Housing

Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s Housing Unit is comprised of two main areas of service:

• Defending tenants in improper or illegal evictions actions and other landlord tenant matters; and
• Investigating and representing persons who have been illegally discriminated against in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

In the landlord-tenant area, legal aid staff provide advice and consultation in such areas as non-payment of rent cases, poor living conditions due to landlord neglect, defending illegal “cause” evictions in court and providing counselling in mobile home park disputes.

In the Fair Housing area, Legal Aid staff not only file complaints on behalf of individuals discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin or disability. We also provide outreach and education to consumers, landlords and government officials. Legal Aid also recruits and trains “testers” who seek to determine if various landlords, banks or other institutions are committing illegal discrimination.

Case acceptance for continuing representation will depend upon several factors such as staff availability, the nature of the dispute, teh ability to affect positive change for large numbers of tenants and the probability of success in the case.