Touro Law Students Volunteer in the Gulf Coast

Touro Law Students travel to the Gulf Coast region to provide legal assistance to those in need. During the week of January 2, 2012 members of the Student Disaster Relief Network (SDRN) are providing legal assistance to residents in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Biloxi, Mississippi. Both gulf coast regions have been devastated by hurricanes in recent years, and most recently by the BP oil spill. As a result of the disasters that recently befell this region, tens of thousands of regional residents have incurred financial ruin, and have been thrust into the need for civil legal assistance.  Since December 2005, the SDRN has sent 9 groups of law students to the Gulf Coast region to provide legal assistance.  Please read the following blogs from a staff attorney from Touro Law's Public Advocacy Center and the students who are currently volunteering their time to assist others in need.

Excerpt of an Update from Advisor Jack Evans, Staff Attorney of the William Randolph Hearst Public Advocacy Center

I cannot begin to describe the number of questions that have been asked and the greatly expanded the scope of the students’ conceptualization of the issues they are working on. A tax issue has spawned inquiry into wills, trusts, and estates law, involving LA state laws and effects of intestate succession on property taxation. A question about hiring requiring contractors, who receive HUD section 3 funding, to subcontract out to local small businesses has led students to speak with the office of the receiver, who was appointed directly by President Obama, and has revealed proposals that would require at least 10% of subcontracted work be to low income residents have been vetoed, and while new ones are being drafted to submit for approval, the possible number of jobs are dwindling. That issue has also guided students to the process and application-requirement to be considered for being listed as a qualifying subcontractor. From BP claims to Alternative dispute resolution to intestate succession, I am enthralled by this group's sense of excitement, desire to learn, and, maybe most importantly, by their commitment to helping.

The Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper and the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper groups are scheduled to speak to the students about the current greatest dangers to the region's wetlands, the environmental devastation caused by dredging and dumping the material in the gulf and alternative environmentally-sound dredging techniques, as well as current restoration and preservation efforts. We may also be meeting once again with the National Wildlife Fund to discuss pending legal actions.

I have to say, to this point, I believe we are going to produce some of greatest benefits to the region's poor residents that I've seen in my 3 trips.

Excerpts from students

So far, our time in New Orleans has been a wonderful learning experience. It has opened our eyes to the horrid living conditions that some are faced with post Hurricane Katrina. The first day we met Malik, who graciously brought us into his home and for over two hours gave us a great deal of background history of what has been happening in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. He informed us about many hardships that the people of New Orleans face. He gave us a list of issues in which he wanted our assistance in researching and later assigned us to the topic of homelessness in New Orleans. While every state has poverty stricken areas, it seems as though New Orleans is like no other. We visited the15th Ward, specifically called the Christopher Homes Project, in which there used to be housing available for the less fortunate. The tenants who occupied this area were forced to vacate the area and offered only $40,000.00. Now, the area is completely desolate with abandoned homes in such poor condition that they are no longer suitable for living. We are currently researching the criteria for section 8 housing eligibility and locations. What has surprised us the most is finding out that there seem to be no answers to our questions. It is extremely hard to find any requirements needed to be eligible for section eight housing. Today we will be contacting HANO, Housing Authority of New Orleans, for some answers. We will be searching to see what programs are available and what the criteria would be to possibly start another.
- Angela Pugliese and Zoe Axelrod-Cates

This is the my first time in New Orleans and I had no idea such a dichotomy existed. When you think of New Orleans, there's an automatic vision of bright lights and crowds of people on Bourbon Street. Obviously everyone is aware of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina but when you visualize New Orleans, very few people picture homes in the neighborhood of Algiers that are boarded up whose inhabitants were forced out and left to fend for themselves. The attitude in Louisiana toward criminals is incarcerate first, ask questions later. I'm really happy to be researching alternative sentencing for non-violent juvenile and adult offenders. The youth need rehabilitation, not the means to be continuously thrown back into the system and grow as career criminals. It's also important for us to shine a light on how much it costs to maintain a prisoner in jail and to avoid these costs by not incarcerating non-violent minor offenders and finding a more beneficial sentencing for both the offender and the community of New Orleans as a whole.
- Sara Carissimi

My experience in New Orleans has been very eye opening. The people here have a lot of hopes for creating a better community. They also see things in the bigger picture; they are not just concerned about themselves but also the world as a whole. My research for this trip is focused on the environmental aspect affecting New Orleans. I began my research with the MRGO, a man-made canal that caused much destruction and devastation during Hurricane Katrina. I am looking to find information on restoration efforts for the ecosystem and land. I want to help push these restorations and seek answers of the progress that has been made to inform the community.
- Nicole Giannakis

We are working on two very important issues while here in New Orleans. One focus is a specific tax issue and the resulting troubles with the IRS. The tax issue has morphed into a trust and estates and property issue in the sense that we are working to discover who actually owns the property after the death of our client’s stepfather. It has been a challenge to find the necessary information because of the lack of record keeping, but we are determined to succeed. We are also working the Veterans Affairs issue and the access to information in impoverished areas of New Orleans, specifically Algiers and the West Bank in Orleans Parish. There is so much red tape for veterans it is hard for them to navigate through it all and to know which forms to fill out for certain benefits, etc. There is a lot of research to be done for both projects but we think the outcome will be helpful both to our client and the community at large, especially if our client can stay in his home and we can give those in his community access to information.
- Matt Rubino and Joannie Rodriguez

Today was our first day working with the Mississippi Gulf Coast Planning Center. At the Planning Center, we met with one of the planners, Ben, and learned about what they are trying to accomplish, what they have already accomplished, and our goal as a group for this upcoming week. Ben told us that we would be surveying the surrounding communities in an effort to measure what the people think about their neighborhood and about the Gulf Coast region in general. Ben told us that he specifically added a section to the survey that asked people about their race instead of making it optional in order to gage the socioeconomic standing of the communities and to make the information more detailed and specific to determine exactly who and how they have been affected. Although we are just getting started, we are extremely excited for what's to come and to get out and meet the people of Mississippi.
-Lynn Markel

We arrived at the Mississippi Center for Justice on Monday afternoon and received a warm welcome from both the students and the staff. It is my deep sense of commitment to others in need which motivated my desire to travel to Mississippi to work with the Mississippi Center for Justice. We were separated to work on different projects and then given a brief description of what was expected. The group which I was placed in was assigned to canvassing and surveying particular areas of Mississippi (i.e. East Biloxi, Hancock, Pearlington and Gulfport) to obtain the perspective of the community members of their neighborhood to assist with the HUD sustainable Community Initiative.
-Jesseka Green

Today we began our assignment with Mr. Ben Requet at the Gulf Coast Regional Planning Commission. Our objective is to help plan projects intended to help guide the economic growth and development of the Mississippi Gulf Coast to help housing, employment, and transportation opportunities throughout the region. Mr. Requet gave us objectives and goals to reach over the course of the week, in addition to checkpoints to stop at in order to help us absorb as much of the Southern Mississippi experience as possible. Over the course of the week, our group will be canvassing different counties within the Gulf Coast region and obtaining information from locals in order to help the Planning Commission better determine what demographics need assistance, in order to further the continuing recovery in the after math of Hurricane Katrina.
-Todd Bass

 We were graciously welcomed by our host Malik Rahim, who is an active life-long resident of New Orleans. Malik spoke to our group about an array of problems that have impacted this city - both before and after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Malik asked us to seek a legal resolution to a number of these problems. The issue that we are currently working on involves the inequalities that stem from the poor implementation of Section 3 of the 1968 Housing and Urban Development Act (“HUD”). This act requires federal funds to be distributed to housing authorities across the country in order to provide job training, employment, and contract opportunities for “low” or “very-low” income residents. The Housing Authority of New Orleans (“HANO”) is the recipient of these federal funds for the city of New Orleans. It is believed that there is rampant corruption in this agency and that the federal funds are not being properly appropriated amongst the eligible recipients. Community members are disgruntled by the fact that construction employment opportunities are being contracted to large companies and are not being assigned to local contractors. We have learned that HANO is administering the policies established by HUD through their own outdated and antiquated policies, which lack performance measurements and contract performance monitoring. Diane Johnson, the current single member board, is the most recent predecessor to the 8 appointed HUD agents to the position since 2002, and has been reportedly unresponsive to this issue. There have been a number of proposals for revised policies which allow for performance measurement, however, they are continually being denied. We have been in contact with Larry Barabino, who is the Section 3 Coordinator for HANO. He informed us that the drafting stages for a revised employment and contract policy have been under review for months but are being continually disapproved and redrafted. Larry will be providing us with a copy of the 2002 policy, which has not been made publically available. In addition to this issue, there is a notable discrepancy to the amount of people who are educated on the opportunities provided by HUD and are therefore not taking advantage of these benefits. We have decided to create a brochure, which outlines the application process so that members of low-income communities may become involved in this program. We hope to distribute these brochures to different community centers throughout the city in order to communicate this information.
- Lauren Marinelli