October 25, 2017 by Clarissa Ayala
Lone Star Legal Aid Awarded One Year Hurricane Harvey Relief Grant from Texas Bar Foundation
Topic
Press Releases
For Immediate Release
Beaumont, TX — The Texas Bar Foundation has awarded Lone Star Legal Aid a one-year, $76,854 grant that will support its efforts to provide disaster legal services to Texans who are struggling to make ends meet in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. This grant will support an attorney for one year in our Beaumont office. The attorney will focus on helping Harvey survivors address legal issues that must be resolved in order to recover from the impact of the devastating hurricane.
Our Beaumont office services Hardin, Jefferson, Liberty, and Orange Counties. This area, Port Arthur specifically, was hit extremely hard with monumental flooding, destroying countless homes and apartment complexes.
As part of LSLA’s representation of tenants who survived Hurricane Harvey in this region, 3 temporary restraining orders have been granted against landlords attempting to evict tenants, which resulted in tenants having time to retrieve their personal belongings from damaged apartments. With so many individuals and families who have lost their homes, the City of Port Arthur has resorted to the creation of a military-style tent city in order to house residents.
“There is an overwhelming need for disaster legal services in Hardin, Jefferson, Liberty and Orange Counties. Adding an attorney to our staff will increase the number of cases we can take and the Harvey survivors we can help. We are so pleased that the Texas Bar Foundation is helping us to meet this need,” said Tai Ho, managing attorney of our Beaumont office. Lone Star Legal Aid’s Director of Disaster Legal Services, Saundra Brown, stated that “adding a staff attorney in Beaumont will allow us to assist in the short and long-term legal issues survivors will face, including relocation and transitional housing; evictions and lease terminations; foreclosures; home repair scams; insurance claims and appeals; property rights, title-clearing, property related probate or tax problems, and of course a large number of FEMA appeals. We’ve spent years helping residents recover from Hurricane Ike and we’re ready to help them with their recovery from Hurricane Harvey as well.”
The Texas Bar Foundation solicits charitable contributions and provides funding to enhance the rule of law and the system of justice in Texas, especially for programs that relate to legal assistance for the underserved, the administration of justice, ethics in the legal profession, the encouragement of legal research, publications and forums, and education of the third branch of government. For more information about the Texas Bar Foundation, visit https://txbf.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 also 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, such as 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
