LSLA NEWSROOM

Tenaha: DA's Request to Use "Highway Robbery" Funds for her Defense Prompts ACLU Action

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:26:00 +0000

Texas Statute Paves Way for Highway Robbery

Last Friday, the ACLU and the ACLU of Texas submitted a brief to the Texas Attorney General’s office arguing that a District Attorney in East Texas should be barred from using money unfairly taken from motorists under Texas’s asset forfeiture law to defend herself from a lawsuit brought by motorists who claim that their property was taken illegally.

The District Attorney, Lynda K. Russell, is accused of participating in a scheme in which police officers routinely pulled over motorists in the vicinity of Tenaha, Texas without cause, asked if they were carrying cash and, if they were, ordered them to sign over the cash to the town or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes. The seizures were purportedly made under Texas’s asset forfeiture law, which enables authorities to seize the profits of crime without a conviction. However, authorities had no evidence that plaintiffs were engaged in any criminal activity. None of the plaintiffs was arrested or ever charged with a crime. In a CNN.com article, David Guillory, one of two lawyers representing the plaintiffs, estimates that authorities in Tenaha seized an astounding $3 million between 2006 and 2008, and that in about 150 cases – almost all of which involved African-American or Latino motorists – the seizures were illegal.

District Attorney Russell argued that she should be able to use these funds for the “official purpose” of defending herself from charges that she threatened motorists with criminal charges if they didn’t hand over their money. The irony is rich, given that the purpose of the asset forfeiture law is to make sure that criminals don’t benefit from their crimes. Furthermore, Texas law prohibits the D.A. from using forfeited assets for this purpose.

According to state legislator John Whitmire, police agencies across Texas are wielding the asset-forfeiture law more aggressively these days to shore up their shrinking operating budgets. In Tenaha, the facts show that it was African American motorists who were forced to pay the price for the economic shortfall. Similarly, near the Mexican border, Hispanics allege that they are being singled out by local law enforcement. Yet again, it looks like people of color have come to bear the brunt of unfair and illegal enforcement of policy. What’s more, this is not the first time that the use of asset forfeiture as a law enforcement tool has been criticized. The practice received considerable attention in 2000 and 2001.

Although the ACLU opposes the use of forfeited assets to pay for District Attorney Russell’s defense, the ACLU has also argued that she should receive skilled government legal representation. In a disturbing refusal to accept responsibility for the D.A.’s actions, the Attorney General and the county both refused to represent Russell. Left unchallenged, this position is a threat to the civil and constitutional rights of all citizens. When a public official violates constitutional rights, the government must be held accountable. Otherwise, a dangerous precedent is set whereby government may excuse itself from overseeing the people it empowers and finances to act on its behalf. Either the county or the State must step up and take responsibility for Russell’s actions in Tenaha.

The Brazosport Facts: Finding A Silver Lining - One Year After Ike

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:53:00 +0000

Hurricane Ike: Finding a silver lining

Photo: Dan Dalstra, Brazosport Facts
Debra and Paul Furrh and their daughter, Maddie, examine a hole in their wall at their Lake Jackson home a year after wind from Hurricane Ike knocked a large tree through the house.

One Year After Hurricane Ike

By Nathaniel Lukefahr

Ray Wilkinson plans to begin today shooting the breeze with passers-by from the porch of his new Arizona home. It’s the same thing he did almost every morning during a 30-year stay on the Surfside beachfront. He’ll do the same thing today, but the former islander does not expect the day to end the same as it did last year.He’ll do the same thing today, but the former islander does not expect the day to end the same as it did last year.

Without a car and unable to get a lift off Surfside Beach because he many times had refused help from police, Wilkinson rode out Hurricane Ike’s howling wind and powerful storm surge from an apartment on Fort Velasco Drive. As the storm began pushing water over the roadways and flinging objects through the air, Wilkinson left his porch and moved inside, attempting to find peace amid the fury by resting in bed.

“The storm got to shaking the house so bad that I got out of bed and laid down on the floor,” Wilkinson said. “There was nothing else I could do.”

Wilkinson emerged from the apartment hours later to find the island battered and many buildings severely damaged or destroyed, but he walked away unscathed. In the days following, the former Marine would become a local celebrity for riding out the storm with beer and cigarettes.

But things can change drastically over the course of a year, even for an old carpenter set in his ways, Wilkinson said from his new home. The change of scenery helped Wilkinson curb his drinking and smoking habits, and he began receiving treatment for a hip problem. And the celebrity is no more, Wilkinson said.

“When I went through that, I realized I had had enough,” Wilkinson said. “I like privacy just like you do and anyone else. I get tired of repeating it to people all the time. Would I advise anyone else doing that? No. Would I advise me doing it? Didn’t intend to.” “But it happens,” he said. “That’s the best way I can put it.”

THE DEVASTATION

Ike’s 110-mph wind and 20-foot storm surge pummeled the Texas coastline early Sept. 13, 2008, causing more than 800,000 insurance claims totaling more than $10 billion in damages, according to the Insurance Council of Texas.

First responders determined 20 people died in the Category 2 storm, but none died in Brazoria County. Coastal towns in counties most affected by the storm — Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston and Jefferson counties — suffered major losses, according to the insurance council.

Every structure in Quintana suffered some damage from the storm, while Surfside Beach sustained $7 million to $10 million in damages and 20 homes were either pulled into the Gulf of Mexico or destroyed. One of t he homes lost at sea was a blue beachhouse managed by Brooks Porter.

Once Porter was able to make it through the debris cluttering the front row, the only proof the 1,100-foot rental home had existed was three small pieces of siding resting on the ground and one damaged piling. “Everything else was completely gone — no bathtubs, no couches, no nothing,” Porter said.

\

THE UNEXPLAINABLE

One year after Ike’s storm surge pushed almost 7 feet of water into Anchor Church in Surfside Beach, twisting the building 8 degrees and causing severe damage, congregants still can’t explain a mystery within.
Congregants found flood damage almost to the top of the church’s doorways, fallen walls and a refrigerator and freezer, table and chairs, and desks had been thrust outside. But a set of books in a bookshelf about 4 feet high were untouched.

“I thought, ‘Well, maybe the pressure of the building would not let it come in,’” Pastor Gaylan Jones said with a laugh. “But that isn’t so, because you could see how it was totally washed out everywhere. It’s kind of unexplainable, but we had the books to prove it.”

The church was condemned and since has been demolished, Jones said. Now, congregants meet in Richwood for praise and worship every weekend, but the pull of the ocean is too strong. People were saying, ‘Let’s look for something over the levee,’ but after we got off, people began to say, ‘We miss the beach.’” Jones said. “We checked around and asked how many want to go back and it was just about unanimous.”

Plans are to take $400,000 of insurance money and rebuild the church when this year’s hurricane season comes to a close, Jones said. But there will be one change.

“I guarantee you that it won’t be on the ground,” Jones said.

Members must replace most of the items that were inside the church when water pummeled the building, but the books that survived the storm unscathed come as proof that miracles do happen, he said.

THE EVACUATION

For Jim Andreas, the hurricane brought out the good in people, showed him others cared and was a way for community members to get together and work through problems as a group, not leaving one person to fend for himself.

Andreas, like about 1,200 Brazoria County residents, evacuated his Freeport home on a bus to a Bell County shelter through the 2-1-1 service for people who have medical needs, don’t have a vehicle or don’t have money to travel. There, Andreas says, he felt treated like an equal and made many friends.

“When we got there it was more like, ‘God, am I in a major hotel?’” Andreas said. “That’s the way they took care of us. It was a lot more than I expected. The people up there — I’ll walk there if I have to go to get back to that place.”

Andreas evacuated for Ike and for Hurricane Rita, and said there’s no way to compare the two evacuations.

“The first time we went it was just a terrible situation because of the trip, not because of where we were,” Andreas said. “It was the 24 hours I was in a school bus in clothes and stuff that weren’t meant for that type of trip in a non-air-conditioned school bus.”

But the trip during Hurricane Ike was about six hours, and when he got to the final destination, it was well worth it. “The second trip was fantastic,” he said. “It was well-planned and they got us there in a comfortable situation as quickly as possible.”

Andreas has registered for the 2-1-1 service again and says he won’t think twice before evacuating if another storm comes Brazoria County’s way. “I’ve already got my plans right here in front of me,” he said with a laugh.

READY TO GO BACK HOME

Paul and Debra Furrh have marked this Thanksgiving as a return to normality. After months of arguing with insurance companies and waiting on trustworthy contractors to become available, construction on their Lake Jackson home is under way and could be finished by the start of the holiday season.

The roof is on, the rafters have been fixed and the trees are gone, but work on the interior has not been completed yet, Paul Furrh said.

“It was a long, drawn-out ordeal that took a long time to finish,” Paul Furrh said of dealing with insurers and contractors. “I’m tired of the whole thing.”

The home suffered severe damage during the hurricane when a tree fell and snapped a water line, leading to flooding and eventually gutting the majority of the house.

Since then, the couple and their five children have been living in their Surfside Beach vacation home, which they were surprised made it through the storm. Debra Furrh said the family is thankful for its second home, but after one year, it’s getting a little cramped.

The Furrhs provide legal assistance to low-income families who have suffered loss in disasters such as hurricanes, Paul Furrh said. The destruction of their home has helped them relate to clients.

“It’s been a long year,” he said. “I’m much more sympathetic than I ever was in my life to my clients after having my life disrupted. It’s just not an easy thing.”

THE REBUILDING

Lake Jackson Public Works Director Craig Nisbett was shocked when he saw what Ike left in its wake a year ago. More than 80,000 cubic yards of trees and other organic debris were scattered everywhere, blocking roadways and hindering attempts to get municipal services back online.

“When I first saw it, I said, ‘My goodness, how are we going to get all that picked up?’” Nisbett said.

It took about 4,000 truckloads, or three days’ worth of trips to the city’s waste site, to clean it all up.

Mike Sorrell, owner of debris removal company Mike Sorrell Trucking & Materials, was tasked with cleaning what the storm left in its wake along Brazoria County’s coastal communities and Bluewater Highway. Mangled tree limbs, home debris and dead animals were all over the coastal area, and crews removed them with bulldozers, excavators and front-end loaders.

Sorrell had a special request from county leaders to create a makeshift path down Bluewater Highway so sheriff’s deputies could reach the Treasure Island subdivision near San Luis Pass.

“I took a ’dozer through and around the washed-out areas to make us a path,” Sorrell said. “It was nasty — a lot of dead hogs and dead birds.” The hurricane knocked out power to many cities for as long as three weeks, but the county’s industrial backbone quickly stepped in to help them out so they could run essential services. Dow Chemical Co. offered generators to Surfside Beach and Lake Jackson, while BASF loaned equipment to the same cities, Freeport and Demi-John Island.

“It was a need,” BASF Freeport site General Manager Art Colwell said. “We live in this community. It’s your family and it hurts, so you want to do what you can to relieve that.”

THE LESSON LEARNED

Even with all the destruction and the exhaustive work to put everything back together, area leaders say the storm has a silver lining: Teamwork and determination can overcome any obstacle.

After crews worked to remove debris, repair infrastructure and replenish the beach, Surfside Beach and Quintana officials reported strong spring break and Memorial Day attendance.

“I think it looks better than it did before,” Sorrell said. Ray Wilkinson, the man who faced the hurricane head-on and survived, agreed, even if he’s not there anymore.

“Even before I left it was coming back pretty good,” he said. “It will be there in no time.”

Facts reporter Erin McKeon contributed to this story.

Nathaniel Lukefahr covers coastal communities for The Facts. Contact him at 979-237-0151 or nathaniel.lukefahr(at)thefacts.com.

BY THE NUMBERS

Key numbers in Hurricane Ike recovery:

800,000

Number of insurance claims filed in Texas as a result of Ike

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$10 billion

Total amount of damage from Ike as judged by the value of insurance claims.

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$7 million per day

Amount FEMA has disbursed in Texas since Ike made landfall early on Sept. 13, 2008. That amounts to about $2.5 billion total.

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$1.15 billion

Amount FEMA spent on debris removal statewide.

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$21.4 million

Amount FEMA has given Brazoria County for debris removal.

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$4.04 million

Amount FEMA spent in Brazoria County to replace buildings and the equipment within.

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$16.7 million

Amount of FEMA money awarded to Brazoria County homeowners.

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$189.56 million

Amount of FEMA housing money distributed in Galveston County since Ike.

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$28.63 million

Amount of assistance Brazoria County businesses have received since Ike.

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$242 million

FEMA funds received by Galveston County businesses.

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$637 million

Business assistance statewide from FEMA.

Sources: FEMA, Insurance Council of Texas

State of Texas Sued Over Food Stamp Delays; Applicants Wait 6 Months When Federal Regulations Say No More Than 30 Days

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:12:00 +0000

TEXAS SUED FOR DELAY ON FOOD STAMPS
Applicants waiting months for a process feds say should take 30 days

To get more information about Health and Human Services programs that provide food and other assistance, call 2-1-1 or 1-877-541-7905.

AUSTIN - Rachel Cavazos is getting close to desperate. A pending divorce and no full-time job have left her struggling to feed her four children. She applied for food stamps in April but is still is waiting for approval. "It's very upsetting. It's very frustrating," the 32-year-old Houston woman said. "It's very hurtful, especially when somebody doesn't give you the benefit of the doubt. The help is not for me. It's for my babies. I don't want my children to suffer."

Cavazos is one of thousands of Texans waiting for food stamps, demand for which has spiked in recent months. The long wait has prompted some advocates to file a class-action lawsuit to try to force Texas to comply with federal regulations requiring that most eligible applicants be certified for food stamps within 30 days. "There has been a long-standing delay in certifying people for food stamps in Texas," said Texas Legal Services attorney Bruce Bower, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit. "The food stamp benefit is 100-percent federally funded. All that Texas has to put in is one-half of the cost of administration. ... It's up to them to figure out how many people they need to administer the program in accordance with federal guidelines."

The Legislature authorized the state's Health and Human Services Commission, which administers food stamps, to hire 656 employees starting Sept. 1 to help determine applicants' eligibility. "We have an obligation to do better for Texas, and we're trying," agency spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said, "but adding workers is a long-term solution because of the length of time it takes to train workers. So, it doesn't provide the immediate relief we need in a short-term situation like a hurricane or what we hope is a temporary downturn in the economy. Workers are coming in early, staying late and working weekends to try and catch up."

Critics counter that the number of new employees will not substantially change the ratio of recipients per worker - roughly 779 today. "This lawsuit is the direct result of the Legislature's unwillingness to provide adequate funding for the state's eligibility system," said Celia Hagert, a senior policy analyst at the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities, which tracks issues important to lower-income Texans. "We have urged the state to address the crisis in our eligibility system for years and are hopeful that legal action will bring about the needed fixes."

So far this year, the percentage of applications that took longer than 30 days to certify has ranged from 19 percent in January to 37 percent in July. Two years ago, 2.3 million Texans depended on the food assistance program. Today that number has grown to 2.8 million. More than 364,000 Harris County residents were on food stamps last month, about 63,000 more than in July 2007. The average Harris County family receives $324 worth of food aid per month. People are eligible for food stamps if their income falls below the federal poverty guideline, which this year is $14,570 for a family of two; $18,310 for a family of three; $22,050 for a family of four.

Donna, a 66-year-old Houston woman with health problems and no insurance, renewed her food stamp application in early June. Recipients must reapply every six months. She still is waiting to get help for food purchases. "I have just been doing without," said the woman, who asked that her last name not be used. "I am not trying to get myself put forth in front of the line over somebody else. I'm trying to speak out for the masses. It's very frustrating dealing with them."

Food stamp applicants should document their paperwork, said Jeff Larsen, a staff attorney for Lone Star Legal Aid. Some lose valuable time because the agency cannot account for their applications, he said. Sending the request by certified mail or from a fax machine provides a valuable record, he said. Cavazos is trying to keep a positive outlook, despite the hardship. She has no vehicle. She cleans houses for $40 a job whenever she can find work. "I am very blessed," she says.
gscharrer@express-news.net

Kemah homeowners face losing Ike-damaged property - Galveston Daily News

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:03:00 +0000

The Galveston County Daily News
Homeowners face losing Ike-damaged property
By Rhiannon Meyers
The Daily News
Published October 4, 2009

Manuel Chavez Jr. sleeps on a mattress on the floor of a house Hurricane Ike flooded a year ago. There are holes in the roof where a tree fell through, leaving blackened tufts of insulation poking through the ceiling. There is a spider-web pattern of fissures in the floor where an uprooted tree cracked the concrete foundation. Drywall hidden behind a layer of gray stucco is moldy and rotten. The air-conditioning doesn’t work. Kemah city officials told Chavez he can’t live in these shabby conditions. He must repair his house and elevate it — or he must leave. Officials in Kemah and Clear Lake Shores warned the owners of at least seven other storm-damaged houses they must repair or demolish their properties.

But Chavez and others said they can’t afford the repairs. The flood of federal dollars that was supposed to help needy people repair and rebuild their hurricane-damaged houses haven’t arrived. Though the federal government set aside $3 billion to aid recovery from hurricanes Ike and Dolly, some people who need help the most can’t get it.

Coming To A Head
In the past year, officials in Kemah and Clear Lake Shores have allowed people to live in conditions the city never would have permitted before Hurricane Ike. But some people have done nothing to repair their houses. The situation is coming to a head, building inspector Jack Fryday said. Clear Lake Shores officials notified the owners of two houses they are living in substandard conditions, Fryday said.

In Kemah, at least six Spanish-speaking families, including Chavez and his elderly parents, have sought help from Lone Star Legal Aid to try and hold onto their houses, which they have been unable to repair or raise, Fryday said. Kemah eventually will set a firm deadline by which residents must repair, and in some cases elevate, their houses or must demolish them, City Manager Bill Kerber said. Kerber said he knows not all Kemah families can afford the repairs. Kemah referred residents who asked for help to area charities or church groups, but some residents never asked for help, he said.

Besides, they should have had flood insurance before Hurricane Ike, Kerber said.“The federal money is slow coming in — we understand that,” he said. “But the fact of the matter is that these people, whoever they are, decided to build in a flood plain and build in an area that is below base flood elevation and they got caught up in the system … and it’s unfortunate.”

Not Targeting Poor
Some people might not be able to afford to meet those standards and won’t be able to afford to live in Kemah, but the city is not trying to force out its poor, Kerber said.“I’m so tired of that crap — I really am,” he said. “It’s like we’re the bad guys. We’ve done everything in the world to try to help these people. I’m sorry they’re poor. I’m sorry that they don’t have any means. We tried to guide them in the right direction to those programs that are, unfortunately, late.

“But everybody wants to put the bad-guy thing on us. Like we don’t want the poor Mexicans or the poor blacks, and we only want the rich people and the Tilman Fertittas. That is absolutely ludicrous.” Fertitta is the CEO of Landry’s, which has invested millions in the city, including its landmark Boardwalk. A city is not protecting residents if it allows them to live in substandard and unsafe conditions, Kerber said. But Chavez said he doesn’t know what he’ll do if the city gives him the ultimatum to demolish. He already applied for a demolition permit for his house to buy time with the city. The permit expires in January. After that, the city could start condemnation procedures, or it could give residents more time to repair and rebuild their houses. That decision will be left to the city council, Kerber said.But, he added, Kemah can’t wait forever for those repairs to happen.

Help Slow To Arrive
In the meantime, there is a “major lack of resources” in Galveston County to help the neediest victims of Hurricane Ike, Brittany Rodriguez, Recovery for Ike Survivors Enterprise spokeswoman, said. The organization, which is operated by Lutheran Social Services, has been charged by the Federal Emergency Management Agency with finding Gulf Coast hurricane victims and connecting them with services or resources near their homes. The case management program is a first for FEMA. The agency gave Lutheran Social Services, which is based in Austin, and other organizations $24.3 million to hire case managers from area charitable organizations, including several in Galveston County. The case managers so far have found 548 Galveston County people who need help with everything from patching a hole in a roof to building an entirely new house, Rodriguez said. New cases come in daily, she said.Unfortunately, financial help in Galveston County is scarce, Rodriguez said.Local charities are stretched thin, she said. Federal dollars that are supposed to help people repair their homes won’t arrive for months.“One of the hardest things for case managers to do is having to contact people and say, ‘We’ve got your case, but there’s nothing we can do for you,’ which I’m sure is frustrating to people,” she said. “We want to help everybody. Our goal is to help everybody get back to their pre-disaster lives, but the resources aren’t there.”The situation should improve when the first round of federal Community Development Block Grant money — $1.3 billion already approved by the state — trickles down to Galveston County, Rodriguez said. The city of Galveston, which has hired a consultant to divide the money among needy homeowners and renters, could start helping people make repairs by January or February, city spokeswoman Alicia Cahill said.Galveston County may not be able to help people make repairs until the spring at the earliest.

They Must Leave
Every day that ticks by without help, Mark Holland inches closer to losing his childhood home in Clear Lake Shores. He collected $15,000 in insurance money, but it wasn’t enough to repair the brick home that filled with 5 feet of water during Hurricane Ike. He said he’s fighting the insurance company for more money. Holland lived with his brother in a travel trailer in front of his home until Clear Lake Shores told the brothers the trailer had to go. Leaders of the small town, taking pity on the Hollands, allowed them to keep the trailer until Oct. 31, but the brothers moved out anyway, City Manager Paul Shelley said. Since they couldn’t afford to repair the house, Holland built a temporary house — a small plywood storage shed with a loft and enough room for two beds, a desk and a few chairs. Without windows, the shed is stuffy and hot, even with the wide barn doors flung open. There’s no bathroom, so the brothers trek inside to use the moldy shower or the toilet.The air is thick, and it smells like rot and mold inside the darkened house. When neighbors complained about the noise from the generator the Hollands use to power a computer and cell phone chargers, the brothers muffled the sound by operating the gas-powered machine inside the gutted house. Every time they have to use the bathroom, they run inside, shut off the generator and throw open the doors of the house to ventilate the carbon monoxide.“I’ve got to tell them to leave,” Fryday, the inspector for both Kemah and Clear Lake Shores, said. “They’re just one step above being under a bridge.”

No Solutions
But, Holland said he can’t afford the repairs. He said he called the program run by Lutheran Social Services for help, but he hasn’t heard back. Rodriguez said while the organization’s goal is to contact clients within one or two weeks after they call, some case managers, especially in Galveston County, have been taking up to six weeks to return calls. The organization is working on fixing that lag time, she said. But even if the Hollands were assigned a case manager, the help they need to rebuild the house isn’t available.Fryday said he explained to the Hollands the city can’t continue to allow them to live in such unhealthy and substandard conditions.“What kind of solution do you have?” Fryday asked Holland.“The only solution I have is to put a bullet in my head,” Holland answered.

Avoiding Disaster After a Major Disaster Hits Your Home

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:32:00 +0000

Guest Column:

Lewis Kinard, Supervising Attorney, Centralized Intake Unit & Disaster Outreach, LSLA

http://lewiskinard.blogspot.com/

As Lone Star Legal Aid continues to work with people impacted by Hurricane Ike, we see far too many preventable problems. In some cases, pre-disaster preparation could have saved a lot of stress and strife after the storm. But a number of the problems we see now, a year after Ike, relate to efforts to repair homes damaged by the storm. They are too often very avoidable.

No one questions the desire to quickly get back to pre-hurricane living conditions. That sense of urgency, together with the emotions that well up after a serious threat like Ike, can cloud one’s judgment. People who normally make sound decisions are likely to have a few moments of weakness or drop their guards when they encounter strangers who seem outwardly very genuine and sincere with offers to help get life back to the way it should be. Rest assured, the most untrustworthy scam artists are the ones who have polished their sales pitches and worked on their smiles.

We at Lone Star Legal Aid offer these tips to help people in their efforts to recover. Keep the list somewhere safe or give it to a family member or friend who may need them and pull it out when considering any major home repair project. Help us prevent home repair contractor fraud and contract disputes before the money is gone.

1. NEVER give your FEMA number to anyone besides FEMA or your insurance company; treat it like your Social Security Number.

2. Get all estimates in writing, and get several.

3. Remember your right to rescind a contract when the seller came to your house to get you to sign

4. Check out the people who give you estimates (BBB, references from several months ago (not just down the block that day), court records, criminal records, etc.);

5. Insist on a simple, plain-language contract that you have read and understand before signing.

6. NEVER give a down-payment; instead make progress payments to cover the work as you are satisfied with it. Best: pay half when the work is half done and the other half once the contract is completed to your satisfaction and all sub-contractors and suppliers have been paid.

7. If the contractor uses sub-contractors, require releases from the subs and suppliers before you pay the final half of the money. If not, they can put liens on your home until they get paid.

Almost every problem related to home repair contractor fraud or substandard performance could be prevented or controlled by following Rule #6. If you never give up control over the money, the legitimate contractors will understand; the shysters will be discouraged; and hopefully, the work will be completed to your satisfaction.

United Way in Longview faces bigger need, fewer local donors

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:45:00 +0000

From the Longview News-Journal

By CHARLOTTE STEWART

It's a tough year to raise $1.325 million.

With unemployment at 8.3 percent in the Longview Metropolitan Statistical Area, needs are up, and the number of workers needed to make the donations are down.
Facing that reality, Greater Longview United Way's goal this year is $15,000 less than it was a year ago.

GLUW Executive Director Donna Mahurin said she believes the people and businesses of Longview are up to the task. In fact, the local organization has added another agency to the 18 that received funding last year. The Deaf Action Center is set to get an undetermined amount of funding.

"We don't really know how much to tell (nonprofit agencies) they're going to get," Mahurin said, "because we don't know how much we are going to take in. We divvy it up after we get the money. Otherwise, it's like paying the bills before you get a paycheck."

It's traumatic for these agencies to be approved for a certain amount, base their budget on that amount, then not get it, she said. "So, we aren't doing it," she said.

Mahurin has reason to be cautious. This time a year ago, the organization had raised $396,105; as of Tuesday, about $348,687 had been taken in, she said.

Programs, not agencies

GLUW no longer funds nonprofit organizations, per se, Mahurin said. This is the third year the organization has approved funds for various programs within an agency. These 36 programs fall into three categories: education, health and income. One agency might get funding for multiple programs.

For instance, Longview Community Ministries is approved for eight programs: five income, two health and one education program. The Arc of Gregg County has funding for one program: We Can Too At the Downtown Coffee Shop. For 2009, GLUW approved $128,379 for Longview Community Ministries' programs and $10,000 to The Arc's program.

Funding programs rather than agencies, Mahurin said, makes it easier to match up specific needs to a specific program. "This is more of a formula," she said. "People want to see how they're changing lives."

Health

As the new kid on the GLUW block, Edith Hirth, the Deaf Action Center's director of East Texas programs, is excited to be on board.

"Tell me the problems you're having, and let's see what we can do," she said while presenting a myriad of devices to aid people who have visual, hearing, speech, cognitive or mobility impairments.

"Do you need a phone with voice command? I've got that. Having trouble with memory? Maybe you need a phone with pictures of the person you're wanting to call. I've got a phone for that," she said as she brought out a phone with several small pictures on it.

GLUW has approved funding for the center's Specialized Telecommunications Assistance Program.

Quick to say the agency is funded through a state grant, but is not a state agency, Hirth said STAP is open to all Texans who can prove residency.

"You do not need a doctor's referral," she said. "Age is not a factor. I encourage anyone who is interested to contact me."

The center's phone number is (903) 553-9655.

Other agencies and their programs that fall under health are:

- East Texas Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, access to recovery and Gregg County family drug court

- East Texas Child Advocates, East Texas Court-Appointed Special Advocates

- East Texas Literacy Council, health literacy

- Longview Community Ministries, prescription and medical assistance and Longview emergency dental outreach

- Women's Center of East Texas, nonresidential program services and residential program services

Income

Founded in 1881, the Salvation Army is older than the United Way. The Army's mission is twofold: to spread the Christian gospel and serve the community, according to its Web site.

GLUW supports the latter part of the statement, funding comprehensive emergency services and transitional living.

"The names really explain the services," local director Maj. Robert Winters said. "Emergency services allows us to help folks who find themselves in an emergency ... and includes providing emergency shelter, food, electric bill assistance and other immediate needs."

The program provides assistance to about 12,000 people each year.

Winters said a lot of East Texans are living from one paycheck to the next, and a loss of job, fire, sickness or any number of circumstances can throw a person or family into "a state where if someone doesn't intervene, they're going to be out of power, out of water, or worse, out on the streets."

Transitional living is divided into programs for individuals and programs for families, Winters said.

"We have an action plan for each family to determine what you need to do to move from a shelter to a place of your own," he said. "Sometimes, it's as simple as getting to the next paycheck. Usually, though, it's more complicated."

Keeping families together at the shelter is a priority, Winters said. "We give them a room, just like a motel. That's where they stay."

People are allowed to stay at the shelter until the second paycheck, Winters said. After that second paycheck, it costs $5 a day to stay at the shelter.

"We want to give them time to build up enough savings to get a place or stabilize elsewhere," Winters said.

About 600 people are served each year through this program.

Other income agencies and programs supported by GLUW are:

- American Red Cross, emergency services/services to armed forces

- Community Healthcore, Fredonia Place

- Friends of Partners in Prevention, Circles of East Texas

- Longview Community Ministries, emergency rental assistance, food box, incremental housing assistance, Meals on Wheels and utility assistance.

- Longview Interfaith Hospitality Network, Inn-Keepers housing program

- Longview Habitat for Humanity, self-help home ownership program

Education

SeeSaw Children's Place was known as Camp Fire for many years. Executive Director Shirley Hook said she and her board of directors gave up the name, and paying the $1,500 annually to use it, in 2003.

"The name was misleading, anyway," Hook said.

SeeSaw is the only nonprofit, nonsectarian, licensed after-school program for children from 5 to 12 years old in Longview offering scholarships to low-income families who qualify, she said.

About 75 percent of the 145 students at SeeSaw use a full or partial scholarship, she said.

"It's vital to have a safe, educational, licensed place for these children to come," Hook said. "But a lot of families are going to pay rent, the bills, buy food and find there is no money left over for child care. A lot of them aren't going to see any choice but to leave those children alone.

"These are not bad people. These are not bad parents. These are people who paid for necessities and ran out of money."

Hook can hardly contain her delight of having SeeSaw in the former Pine Tree Primary building.

"Look at all this room," she said looking around at a practically empty room, cheerfully painted in primary colors. "We've been in a cafeteria for years, where we were licensed for 85 (children). We're licensed for more than 200 here."

Students typically come in from school, get a snack and play on the playground before doing any homework, she said.

Other GLUW supported education agencies and programs are:

- American Red Cross, positive youth development

- East Texas Area Council of Boy Scouts, Scouting and learning for life/venturing

- Boys & Girls Club of Gregg County, SMART Moves and Positive Place for Kids

- East Texas Child Advocates, Getting Together Safely

- East Texas Literacy Council, adult basic literacy/English as a second language and young adult dropout literacy program

- Friends of Partners in Prevention, Partners in Prevention mentoring program

- Girls Scouts of Northeast Texas, Girl Scouting in the School Day

- Longview Child Development Center, scholarships

- Longview Community Ministries, learning lab

- Parenting Resource center of East Texas, parent education classes

GLUW initiatives

In addition to the programs, GLUW funds five initiatives. These are programs designed to improve the community that are not offered by nonprofit agencies. They are:

- INFOline of Gregg County: A free community information and referral service for people who need assistance and don't know where to call. (903) 236-9211

- Home repairs: Provides minor repairs for low-income Longview homeowners in cooperation with various governmental entities, community organizations and volunteers.

- Legal assistance: Provides free legal assistance in cooperation with Lone Star Legal Aid to low-income residents and families who have immediate needs but cannot afford an attorney for things such as protective orders, divorce, custody and unfair landlord practices.

- VITA: Provides free preparation for income tax returns in cooperation with LeTourneau University and the Internal Revenue Service for low-income families.

- FamilyWize prescription drug cards: Pays part of prescription drugs cost at participating pharmacies.

* * *

Greater Longview United Way facts

Fundraising goal: $1.31 million, $15,000 less than this past year

Agencies funded: 19, one more than this past year

Program funded: 36

How to donate: Log on to www.longviewunitedway.org to give an online donation or call (903) 758-0191 for more information. Donations by mail also accepted.

Channel 13's Wayne Dolcefino Uncovers Shoreacres Residents Victimized by Hurricane Contractor

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:53:00 +0000

Ike victims complain about contractor

SHOREACRES, TX (KTRK) -- A mayor has tough words for an out-of-state hurricane contractor. One southeast Texas community has turned to 13 Undercover to help.

For some folks in Shoreacres, it's one nightmare after another. First, Hurricane Ike destroyed their home a year ago Sunday and now, it's still not livable.

This is why folks move to Shoreacres, but a year ago, this quiet bay was an angry wall of water ten feet high. I was busy battling the wind and water on the Seawall. The images still haunt the bay front.

"I spent about ten minutes in here and I left. I thought I was going to have a heart attack," said resident Scott Lowry.

The American flag was still flying outside, but inside Lowry's house was trashed.

"I was heartbroken. I didn't know whether to cry or what," said Lowry.

Scott and many of his neighbors turned to Florida-based Aruba Construction to rebuild. But now the nightmare of a storm has been replaced by the nightmare of a home still unlivable a full year after the hurricane.

"That toilet has been sitting there four months," said Lowry. "They broke windows out, moving sheetrock around, there's glass outside. They didn't even clean this out before they painted."

Shoreacres Mayor Jayo Washington is not surprised.

"That's the construction company I've heard 99 percent of complaints about," said Mayor Washington.

There are houses in Mayor Washington's town that have been rebuilt from the ground up already. Most folks are living normal lives while Lowry's belongings are still strewn on his back porch.

"This poor guy is sleeping on a couch at his ex in-law's house. How good could that be?" asked Mayor Washington.

In Lowry's garage, new appliances are still in the box. They were bought last Thanksgiving.

"That's why we've reached out to people like you, Wayne, to try to get this thing moving along," said Mayor Washington.

Aruba Construction is based in Florida, but it had to give Shoreacres the required insurance policy before it could work here. We checked it out. That policy was cancelled last January without any word to the city.

"I'm really upset about that. That really drives me nuts," said Mayor Washington.

The city's website chronicles Aruba horror stories. One woman calls the company "unscrupulous" and "immoral." Another customer told us they were "snakes."

When we told Gary of Aruba Construction of the complaints, he replied, "I would have to say that would be wrong."

He's the Aruba point man Lowry has been dealing with, trying to find out why his house still looks the way it does.

"Thanks very much for following me to the Home Depot. Find another story," said Gary.

"I don't know what kind of business you think you're running, but your customer service sucks," Mayor Washington told us about Aruba.

"I haven't heard those allegations from the mayor or anyone else," said Gary.

"Well, I'm telling you," we said.

"I'm hearing it second hand then and as you well know, second hand information is not reliable," said Gary.

"Watch TV Monday night and you'll see me talking to the mayor," we answered.

Mayor Washington reiterated to us how he feels about Aruba, "The people you have on the streets in my city are worthless."

The owner of Aruba Construction told us by phone that a whole series of problems, including cash flow, has delayed hurricane home repairs in Shoreacres. We told him we expect our neighbors in Shoreacres to get what they paid for. He promised to get the houses done. We'll see.

Temple Daily Telegram: Lone Star Legal Helps Guide Belton Pro Se Filers

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:52:00 +0000

If you can't afford a divorce attorney, appoint yourself
by Paul A. Romer
September 12, 2009

BELTON - Filing for divorce in Bell County generally requires at least one tutoring session for those who want to go through the process without an attorney. In some cases people seeking a divorce save money by filing court required paperwork on their own, but doing so affects the court system because people with inexperience typically slow the process down for everybody.

Up until a few years ago, even before court hearings were scheduled, pro se divorce filers in Bell County were affecting business at the Justice Center by continuously asking questions from clerks, who are forbidden by law to offer legal advice. Attorneys working in the county experienced delays filing paperwork with the district clerk and conducting business in court. Judges became frustrated with the volume of pro se filers, whom they could not help.

And the filers themselves were frustrated when they would show up to court but could not proceed and nobody could answer their questions. Two years ago, at the recommendation of 146th District Judge Rick Morris and District Clerk Sheila Norman, county commissioners agreed to contract with Lone Star Legal Aid to help shepherd pro se filers through the process.
“It helps them with paperwork and prevents the system from being clogged up with legally insufficient paperwork,” said County Judge Jon Burrows.

The county just renewed the contract with Lone Star and agreed to pay $28,000 for a year of the service. Norman said it has directly benefited her office, which she said in the past would spend up to 45 minutes assisting a single pro se filer. Now the service has become part of the process for up to 41 percent of the people filing for divorce in the county - that's how many have filed their own paperwork this year.

When divorcees are representing themselves, they are given packets of information to explain the process. “If they take the time to read the manual, they actually have the potential to complete all the steps by the first time they meet with us,” Christina Gindratt, staff attorney at Lone Star, said. Gindratt said her office serves as a legal adviser but does none of the work, which is reserved for the applicant. “The goal of the program is to assist the court with making certain that cases flow smoothly,” Gindratt said. “They usually have relatively minor, technical errors and the judge cannot assist them.”

Once a pro se filer has completed the necessary paperwork, it is reviewed by Lone Star, which has a presence each Tuesday at the Justice Center. “It's very unique,” Gindratt said about the way Bell County uses her company's services. “I don't know of any other counties that are doing it. It's basically one-on-one with an attorney.” The filer pays nothing for the service.
Norman said it is worth the price because it allows the district clerk's office and the courts to be more efficient.

Gindratt said it also helps divorcees avoid frustration with the process. Lone Star is only able to provide assistance where there are no attorneys involved on either side of a divorce. Gindratt said her office has assisted about 600 pro se filers in the county this year. “Our goal is to help people know what to expect when they walk into courtroom and have in-hand an enforceable decree,” she said. “But it's the litigants job to do all the work.”

Contractor Crackdown Clinic - Save the Date August 27 - Free Legal Help

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:39:00 +0000

Contractor Crackdown: DEALING WITH home repair scammers—FREE legal HELP AND open to public on August 27

Every hurricane brings along with it a surge of scammers, including home repair contractors, including some fly-by-night operators who specifically travel to Gulf Coast, delivering promises of rebuilding to vulnerable homeowners, then pocketing insurance settlements, savings accounts or whatever else they can swindle. Some contractors demand large, up-front payments, and then flee; others offer up shoddy work along with threats of enforcing contracts that have outrageous, practically impossible-to-interpret terms. Reigning in these rogue contractors can be as easy as knowing what steps to take before hiring a home repair contractor.

EVENT INFO
Thursday, AUGUST 27, CRYSTAL BEACH CHURCH OF CHRIST, ON BOLIVAR PENINSULA, HIGHWAY 87 AT ALMA, 6:30 P.M. TO 8:30 P.M.

JOIN LONE STAR LEGAL AID TO LEARN MORE ABOUT DEVIOUS HOME REPAIR CONTRACTORS AND THE STEPS TO TAKE SO YOU CAN AVOID BECOMING THe NEXT victim.

ABOUT LONE STAR LEGAL AID
Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA) is a non-profit law firm that provides free civil legal assistance to individuals and families who have immediate legal needs but cannot afford an attorney. Lone Star Legal Aid has uncovered countless repeat home repair conmen, a list of repeat offenders in the post-Ike aftermath, including notoriously fraudulent contractors with sophisticated, out-of-state operations who are already under allegations or suits from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

Prior to Ike, Lone Star Legal Aid closed 10,000 hurricane cases resulting from Rita and Katrina. Today, we have opened thousands of cases and reached more than 60,000 people through traveling thousands of miles to help people in need in the aftermath of Ike. In some cases, we were at the FEMA disaster recovery centers giving advice to those impacted by Ike. In others, we walked door to door, or in some cases, tent to tent, to distribute helpful information translated into English, Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese. We are still holding outreach in all the coastal communities and have prevailed in dozens of home repair contractor cases in 2009.

With 13 offices scattered from Angleton to Texarkana, LSLA offers advice and representation in matters related to education and individual rights, spousal and child abuse matters, food stamp and public benefit appeals, employment matters, civil rights, fair housing and tenant issues (including eviction defense), income maintenance, consumer protection against scams, foreclosure and homeownership legal issues and legal matters resulting from disasters. For more information, visit www.lonestarlegal.org.

Public service work fuels goal of law student - Houston Chronicle

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:55:00 +0000

Thanks Rebecca and Howrey HELPS Program!

Public service work fuels goal of law student
By ARLENE NISSON LASSIN CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT
July 28, 2009, 12:34PM

A passion for public service has driven Meyerland area resident Rebecca Rosenberg, 26, to a variety of community service, work positions, and eventually law school.

A 2005 graduate of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, Rosenberg is now attending the University of Texas Law School in Austin where she will earn a law degree in 2011.

Rosenberg says she is committed to the “ideal of using the legal system to further the ends of justice.”

“I definitely want to do some form of public service law, and it doesn't have to be for a specific cause,” Rosenberg said. “That would be the best use of my law degree and the most fulfilling for me personally.”

Rather than working in a clerkship in a law firm this summer, Rosenberg attended the school's public interest law career fair and she found out about various opportunities for law students in public service.

One such program is Howrey Externs for Legal Pro Bono Servie, or HELPS, in which the Howrey LLP law firm, 1111 Louisiana, awards a grant of $5,000 to three Houston area first year law students who work full time during the summer in a public interest capacity in Houston. Grant recipients must work for the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program or at Lone Star Legal Aid. Visit www.howrey.com/firm/community/. Rosenberg won a Howrey Extern grant.
The two other students selected for the Houston program are Austen Heim, who also attends the University of Texas Law School and is working at Lone Star Legal Aid. Kristen Motyka is a law student attending South Texas College of Law, and is spending the summer working with the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program. In total, the Howrey firm is sponsoring 14 “externs” across the country and in London this summer.

Rosenberg applied, by filling out a questionnaire and writing essays, and then was given an interview. She was thrilled to learn she was one of the three grant recipients from Houston for the summer 2009 program and is working for 10 weeks at Lone Star Legal Aid.
“I wanted something hands-on, where I could do real legal work, and help people who cannot afford legal representation,” Rosenberg said. “In my experience this summer I am doing case management from beginning to end.”

That includes representing some clients in Justice of the Peace courts, where she is allowed to be their legal representative despite being a law student. Her first case was a tenant/landlord eviction case.

“Someone has to protect the interests of the tenant, and many of these tenants cannot afford a lawyer,” Rosenberg said.

Other than that case, Rosenberg is doing legal research, and working on other forms of consumer law, including collection cases. Her job is to make sure the laws are being appropriately followed in all cases.

The daughter of attorney Bob Rosenberg, she grew up helping her dad at his office as he launched a new practice. She also found other work from 2006 through 2008 for other firms and then decided on law as a career after seeing first hand “what the practice of law was about.”
Her public service experience began during college where she did volunteer work as a tutor, and after graduating from college, joined AmeriCorps, where she was sent to Alamosa, Colo. From August 2006 to August 2007, she was a case manager at La Puente Home, working with clients to transition them from homelessness.

In law school at Austin, Rosenberg is active with the Texas Law Veterans Association, a student group devoted to supporting veterans who need legal assistance.

HELP! I need legal assistance and don't have money - via Examiner.com

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:51:00 +0000

HELP! I need legal assistance and don't have any money
Houston Legal Issues Examiner
Sami Hartsfield

What are low-income Texans to do when they need legal services and can’t afford them? One of the better options is to contact Lone Star Legal Aid – formerly known as Gulf Coast Legal Foundation – and ask!

Lone Star Legal Aid, the fourth largest provider of free legal services to low-income citizens and legal permanent residents, is a non-profit law firm serving 72 counties in southeast Texas and four in Arkansas. There are thirteen offices throughout east and southeast Texas, including one right here in downtown Houston at 1415 Fannin.

Lone Star offers its clients a wide variety of services, depending on need, and the resources available to service that need. Lone Star can offer advice and counsel, and can represent clients in both state and federal courts. Some clients may be referred out to other help organizations such as the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program. Lone Star conducts community outreach programs as well, and you may find a Lone Star legal team at a local shelter. You must meet minimum income guidelines to be eligible for their services.

Lone Star handles many different types of civil cases (they do not accept criminal cases), among them:
Family law (divorce, custody, adoption, etc);
Public benefits (TANF, Food stamps, social security disability, SSI, etc);
Employment (wage claims, unlawful termination);
Discrimination in employment, housing, education (based on race, religion, nationality, age, etc);
Health care (Medicaid, Medicare, nursing home, county health care, etc);
Consumer (deceptive trade practices, unfair debt collections, bankruptcy, etc);
Housing (public housing, evictions, foreclosures, etc); And more. You can see an exhaustive list of the types of cases handled here. There are also disaster recovery relief services available. You can read an interesting article about that here. To apply for services, call the intake line at the Houston office at 713.652.0077 or 800.733.8394. For a listing of other branch offices, go here. Se habla espanol.

For more info: Other options including contacting the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program (see my main page for web-site), a legal clinic sponsored by one of the local law schools, or the Houston Bar Association Legal Line . Also try TexasLawHelp.org for more answers to your questions and resources. Here is a Department of Justice listing of free legal services in Texas.

Find more helpful legal links on my main page.

Food Stamp Delays in Texas Trigger Lawsuit - San Antonio Express-News

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:42:00 +0000

Long food stamp wait triggers lawsuit

By Gary Scharrer - Express-News

AUSTIN — Abel Ruiz earns $800 a month. After paying the rent and utilities for the modest apartment on San Antonio's West Side that he shares with his pregnant 18-year-old wife, the part-time telephone operator has just $75 left for gas, bathroom supplies and food.
Often, the young couple's refrigerator and pantry sit mostly empty.

“I try to get canned food and noodles at the food pantries,” said Ruiz, 25. “And sometimes we go to my mom's to eat breakfast.”

More than 212,000 people in Bexar County last month relied on food stamps to help make ends meet. Abel and Shary Ruiz were receiving food stamps, but because they didn't renew their application, they had to reapply in July. They were told they wouldn't receive the assistance until Oct. 23 — six days after the couple's baby is due.

Tough economic times have triggered a big spike on the desperation meter for many Texans. So many more have applied for food stamps to feed their families that state officials have fallen behind.

“We don't understand what's going on. The state has the money, but they make it hard to get the help. They know we qualify. They have all our information: pay stubs, copies of Social Security cards, drivers' licenses,” Ruiz said. “Everything they need, they have it. I don't know why we have to wait so long. I don't want to feel like I'm begging.”

Late last week, Ruiz was given an Aug. 17 appointment to seek recertification for food stamps.
Two years ago, 2.3 million Texans depended on the food assistance program. Today that number has grown to 2.8 million, with 30,000 of the increase made up of San Antonio residents.
San Antonio families on food stamps receive an average of about $325 worth of food from the program each month, amounting to roughly $26 million per month for Bexar County grocery stores.

Despite the state hiring more staff and getting permission to certify people over the phone rather than in person, Texas' response to the application glut has fallen so short that advocates for lower-income people have filed a class action lawsuit to try to make Texas comply with a federal rule that those eligible be certified within 30 days of applying.

“There has been a long-standing delay in certifying people for food stamps in Texas. The food stamp benefit is 100 percent federally funded. All that Texas has to put in is one half of the cost of administration,” said Texas Legal Services attorney Bruce Bower, one of the lawyers handling the case.

People are eligible for food stamps if their income falls below the federal poverty guideline, which, for this year, is $14,570 for a family of two, $18,310 for a family of three and $22,050 for a family of four. Food stamps cannot be used to buy alcohol or cigarettes, and convicted drug felons are not eligible for them.

The agency charged with running the Texas food stamp program — officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — is the Health and Human Services Commission, which the Legislature authorized to hire 656 additional employees starting Sept. 1 to help determine eligibility.

“We have an obligation to do better for Texas, and we're trying,” agency spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said. “But adding workers is a long-term solution because of the length of time it takes to train workers. So it doesn't provide the immediate relief we need in a short-term situation like a hurricane or what we hope is a temporary downturn in the economy.
“Workers are coming in early, staying late and working weekends to try and catch up,” she said.
Critics counter that the number of new employees will not substantially change the ratio of recipients per worker — roughly 779 recipients per worker today. In the final years of then-Gov. George W. Bush, who left office in 2000, the ratio was about 350 recipients per worker, according to agency statistics.

“This lawsuit is the direct result of the Legislature's unwillingness to provide adequate funding for the state's eligibility system. We have urged the state to address the crisis in our eligibility system for years and are hopeful that legal action will bring about the needed fixes,” said Celia Hagert, a senior policy analyst at the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities, which tracks issues important to modest- and lower-income Texans.

Anyone applying for food stamps should document their paperwork, said Jeff Larsen, a staff attorney for Lone Star Legal Aid. Some applicants for food assistance lose valuable time because the agency can't account for their application, so sending the request by certified mail or from a fax machine provides a valuable record, he said.

Staff Writer Nancy Preyor-Johnson contributed to this report from San Antonio.

Paris, Texas, braces for protests over man's dragging death | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Texas Regional News

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:24:00 +0000

Paris, Texas, braces for protests over man's dragging death
12:00 AM CDT on Friday, July 17, 2009
Jeff Carlton, The Associated Press

Officials in the East Texas town of Paris said Thursday that they are preparing for an influx of black separatists and white supremacists at a planned protest next week over the death of a black man who was run over by a truck and dragged.

The Lamar County Commissioner's Court has created designated zones for protesters, to help police maintain order Tuesday, the day a rally organized by the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party is scheduled outside the county courthouse.

The protest is the third related to the death of 24-year-old Brandon McClelland, whose mangled body was found last Sept. 16 on a country road outside Paris, about 90 miles northeast of Dallas. Authorities estimated McClelland's body had been dragged more than 70 feet beneath a vehicle.

Two white men, Shannon Finley and Charles Crostley, were charged with murdering McClelland by running him down in Finley's pickup after the three friends made a late-night beer run from their dry town across state lines to Oklahoma. But a special prosecutor dismissed the charges last month, citing a lack of evidence.

The previous protests by the Panthers and the Nation of Islam were mostly peaceful and resulted in no arrests. But authorities said there were hints of white supremacist groups showing up this time.

"We have some very specific intel that there would be some counterprotesters – white supremacists, KKK, skinheads – who wish to attend," said Bill Harris, the first assistant county and district attorney for Lamar County.

Jeff Carlton,
The Associated Press

Department of Justice Peacemakers Hold Fourth Community Meeting Amid Racial Tensions in Paris, Texas

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:18:00 +0000

The Paris News

The search for harmony in diversity

By Mary Madewell
Published June 19, 2009Department of Justice involvement in the city’s racial issues continued at a fourth public forum Thursday with reports from community leaders and remarks from Carmelita Pope Freeman, director of the Southwest Regional Office of the department’s Community Relations Service.After listening to reports from Diversity Task Force of Paris representatives, the Paris Ministerial Alliance, Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality along with city and county officials, Freeman said her agency can provide resources for several programs shared by speakers.“We will continue our involvement in Paris and bring the resources the Community Relations Service has to offer so your community can reap the benefits that comes from conflict,” Freeman emphasized.“Pain is a wonderful catalyst for change,” St. Paul Baptist host pastor the Rev. Kenneth Rogers said earlier.Diversity Task Force of Paris representatives from the group’s law enforcement, youth and education and publicity and community relations committees gave computer assisted reports reviewing both past and planned activities as Freeman took notes.Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality president Brenda Cherry explained the purpose of her organization — to focus on injustice based on race, religion, sex or disability. She said Paris residents come to her organization for help and national organizations contact the group to offer services.Regarding the group’s role in bringing race relations and diversity issues to the forefront, Cherry said, “As a matter of fact, I don’t think we would be here if not for us.” Paris Mayor Jesse Freelen emphasized communication as an important tool in building relationships between residents and city staff as he reviewed a recently redesigned City of Paris Web site. The mayor recognized Diversity Task Force steering committee members for their work during the past 18 months.“We are not the bad guys,” task force law enforcement committee spokesperson Johnny Williams told the audience. But Williams emphasized law enforcement officers must reach out and become more involved in community activities and “expand their friendship base.”“If we are going to have friends in the community, we have to be friends,” Williams said. The retired Texas Department of Public Safety trooper said his committee will continue to be an active force within the diversity task force.Along the same lines, interim Police Chief Bob Hundley said his department will initiate several activities to educate residents about the police department and will continue patrol officer outreach and diversity training. Hundley also said a Citizens Police Academy along with community policing and a chief advisory group is in the works, something Freeman said DOJ could provide assistance with.Lamar County District Attorney Gary Young expressed concern about the perception his office prosecutes cases and determines punishment based on race.“It is simply not true,” Young said. The prosecutor extended an invitation to residents with concerns to meet with him personally and offered to make group presentations, using cases no longer pending as a tool to gain input from participants about what type punishment fits the crime. Young said he has used the technique with several high school classes.“Ya’ll will be the jury or ya’ll will be the DA and and ya’ll will decide what the appropriate punishment in that case is,” Young said. “I think it will probably open my eyes and I know it will open your eyes.”On the education and community relations front, task force youth and education committee spokesperson Steve Keyworth reviewed the past year’s activities and plans for the future. Block parties involving law enforcement as well as a U-Turn program in Paris schools initiated by former professional football player Keith Davis were mentioned as was a planned Challenge Day program involving 300 students, which deals with race relations, bullying and other issues. He emphasized the need for volunteers for an on-going mentoring program and the establishment of a centralized database to coordinate the various mentoring program in the community.The Rev. Rusty Hedges of the task force communication committee mentioned a pulpit exchange program started earlier in the year and encouraged pastors from all denominations to participate in a circle of prayer planned at 1 p.m. Saturday in Leon Williams Park as part of Juneteenth activities, a day-long event.Hedges said both a brochure explaining the task force’s mission and the value of diversity as well as a speakers bureau is forthcoming. Future goals are to expand the African American exhibit in the Lamar County Historical Museum, include a painting of the historic black Gibbons High School at the new Paris High School along with a marker at the Gibbons school site and perhaps a statue on the Lamar County Courthouse lawn to symbolize African American contributions to the community.Paris Chapter NAACP president James Price and legal redress chairman David Hamilton reviewed NAACP past activities and future plans. Price reported NAACP membership has increased 100 percent since the first of the year and Hamilton said several criminal cases have been dismissed as a result of NAACP civil rights efforts. A criminal record has been expunged and one individual has been released from jail on a personal recognizance bond. Hamilton said he handles from three to five complaints each month regarding the judicial system, housing and employment.The Rev. Connice Mays represented the Paris Ministerial Alliance, which served as hosts for Thursday’s forum. Mays reported the group’s involvement in the NAACP mentoring program at Crockett Middle School as well as Keep Paris Beautiful and several community-wide religious services. He invited attendance at city-wide revival scheduled in September.Paul Trull, superintendent of Paris Independent School District, reviewed the district’s three-fold mission.“We are talking about quality education for a diverse population so that each individual can be a responsible, productive citizen,” Trull said. He shared district academic accomplishments, which include, among other state and national awards, SAT college entrance scores above state and national averages along with 15 National Merit Scholars in eight years, and more than $1 million in accepted scholarships by 2009 graduates.

The Paris News

The Associated Press: Dropped charges protested in Texas dragging case

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:57:00 +0000

The Associated Press: Dropped charges protested in Texas dragging case

Oak Island, befriended by stars and regular people, makes strides after Ike

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:18:00 +0000

Oak Island, befriended by stars and regular people, makes strides after Ike

By SARAH MOORE
May, 26, 2009

From the Beaumont Enterprise, Photos by Britney Jackson

The scent of fresh-cut timber gradually is replacing the grim stench of mold and decay left by Hurricane Ike in Oak Island. Crabbing, the tiny community's primary industry, once again is in full swing. And bare concrete slabs on lots swept clear of debris are blank canvases on which the village's future can be drawn.

With the help of volunteers, a legendary recording artist and Oak Island's irrepressible spirit, great strides have been made in addressing Ike's heartbreaking devastation. To the unschooled eye, it was difficult this week to even see signs of the destruction. Lawns and trees burned brown by the saltwater intrusion have recovered and nearly all the debris has been hauled away.

But many slabs that once supported homes remain empty. Pastor Eddie Shauberger of Oak Island Baptist Church noted Wednesday that those homes still can be seen on Google Earth photos - a haunting reminder of the way the village once looked from above. But Shauberger doesn't spend much time looking back. He will have plenty to do in the three years he estimates it will take to fully recover. But, "There's light at the end of the tunnel," he said, standing in his renovated church building, the Gulf humidity of late spring tamed by a new air conditioner.
He said he had many blessings to count. Singer-songwriter Neil Diamond has pledged $1.8 million, which should build at least 18 new homes - even more if the funds are leveraged with volunteer labor, said Jose Rendon, a member of the Ike Relief Board of the Houston Community Foundation, which is administering the funds.

Construction on those homes should begin soon. Ten other houses already are under construction, paid for by insurance or private means. However, more than 100 families still don't have permanent homes, Shauberger said.

At least one family has been adopted by a church, which is helping rebuild that home.
Shauberger hopes other churches will follow suit. Shauberger said the assistance being given these families will be patterned after Habitat for Humanity's approach. The residents must contribute both funding and "sweat equity" toward construction. It is not a free ride.
Marya Cabrera, her husband and their two children will be the first in Oak Island to move into a home built by a faith-based group.

First Assembly of God of Humble provided funding and 43 volunteers to replace the home.
Chuck Jones, mission director, said his church chose the Cabrera family largely because of Marya Cabrera's hard work at Oak Island's relief center, where she's been a fixture for the past eight months.

She and her husband have been "a joy to work with," Jones said. The small, solidly built three-bedroom house should be ready for move-in by June 15. Jones, a retired developer, showed off many storm-resistant features, from the 10-foot elevation to $400 in hurricane straps and other details that contribute to securing the home.

He estimated it would stand up to winds of at least 125 mph. The church still is about $8,800 shy of funds needed to complete the house, but Jones has faith the money will come in.

He also is confident other churches will answer the call."We're hoping by the fact that we made it happen, other churches will catch the vision," he said. Shauberger said he is working with Jones to keep good records and notes about the process to make it easier for other churches.
"We don't want every church to have to reinvent the wheel," he said.

Those involved in Oak Island recovery have found it a massive, but rewarding undertaking.
Although Cabrera had been acquainted with a neighbor her whole life, she hadn't even known her name before Ike. Afterward, when she and her family were living in a tent, the neighbor brought the family dinner each day.

A strong sense of community and camaraderie were forged through doing relief work side-by-side. Cabrera also said she learned new skills - restocking, working with customers and feeding large groups.

"I used to tell people I'd starve before I'd work in fast food," she said. "But I learned I could do this." In helping build her house, she's learned to use a drill and hammer, to read architectural plans and other construction skills. But most of all, she learned about faith and the power of prayer.

Sitting in a FEMA trailer, looking over the slab of her demolished home and wondering how she was going to provide for her children, she prayed and found the strength to face an uncertain future.

Her new home will mean more to her than any home she's ever known. "This house will have lots of love in it - it's been blessed by God," Cabrera said.

FEMA trailers still are providing housing for many in the community. They're almost as plentiful as the new crab traps stacked in many yards. Oak Island crabbers benefitted from a Gulf Coast Hurricane Ike Relief Fund grant that bought crab traps and motors for those who lost theirs in the storm.

Of 26 Vietnamese families in Oak Island, 19 are licensed crabbers, Thuy Nguyen of the Houston-based nonprofit group V-Family, said. Of these, 11 got new 150 horsepower Yamaha outboard motors for their boats.

All but three are back in business. Nguyen has been assisting as a caseworker with the Vietnamese crabbers, many of whom speak little English. The price of crab is low right now, and the bay has not completely recovered from Ike, but "soon it will get better," she said, noting that crabbers have come up with enough crabs for a feast to toast the progress being made.
"We have a few gains, then we celebrate, and that gives us courage and energy to go forward," she said. On Wednesday, Lisa Phan and her family bustled around their crabbing operation, unloading and weighing crates stuffed full of the blue crustaceans. They did not stop to talk, though Phan replied with a nod and a wide grin to the question, "Good catch?"

HUD Launches Campaign For Ike and Gustav Family Assistance

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:46:00 +0000

HUD launches regional advertising campaign to encourage Hurricane Ike, Gustav families to register by calling their housing authority or HUD's Referral Call Center 1-866-785-3239.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is launching a regional print and radio advertising campaign to encourage families who were displaced by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav in 2008 to register for disaster housing assistance.

HUD's campaign will begin appearing next week in newspapers and on radio in parts of East Texas and Louisiana where families have relocated following last year's hurricanes. In particular, the campaign will be targeted in Houston, Galveston, and Port Arthur, Texas as well as Houma and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In addition, advertising will also be targeted to Houston Spanish-language media.

The Disaster Housing Assistance Program (DHAP-Ike/Gustav) was established by HUD and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist families who were displaced by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav with up to 17 months of temporary housing assistance. Since October 2008, FEMA has made direct payments to families to cover their rent payment if they have not completed the process for DHAP assistance.

These direct payments ended this month. Families who have not responded to repeated requests from HUD or a local housing authority to participate in DHAP will be responsible for paying their rent beginning June 1st.

"We have serious concern for approximately 7,000 families who we know are eligible for continued rent assistance but have not responded to calls or letters to enroll in the program," said Tony Hebert, HUD's Director of Disaster Housing Voucher Programs. "We strongly urge families who need this continued assistance to sign up by May 31st to allow housing authorities enough time to begin making rent payments for June."

Since November 2008, FEMA has referred approximately 51,000 families. Approximately 28,200 of these families have declined assistance, primarily because they didn't need it or HUD and the housing authority were unable to contact the family after repeated attempts. An additional 3,000 families are recent referrals from FEMA and are in the process of being contacted by HUD or a housing authority about DHAP assistance.

Only 19,000 families of the 51,000 originally referred by FEMA have agreed to participate in the DHAP program. To date, 13,687 of these families are receiving rental assistance under DHAP. The remaining 5,400 are close to signing a contract. They are working with PHAs to locate units, complete unit inspections or complete landlord paperwork.

HUD is encouraging families who received eligibility letters from FEMA and need this continued assistance to contact the public housing authority they were assigned or call toll-free HUD's Referral Call Center at 1-866-785-3239.

Economic stress may be intensifying domestic violence | Front page | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:37:00 +0000

The terror of domestic violence reaches far beyond the victim. It rocks the core of any family’s structure. Calling all Texans, help support your local groups who help ensure protection and support for families in crisis.

RESOURCES IF YOU NEED HELP Here are a few: • Bridge over Troubled Waters (Pasadena): 713-473-2801• Houston Area Women’s Center: 713-528-2121 • Fort Bend County Women’s Center: 281-342-4357

Lone Star Legal completed almost 2,300 domestic violence cases, impacting more than 8,750
women and children in 2007-08. Our phone # is 1.800. 733.8394.

Please read the article below and find your local legal aid group or women's center who can create a change, which quite often literally means the difference between life and death.

With the economy faltering, aid groups report a growing number of pleas for help as the stresses at home boil over

By MOISES MENDOZA
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

MEASURING THE INCREASE
Statistics from police are one way to measure whether domestic violence is increasing or decreasing. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office took 534 family violence reports between January and April this year, compared to 416 in the first quarter of last year. The Houston Police Department refused to provide statistics.

A Houston legal aid group for domestic violence survivors has seen a 178-person spike in people seeking assistance this year.

The Fort Bend County Women’s Center has received 200 more calls for help between January and May compared to last year.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office is answering more domestic violence calls this year.
Experts say domestic violence has always been a hidden epidemic in the U.S., but in the last year a powerful force is escalating the problem: the economy.

“Losing a job, losing your health care coverage, losing your home, these are all things that contribute to higher stress levels,” said Brian Namey, a spokesman with the National Network to End Domestic Violence. “It’s not a cause of domestic violence, but it can intensify it.”
A range of studies sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice show that domestic abuse is more likely in economically depressed families.

Domestic violence shelters nationwide are fielding increased requests for help, according to a survey from the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, which funds causes related to women. More than 70 percent of the shelters cited “financial issues” as the main reason, the survey said.
Texas shelters are also seeing an increased demand. Nearly 75 percent of the state’s domestic violence programs reported more pleas for assistance late last year, according to a study by the Allstate Foundation a group that has researched domestic violence, among other issues. One Austin shelter reported last year that walk-ins looking for help had more than doubled from 206 to 495.

‘Lots of sleepless nights’
Although numbers are increasing at some shelters, most in Houston say they haven’t been hit so hard, due in part to the city’s relatively healthy economy. But some organizations are more overworked than others.

“I’ve had lots of sleepless nights. It’s hard to know what will happen or what we’re going to do,” said Jackie Pontello, executive director of Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse, which offers legal services to survivors in the Houston area. Between January and April this year she opened 597 new cases. Last year the number was 419.

The surge couldn’t come at a worse time for programs like Pontello’s.
As the economy has soured, funding sources for domestic violence programs have dried up, even as demand has increased.

Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse, for instance, gets much of its funding from interest in special trust accounts. But a drop in interest rates means the organization could see nearly a third of its $1.5 million budget wiped out in August, Pontello said.

And at the Houston Area Women’s Center, donations are down by $50,000.

To make up the shortfall, officials instituted a hiring freeze and cut some data entry, cleaning and other non-essential staffers, said spokeswoman Kelly Boros.

The Fort Bend County Women’s Center also has been forced to “cut back on expenses as much as possible,” said Executive Director Vita Goodell. “It’s hard, we’re trying to have it not affect programs.”

Even if numbers stay relatively stable in Houston, some experts worry that poor job prospects could intensify the severity of violence, or make it difficult for people to stay away from their abusers.

One Harris County counseling center said more than a third of clients needed financial help to stay away from their abuser, according to the Allstate study. Another disconcerting possibility is a flood of clients desperate for help if Houston’s economy turns really bad.

Starts with verbal abuse
Officials are quick to point out that, no matter what, they are eager to support survivors of domestic violence. “Emily,” for example, is receiving help from the Houston Area Women’s Center.

Emily asked that her real name not be used to protect her from her abuser.

She moved to Texas from out of state this year because her boyfriend had found contracting work here.

But the money wasn’t as good as expected and the abuse began, she said.
“It started with verbal abuse, and it just escalated,” she said. When he began to shove her and then to hit her, Emily knew she had to get away.

Two months ago, she left him and is pursuing a dream of owning her own business.
She has a message to victims of domestic violence:

“You can do it, people can help you,” she said. “Domestic violence hits people who are poor, middle class and rich. If I can get away, anyone can do it.”
moises.mendoza@chron.com

Paris TX: Mentally retarded teen serving 100-year prison term for sex assault of boy

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:46:00 +0000

Paris, Texas, judge denies new trial to man with IQ of 47 who molested boy
Witnesses testify that Aaron Hart, 18, is mentally disabled
By Howard Witt
Tribune correspondent
April 8, 2009

PARIS, Texas — For more than six hours Tuesday, as a parade of witnesses testified about the severity of Aaron Hart's mental retardation and his inability to understand his legal rights, the 18-year-old defendant with an IQ of 47 sat silent and shackled in a chair, alternately fidgeting and making faces.But in the end, none of it was enough to persuade a judge in this small east Texas town to reconsider the 100-year prison sentence he gave Hart in February after Hart pleaded guilty to molesting a 6-year-old boy.Ruling in a case that critics of the local justice system say raises questions of fairness for the mentally challenged, Lamar County Judge Eric Clifford denied defense motions seeking either a new trial or a new sentencing hearing for Hart. His former special-education teacher testified that Hart functions below the level of a 1st grader. Last September, Hart confessed to police that he forced the boy to perform oral sex. The boy's stepmother had discovered them both behind a shed with their pants lowered. Hart's court-appointed attorney entered guilty pleas on his behalf to five related felony counts, a jury recommended multiple sentences and Clifford stacked the prison terms to run consecutively, for a total of 100 years.But Hart's appellate attorney, David Pearson, argued Tuesday that Hart had received ineffective legal assistance because his trial attorney had failed to present any expert testimony about Hart's mental functioning or his ability to comprehend the charges against him."This case cried out for a mental health evaluation, to explain this disability to the judge and jury," Pearson told Clifford. "One of the features of people with this kind of mental retardation is they cannot appreciate degrees of wrongfulness."District Atty. Gary Young countered that a court-appointed expert had determined that Hart was legally competent and that a jury had determined he was a danger to the community."Everyone feels sorry for Mr. Hart," Young told the judge. "The question is, do you leave him on the street or send him to prison?"Clifford, who last week said he had agonized over the case, took only a few seconds to issue his ruling."Irregardless of whether he understood his Miranda rights, the evidence I have seen is overwhelming that he committed the offense," Clifford said. "The court finds that allegations of incompetence of counsel are unfounded."Hart will remain in jail pending the outcome of an appeal likely to be heard in the fall. Hart's parents say he has been raped repeatedly by other inmates since he was first arrested last September.

Support legal aid for poor: Houston Chronicle Letter to the Editor

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:39:00 +0000

Houston Chronicle Letter to the Editor:

Support Legal Aid for Poor
Judge Katie Kennedy

I cannot agree with Justice Harriet O’Neill more (“Money shortfall threatens state’s legal aid for poor,” Page B11, Thursday). Our state and Harris County in particular face a crisis in funding for civil legal aid for the poor. The primary source of state funding for civil legal aid is the interest generated by attorneys’ trust accounts, commonly known as IOLTA accounts. In past years when interest rates were higher, $20 million per year in funding was generated by the interest on these IOLTA accounts. This year, because of the precipitous drop in interest rates, the funding from these accounts is projected to reach only $1.5 million. Meanwhile our legal aid agencies across the state are stretched to the breaking point. The crisis is most acute in southeast Texas. For example, Lone Star Legal Aid is still dealing with many Hurricane Rita claims. Now the agency is inundated with huge numbers of clients with Hurricane Ike claims and claims from persons facing eviction and foreclosure due to the economic downturn. The attorneys in the Houston area provide a tremendous amount of pro bono legal services. However, pro bono legal services cannot take the place of state funding. Providers such as Lone Star Legal Aid are the main provider of legal services for the indigent. The Texas Senate, recognizing the crisis, has budgeted a one-time $22 million appropriation for basic civil legal services. I implore the readers of the Chronicle to contact their representatives and encourage them to support this appropriation.

Katie Kennedy, Former Harris County Civil District Judge

San Antonio Express-News: War not limited to the battlefield

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:40:00 +0000

Web Posted: 03/15/2009 12:00 CDT
War not limited to the battlefield
By Sig Christenson- Express-News
KILLEEN — Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Espino rose at 5 a.m. one day on his base northwest of Baghdad and logged on to his computer. Back in Texas, his wife was wrapping up the day as she, too, got onto the Internet.
The ritual of timing video chats at opposite ends of the planet had a familiar feel to it until Espino, on his second tour of Iraq, heard his young son, Adrian, burst into tears. A moment before, he'd been happy.
“I told you he has his meltdowns,” Angie Espino told her husband.
A similar incident occurred another day in a grocery store, leaving both mother and child in tears.
Such outbursts have become common in an era some call “living in the new normal” — a land of repeated combat tours, single parenthood, injury and death.
This week marks the sixth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, and there is a growing awareness of the stresses faced by Iraq veterans, families and the Army, which along with the Marine Corps, has borne the weight of the war.
Mounting evidence shows that survivors of multiple combat deployments are particularly at risk, and most worrisome of all for some experts is the potential impact of more deployments as the United States fights open-ended wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today's Army is the most battle-seasoned in the almost-36-year history of the all-volunteer force, says one top officer, Lt. Gen. David Huntoon, the service's staff director. Potent in the field as never before, it also guarantees long separations and one ever-present threat: the dreaded visit from casualty assistance officers followed by funerals with military honors.
A soldier's way of life is foreign to a nation largely disconnected from the all-volunteer force that Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, last month called “incredibly resilient, and at the same time, very pressed.”
At Fort Hood, home to a pair of divisions that have been in Iraq three times so far, fear, heartbreak and isolation are as much a part of military life as flag-studded farewell and homecoming ceremonies.
“There's always that constant reminder, and I think Americans have become numb to it just because it has been going on for so long,” said Kerri Hartwick, whose husband, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Michael Hartwick, was killed in the April 1, 2006, downing of his AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter near Yusifiyah, Iraq. “Maybe not around here, where you're actually more connected with a base, but other parts of the country where there's not a military tie, I think they became numb.”

Soldiers like those from the 4th Infantry Division returning last week from Iraq are fortunate to live in the bubble of military towns around Killeen. The communities offer a growing array of support services for GIs and their families — from Army mental health clinics to First Baptist Church of Belton volunteers mowing lawns.
The Army's Resilience and Restoration Center, created in 2005, treats close to 200 soldiers at Fort Hood every day, most of them for mood and anxiety disorders.
Off-post services include help for children of GIs. One of them is Faith Calvert, a 17-year-old Harker Heights High School senior whose dad has been to Iraq twice and has deployed elsewhere overseas as well.
“That's my normal. That's what I've known. Dad's got to be gone because Dad's got to be gone, and I can't change that,” said Calvert, a leader in the high school's Student2Student program, a peer support group that includes civilian as well as military kids. “If there's one thing I've learned after growing up in the Army for 17 years, the Army's going to come first, whether you like it or not.”
So far 4,259 GIs have died in Iraq, with another 31,102 wounded. It's harder to pinpoint those scarred in mind and spirit. The Army believes that 300,000 GIs could suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Psychotherapist Edward Tick, author of “War and the Soul — Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” said PTSD is found in 20 percent of active-duty troops and nearly half of those in the National Guard and reserves.
West Point Professor Mike Matthews, a psychologist studying troops at war for Army Chief of Staff George Casey, said the PTSD numbers could be around 200,000, one in every five soldiers, but added: “I don't know.”
If the precise number of people with PTSD isn't clear, some things are known about it. Those diagnosed with PTSD were exposed to death or serious injury, either by seeing or hearing about it and having an adverse reaction. It can be especially severe in cases of torture and rape, with an event being relived while awake or asleep.
Matthews, a one-time Air Force officer in San Antonio and a Universal City reserve policeman, said studies show that those with anxiety or substance abuse problems tend to be more at risk for PTSD.
They tend to abuse alcohol and their spouses more upon returning from the war zone, he said, and noted: “We're trying to break free of this, but it's true in the culture of the Army that there is some pushback to seeking help.”
Tick, the psychotherapist, called PTSD “a cry of the soul” at an Army-sponsored seminar recently in Killeen.
“We continue to force them to carry the burden alone, carry the wound alone,” he said, calling for “massive support for every one of our returnees.”

The latest Army mental health study says soldiers on their third or fourth deployments are three times more likely to have anxiety and depressive symptoms than those going to war for the first time.
Suicides throughout the Army have skyrocketed since the invasion. In 2008, the Army said, 129 soldiers committed suicide, with 13 other cases to be resolved — well above the 2001 mark of 52. The Army doesn't track attempted suicides.
In Killeen, home to 81,000 military dependents, many of them veterans of two and three Iraq deployments, there are hints of trouble.
Fort Hood refused to release figures on the number of domestic abuse cases filed through the military legal system, but Bell County has seen a steady rise in assault with bodily injury cases, from 945 in 2001 to 1,349 last year — the highest so far this decade.
The city's population rose 16.7 percent from 2000 to 2006, to 102,003, according to the U.S. census.
Bell County Attorney Rick Miller said he doesn't track how many military personnel are charged with Class A misdemeanors, but added: “The greatest portions of the assault offenses can be traced to domestic violence, and I suspect that a large percentage of those involve military personnel.”
Nationally, the Army said the number of substantiated spousal abuse cases has fallen from 3,953 in 2001 to 2,573 in the past fiscal year. But Christina Gindratt of Lone Star Legal Aid, which helps low-income clients in the Killeen area, said she notices spikes in divorces and protective orders when troops go to war and return. A lot of cases involve multiple-tour veterans.
“The trend has been going on for so long in this office, it's almost the norm,” Gindratt said.
Just how many of those orders pertain to soldiers isn't clear. Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin said he and fellow Judge Bill Cooke, who oversee the Fort Hood area, each issue an average of three or four temporary protective orders a week in family violence cases.
A justice of the peace in Killeen since 1995, Potvin thinks that as many civilians as soldiers are involved in family violence, but notes that the orders don't always specify the defendant's profession.
“Everything has risen on a daily basis — protective orders, thefts, DWIs. But it's either because of better enforcement or people saying, ‘I don't have to put up with it anymore,'” said Potvin, who can't say if the increase is occurring because of population growth or the war.
It isn't clear whether divorces are up. But so many women now seek do-it-yourself divorces — one in every four in Bell County — that District Clerk Sheila Norman said commissioners hired a paralegal to help prepare the paperwork.
Longtime Killeen divorce attorney Dan Corbin represents 100 clients who allege their estranged spouses cheated on them, and said the cycle of going into combat every other year is tougher than World War II in part because there seems to be no foreseeable end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Corbin said the strain of multiple deployments “just tears up the fabric of the family.”
Retired Army Col. Bill Parry said much is unknown about the effect of repeated war zone tours on families.
“There are soldiers out at Fort Hood that have been deployed three times, maybe four times,” said Parry, executive director of the Heart of Texas Defense Alliance, an advocate for the post and allied businesses in the Killeen area. “And just the stress of my father or my mother being gone four years out of the last six, especially at that formative age about elementary education, has got to have some sort of impact.”

Awareness of the problem and its potential for trouble has risen, however, as the war in Iraq has dragged on. Troops are screened before and after deployments, responding to questionnaires that ask about mental and physical health. “Battlemind,” an Army training program, helps prepare troops and their families for the strains of war.
One booklet offered in the Battlemind program, “Goodbyes are Hard,” targets 6-to-8-year-olds. A segment called “Feelings” starts with, “When one of my parents goes away, I have all kinds of feelings. I have sad feelings, confused feelings, even some happy feelings.”
In addition to the Resilience and Restoration Center and pre- and post-deployment health assessments, Fort Hood has a Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Evaluation Service.
It offers groups and classes for everything from conflict resolution to parenting skills, as well as a behavioral health Web site, and hot lines for wounded troops and those with mental issues.
The Army Family Advocacy Program offers an advocate for domestic abuse victims, while the Combat Stress Reset Camp mixes group therapy with yoga, tai chi, biofeedback, acupuncture and a massage therapist.
Off-post, every military family in the Belton school district gets a packet listing support services. Communities in Schools targets children at risk of dropping out. Last year, CIS served 8,000 students in Bell and Coryell counties, 3,500 of them military dependents.
PTSD sufferers come in all sizes and ages. Harker Heights High School sophomore Lorissa Carns, 16, said she suffers from PTSD, as does her mom, Linda, and older brother Phillip. Her dad, retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 Ron Carns, was badly injured when his attack helicopter crashed nearly six years ago in Iraq after a malfunction.
“I saw the therapist for two years after my dad's accident,” she said. “Me and my mom, we were affected the most, because I was really close to my dad, so having the fear of almost losing him and him never being the same really affected me.”

There are 100,000 school-age children of troops in Texas, the largest number in the nation, said Mary Keller, executive director of the Military Child Education Coalition, a worldwide group serving 2 million kids in the active-duty, National Guard and reserves. Three in every four kids are under age 12 worldwide, Keller said. The average parent is 27.
They are warrior families in every way. In many cases their children have lived in the shadow of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, she said, noting that a child who was 3 or so at the time of the invasion is now 9 or 10.
He or she often hasn't seen much of one parent thanks to a cycle of train-ups, deployments and returns that repeats itself.
“It's not like a deployment cycle anymore,” said Keller, whose Harker Heights-based group began with eight people sitting around a kitchen table at Fort Hood in 1996. “It's a continuous path, a continuous journey, so it's not like you're pre-deployment, deployment and reunion and you're in some sort of state of reunion.”
Militarychild.org has launched 20 initiatives, all geared toward children of military service members, including Student2Student and “Living the New Normal — Supporting Children Through Trauma and Loss.”
The latter program trains doctors, nurses, educators and community members, including Scout leaders and church youth directors, to support children in ways that help them overcome death, injury or trauma suffered by a parent in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Keller and others interviewed say it isn't uncommon for kids to have hair-trigger emotions. Deployments fracture routines, which in turn can cause young children to lose sleep. Older kids may fight more often, talk back to teachers, cut classes and abuse alcohol and drugs.
Susan Young, the wife of a three-tour veteran of Iraq, said skipping school is a way for some to assert themselves. Yet others don't act out in any way, Keller said, and don't even talk with others about deployments.
“It can even be a growth experience for kids, a positive growth experience,” Keller said, explaining that many children grow more resilient. “The kids begin to see this as a way to build their confidence, and they're proud of their parents. So there's a lot of ways that help kids, I believe, with adults helping them understand it.”
That is a primary goal of Student2Student. The group seeks out new students at Harker Heights High, 20 minutes from Fort Hood's main gate.
They regularly get together to talk, but also help new students plug into their classes and extracurricular activities. The idea is to have peers set a standard for each other, making it less likely for new students to struggle academically, feel isolated or join a bad crowd.

An elementary school student at the time of the crash, Carns went from playing racquetball with her dad and wrestling with him to spoon-feeding him at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Now she's a trusted confidant for teenagers who've learned of her ordeal and are grappling with the same fears.
“Some of them, they're confused a lot and they don't know how to handle things, and a lot of my friends, they do come to me about stuff like this and I hang out with them and I'm the shoulder they need to lean on ... because I've been through almost the worst — thank God not the worst,” Carns said.
Calvert, the Student2Student leader at Harker Heights High, is a veteran, too. Her dad, Lt. Col. Paul T. Calvert, invaded Iraq and later was posted to Anbar province, one of the hot spots of the Sunni-led insurgency. Then a seventh-grader, she detected the sounds of battle while talking with her father on the phone.
“I remember being very scared and stressed because reality hit me. Part of me felt like I'd grown up a lot. I was no longer a carefree kid. I had a lot of responsibility and I became a worrywart,” she said. “But he came back and it was all good.”
Relief turned to anger as his next deployment rolled around. Dad would miss most of her junior and senior years. She felt anger and frustration toward God, but six months into the tour it occurred to her that the time had passed quickly. Part of the reason for that was age, Calvert said, and the realization that crying wouldn't help.
“Tears wouldn't bring him home. I mean, tears aren't going to grant me pity from Congress and say, ‘OK, we'll send you your guy home.' That's not reality. And again, sending the troops home, what's that going to solve? I've been watching the news so long now. Just because a little girl's sad isn't going to solve anything at all.”
Just back from Iraq, Eric Espino sits at the dining table of his one-story house in Harker Heights with his wife and son, Jordan, 13, and concedes the pace of deployments is wearing down his family.
He hasn't thought about the big issues surrounding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of them the belief of many in and out of government that the Army and Marine Corps simply are too small to cope with the nation's foreign-policy requirements.
But Espino knows his kids are growing up too quick. He and his wife agree that the repeated deployments to Iraq are robbing Jordan and Adrian, 7, of their childhoods, but that's how it's got to be; he's four years from retirement. Another 4th Infantry Division tour to Iraq or Afghanistan looms in a year and he'll be on the plane, rucksack and rifle in hand. He and his family will soldier on.
“I'm not OK with it,” Espino said, “but it has to be done.”

No longer ‘carefree'

Losing sleep, talking back

Stress management

Tearing up the family

The Army comes first

LSLA & Galveston Housing Authority Agree on Hurricane Ike Public Housing Plans

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:47:00 +0000

Lone Star Legal Aid and Galveston Housing Authority Agree on Long-Term Redevelopment Public Housing Plan

Lone Star Legal Aid, on behalf of its clients who are displaced residents of Galveston public housing, and the Galveston Housing Authority (GHA) entered into a Settlement Agreement with Replacement Plan regarding GHA's demolition plans for the island's multi-family public housing complexes known as Oleander Homes and Palm Terrace Addition. Under the agreement, GHA will implement a Replacement Plan, which includes 1 for 1 replacement of the multi-family public housing units that GHA intends to demolish, including Oleander Homes, Palm Terrace Addition, Magnolia Homes, Cedar Terrace and Cedar Terrace Addition. GHA also agrees that these conditions will be incorporated into and become a part of any plans to demolish or redevelop these complexes. After both parties agreed to terms outlined above, Lone Star Legal Aid withdrew its complaint with HUD.

On February 27, GHA submitted a letter to HUD notifying that it intended to proceed with the demolition of Oleander Homes and Palm Terrace Addition without going through the HUD approval process. The following Monday, March 2, Lone Star Legal Aid filed an administrative complaint against GHA seeking an immediate emergency order from HUD directing GHA to cease and desist any and all demolition activities until it had received written approval from HUD for a demolition plan submitted pursuant to all applicable law. In the complaint, Lone Star Legal Aid requested GHA have a plan that would facilitate its fast-track rebuilding efforts, while at the same time protect the rights of displaced residents who are anxious to come home and start rebuilding their lives.

About Lone Star Legal Aid: http://www.lonestarlegalaid.blogspot.com/

FEMA HOTEL VOUCHER DEADLINE LOOMS ON MARCH 13

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 02:29:00 +0000

The Daily News: 1,100 families still in hotels - DEADLINE LOOMS MARCH 13

The Daily News - March 6, 2009

More than 1,100 Galveston County families have one week to move out of hotel rooms and into apartments or rental homes as the Federal Emergency Management Agency pulls the plug on its voucher program. In recent months, FEMA has installed 764 mobile homes in the county and initiated a disaster housing assistance voucher program, leaving FEMA officials comfortable with closing the hotel voucher program March 13, exactly six months after Hurricane Ike slammed into Galveston.“We feel like we have places to put people,” FEMA spokesman Bill Lehman said. 6,400 families have been referred to the housing authority to receive housing vouchers.

So far, 2,228, or 35 percent, of those Galveston County families have found places to live with vouchers, according to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The housing authority has hired 79 new staff members and a consulting firm — the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials — to help administer the program.

Under the program, the housing authority will pay full rent until May, when residents will be responsible for $50 a month, increasing by $50 each month, until the program ends. Waivers will be available to those who can prove financial hardship.Each family is supposed to be assigned a case manager. Three years after Hurricane Katrina, there are evacuees still living on Disaster Housing Assistance Program subsidies.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=310d1828679c4529

AP: FEMA IS FAULTED ON AID AFTER IKE

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 03:26:00 +0000

FEMA Is Faulted on Aid After Hurricane Ike
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 8, 2009

HOUSTON (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied nearly 650,000 applications for housing aid since Hurricane Ike hit southeastern Texas, finding that nearly 90 percent of claimants were ineligible for aid.

A house in Gilchrist, Tex., after Hurricane Ike. Nearly 650,000 claims for federal housing aid are said to have been denied.

Those rejected and their lawyers say the inspectors are unqualified or poorly trained and the inspection system is flawed in ways that withhold help from deserving people. The agency says the numbers reflect a widespread misunderstanding of its mission.

The Houston Chronicle reported Sunday that the agency had received more than 730,000 applications for money to help with home repairs, mobile homes or other housing services needed after the hurricane caused widespread damage in September. So far, the agency has paid out about $371 million to 82,000 applicants, declaring almost 650,000 ineligible for aid.
A lawyer for a homeowner challenging his assistance from the agency as insufficient told the newspaper that the gap between applicants and paid claims is caused in part by unqualified or poorly trained FEMA inspectors.

The lawyer, Mark J. Grandich, said that it seemed that the agency had “hired a bunch of people, basically just anybody, and put them on the street after one day of training.”
At the peak of its individual assistance program late last year, the agency and its contractors sent as many as 2,360 inspectors to document damage to homes. Critics charge that these inspectors are motivated to work quickly because they are paid a flat fee per inspection and must cover most of their own expenses.

The agency refused to discuss individual cases with The Chronicle. But officials acknowledged that inspectors sometimes make mistakes and encouraged people to file appeals if they believe they were unfairly denied assistance.

Most times, eligibility is obvious, said Timothy Cannon, an agency inspections supervisor. “It’s not a tough question.”

He said people sometimes do not understand the limits of the agency’s help. The agency will pay only for home repairs that are not covered by insurance and will provide only enough money to make the home safe, secure and functional.

For example, in a house with two bedrooms and a single occupant, the agency will not pay to repair the second bedroom if the other is still habitable, Mr. Cannon said. It will pay to patch a leaky roof, but not to replace it, he said.

Galveston Daily News: A Better Model for Public Housing

britneyjackson@gmail.com (Lone Star Legal Aid) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:43:00 +0000

Galveston Daily News Editor Heber Taylor's commentary on Lone Star Legal Aid's complaint against the Galveston Housing Authority's attempt to proceed demolition public housing complexes (54% of the island's multi-family public housing).

See Mr. Taylor's commentary below:

What was behind Lone Star Legal Aid’s complaint against the Galveston Housing Authority? The complaint, if you missed it, brought the housing authority’s plans to demolish two public housing developments to a stop.

The conventional wisdom is that the root of the problem was the housing authority’s vagueness about its plans. Galveston housing officials said they planned to demolish two complexes and replace them with other types of affordable housing. However, they have not had much to say about details. What would replace the demolished buildings? Where would the new units go and what would they look like? Public-housing advocates wanted concrete answers and didn’t get them.

At least some of those advocates don’t want a repeat of what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Money was appropriated. There were lengthy delays. Public housing residents finally gave up and left the city. Public housing officials, citing lower demand, routed the money elsewhere. Lone Star Legal Aid’s complaint, from what I can gather, was an effort to get some details on the plans in Galveston to avoid a repeat of New Orleans.