Dennis Harrison, Author at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc.

Mayor Deegan To Appoint JALA Board Member Michael Fackler As General Counsel

Mayor Deegan To Appoint JALA Board Member Michael Fackler As General Counsel

Mayor Deegan is announcing her appointment of Michael Fackler to become the City of Jacksonville’s next General Counsel. A long-time commercial litigator, Michael Fackler has practiced law for nearly 20 years and is a partner at the established local law firm of Milam Howard Nicandri & Gillam P.A. Previously, he was a law clerk for the Honorable Harvey E. Schlesinger, United States District Court Judge for the Middle District of Florida. Mr. Fackler has also served as the Jacksonville Federal Bar Association President and as an Adjunct Professor at Florida Coastal School of Law. He has been honored as a “Super Lawyer” since 2016 and as part of the “Florida Legal Elite” in 2012, 2020, and 2021. Outside of the legal arena, Mr. Fackler has a deep connection to the community. He is a current board member for the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and Riverside Presbyterian Church Basketball League. He has also served as a board member, President, Vice President, and Treasurer of the Jacksonville Historical Society. From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Fackler served in the United States Peace Corps in Rybnik, Poland. Afterwards, he served as a board member and President of the First Coast Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:10:29-05:00September 22nd, 2023|News|

Jacksonville Area Legal Aid launches new branding with its latest annual report

Jacksonville Area Legal Aid launches new branding with its latest annual report

Fifty years after adopting its current name, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid is updating its branding with the release of its 2022 annual report, the first document to bear JALA’s new logo. Titled “Housing Takes Center Stage,” the report shines a spotlight on JALA’s work to prevent unlawful evictions and foreclosures, ensure fair housing laws are enforced, and resolve other landlord-tenant issues. Out of 6,724 cases JALA handled in 2022, JALA closed 2,618 housing cases, representing nearly 40% of its closed cases. “Preserving shelter is our highest and best use, and we remain focused on that mission,” the report states. JALA’s annual report also cites a recent report by the City of Jacksonville’s Special Committee on Critical Quality of Life Issues, which states that, “The City should work with and financially support the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid office in efforts to reduce eviction rates, human displacement and homelessness.”

Dennis Harrison2023-11-13T15:09:18-05:00September 5th, 2023|News, Uncategorized|

When subsidized housing isn’t safe, renters struggle to get help from HUD

When subsidized housing isn’t safe, renters struggle to get help from HUD

Since June, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has inspected at least 1,200 HUD-subsidized properties, agency data shows. But thousands of inspections are overdue, despite agency goals to eliminate the backlog in spring of this year. For public housing owned by housing authorities and privately owned multifamily housing that receives HUD funding, the agency relies on inspections to hold landlords accountable for unaddressed safety hazards. Last month, Streetlight reported that longstanding problems with the inspection program and HUD’s oversight place renters’ lives at risk. Since then, HUD’s inspections and oversight of the properties it subsidizes have drawn attention from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who urged HUD to ensure gas leak repairs were made at a Florida apartment complex at the beginning of August.

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:13:04-05:00August 29th, 2023|Fair Housing, News|

Free legal advice for military, veterans

Free legal advice for military, veterans

The city’s Military Affairs and Veterans Department and Jacksonville Area Legal Aid are offering free Ask-A-Lawyer sessions. Beginning Aug. 17, the events will be 9 a.m. to noon the third Thursday of each month in the department’s office suite at City Hall, 117 W. Duval St. Topics include family law; housing, including landlord/tenant; probate and estates; contracts; consumer law, including debt and credit reporting; veterans benefits; military discharge upgrades; and security clearance defense. Participating attorneys will not be accepting cases for representation, but will offer legal guidance and information about available resources. Call 904-255-5550 to schedule an appointment.

Dennis Harrison2023-09-20T14:19:21-04:00August 23rd, 2023|News, Veterans Services|

New Freed to Run Challenge event in downtown Jacksonville to support Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s Shelter for Elders endowment

New Freed to Run Challenge event in downtown Jacksonville to support Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s Shelter for Elders endowment

Building on the success of Freed to Run, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and Gunster Shareholder Mike Freed are launching a new initiative to create a Shelter for Elders endowment that will safeguard and strengthen JALA’s housing-related legal assistance for indigent seniors. “With Freed to Run, we created permanent legal aid funding to serve Northeast Florida children whose health issues are further complicated by their civil legal needs,” Freed said. “Now we are going to do the same for our elders who are faced with housing insecurity in their golden years.” Along with the new endowment comes a new event format. While Freed to Run was a six-marathon series from the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee to the Duval County Courthouse, the Freed to Run Challenge will take place on the streets surrounding the courthouse over just two days, Friday, Nov. 17, to Saturday, Nov. 18. Individual participants and relay teams will raise funds for the endowment through peer-to-peer fundraising based on a challenge to complete half-mile laps around the Duval County Courthouse in a period of either 12 or 24 hours. The distance covered by each individual or team will be measured by counting the number of laps they complete around the courthouse at any pace they choose. Participants do not need to be runners.

Dennis Harrison2023-11-25T11:30:26-05:00August 18th, 2023|Fair Housing, Freed To Run, Tangled Title|

‘FREE’ HUD Homeownership House Party

‘FREE’ HUD Homeownership House Party

You're invited! FREE Homeownership 'House Party' Saturday, August 26th 9am-5pm Learn how you can achieve your dreams of owning a home!! REGISTER HERE - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-hud-homeownership-house-party-tickets-687448967367?aff=oddtdtcreator Date and time Saturday, August 26 · 9am - 5pm EDT Location Edward Waters University 1859 Kings Road (EWU Gymnasium) Jacksonville, FL 32209 The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development along with the City of Jacksonville, Jacksonville Housing Counseling Agencies and Housing Industry Partners is hosting a FREE Homeownership 'House Party' Saturday, August 26, 2023, from 9am-5pm on the campus of Edward Waters University (Gymnasium)

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:14:49-05:00August 18th, 2023|Fair Housing, News|

Veterans Legal Services Unit helps reservist navigate her divorce

Veterans Legal Services Unit helps reservist navigate her divorce

Julie Barrett called Jacksonville Area Legal Aid for help with her divorce after hearing that it had a program that offered veterans free civil legal services. A former active duty servicemember, she had made the choice to stay home with her two pre-school-aged children and enter the Reserves so that her husband could continue his active-duty military career. “I followed him through several duty stations,” said Barrett, not her real name. “And my doing that for his career put me behind in mine.” Then, the marriage unraveled, and she found herself starting over. “My main priority was the children, ensuring my kids were still maintained. And thinking about the visitation,” said Barrett, adding that it was complicated by her ex-husband’s impending deployment. After what she called a “speedy turnaround,” Jacalyn Crecelius of JALA’s Veterans Legal Services Unit took Barrett’s case, aided by paralegal Aylmar Thompson.

Dennis Harrison2023-08-16T18:42:38-04:00August 16th, 2023|Client Stories, Family Law, Veterans Services|

Mayor Deegan, Jacksonville City Council look for solutions to affordable housing crisis

Mayor Deegan, Jacksonville City Council look for solutions to affordable housing crisis

After Mayor Donna Deegan and a gaggle of reporters had gone, April Sizemore stood in her cramped apartment that still smelled of mold and suffered all the problems that had caused her to speak out in the first place: the roaches, the rats, the holes in the wall, the water leaks. Barely able to pay the $800 monthly rent, she grimaced at the water flowing from the bathtub tab that a malfunctioning faucet wouldn’t turn off. To Sizemore, it was the sound of money draining from her household finances because she’ll end up paying for the wasted water on her utility bill. “We can’t live like this, and no, I can’t afford anywhere else or otherwise I’d be gone,” Sizemore said. “But as a single mother of two children, I just can’t leave like that.”

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:15:46-05:00August 1st, 2023|Fair Housing, News|

Mary Kelli Palka

Mary Kelli Palka

Mary Kelli Palka is director of strategic communications for the University of North Florida. She served as executive editor of The Florida Times-Union from 2017 to 2022, when she retired from journalism after nearly 30 years. The first woman and first Jacksonville native to lead the Times-Union, she spent nearly two decades at the paper, which she joined in 2003 as a news reporter. She went on to serve as investigations editor and managing editor before assuming the paper’s top management role. Before leaving journalism, Palka served as Gannett’s market leader for Jacksonville and deputy regional editor for its North Florida papers, overseeing newsrooms in Daytona Beach, Gainesville, St. Augustine, Ocala and Leesburg, as well as Jacksonville. Under her leadership, the Times-Union took on public corruption and explored important issues including racial inequality and juvenile justice while also covering nonprofits, education, the military, local businesses, high school sports, golf, Jaguars and other professional teams. Palka’s leadership also extended to serving as president of The Florida Society of News Editors. She was recognized as a Girl Scouts of Gateway Council’s Women of Distinction honoree in 2018, as GateHouse Media’s 2017 Editor of the Year, and as the 2015 recipient of the William S. Morris III Dedication Award from the Morris Publishing Group.

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:16:32-05:00July 25th, 2023|Equal Justice Awards, News|

Mike Freed

Mike Freed

Gunster shareholder Mike Freed is a trial lawyer with a wealth of experience in the courtroom and arbitrations, administrative proceedings and other forms of dispute resolution. Board certified in business litigation, his practice spans a wide range of substantive legal disciplines and specialized industries, including corporate governance, education, health care, hospitality, labor and employment, construction, logistics, transportation and receiverships. Freed is also a philanthropist whose giving goes well beyond writing checks. As the founder of Freed To Run, Freed established a six-marathon series that raised $2.25 million to endow a JALA program called the Northeast Florida Medical Legal Partnership that provides civil legal services to hundreds of indigent pediatric patients a year. To achieve permanent funding for this important program, Freed not only ran 36 marathons himself, but also engaged donors and relay teams from virtually every sector of the community to contribute to both the fundraising and awareness. While that initial fundraising goal has been met, Freed is not stopping. He is now working with JALA to establish a powerful new endowment that will safeguard and strengthen JALA’s housing-related legal assistance for indigent seniors. Known as Shelter for Elders, this initiative will be funded through a new event format called the Freed to Run Challenge, which involves walks or runs over a period of 12 or 24 hours. Individuals and relay teams compete to see who can complete the most laps around the Duval County Courthouse during their chosen time frame.

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:17:08-05:00July 25th, 2023|Children's Health, Endowment, Equal Justice Awards, News|

Dennis.Harrison@jaxlegalaid.org

About Dennis Harrison