Earned Income Credit Awareness Day is an event organized by the IRS and its partners to educate the public about the EITC and requirements to claim the credit. The goal is to raise awareness of EITC to ensure every qualified worker claim and receive their EITC. What is the EITC? The Earned Income Tax Credit, EITC or EIC, is a […]
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, 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 […]
Healthcare.gov is now open for enrollment, re-enrollment, or changes to your health plan! All enrollments, re-enrollments, and changes must be made by December 15, 2020. Please note this deadline is different for Medicare Part D. The Medicare Part D open enrollment period ends December 7, 2020. The Medicare plan in place December 8, 2020, will be the plan set for […]
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 […]
The IRS announced yesterday that they were extending the amount of time Americans have to request their Economic Impact Payment (stimulus) to November 21, 2020. This applies to people who didn’t have to file a 2019 tax return, who didn’t get their payment or register for it. If you have already completed the non-filer portal but have not gotten your […]
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 […]
This week’s Facebook Live virtual outreach schedule is jam-packed with information about resources from several of our community partners. Tune in at www.facebook.com/LoneStarLegalAid to catch one of our presentations listed below. Tuesday, September 29, 2020, at 1:00 PMOur Crime Victim’s Unit will talk with HPD’s Victim Services Department about resources for survivors of domestic abuse. Wednesday, September 30, 2020, at […]
Our Beaumont, Clute, and Galveston offices are closed today, Monday, September 21, 2020 due to inclement weather. This post will be updated throughout the day if more offices closures are necessary. Individuals may still apply for legal assistance over the phone at 1-800-733-8394 or online at www.lonestarlegal.org.
Have you suffered food loss because of Hurricane Laura? A news release from Governor Abbot says that SNAP (Food Stamp) recipients in Hardin, Jefferson, Newton, Orange, Sabine, San Augustine, Shelby, and Tyler counties will automatically receive replacement food stamp benefits. People in these counties have until September 30, to report other food loss and ask for benefits in addition to […]
Lone Star Legal Aid’s Individual Safety Unit has created The Safe Space, a virtual outreach series that will premier monthly to provide information and resources about sexual assault to survivors. Sexual violence can have an immediate and devastating effect on the survivor in nearly every aspect of their life, resulting in a need for survivor-centered and trauma-informed legal representation. Since […]
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 […]
Houston, TX – Lone Star Legal Aid’s Dana Karni, Managing Attorney of the Eviction Right to Counsel unit, has been appointed to the Harris County and the City of Houston’s Housing Stability Task Force. With sixteen years’ experience, Ms. Karni’s practice covers cases in Justice of the Peace courts, state civil courts, and includes federal civil district court litigation on […]
For tenants facing eviction, the Supreme Court of Texas issued its 20th Emergency Order on Tuesday, July 21, 2020. The order applies to rental properties covered by the CARES Act and requires landlords to make three statements about the rental property. First, the landlord must state that the tenant was provided with a 30 day Notice to Vacate. Failure to […]
Under the existing law, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), employers of a certain size are required to allow workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave without losing their job for personal sickness, to take care of sick family members or for a new baby. That could well apply to anyone who is sick or caring for a […]