2024 Fair Housing Symposium
FAIR HOUSING SYMPOSIUM Friday, April 5, 2024 10AM - 1:30PM Ritz Theatre & Museum 829 N. Davis St., Jacksonville, FL Please email: adacoordinator@jaxlegalaid.org or call: 904-356-8371, ext. 400
Freed to Run gives $195,000 to Shelter for Elders
The Freed to Run Challenge, a two-day running event that debuted Nov. 17-18 at the Duval County Courthouse, raised $195,000 to benefit the Shelter for Elders program at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. The contribution supports an endowment that helps provide aid for older adults who have landlord/tenant and other housing-related legal issues but cannot afford to pay an attorney to represent them. The donation, the entry fees and sponsorships each year will be partially matched by the Delores Barr Weaver Legacy Fund through The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida. This year’s match is $25,000.
JALA attorney helps local senior settle dispute over defective HVAC unit
“Dorothy,” 84, had a new heating and air conditioning system installed in her Jacksonville home, where she lives alone. Because of improper installation, the unit did not work properly from day one. Dorothy, who had signed a finance agreement for the purchase of the unit, immediately notified the company that the unit was defective and asked them to fix it. Each time they scheduled an appointment with her to fix the unit, they did not show up. She did her best to dispute the charge with the company and with the lender involved in the finance agreement. The air conditioning company tried to push Dorothy into filing a warranty claim instead of fixing the problem.
Jacksonville Area Legal Aid working to save the home of local golf and civil rights legend Arthur Leroy Johnson
As a child in Jacksonville in the 1950s, Arthur Leroy Johnson would go get ice cream with his father and brothers at the Foremost Dairy in Riverside, the Jacksonville, Fla., neighborhood where he has lived for nearly 40 years and where he is struggling to hold onto his two-bedroom home with the help of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. “My father worked two blocks from where I live today,” said Johnson, whose father was employed at the dairy. “At 5 o’clock in that neighborhood, all the Black people had to be out. There was a whistle that would blow. If you worked in that area, as a Black person you had to be leaving. The whistle was called Big Jim.” In 1986, Johnson, who is now 80, became a homeowner in that very same neighborhood when he bought an 1,100 square-foot, aluminum-sided home from a woman who employed his mother as a domestic worker. Johnson, who will be inducted into the African American Golfers Hall of Fame in May and had a successful career as a concert promoter, eventually ran into financial difficulties when prostate cancer and other health problems sidelined him from his job as director of First Tee – North Florida, a program that integrates golf with a life skills curriculum to help youth build strength of character. He took out a reverse mortgage on the 1912 home, initially borrowing just $24,000. But living on $941 a month in Social Security, he was having trouble making needed repairs to his home. Unable to get insurance, he defaulted on his reverse mortgage. After fighting to hold onto his home for 12 years, he ended up owing a total of $140,000 to pay off the mortgage.
A Decent Home
A Decent Home Community Film Screening Wednesday, 3/6/24 | 5:30- 8:00 pm Jacksonville University Swisher Theater 2800 University Blvd, Jacksonville 32211 A Decent Home addresses urgent issues of class and economic (im)mobility through the lives of mobile home park residents who can’t afford housing anywhere else. They are fighting for their dreams -- and their lives -- as private equity firms and wealthy investors buy up parks. - Free admission and snacks - Screening followed by panel discussion with local housing attorneys For more information, please contact: Missy Davenport, mdavenp@ju.edu, 904-256-7169
2023 Housing Counseling Successes – 115 Homes Saved from Foreclosure!
The dedicated housing counselors at JALA have proactively safeguarded 115 homes from foreclosure through a combination of loss mitigation options and rescue funds. Additionally, we have assisted numerous homeowners in comprehending their rights and evaluating alternatives to prevent foreclosure, ensuring favorable outcomes for their unique situations. By providing borrowers with essential information, we empower them to make informed decisions about their next steps, fostering successful homeownership both now and in the future. Our foreclosure prevention efforts extend support to families facing the challenges of losing a home, especially when no loss mitigation options or funds are available. While our primary focus is on preserving homes from foreclosure, we have also played a crucial role in aiding renters by equipping them with valuable information to help them maintain their residences. As a legal aid, we take pride in our role of saving homes, recognizing that our success is greatly amplified through the invaluable guidance and partnership with JALA attorneys.
A record number of renters couldn’t afford housing in 2022, a new study finds
A record number of tenants couldn’t afford rent in 2022, according to a new study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The report found that in 2022, half of American renters—22.4 million households—were cost-burdened, spending a third or more of their income on housing costs. Out of the cost-burdened renters, 12.1 million households spent more than half of their incomes on housing costs. The report follows several years of historically high rent increases that pushed rents above pre-pandemic levels, where they have stubbornly remained. In the third quarter of 2023, rents grew .4% across the country, compared to a 15% rent increase in early 2022, the report said. “That means that those rent levels we achieved during the pandemic aren’t getting worse, but they’re also not falling,” Chris Herbert, managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies, said during a panel discussion on the report Thursday. “So over time, we’ll see some easing of the problem as we have incomes hopefully outpacing those rent growths.” Low and mid-income renters wonder when that will happen after years of watching rents skyrocket as their paychecks failed to do the same. From 2001 to 2022, rents grew 21% when adjusted for inflation, the report found. During the same time period, renters’ incomes rose just 2%.
Collins to receive Florida Bar President’s Fourth Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Award
Longtime JALA pro bono advocate F. Susannah Collins will receive The Florida Bar President's 2024 Pro Bono Service Award for the Fourth Judicial Circuit at a ceremony at the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee Jan. 18. A family law practitioner, Collins accepts family law cases pro bono through JALA and plays a significant role in JALA’s outreach. She makes presentations on Dissolution of Marriage, Paternity, Child Support, and Timesharing at the Northeast Florida Women Veterans Center, as well as at JALA’s monthly virtual family law clinics. She volunteers each month at JALA’s Veterans Legal Collaborative, participates in inner-city pro bono JALA Ask-A-Lawyer events, and serves as an expert resource for matters related to family law. Collins also received JALA's Kathy Para Outstanding Pro Bono Service Award in 2022 -2023.
Jacksonville has a confirmed general counsel for city’s in-house law firm
The tensest moment in Michael Fackler's path to confirmation as the city's general counsel came when he disclosed that he needed to change a controversial piece of information in his resume. "I list an unfortunate affiliation with Alabama football and in light of recent events, I think I should strike that from the record as politically unsound," Fackler deadpanned during his remarks to the Rules Committee. The banter was a big change from the political battle that culminated in former City Council member Randy DeFoor, who was Mayor Donna Deegan's first pick for general counsel, withdrawing from consideration because of growing opposition. Fackler won unanimous support from the Rules Committee last week and then 17-0 approval Tuesday evening by the full council when it confirmed him as head of the in-house law firm for the city.
FFLA Awards $33.9 Million To 35 Florida Legal Aid Organizations
FFLA is distributing $33.9 million to 35 Florida civil legal aid clinics, up from the $7.7 million in grants the organization awarded to many of the same organizations last year. The board of directors of FFLA, formerly known as The Florida Bar Foundation, approved the awards on December 8. FFLA is also adding one new program to its award list this year: St. Michael’s Legal Center for Women and Children will receive a $169,555 grant in 2023. “These IOTA grants will enable qualified legal aid providers to serve more clients, pay their legal aid staff salaries commensurate with their experience and increase the availability of pro bono lawyers,” said FFLA President Murray Silverstein. The money originates from interest earned on attorney trust, or IOTA, accounts and the FFLA distributes the income to entities offering free civil legal representation to Floridians in need. The IOTA program brought in more money this year as interest rates rose along with inflation. The Florida Supreme Court also changed the rule governing these accounts in March requiring attorneys to keep their clients’ money in higher-yield IOTA accounts. FFLA’s fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30.