suffer from isolation, extreme poverty levels, no public […]