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Texas Disaster Legal Help Podcast
Texas Disaster Legal Help Podcast
Disability Rights: Equal Access After a Disaster
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Tune in to our Disability Rights podcast. This episode covers what a volunteer attorney needs to know to represent clients with disabilities effectively and make sure they received equal access to disaster resources.
Guest Speakers: Stephanie Duke and Rachel Cohen-Miller from Disability Rights Texas
Visit our website at https://texasdisasterlegalhelp.org/
Music Credit:
Track: Travel With Us — Vendredi [Audio Library Release]
Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/o-rpKzt4KSY Free Download / Stream: https://alplus.io/travel-us
Transcript
00:03
so hello folks another installment here
00:05
about podcasts with texas disaster legal
00:07
help
00:08
a project of the three legal aid
00:09
programs in texas and today we've got a
00:11
great uh
00:12
podcast we're going to be recording and
00:14
belinda's going to introduce you all the
00:15
speakers in a few seconds but let me go
00:16
ahead and just kind of mention real
00:17
quick as i do at the beginning of every
00:19
podcast
00:20
uh what this project is all about my
00:22
name is pablo almaguer
00:23
i work at texas rio grande legal aid
00:26
and this project itself is
00:27
a coordinated project between legal aid
00:29
of northwest texas lone star legal aid
00:31
and trla it's aimed at improving access
00:34
to justice for those affected by
00:35
disasters our project allows both
00:37
disaster survivors and pro bono
00:38
attorneys to access critical resources
00:40
in one place
00:41
while at the same time making it easier
00:42
to connect disaster survivors needing
00:44
help
00:44
legal help with volunteer attorneys
00:46
willing to provide it
00:47
in this way the project team hopes to
00:49
increase the number of disaster survivor
00:51
clients who receive high quality legal
00:52
assistance
00:53
as they continue to navigate the
00:54
recovery process after disaster
00:56
and provide the support and mentorship
00:58
pro bono attorneys need to achieve this
01:00
success
01:01
my co-hosts here are belinda martinez from
01:03
lone star legal aid and stuart campbell
01:06
from legal aid of northwest texas let me
01:08
go ahead and turn over to belinda so we
01:10
can start the introduction of our
01:11
speakers and get into the
01:12
subject matter thank you pablo
01:16
today's episode covers what a volunteer
01:18
attorney needs to know to represent
01:20
disabled clients effectively
01:22
there is a cross-section of legal aid
01:24
clients that are disabled and like
01:25
low-income clients disabled clients are
01:27
also underserved
01:28
and just simply don't have equal access
01:30
to the resources
01:32
to speak more on the subject we have
01:34
guest speakers
01:35
stephanie duke and rachel cohen-miller
01:38
stephanie duke is a staff attorney and
01:40
equal justice works disaster fellow at
01:42
disability rights texas
01:44
a member of the aba young lawyers
01:46
division disaster legal services team
01:48
and a commission appointment to texas
01:50
tax force on disaster issues affecting
01:52
elderly persons and persons
01:54
with disabilities since hurricane harvey
01:56
stephanie has been representing clients
01:58
with disabilities who have been denied
01:59
the benefit of
02:00
or face discriminatory practice in
02:02
disaster services
02:05
rachel cohen miller is the supervising
02:07
attorney of the housing transportation
02:08
disaster team for disability
02:10
disability rights texas the federally
02:13
designated legal and protection advocacy
02:14
organization for persons with
02:16
disabilities in texas
02:18
rachel works with the staff of the htd
02:20
team
02:21
here at texas teams and persons with
02:24
disabilities and community partners
02:25
using creative strategies in outreach
02:27
education advocacy and litigation to
02:29
address individual instances of
02:31
discrimination
02:32
as well as the systematic
02:33
institutionalized discrimination in her
02:36
free time with her friends and family
02:38
rachel is an avid soap maker and i've
02:40
been told enjoys playing with her lye
02:43
thank you for joining us
02:46
i don't even know what that means
02:51
let it sit i guess okay well let's go
02:54
ahead and get into it
02:55
all right first things first broad topic
02:59
how do attorneys ensure the same level
03:01
of advocacy for disaster survivors with
03:03
disabilities
03:08
uh this is stephanie i'll take that
03:12
uh first understanding that they you
03:14
know the disability doesn't define
03:16
someone there are people first
03:18
so using people first language and
03:20
communicating with them to figure out if
03:22
they need accommodations to
03:25
effectively communicate or even just
03:27
develop that relationship between the
03:29
attorney
03:30
and client
03:37
and what would you add to that rachel
03:40
so i think that it's you know to kind of
03:42
build off of what stephanie said i think
03:44
that
03:45
one of the most important things to
03:46
remember is that people with
03:47
disabilities are
03:48
people too right and so um this is not
03:52
something you know people to keep at arms
03:54
length this is your neighbor this is
03:55
your mom this is your sister your son
03:57
um and so just remember that it's not
04:00
necessarily something
04:02
um that's got to be you know so scary to
04:06
um to do
04:11
and so as you all know um folks this
04:14
podcast is geared towards disaster
04:16
resistance recovery and our pro bono
04:18
volunteers to do those cases
04:19
and we've talked in other topics how
04:23
as frequently as we get disasters in
04:25
texas you see like some folks actually
04:27
becoming experts and you discover
04:29
in disaster recovery um that's more hit
04:32
us and i'm wondering for you all
04:35
if you've developed or identified issues
04:37
that otherwise wouldn't have been
04:38
identified that the vulnerable
04:40
population you'll assist
04:42
uh maybe was those of us that the system
04:45
weren't aware of you know as disasters
04:47
came about and
04:48
we experienced that then we learned to
04:50
be a better advocate for it
04:52
is that the case for disaster recovery
04:54
that you learn to identify some issues
04:55
that maybe a few years ago we didn't
04:56
realize
04:58
sure yeah i mean there's there's
05:00
definitely been a good number of things
05:02
like that that we've
05:04
we've figured out i mean a lot of the
05:06
things that we're seeing and this is
05:07
something we'll talk about
05:08
here in a few minutes i mean you've got
05:09
evictions that can potentially be
05:12
avoided with using reasonable
05:13
accommodations which is a legal
05:15
mechanism
05:16
and so you know before we started
05:20
using that nobody really thought of of
05:21
that as a tool to use to try to work
05:23
with a landlord to avoid an eviction to
05:26
stop it
05:26
right um but
05:29
now that's another tool in the toolbox
05:32
to see if we can't work with you know
05:34
can't work with landlords to to keep
05:36
people housed and to
05:38
ensure that you know
05:41
things go hopefully the way you know the
05:43
best what they can
05:45
um and it's been something that we've
05:47
been able you know getting
05:48
accommodations for clients
05:49
after a disaster whether it's you know
05:51
something related to covid or even
05:54
we've seen things come up as recently um
05:58
also relating to the winter storm last
05:59
month
06:01
and so it takes an attorney two three
06:03
hours total
06:05
to work something out where the client
06:07
doesn't isn't evicted gets to stay in
06:08
their home
06:09
and otherwise maybe they'd end up
06:11
homeless or sick or in a nursing home
06:13
and so it's it's doable and it's
06:17
certainly something we didn't see before
06:20
or we weren't thinking of before this
06:25
and in a disaster or rather after right
06:28
after a disaster
06:29
uh what are the most immediate needs for
06:31
individuals with disabilities
06:32
that pro bonos would see
06:34
06:36
uh this is stephanie so i think you know
06:38
rachel hit on housing's going to be the
06:40
first
06:41
immediate thing um and safe
06:44
housing at that so you know with covid
06:48
that obviously disaster is a little bit
06:50
different but when we're talking about
06:51
hurricanes and flood wildfires you know
06:53
people are displaced from their homes
06:55
so whether they're getting transitional
06:56
housing through fema
06:58
or if they're you know already public
07:00
housing tenants there are obligations to
07:03
ensure
07:03
they have safe accessible housing
07:07
to provide them in that interim and
07:09
figuring out you know permanent housing
07:11
plans
07:13
and that
07:16
stuff that especially you know if it's
07:19
there's some kind of subsidy which a lot
07:21
of our clients and i know legal aids
07:22
clients have
07:23
that's relatively simple to do um
07:27
you know include reaching out to the
07:28
either the housing authority or the
07:29
landlord and saying hey
07:31
we know you get these federal funds here
07:33
are the strings that are attached here's
07:34
what you gotta do
07:36
let's uh make this happen um
07:39
and generally it all it takes is that
07:42
um if it takes a little more maybe you
07:44
reach out to hud because there are local
07:46
folks here in texas
07:47
um and then things move along pretty
07:50
quickly too but
07:51
um that's another example of something
07:54
that you know that pro bono attorney
07:56
could do relatively easily easily and
07:58
quickly
08:01
i think it cut off a little bit in the
08:02
beginning i'm sorry but i think you're
08:04
On mute but it took it off a little bit
08:05
in the beginning you're talking about
08:07
i guess subsidies and benefits the
08:11
clients are getting rachel is that what
08:12
you were talking about
08:13
yeah so if if clients are are living in
08:16
housing that's assisted so if there's
08:18
either it's a housing authority or
08:20
there's some kind of hud money that runs
08:22
to it
08:22
there's a lot of obligations that
08:25
the property and you know the government
08:28
has the local authority has
08:30
um to make sure that people are housed
08:33
and so that's generally as easy as a
08:36
phone call
08:38
you know our experience has also been
08:39
that we're um those of uh trla you know
08:41
with several different kind of areas
08:43
especially housing that uh you know the
08:45
landlords are going through the same
08:46
issues as
08:47
the tenants are with disaster recovery
08:50
and that uh
08:51
especially even during this covid you
08:53
know pandemic
08:55
that an attempt to try to at least get
08:57
some benefits for the client so they can
08:59
pay for their rent which
09:00
might be available at the local state or
09:02
even federal level
09:04
it's always accepted i mean um
09:06
appreciated by the landlords and so it's
09:08
not always litigation that we do
09:09
sometimes we look for these resources to
09:10
connect the clients you know to those so
09:12
they can actually pay and everybody be
09:14
a win-win situation you'll see that a
09:15
lot happening in your services when you
09:17
help clients
09:20
yeah i think especially right now i mean
09:23
you know a lot of what
09:24
we've been working out is getting more
09:26
time for clients to pay because you know
09:29
there is help coming right there's
09:31
there's money that is coming
09:32
that's coming out of you know whether
09:34
it's local governments or the state
09:36
um so folks will be able to pay their
09:38
rent they just need a little bit more
09:40
time
09:41
um and so that's a lot of what you know
09:43
what this is is it's
09:45
either connecting them with you know
09:46
here are the resources here the places
09:48
you can go
09:49
um but also letting the landlord know
09:51
hey
09:52
you know client is working with you know
09:56
these entities to try to get you paid um
10:00
even if you are to kick them out i mean
10:02
the reality is who's going to move in
10:04
who's got money to rent this after our
10:05
client's gone
10:09
so it sounds like
10:13
for the most part disaster survivors
10:16
encounter the same
10:17
legal issues as any other disaster
10:19
survivor
10:21
with just a little wrinkle of
10:24
unfortunately the client's disability
10:26
what would be some tips on issue
10:28
spotting
10:29
disability related issues or
10:31
discrimination in those cases
10:35
i would start with making sure they have
10:38
access to whether it's
10:40
it's not just getting in the building
10:42
it's what's in the building that you
10:44
should have access to as well so
10:45
systemic issues
10:46
you know fema's process is cumbersome
10:49
for anyone
10:50
but knowing what accommodations to ask
10:53
for depending on the need
10:55
is not always transparent so you know
10:59
they
10:59
if you have sensory impairments just
11:01
completing the application
11:02
and of itself is a barrier and then
11:05
on top of that the eligibility process
11:07
making sure
11:08
there are ways to modify practices
11:12
that would ensure your equal opportunity
11:14
to hopefully benefit from fema services
11:17
so it's not just
11:18
you know like i said architectural
11:20
access it's making sure that all these
11:21
disaster services
11:23
or whoever's providing assistance is
11:25
aware
11:26
of the systemic issues that can also be
11:28
in place
11:30
so i'd like to kind of back up and ask
11:33
like the
11:34
the why and why now questions so like
11:36
we've just had this
11:37
crazy we're recording in uh the middle
11:39
of march and we just had this crazy
11:40
winter storm
11:40
right uh i want to
11:45
ask both of you everyone is affected by
11:48
the natural disasters at least the most
11:50
recent one in texas the entire state was
11:52
but
11:53
of course throughout any given uh
11:55
hurricane season
11:56
there's a risk for a good chunk of the
11:58
state to be affected by
12:00
natural disasters what challenges do
12:03
individual individuals with disabilities
12:05
face
12:06
that someone who is not disabled will
12:09
face during a natural disaster
12:10
and if you could give us some some
12:12
examples a lot of us don't even
12:14
even practitioners in this field maybe
12:16
don't recognize some of the challenges
12:18
that they might be able
12:19
that they are facing as opposed to
12:21
someone who's not disabled and so
12:23
could you kind of point out some the why
12:25
and
12:26
the why it's really important right now
12:31
so i think a couple of things to keep in
12:34
mind here i think one of them that
12:36
you know that we've got to keep in mind
12:37
is we're in the middle of a pandemic you
12:39
know like he said it's march we're a
12:40
year into this thing
12:42
um people have been at home working from
12:44
home
12:45
or whether they're going to work life
12:47
has changed
12:48
drastically for everyone so there's you
12:51
know depression that a balance ptsd
12:53
anxiety all of that right certainly my
12:55
meds have increased since this thing
12:56
started
12:58
um and i certainly i'm not alone right
13:01
um and so i think that's one of the big
13:04
things to take into account right
13:06
so like if last month we had the storm
13:09
come through
13:10
and my area lost power we didn't have
13:12
rolling blackouts we are
13:14
rolling power outages we just had ever
13:16
they just turned us off
13:17
right we were one of those lucky areas
13:19
that doesn't have money
13:20
that they decided sorry you lose um
13:25
and everybody was already on edge right
13:27
because at that point you're almost a
13:29
year into covid everybody's been home
13:31
you know there there had already been
13:33
runs on grocery stores and things like
13:35
that and so
13:36
losing power and worrying about your
13:38
kids and worrying about your family
13:40
um it is stressing all of the things
13:44
that are already there
13:45
right so if i'm having to to try to talk
13:47
to fema
13:48
right and this is just me personally
13:50
knowing myself and the way
13:52
um my
13:55
you know my anxiety and ptsd and that
13:57
kind of stuff the way that
13:59
manifests for me if i'm trying to reach
14:02
out to to fema or somebody to get help
14:04
and and i'm not getting anywhere
14:08
my anxiety is getting worse it's
14:09
ratcheting up right and so
14:12
so what am i going to do right i may
14:14
give up we've had that happen
14:16
a lot right clients just give up they
14:17
don't call back right because
14:19
what is you know i'm never going to get
14:20
through to anybody anyway well in that
14:23
situation
14:24
what i could potentially do is say hey i
14:27
you know i need an accommodation let me
14:28
communicate with you another way whether
14:30
it's email or
14:31
text or i i i cannot you know waiting on
14:34
this phone is not going to work for me
14:36
i'm not
14:37
going to have access to that like
14:38
somebody else would doesn't have the
14:40
anxiety and the ptsd and
14:41
you know the other things that i'm
14:43
dealing with right and so
14:45
you know just put me on a level playing
14:46
field with everybody else
14:49
um and and it's things like that right
14:51
that's the
14:53
you know the on the ground what else are
14:56
we seeing
14:56
or that's one of them anyway
15:00
and i think you know a lot of times
15:03
in responding to disasters it's
15:07
it's contingent upon how we prepared for
15:09
it so
15:10
if you don't know what your resources
15:13
are beforehand
15:14
trying to figure it out after the fact
15:16
is just going to exacerbate anything
15:18
that
15:18
in someone's going through right it's
15:19
already traumatic to begin with
15:21
so and that comes back to
15:24
asking those questions you know if
15:26
there's going to be in a hurricane
15:28
points of evacuation who do you call to
15:30
find out when those decisions are made
15:32
or if it's after the fact points of
15:34
distribution for food
15:36
water like we saw in uri who's making
15:38
those decisions and who's making it
15:40
accessible
15:41
so it's knowing who's supposed to do
15:44
what and asking those questions
15:46
beforehand that's going to help mitigate
15:49
the need afterwards you know it's
15:52
interesting you mentioned that because
15:54
i'm
15:54
right now again in the middle of march
15:56
right we're starting to see i think some
15:57
states in some areas going to the 1c
15:59
classification for vaccinations now
16:01
uh and maybe our clients in our
16:03
population have made up to 181 b
16:06
but i wonder if now then our work will
16:09
require not only recovery from the
16:11
disaster
16:12
immediately we might be in the ice storm
16:14
but then a discussion on how to get that
16:16
vaccination to
16:17
access to it and to help our clients
16:19
because that's the longer
16:20
kind of long-term issue that they're
16:22
dealing with here and and to take
16:24
i mean one listing to have to worry
16:25
about as you try to do with your legal
16:27
problem
16:27
i didn't think about that until i i
16:29
heard you all and i talked about these
16:30
issues
16:31
then maybe i should add that now to my
16:32
considerations for my clients you know
16:34
are you vaccinated have you found
16:35
resources for that
16:37
maybe we can help you with that you know
16:38
because we have a few you know access or
16:41
points or other things to add here so
16:44
and
16:44
to to build off of that and i'm i'm up
16:46
in denton area
16:47
right and one of the things that we have
16:49
had you know i i've been real impressed
16:51
with the way
16:53
um obviously you know we've been having
16:55
this we've got this mass vaccination
16:57
site
16:58
over at the texas motor speedway and
17:01
you know what do you do when somebody
17:03
doesn't have a way over right
17:05
over there right because the disability
17:06
they can't get over there
17:08
well what they've started to do is
17:09
they've started to provide
17:10
transportation now
17:12
so we have now there is now a way for
17:15
people to get over there and that's one
17:17
of these issues that again i think that
17:18
even
17:19
you know we're talking about you know
17:21
pro bono attorney if if this is brought
17:23
up to a pro bono attorney and certainly
17:24
you know stephanie's always here i'm
17:26
always here reach out to us you know you
17:27
got questions that's what we're here for
17:29
always you know um but
17:33
one of the things that can be done
17:34
especially and this is actually probably
17:36
better done by local attorneys than by
17:38
us because local attorneys have these
17:39
ins like you know who the judges are
17:41
you can call somebody and be like hey we
17:43
got this issue
17:44
let's all work together to solve it
17:46
right let's get transportation worked
17:47
out for people
17:49
you know so the people with disabilities
17:50
can get to this site or you know because
17:52
it's a drive-through
17:53
my client can't drive a car right what
17:55
do we do then
17:56
well initially it's your client can't
17:58
get vaccinated well that's not the right
18:00
answer
18:01
um and again a local attorney that's got
18:03
ties with folks in the community can
18:05
call and say hey
18:07
uh nah this isn't the way this works
18:09
right and so it's
18:10
it's very much a yes it's a legal issue
18:14
but with a local attorney it could be a
18:15
very short
18:17
thing to solve because they've got the
18:18
connections there in these small
18:21
in small community small towns that we
18:22
don't have
18:24
um and so that's something that
18:25
potentially
18:27
could be really really beneficial um
18:30
and quite frankly you know we've all
18:33
been been hometown i mean it's it's
18:35
better than us trying to do it
18:38
exactly we've uh i think on several uh
18:41
episodes have mentioned
18:43
one of the things about representing
18:45
disaster clients is
18:46
they're coming in for one issue but more
18:49
than likely they probably have five or
18:50
six others they don't even know about
18:51
until you start talking to them
18:53
and one of the things that we always
18:55
make sure on the texas disaster legal
18:57
help website is make sure
18:59
we do have lists of those local
19:01
resources that if you are
19:03
transactional attorney or you know this
19:06
is just not your field at all
19:08
you can give the client that information
19:11
another example i always use
19:12
is like you said if there's no food and
19:15
their electricity is out
19:17
they're not really caring about their
19:18
fema application right at that second
19:21
they need to eat and they need light and
19:22
power and there
19:24
you need to be able to point them to
19:25
those resources even though technically
19:27
that's not
19:28
generally in the sphere of
19:31
representation normally um
19:35
so thank you for mentioning that it's
19:37
always something to keep in the back of
19:39
your mind
19:41
uh one of the other questions i want to
19:43
ask is
19:45
going back to pro bono volunteers just
19:47
what are some of the types of cases they
19:48
see we touched on
19:49
housing and that's usually a major one
19:51
but what are some of the other issues
19:52
that seems to come up
19:55
so recently and this again disaster is
19:58
ever evolving right stephanie said we're
20:00
always going to have
20:02
the the you know weather-related
20:04
disasters but we're seeing more and more
20:07
different disasters now right so one of
20:10
the things we're looking at and taking a
20:12
look into a deep dive into is
20:14
infrastructure
20:16
right so power people that need
20:19
power at their house well if it's like
20:21
my area where they decided to just
20:22
arbitrarily turn it off
20:25
let's call them up and and and certainly
20:28
my
20:28
where i live the town um
20:32
i was very impressed with my small
20:33
town's ability to
20:35
hold folks feet to the fire and get
20:38
power restored for us
20:39
because it didn't need to be out um but
20:42
the other thing that i know has worked
20:44
in the past for some of our clients is
20:45
to call the power company and say hey
20:47
i know you have all these places powers
20:50
out i got a kiddo that's dependent upon
20:52
this power
20:53
to breathe and i've only got a generator
20:56
that's gonna you know a couple hours
20:57
maybe three four hours can you restore
20:59
our power first
21:01
versus like the street over um and so
21:04
that's
21:05
you know accommodations in that realm
21:07
right i mean
21:08
it's not something that i necessarily
21:10
ever thought of but it
21:12
it is something that's relatively yeah i
21:15
think we're going to see that more and
21:16
more moving forward
21:17
depending on how things go with the
21:19
infrastructure
21:22
and i think this is stephanie with any
21:23
disaster you're going to have the same
21:25
issues
21:26
you know consumer issues fraud identity
21:29
thefts um
21:30
if you're displaced from a home it's
21:32
going to be continuity of services
21:33
whether it's
21:34
education for your children health care
21:36
services
21:38
um even employment issues so
21:41
there's you know it doesn't stop at one
21:44
substantive legal area
21:45
and depending on the disaster and how it
21:48
impacts community
21:49
you know physically can determine what
21:52
the cases are going to look like as well
21:57
interesting you mentioned that
21:58
one of the things that we're going to
21:59
add and it should be there by the end of
22:01
this month or maybe next month
22:02
on the blog of the texas disaster lega
22:04
help is
22:06
a discussion of what's called the life
22:07
cycle of disaster recovery where as you
22:09
mentioned you know in the beginning
22:11
i mean depending on the disaster and
22:12
what's involved in your mind just
22:14
housing
22:14
female opinions then you go into the
22:16
next level the consumer issues you know
22:18
where maybe some repairs are not done
22:20
you've got to deal with those matters
22:21
like right now plumbing i'm sure all
22:22
over the
22:23
texas you know and having to even have
22:25
an access for that and then i'm going to
22:26
absolutely do that you know that that's
22:28
going to create some consumer issues
22:30
uh and then you know bankruptcy about
22:32
down the line you know and
22:33
we're going to post about how that
22:35
happens in every disaster
22:37
um i'm assuming you all see that
22:39
too with your clients or you have a
22:41
client come in with an immediate need
22:42
for maybe
22:42
just housing and then later on it
22:44
becomes a consumer me later on because
22:45
of
22:46
something else along the line you see
22:48
that happening in your cases
22:51
all the time in particular you know i
22:53
mean
22:55
i think the biggest thing that we're
22:56
going to see long term is that consumer
22:58
piece of it
22:59
because you know especially for most of
23:02
our clients on limited income
23:04
um these disasters whether it's a
23:06
natural disaster
23:08
like like a hurricane or whether it's
23:10
covid or whether it's a
23:11
you know an issue with infrastructure um
23:14
our clients don't have you know there's
23:16
a very finite amount of money our
23:18
clients have
23:19
and if they're having to expend like
23:21
let's say you got to pay rent you're
23:22
got to go find a hotel for two nights
23:24
that clean that's done
23:25
and so then what happens you know what
23:27
other bills can't you pay
23:29
and and at that point it it spirals
23:32
right because
23:33
you know are you gonna get medical care
23:36
because you know can you afford it are
23:37
you
23:38
um able to pay for
23:42
you know whatever else it is whether
23:43
it's housing or whether it is
23:45
um food right and so it spirals into
23:48
things and that'll affect you long term
23:50
right your ability
23:51
to get a loan right what if you need
23:53
another car or things like that and so
23:55
it will
23:56
follow you forever and we're
23:59
certainly we're looking at ways to
24:02
address those issues in particular the
24:04
debt
24:04
side of it and
24:08
this is stephanie you know long-term
24:10
recovery i still have
24:12
a handful of clients waiting on harvey
24:15
recovery
24:16
and you know so they're still in homes
24:19
that are not
24:20
really habitable and they've experienced
24:22
covid on top of it now we've had uri
24:24
it's caused more damage
24:26
so that long-term recovery process can
24:29
literally take
24:30
decades to truly recover so
24:33
you know and it's just exacerbated as
24:35
more and more disasters happen
24:37
and then you know the infrastructure
24:39
thing is huge because
24:41
now especially being home in the covid
24:43
environment you know cyber security
24:45
threats are all over the place
24:47
so that just is going to compound you
24:49
know the consumer issues and identity
24:52
theft and all that as well so it's just
24:54
it's it's a whole new world to think
24:56
about all the things that
24:57
could happen and what we should be doing
25:00
to prepare
25:01
for the next time so
25:04
you know it it occurs to me the other
25:06
thing that that we could you know that
25:08
pro bono attorneys could potentially do
25:10
is is some of this
25:11
some of these issues around debt and
25:13
resolving debt issues
25:15
we've started addressing debt issues as
25:18
accommodation issues particularly when
25:19
they revolve around disability pieces so
25:22
you know whether it's you can't pay
25:23
whatever this is because
25:25
you had to have this medication or
25:27
because you had to have transportation
25:29
to this medical
25:30
appointment or things like that that we
25:32
see all the time but we've never
25:34
thought about it in this context before
25:36
until you know last
25:37
few months and so addressing those
25:40
issues
25:41
as an accommodation right um
25:44
you've got housing providers right now
25:46
that even though
25:48
the evictions are on hold they have sent
25:50
the debt to collectors
25:51
already um we have been resolving those
25:54
very
25:54
i don't want to say easily but certainly
25:57
those are cases that can be resolved
25:59
pretty easily because the
26:00
the corporations that hold that debt
26:02
especially right now there's only a
26:03
couple of them
26:05
and they don't want to deal with the
26:07
fair housing claim either
26:09
so those cases are pretty easy to
26:10
resolve and i think that's certainly
26:12
something that pro bono attorney could
26:13
do
26:13
as well maybe i want to be a little
26:16
selfish here
26:17
but i have a lot of clients with that
26:19
situation so could you elaborate on that
26:20
for just like a minute
26:22
like just 60 seconds like what do you
26:24
mean they're easy to resolve because now
26:26
i'm i'm i'm selfishly interested
26:28
selfishly but for my clients
26:30
so so we have um and you know we've done
26:34
in a number of these
26:35
where um if it's with the debt collector
26:39
right and it's let's say we're asking
26:41
for an accommodation let my client pay
26:42
out their rent for a while
26:44
right um and the landlord has already
26:46
sent it over to a debt collector
26:48
we send a letter to the landlord
26:51
engaging with them if
26:53
client hasn't already done that right
26:55
and then we send a letter to
26:57
debt collector and there's generally
26:58
only a couple in terms of housing
27:01
and we say hey we know you're not aware
27:05
however the debt that you're trying to
27:07
collect is
27:08
you know there's there's a question
27:11
around
27:11
because there was an accommodation
27:12
request this debt should not be owed
27:15
under the fair housing act and so you
27:18
know please
27:18
stop trying to collect until this fair
27:21
housing issue is resolved and they
27:24
come back to you um and boy it stops
27:27
them in their tracks
27:30
um quickly that's really cool thank you
27:35
i was actually looking at yall's website
27:36
uh at disabilityrightstx.org and you
27:40
actually have i think those on the
27:41
resources some of those letters or
27:43
samples that i didn't realize for
27:44
housing and other issues
27:46
yeah so what we've done is we have taken
27:49
a lot of the letters that we were
27:51
writing and helping clients write a lot
27:53
and we have done generators with them
27:54
online
27:55
so that clients can input the
27:57
information
27:59
um and ask for them you know and ask for
28:01
these
28:02
accommodations themselves and so the
28:04
reason i say you know these would likely
28:06
be real easy for attorneys to handle is
28:08
because the client
28:09
has likely already made the request
28:11
right and and so the
28:14
generally with the attorney would
28:15
generally do what we've been doing is
28:17
client has already asked and it's it's
28:19
all in writing and they have a record
28:21
because that's
28:22
we designed the form so that people
28:23
could download these
28:25
like the letters to their phone and then
28:26
email it to the landlord from their
28:28
phone
28:28
is the way it was designed um and so
28:32
all the landlord or although the
28:34
attorney would have to do is figure out
28:35
who owns the corporation because the
28:37
client's generally just going to send it
28:38
to the manager
28:39
right manager don't know what the hell
28:40
they're doing um
28:42
and so at that point you know attorney
28:45
gets involved with their letterhead
28:46
sends it to whoever owns it and says do
28:48
you really want to deal with me
28:51
um and the answer is generally no um
28:54
but thank you you know we appreciate
28:56
talking with you goodbye
28:58
uh my dog's name is jessica by the way
29:04
it seems always want to be part of this
29:06
podcast you don't understand almost
29:08
everyone you have one appear or
29:09
sound in the background it's only audio
29:11
but we have a lot of that but this is
29:13
basically a dog podcast now
29:14
it's all it is we just happen to be
29:17
their guests
29:18
either dogs or kids or both well there
29:21
was a six-year-old you heard too
29:23
let me mention the website again because
29:25
i think it's important for the
29:26
volunteers it's disability rights
29:28
tx dot org it's very handy usually we
29:31
actually
29:32
promised our pro bonos to look at our
29:34
website and then we'll put some links in
29:36
there free but y'all done all the work
29:37
for us this is what we like you all are
29:38
the best speakers because you come
29:40
prepared and then
29:41
with the resources we can use and
29:42
honestly uh
29:44
the best sort of pro bono resource for
29:46
the volunteers which you have in the
29:47
website you can actually create a bit of
29:49
a letter a bank of letters now
29:51
to assist your clients and learn that
29:53
practice of the area of law
29:54
by the samples that you put in there and
29:56
how to generate those letters so
29:58
thank you all for sharing this
30:01
so uh we've
30:04
said the word accommodation like a
30:06
thousand times but
30:07
for the folks who aren't so say
30:11
i mean we're going to get a lot of pro
30:12
bono attorneys who have never done
30:13
anything disability related so
30:15
can we do you do like 4000 foot
30:17
explanation of what a reasonable
30:18
accommodation request
30:20
is and like maybe some short we've
30:22
already run through a few examples which
30:24
have been great but
30:25
a a few like quick stories of how
30:27
they've
30:28
how you've employed them and how they've
30:30
worked
30:31
so you know accommodation is a change in
30:35
a policy
30:36
right or a procedure or you know
30:39
something that the landlord or property
30:41
owner or whomever
30:42
right whether it's a you know
30:44
accommodation under the
30:45
americans with disabilities act to um
30:49
you know a state government or a
30:50
governmental entity
30:52
um it's just a change to a policy or
30:54
procedure or the way they do things
30:56
and so um something like
31:00
uh you know one that you know you
31:04
you see or you know people i guess
31:07
understand a little bit more as okay i'm
31:09
personal with the mobility impairment i
31:11
have a hard time walking and my
31:14
i need a parking spot that's assigned to
31:16
me that's very close to my apartment so
31:18
i can get in and out of my apartment
31:20
you know without having to walk very far
31:22
and so they assign you a parking spot
31:24
right there's a pretty you know easy
31:26
example of
31:27
kind of a routine example if you will
31:30
um or um
31:35
yeah i think that's probably the one
31:36
that people
31:38
see the most well yeah see the most
31:41
just uh for the
31:44
listeners to understand that the
31:46
reasonable accommodation request that's
31:48
based in the ada right it's so that's
31:51
it's in a couple of places there's
31:53
um part of there's some of it in the
31:55
americans with disabilities act and
31:56
you know two and title three um and
32:00
Title one there there's also in the
32:02
fair housing act there's no reasonable
32:03
accommodation piece
32:05
and also there's an accommodation uh or
32:08
modification i guess
32:10
some some places use one term over the
32:12
other but it's
32:13
you know some in some places it's very
32:15
similar um
32:16
and then section 504 of the rehab act is
32:19
where you see it
32:20
so there's there's a bunch of different
32:22
places and there's also provisions
32:24
in state law for it for accommodations
32:26
as well
32:27
um and so it draws from a bunch of
32:30
different sources
32:32
um but it depending on
32:35
what situation you're in will depend on
32:37
which law you use some of it is overlap
32:40
but yeah that's where it comes from
32:43
stephanie yeah
32:44
oh sorry i was do you have any instances
32:47
of like of like most common
32:49
like the one that i see the most as a
32:51
tenants rights guy
32:52
is uh a lot of landlords don't
32:56
understand that
32:56
disability either can get paid on the
32:59
third of the month
33:00
or depending on what benefit you get i
33:01
know you're you're laughing right but
33:03
it's see
33:03
it's super common uh that they don't
33:05
know that they can get disability
33:07
disability gets paid on the third or
33:08
certain other benefits get paid on the
33:09
15th and so
33:11
the lease says the first and they start
33:12
tacking on attorneys or not attorney’s fees
33:15
late fees or start filing evictions or
33:17
whatever i'm just like hold on a second
33:18
hold on a second
33:19
here's my request um but you go ahead
33:22
do you have any like common request
33:24
that's the one i do the most is that
33:25
that's my personal story but what about
33:27
you
33:27
right and and you know rachel's our fair
33:30
housing person but that i mean that
33:31
reasonable accommodation is as simple as
33:33
extending the time i mean so
33:36
but you know and a lot of stuff that i
33:39
deal with now is more
33:40
federal and fema and ensuring
33:44
effective communication too under
33:45
section 508 of rehab act
33:47
so it's knowing what your client needs
33:51
based on their disability
33:52
one of the biggest issues with fema
33:54
right now is their habitability standard
33:57
and a client is not going to know to ask
34:00
as a reasonable accommodation i need a
34:02
modification to fema's habitability
34:04
standard
34:04
it took me forever to figure that out
34:06
and how to put it in magic words
34:08
so it's it's knowing what the client
34:11
needs and how to get it and sometimes
34:13
you have to think outside of the box
34:15
and be creative and sometimes you can
34:17
wave it around at somebody say hey you
34:18
need to do this and they're going to do
34:20
it but other times it
34:21
is a systemic issue that is going to
34:23
take us a long time to change that
34:24
process but
34:25
accommodations in and of themselves like
34:28
i say can be as easy as extending a
34:29
timeline
34:31
um changing the policy you know another
34:33
thing in direct housing under fema's
34:35
they have these
34:36
recertification meetings if you're in a
34:39
direct housing unit
34:41
and after harvey there was no affordable
34:44
housing right everybody was scrambling
34:46
trying to figure out but fema has
34:48
this process where they have these
34:49
meetings in place every two weeks
34:52
well for someone that's waiting on
34:54
public housing to become available
34:56
with a mental illness just exacerbates
35:00
their disability so asking for
35:03
less meetings is a simple accommodation
35:06
that could be provided
35:07
if they've already worked towards
35:08
insuring their permanent housing and if
35:10
they're just waiting on a voucher
35:12
you know that's as simple as saying okay
35:14
we'll meet once a month versus every two
35:16
weeks or every four weeks or whatever it
35:18
is
35:18
so
35:22
and i'd like to point out to our pro
35:24
bono volunteers
35:25
there's been a wealth of information so
35:27
far and we're not even
35:28
done with the podcast but we're not
35:31
expecting you
35:32
to be 100% familiar with the ada or hud
35:36
regulations
35:37
um i've been a disaster attorney for
35:39
several years now
35:40
i'm not even familiar with every aspect
35:44
of those policies so you can come to us
35:46
if you're not
35:47
sure if an accommodation should be made
35:51
for example extending the written
35:52
deadline if you're a brand new attorney
35:55
or have never done any housing cases
35:58
you might not understand that legally
35:59
they do have to make that accommodation
36:01
so ask us we're always here i know
36:05
stephanie's here rachel's here stuart
36:07
myself
36:09
we do have mentors on the website we
36:11
have a variety of resources we have live
36:13
chat
36:14
uh just ask us and just in addition to
36:17
that
36:18
we've actually also talked about the
36:19
systemic and institutionalized
36:21
discrimination
36:22
that exists for disabled people we're
36:25
not going to give you one of those cases
36:26
that has to be taken off to the texas
36:28
appeal
36:28
unless you really want it but then all
36:30
means but
36:32
you're probably going to get some of the
36:34
quicker cases that
36:36
we just um i hate to say don't have time
36:38
for them it's just
36:40
there are too many cases there are
36:42
millions of cases out there that qualify
36:44
for our services that we just can't
36:45
take and that's kind of why we need you
36:47
if you can show up an eviction hearing
36:49
and just say
36:50
no this falls under the moratorium order
36:53
or no this falls under
36:54
fair debt collection practices and get
36:56
that dismissed
36:57
you've made a huge difference in that
36:59
person's life for
37:01
maybe a few hours worth of work and have
37:03
taken a client that would have not
37:05
gotten services otherwise
37:08
i also want to remind folks might not
37:10
remember this or know about this
37:12
and maybe folks you don't know either if
37:15
you take on a case of
37:16
first impression you're learning maybe
37:17
an area of law you can actually get up
37:19
to five hours of cle for doing that pro
37:21
bono case as a volunteer
37:24
one of us rachel or stephanie here do
37:26
the mentoring they can get five hours of
37:28
cle for mentoring
37:29
the mentee gets five hours too that's
37:30
one third of your CLE requirement i
37:32
know
37:32
isn't that great that you can also get
37:34
both ways did ya’ll just found out about that
37:36
Rachel stephanie
37:37
instead of me no you know i i didn't
37:40
know
37:40
you know stephanie you and i how many
37:42
hours do we have i know right
37:46
if i had a visual you'd see like the
37:48
more you know graphic just come out you
37:50
know across the screen
37:51
i could do that so yes i mean for
37:53
volunteers and for you all that really
37:54
does matter and
37:55
if you don't know how to get in that
37:57
credit just let us know i can give you
37:58
the information
38:05
and rachel and stephanie are thinking
38:06
they will never ever have to take a cle
38:08
class ever again
38:11
effectively yeah
38:16
there's one of the things that
38:20
that we have found in terms of you know
38:25
policies and procedures is that
38:28
it's a different way of looking at
38:30
things
38:32
um
38:33
and so i come initially out of legal aid
38:37
i worked for legal aid in oklahoma before
38:38
we moved back to texas
38:40
um and it wasn't until i got to
38:44
disability rights texas and really got
38:46
my hands dirty if you will and really
38:48
got into a lot of
38:50
the cases that were being done here that
38:53
i really
38:53
put together a lot of the things that i
38:56
had learned in legal aid and the cases
38:57
that i'd handled whether it was family
38:59
law or
39:00
whether it was you know
39:03
an unemployment hearing or um evictions
39:06
and housing discrimination those kinds
39:07
of things
39:08
um and then you you look at it with the
39:10
overlay of disability
39:12
nine times out of ten i would say
39:14
looking back there was a disability
39:16
impact or disability implication on my
39:19
cases and i just didn't realize it
39:22
um because it
39:25
nobody no i mean you really don't want
39:26
to say nobody knows but
39:28
the reality is this is it's not knit
39:30
it's not you know
39:32
there's just not a lot of information
39:35
out there
39:36
and so um you know if it comes up in
39:40
you know in somebody's conversation with
39:42
the pro bono attorney with your client
39:44
if disability comes up in any way reach
39:46
out to one of us
39:47
because you're never going to be there
39:49
um and
39:51
not that we throw things at the wall
39:52
sometimes we do
39:54
um a lot of times it sticks
39:57
and you know uh so
40:01
that's why i have many increments of
40:04
five hours i think we should have but it
40:06
is what it is
40:11
all right are there like any specific
40:13
examples you can think of that you know
40:15
because i can think of a few you know
40:17
back
40:18
doing this for 20 years and then you
40:20
know doing a few of the uh
40:22
ada cases that i did later on in life i
40:25
in my career i realized wait a minute
40:26
you know what i could probably talk to
40:27
my client who had the adhd
40:30
you know son in a custody battle to
40:31
maybe get them some assistance to be
40:33
able to
40:34
you know however just kind of both move
40:36
forward through that you know
40:37
i didn't think about those issues i just
40:39
thought about the legal problem in front
40:40
of me let's get them custody and move
40:42
on and never something more that would
40:44
have helped and what helped for us at
40:45
trla
40:47
and i think you all done this too is
40:48
that we have now these uh
40:51
we have uh social workers at our
40:53
organizations you know who actually sit
40:55
down and talk to some of our clients and
40:56
they identify things
40:57
we wouldn't see otherwise because
40:59
otherwise like most legal aid attorneys
41:01
we're doing both things you know
41:02
attorney and social worker at times
41:05
you don't have any examples you can
41:07
think of that maybe you know what
41:08
that would have been a great time or
41:09
maybe i did apply something i know here
41:11
from my disability rights knowledge
41:16
i mean it happens so often you know i
41:18
mean anything i you know
41:20
if you're on social media at all and you
41:22
see people talking about stuff right now
41:24
what we're starting to hear about is
41:25
mold
41:27
you know but pipes are busted mold we're
41:30
starting to hear it already
41:31
it started to you know when when the
41:33
temperatures
41:34
went back up we started to hear it and
41:37
so what you hear about or what you see
41:39
is generally people talking about mold
41:41
and i can't live here anymore i want to
41:42
move what they may not say outright
41:46
is that i can't breathe i'm coughing all
41:50
the time
41:51
my my son or daughter is turning red
41:54
right they've got rash that's broke out
41:56
all over the hives that they didn't have
41:58
before
42:00
and it's those things you know that's
42:03
a big one that we're seeing right now
42:04
that you know i before i started doing
42:06
this i don't know that i would have ever
42:07
picked up on
42:09
on those kinds of issues
42:13
um or the implications of that it's not
42:15
just a habitability issue it's a it's a
42:17
you know it's an accommodation issue
42:19
right let me out on my lease
42:21
or remediate this you know bring some
42:23
bring the professionals in
42:24
to do this or if it's some kind of
42:26
public housing move me to another unit
42:28
or give me a voucher
42:31
so this is stephanie i i just
42:35
i'm a newbie attorney still i had a
42:37
15-year career
42:38
in special education so i was built
42:42
well-versed in providing accommodations
42:44
for students
42:45
you know and as an educator scaffolding
42:47
things accommodating things so
42:49
i had that piece but then of course i
42:52
had to
42:53
understand the rule of law and where all
42:54
that plays in but i think the bottom
42:55
line is just
42:57
if something doesn't feel right for
42:58
somebody and it's not fair
43:01
there's probably something else that you
43:03
could be done whether it's reasonable
43:04
accommodation process or figuring out it
43:06
just
43:06
and it comes back to what that
43:08
individual needs at that point in time
43:10
and i think
43:11
you know especially being able to be an
43:13
ejw fellow and disaster lawyer
43:17
we have this network and it's not just
43:20
case services it's community ordering
43:22
and knowing those resources in the
43:24
community
43:24
and building that partnership with
43:26
stakeholders for me it's with disability
43:28
organizations as well as disaster
43:30
organizations
43:31
through local voads and stuff like that
43:33
so it's it's knowing your resources as
43:36
well as an attorney
43:37
and being able to advocate for your
43:38
client and what they need
43:46
43:49
so you know i just thought about this
43:51
right now because i've got a fourth
43:52
grader here and a second grader at home
43:54
you can probably hear in the background
43:56
the spring break noises but i realized
43:59
something
43:59
we were recently uh at a park here with
44:02
my fourth grader and a little bit of a
44:03
crowd gathered around you know people
44:05
were around and i saw her just kind of
44:06
panic and get most anxiety attack you
44:08
know just from that feeling i'm like you
44:09
know we're fine six feet away we're
44:11
outside
44:12
and i'm wondering you know when they've
44:13
got to go back to school there's this
44:15
group of kids that are gonna have to go
44:16
back now
44:17
after a full year of not being around
44:19
the cdc just put out i think regulation
44:21
today of
44:22
three feet of space instead of six feet
44:24
and i'm wondering though
44:25
if that's practitioners you have to stop
44:27
and realize maybe educational
44:29
uh accommodation issues they're gonna
44:30
come up you know with our kids who
44:32
probably haven't been in school in a
44:33
while and they're gonna start being
44:35
fleeing those stressors you think that's
44:37
something
44:38
you've seen might come up or might have
44:41
to identify
44:42
oh yeah so i have a my my six-year-old
44:46
has been so she went back to school
44:50
um i mean there was no way she could
44:53
stay home and stuff
44:54
stephanie as a former educator walked
44:57
through this with me quite substantially
44:59
um but she was not doing well at home
45:03
um there is a reason i am not a teacher
45:05
i am not an educator
45:06
um my husband is but they were back in
45:09
school
45:10
um so she went back and
45:15
you know most texas classrooms six feet
45:17
is not gonna happen
45:19
it's three feet right effectively is
45:21
what
45:22
she's been in now they've been masking
45:24
and um
45:25
you know there are machines in that room
45:27
to to do what they can to scrub the air
45:29
and things like that
45:31
um but even then
45:34
right because we haven't been you know
45:36
we've not been to shul we've not been to
45:38
sunday school we've not been to you know
45:40
all of these things that we normally do
45:43
she she's always been sensitive to noise
45:46
but it is even more so now than i have
45:49
ever seen her sensitive to noise before
45:52
um like i went in to wake her up the
45:54
other morning
45:55
and was singing she flipped she started
45:57
crying
45:59
um so i think we and and i know that
46:01
that has manifested in the classroom too
46:03
i mean i've talked to the teacher and
46:04
marsha's had problems in this in the
46:05
classroom with things being loud
46:08
and god love her teacher is a saint who
46:10
you know
46:11
yeah sometimes i got you know things get
46:12
a little loud
46:14
um or we have to make a point and think
46:16
you know and so
46:17
i do think it's gonna happen because
46:19
she's you know she wasn't in school for
46:21
quite some time
46:22
but she's been back in school
46:25
um and so for kids that haven't been i
46:27
think it's going to be even more of an
46:30
adjustment
46:33
that's a very good point we could almost
46:34
do a complete other episode
46:37
on trauma from disasters and then
46:39
education 504s and idea
46:41
and stephanie has handled those cases
46:43
before so if there are pro bono
46:44
attorneys that want to do that
46:46
um and that want that that's a you know
46:49
certainly
46:50
that is something that stephanie has
46:51
experience on from both sides of it
46:53
right
46:54
um and so she is a fantastic resource
46:56
i'm trying to get you to CLE
46:58
hours
47:00
can you tell us what the 504 references
47:02
that belinda mentioned because i know
47:03
some of us
47:03
those of us here legally might know
47:05
maybe practitioners might want to know
47:06
about that
47:07
so an education for and and i have to
47:11
say this as far as
47:12
disasters you know kids are pretty damn
47:14
resilient i mean
47:16
going back to school is going to be
47:18
overwhelming for everyone
47:19
including the teachers when they have
47:20
them all back in the classroom
47:22
but it's being able and teachers
47:25
innately
47:26
scaffold and modify and accommodate for
47:28
all kids anyways but
47:30
it's going to be those that don't bounce
47:32
back to normal at some point that are
47:34
going to need
47:35
those supports whether it's through
47:37
section 504
47:39
or special education under idea so
47:42
and those are just certain programs that
47:45
help with providing a free and
47:47
appropriate public education for any
47:49
student
47:50
that needs it in the classroom
47:55
i mean it's going to be interesting also
47:56
that you're out of teachers bus drivers
47:58
cafeteria workers you know
47:59
all these folks that have to be
48:01
definitely i would have put them in the
48:02
1b
48:03
selection you know vaccinations just
48:04
because people are opening up schools
48:06
and places and
48:07
they have to be in front of them we had
48:09
a discussion here in our district and
48:10
this might be on the discussion it's
48:12
like
48:12
um do we want to have children return
48:14
back to school like nope yeah
48:16
sure kids are not going to be as
48:17
susceptible to gaps you know getting
48:19
this disease but what about the teachers
48:20
and it was great to see the teachers
48:22
come up and remind folks that you know
48:23
there's a lot more involved here than
48:25
just your kids when you come into school
48:27
and uh it'd be good for the
48:28
practitioners enough for us to legal
48:29
services start identifying those issues
48:31
and seeing them
48:31
you know like right now for example
48:33
something people don't know about they
48:34
were getting a ton of our probate
48:36
matters because after every covid spike
48:38
there are deaths that we might provide
48:39
probate matters there's these things
48:41
we're identifying as we're learning
48:42
through the recovery of this giant
48:44
disaster
48:45
and then exacerbated by others that
48:46
we're having to kind of
48:48
move forward through and then you know
48:49
you know have the pro bono help us with
48:51
the volume and i see those educational
48:52
issues probably come up
48:54
if not at the end of the school year and
48:56
a couple of months maybe definitely in
48:57
august when the school year starts
48:59
along with custody issues and other
49:01
matters are going to pop up when the
49:02
courts open up
49:04
well and that's going to be another
49:05
interesting and
49:07
and i think that this is going to come
49:08
up as a practitioner and
49:12
things are you know i'm not in court
49:14
every day like i was when i was in
49:15
private practice in central texas
49:17
you know years and years ago but you
49:20
know having had that experience of being
49:21
in court every day
49:22
and
49:26
one of the things that's going to be
49:27
very interesting in terms of long-term
49:29
disaster with covid is that we've got a
49:31
lot of long haulers
49:32
out there right now so you know
49:35
friends of mine and you know family
49:37
members that have had it that still have
49:39
symptoms you know six months a year
49:40
later
49:42
right and so what happens when that
49:44
person can't go into court physically
49:47
does the court still do virtual for for
49:49
the client
49:50
right that's an accommodation request to
49:52
the court that the court ought to grant
49:53
right i mean we know how to do that now
49:55
we've all shown that um
49:58
you know other things are if you've got
50:00
a vulnerable population somebody can't
50:02
get the vaccine
50:04
um and so what do you do at that point
50:06
right
50:07
um and so you're gonna see
50:09
accommodations pop up in every
50:11
you know almost everywhere you are um
50:16
obviously you already do but i think
50:17
it's going to be even more prevalent
50:20
not just after you know not just with
50:22
natural disasters i think it's going to
50:24
be everywhere
50:25
across the state whereas you know i'm up
50:27
in north texas we really don't
50:28
you know we've got the tornadoes but
50:30
they're not anything like a hurricane
50:33
you know in terms of
50:36
you know just the amount of damage and
50:38
and upheaval and stuff and so i think
50:40
that that's something
50:41
that we're not necessarily used to but
50:43
with covet i think that
50:45
we're going to see a lot more of that so
50:48
i
50:49
pablo i see we're almost out of time but
50:51
i was thinking maybe
50:52
maybe if we can go over just a minute or
50:54
two i i want
50:56
both i want both of our guests to give
50:59
us a story that stands out to you if you
51:01
can
51:02
uh of course if you if you can that's
51:05
fine but
51:06
um it stands out to you where you're
51:09
able to help someone
51:10
uh with a disability in a disaster
51:12
setting one of them that like really
51:13
stands out to you is something that
51:15
we would get our our our listeners our
51:17
volunteers involved
51:19
um i'm kind of putting you on the spot
51:22
right and i know
51:22
a few you or maybe you didn't expect
51:25
this question but
51:26
if you can share a story that where it
51:28
was particularly impactful to you as an
51:30
attorney
51:31
um uh or maybe to the community as a
51:34
whole
51:34
or both uh where someone that you helped
51:37
was
51:38
was uh or someone had a significant
51:41
change in their life because of
51:42
your assistance
51:45
whoever can take it first rachel you
51:48
want to go first
51:49
sure so um
51:52
we've had a number of cases where
51:56
people's lives have been upended right
51:58
recently one of you know some of the
52:00
bigger ones that we have seen
52:02
are we've got clients who end up in a
52:05
hospital
52:06
on a ventilator um and some of them come
52:09
out and some of them do not
52:12
um but what we have seen again and again
52:16
is landlords trying to charge people
52:19
to end a lease you come out of the
52:20
hospital you can't go back home
52:22
right you've been on an event you need
52:24
to go either to family member's house or
52:25
you need to go to rehab you gotta
52:27
be able to terminate the lease and
52:30
and go deal with your you know your
52:32
health right you can't be worrying about
52:34
thousands of dollars tens of thousands
52:36
of dollars this landlord wants to charge
52:37
you
52:38
when you're just trying to live um and
52:41
so we have been able to in a number of
52:43
instances and
52:43
engage in cases where
52:47
people have been hospitalized and you
52:49
know they're fighting to survive
52:51
um meanwhile a landlord is trying to
52:53
charge them you know
52:54
five ten thousand dollars um
52:57
and it it that one pulls at your heart
53:00
strings
53:01
right because this could be you know a
53:03
family member
53:04
um and so we've been able you know
53:08
certainly on a number of occasions to
53:09
successfully terminate those leases and
53:11
you know it's one less thing the family
53:13
has to to deal with if somebody does
53:15
you know had you know like in an
53:17
instance where somebody has passed away
53:18
so the family doesn't have to deal with
53:20
that piece of it
53:21
um and so you make an impact on
53:23
somebody's life and
53:24
and what could be the hardest moment
53:26
they're ever to face
53:32
that's awesome yeah i mean that's the
53:34
kind of stuff i hope that
53:35
some of our volunteers can help do too
53:37
stephanie do you have any examples or
53:39
stories you want to share
53:40
yes so i mentioned the habitability
53:43
thing you know one of my first cases
53:45
was a fema appeal for habitability and
53:48
um
53:49
needless to say i didn't win that appeal
53:52
with her
53:53
but i did help her with getting safe
53:56
affordable housing and
53:57
reasonable accommodations through you
53:59
know public housing authority and all
54:00
that kind of stuff but that case
54:02
as an attorney showed me the systemic
54:05
issue that we need to be focusing on
54:08
with fema and while she wasn't the right
54:10
plaintiff
54:11
we've organized to address for future
54:14
disasters with
54:15
other legal aides other disaster
54:17
attorneys hey this is something we need
54:18
to address
54:19
at all levels systemically and then
54:21
combined with
54:23
for our community you know the
54:24
disability community looking at
54:26
inclusive
54:27
emergency preparedness on a long-term
54:30
scale
54:31
fixing those issues at the local level
54:34
at the state level too
54:35
so you know it's it's
54:39
you make a difference for each client
54:41
but sometimes seeing the big picture you
54:43
know takes a long time
54:44
so
54:48
thank you so much stephanie belinda do you
54:49
have anything here to add not
54:53
at this time now listen i don't know
54:56
it's because we recorded this usually
54:57
late in the afternoon or
54:58
later than usual not in the morning but
55:00
it's been a really good season it's so
55:02
good of a podcast that i forgot to
55:04
put the timer on and i just gave you
55:05
like a two minute warning and i
55:07
apologize for that but it really was at
55:09
it
55:09
i really enjoyed it uh thank you all so
55:11
much for the time the input
55:13
you know and the great expertise you all
55:15
provided you all honestly like read the
55:17
past scripts from others you went right
55:20
through the things we needed to cover
55:22
so eliminate you all go here at this
55:24
point and thank you for
55:25
uh taking part in this podcast we're not
55:27
going to stop the recording since we've
55:29
done over an hour but thank you both
55:30
rachel and stephanie oh thank you thank
55:33
you for having us
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