Everything gets harder after an eviction. First of all, you’re homeless. Secondly, you have an eviction on your record, which makes it harder to find a landlord who will rent to you. That’s why our attorneys work hard to keep people from getting evicted in the first place. Marcia received an eviction notice because she was late with her rent several times. The late fees piled up. The 64-year-old veteran lives in a small, East Texas town. She is disabled. She lives on a small Social Security Disability check.
She’d recently fallen more than 2 months behind on rent. She was able to get caught up thanks to a local non-profit, but then, she fell behind again. That’s when the eviction notice appeared. She called Lone Star Legal Aid and connected with attorney Jordan Palmer in our Nacogdoches office.
Palmer looked at Marcia’s eviction notice. He saw a problem. The landlord didn’t follow the proper procedure. The letter said Marcia had to appear in court in ten days – in a neighboring town. The courthouse, a three-window trailer on a packed-dirt parking lot, was a four hour walk from Marcia’s home. If she had a car, Marcia could’ve made the trip in 15 minutes, but she didn’t have a car. Furthermore, there is no public bus or shuttle to take her from her neighborhood to the courthouse.
Attorney Palmer recognized the emergency. He accepted her case right away. His Nacogdoches office is even further from the little courthouse. But this is what Legal Aid lawyers do. They drive an hour and a half to a tiny courthouse — just to point out a technical error in an eviction case. If it helps someone like Marcia stay in her home, it’s worth it. The Nacogdoches office helps people with legal problems across 11 counties in rural East Texas.
On the day of the court hearing, attorney Palmer drove across two counties and stood before the judge with his evidence. The judge agreed and cancelled the eviction. Keeping people like Marcia housed helps everyone. Homelessness is a much harder problem to solve than a late rent payment.
Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit law firm focused on advocacy for low-income populations by providing free legal education, advice, and representation. LSLA serves millions of people at 125% of federal poverty guidelines, who live in 72 counties in the eastern and Gulf Coast regions of Texas, and 4 counties in Southwest Arkansas. To learn more about Lone Star Legal Aid, visit our website at www.LoneStarLegal.org.
Media contact: media@lonestarlegal.org