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 information about evictions and creating court documents that renters can use in their fight. The A2J technology assembles court papers that renters can file in eviction court. With generous funding from the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, the Disaster Team at LSLA developed a guided interview that will allow renters who are representing themselves in eviction court, law students, and attorneys to create court documents to file in eviction court.
The A2J Guided® Interview (shown in the image below) walks users through a step-by-step question and answer process, which, in the end, creates a legal form. The A2J Guided® Interview takes away the stress and confusion of filling out complicated legal forms, often full of legal jargon. If the tenants still need legal help, the tool will also help them apply for free legal assistance in their area.
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You can also access the interview on our new COVID-19 Eviction and Other Resources page along with other helpful information.
Reminder: In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Texas Supreme Court ordered relief to renters in Texas by postponing evictions through May 19, 2020. On May 14, 2020, the Texas Supreme Court ordered that Texas landlords who file evictions must show the court that they are not covered by the CARES Act, a new Federal law. The CARES Act requires landlords who participate in certain Federal programs to postpone evictions until after July 24, 2020, and to not charge late fees to people who can’t pay their rent. This is an important protection for tenants who don’t have information about whether their landlord must wait to file the eviction.
Lone Star Legal Aid has created a new tool, LSLA CARES, to help you search the many public databases available to find out if your property is subject to the CARES Act. See if your property is covered here.
You can apply for our services over the phone at 1-800-733-8394 or online below and we can search for that information for you.
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 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 http://www.lonestarlegal.org.
Media contact: Clarissa Ayala, cayala@lonestarlegal.org.
