Background

In April 2018, LSC’s Board of Directors established LSC’s Disaster Task Force. The focus of the Task Force was to foster and promote better cooperation, coordination and communication between and among the emergency management community, legal services providers, the private bar, the judiciary, community-based organizations and the business community to ensure that low-income disaster survivors receive the legal assistance they need. The Disaster Task Force held three in-person meetings and field hearings (in Washington, D.C., Houston, TX, and Miami, FL) between May 2018 and March 2019.

The Disaster Task Force’s recommendations highlight the concrete steps that legal services providers can take to build a systematic, coordinated, and sustainable approach to helping low-income individuals, families and communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disaster. They focus on relationship-building, training attorneys and volunteers to recognize disaster-related civil legal issues and to represent low-income disaster survivors, as well as enabling legal services providers, courts, individuals, families and communities to better prepare for disasters. LSC’s follow-up on these recommendations is critical to ensuring that they are implemented in a meaningful way.

Since 2013, there have been 248 major natural disaster declarations by the federal government. This number does not include state or locally declared disasters or emergencies. In the last few months of 2017, there were three major Hurricanes — Harvey, Maria, and Irma — that ravaged parts of Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico as well as some of the largest wildfires that the State of California has ever experienced. It will take years for the hardest hit communities to fully recover. Low-income disasters survivors often face significant more severe losses and more significant obstacles in their path to recovery than do other community members. 

The Impact of Disasters on Low-Income Survivors

Low-income people face deprivation and hardship as a constant in their lives. Individuals struggle to find and keep employment, affordable housing, and ways to provide basic needs including healthcare, food and safety for themselves and their families. Even low-income families and individuals who can navigate complex bureaucracies and systems in ordinary circumstances to address basic needs with food stamps, unemployment benefits, subsidized housing assistance and health insurance face new challenges when disaster strikes the community — amplifying the needs and vulnerabilities of low-income people and rendering making the need for legal assistance more critical.  

The overwhelming majority of American are unprepared if disaster strikes. Many have not developed a plan for securing important documents, medication, and living arrangements, nor have they planned for alternative ways to access critical resources and information.  

In the immediate wake of a disaster or crisis, disaster-related legal issues follow a common pattern. Survivors often need help obtaining copies of important documents such as birth certificates, driver's licenses and Social Security cards to apply for or restore benefits and supports. The need for adequate housing is generally a major issue for survivors of most disasters. In addition, low-income and other vulnerable people who need housing after an emergency are more susceptible to scams and price gouging. 

With families experiencing even more stressors than before, there is also an increase in the need for more legal information on core areas of practice for legal aid, such as public benefits, domestic violence prevention, consumer law and fraud prevention. 

Despite legal aid’s impact in the aftermath of disaster, there is a significant gap in the disaster-response landscape because of the lack of a coordinated effort to deal with the legal needs of disaster survivors.  Most disaster-response organizations are unaware of both the legal rights and issues faced by disaster survivors and the particular needs of low-income communities. Legal aid lawyers are deeply networked in low-income communities and have experience creating access for people who face barriers to services and information.  

To learn more about the Task Force, click here. To read more about LSC's other task forces, click here. To see LSC's Natural Disasters Fact Sheet, click here.

Disaster-Related Resources

• Legal Aid Disaster Resource Center (LADRC.org)
  Following the recommendation of the Disaster Task Force “to create an online ‘one-stop’ resource for disaster training materials and expertise,” LADRC.org was developed to serve as a national, multi-partner site that represents the efforts of the broader legal aid community to effectively meet the civil legal needs of disaster survivors.

• Disaster Legal Hotlines (By State)
  Find disaster-related legal aid in your state. 

• Find Disaster Recovery Centers
  Disaster Recovery Centers are accessible facilities and mobile offices you can visit to learn more about FEMA and other disaster assistance programs. The DRC Locator helps you find the hours, services and locations of DRCs near you.

• Emergency and Disaster Preparedness
  Tips for creating an emergency plan. 

Disaster Task Force Members

Disaster Task Force Members