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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.

2024-06-04T11:19:40-04:00February 13th, 2024|Client Stories, Fair Housing, News, Uncategorized|

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

2024-02-14T12:39:54-05:00February 13th, 2024|Fair Housing, News, Uncategorized|

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.

2023-12-12T11:13:27-05:00December 12th, 2023|News, Partners in Justice Spotlight, Uncategorized|

Delores Barr Weaver Legacy Fund offers $25,000 challenge match for the Freed to Run Challenge supporting Jacksonville Area Legal Aid

Local philanthropist Delores Barr Weaver has offered a multi-year challenge grant to encourage donations to the Nov. 17-18 Freed to Run Challenge, the proceeds of which will benefit Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s Shelter for Elders endowment to fund legal aid for area seniors facing housing instability. The Delores Barr Weaver Legacy Fund will match $25,000 in donations to the 2023 Freed to Run Challenge, provided the event raises at least $75,000 from other donors. In addition, over the following two years, the fund will match a gift of up to $25,000 from a single donor each year, dollar-for-dollar, provided that at least $50,000 can be raised from additional donors. The challenge grant is designed to help the Freed to Run Challenge meet its $100,000 fundraising goal each year. Weaver, former co-majority owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, has a history of raising funds through running that goes back to 1990, when she offered a dollar-for-dollar matching challenge grant of up to $50,000 to a group of runners who would compete in the Boston Marathon. All the funds raised would go to the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research, which Weaver had established in 1987 at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in memory of her mother, Claudie Adams Barr, who died of breast cancer.

2024-01-04T11:07:33-05:00November 12th, 2023|Endowment, Freed To Run, News, Shelter for Elders, Uncategorized|

Mayor Donna Deegan joins in blasting Florida PACE for ‘predatory loans’

Mayor Donna Deegan praised City Council's approval Tuesday of legislation that opens the way for a lawsuit against Florida PACE Funding Agency to stop it from financing home improvements on residential property without the city's authorization. “I want to thank Council President [Ron] Salem and the entire City Council for swiftly and unanimously passing this important legislation that will save citizens from financial ruin,” Deegan said after the council unanimously approved Salem's bill. “I urge everyone in Jacksonville to tell their neighbors about these predatory loans so that another family isn’t hurt by this damaging practice.” Florida PACE Funding Agency is a special government district authorized by state law to provide financing for the installation of improvements that will make buildings more energy-efficient and resistant to hurricane-force winds.

2024-01-04T11:09:44-05:00October 12th, 2023|Uncategorized|

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.”

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

JALA helps domestic violence survivor and her children put an abusive relationship behind them and build a new life in Jacksonville

“Monica” relocated to Jacksonville, Fla., from New York in April 2021 to escape years of her husband’s physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Married in 2015, the couple had two boys. After they were born in 2019 and 2020, Monica started to see a rapid change in her husband’s behavior. He developed addictions to alcohol and cocaine, and the physical violence escalated. At first, Monica felt ashamed and embarrassed, but she reached a turning point when the abuse was directed at her children and elderly father. In March 2021, her husband attacked her 63-year-old father, a disabled veteran, while he was holding their 2-year-old. He snatched the toddler from his grandfather, threw the child at Monica, slammed the grandfather’s head against a wall, and tackled him. The incident in March was not isolated, but it was the catalyst for Monica’s decision to end the cycle of abuse.

2024-01-04T11:36:33-05:00April 11th, 2023|Uncategorized|

Jacksonville City Council finds $66K to make up for shortfall in Article V funding for legal aid

With Jacksonville Area Legal Aid (JALA) facing a loss of $66,000 in Article V funding from its share of a criminal court surcharge, the Jacksonville City Council identified an equal amount from elsewhere in the budget in order to avoid cuts to JALA’s valuable services to the community. The Council found the funds after JALA CEO Jim Kowalski met with its finance committee to explain the importance of the funding to JALA’s work in housing stability and other areas important to the city.  These non-taxpayer funds, based on a surcharge on criminal defendants, are steadily decreasing throughout the State.  Unfortunately, Jacksonville is the only large City in Florida that does not provide any general support for civil legal aid, making Article V funds increasing critical.

2022-09-30T13:36:47-04:00September 30th, 2022|News, Partners in Justice Spotlight, Uncategorized|

Orange Park man facing eviction while waiting for Our Florida rent payments

Florida’s emergency rental assistance relief program, Our Florida, announced it sent more than $51 million to families between March 10 and March 23. Just how much of that money was actually deposited, and how much of it is really helping people? Action News Jax has been receiving emails and calls for help from several viewers, claiming their money was reportedly sent by the state but never arrived. A month ago, a Jacksonville woman was waiting on several checks. This time, it’s the same story again; a man in Orange Park was supposed to be evicted Wednesday, March 30. Eric Strickland’s apartment is currently empty. He has packed up all his belongings and moved his furniture to a friend’s house.

2022-03-31T11:45:08-04:00March 31st, 2022|Fair Housing, News, Uncategorized|
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