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In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated a large swath of the Gulf Coast region,
creating a human services crisis and revealing economic and social injustices that had long
been festering. Joining with our pro bono partners, Texas Appleseed has worked to improve
hurricane victims’ access to legal services and participated in legal challenges to unfair
benefits denials by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). On a policy level, we are
working on how to improve future disaster response.
Latest News
Heir Property - Low income families often transfer property without going through
probate, which can result in unclear title. Because having a clear property title is required
to qualify for disaster repair funds, Texas Appleseed is working with Appleseed centers in Louisiana
and Alabama to document the problem and recommend policy changes to improve and maintain land ownership
in low-income communities.
FEMA IV Class Action Litigation – The Fifth Circuit vacated some portions of the preliminary injunction in
Ridgely v. FEMA on January 4, 2008. The Court returned the case to the District Court for further review of FEMA’s
policies and practices regarding rental assistance. The portion of the preliminary injunction prohibiting FEMA from
collecting alleged overpayments without adequate due process remains in effect.
New Orleans Criminal Justice System & Mental Health/Mental Retardation Issues – Texas Appleseed is working with
Louisiana Appleseed and MHMR advocates to create a handbook for Louisiana attorneys representing persons with mental illness
and mental retardation in the criminal justice system. This handbook is modeled on similar handbooks produced by Texas Appleseed.
Project Background
Texas Appleseed was awarded two fellowships to support our advocacy on behalf of hurricane victims. Through generous funding
from Mayer, Brown LLP, a Mayer Brown Legal Fellow position was created to work on hurricane-related issues in Texas
and the Gulf Coast Region. Texas Appleseed was also awarded a fellow through the Equal Justice Works’ Katrina Initiative. This
program placed lawyers and law students at nonprofit organizations located in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama in order
to help the hundreds of thousands of hurricane victims left without homes, jobs and access to health care and social services.
The Texas Appleseed - Equal Justice Works’ Katrina Fellow is fully funded by Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
Texas Appleseed helped set up appeals clinics in Houston to help evacuees appeal FEMA’s denials of benefits. We also cosponsored
a Hurricane Housing Forum in Houston that attracted over 800 hurricane evacuees. Texas Appleseed has been involved in three
class actions against FEMA, and a petition to the Public Utility Commission of Texas that prevented evacuees from having their
power cut off in the middle of the Texas summer. With National Appleseed, Texas collaborated on a comprehensive study of the status
of more than one million Americans who were driven from their homes by Hurricane Katrina, analyzing the response of six cities across
the country that absorbed thousands of hurricane survivors shortly after the storms.
Pro Bono Partners & Collaborators
Texas Appleseed is grateful to our pro bono partners and collaborators who have supported this important disaster relief work:
Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Mayer Brown LLP
Jones Day
Exxon Mobil
Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP
Caddell & Chapman
Faegre & Benson, LLP
City of Houston
Equal Justice Works
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, Law Clinic
Texas Low Income Housing Information Service
Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid
Lone Star Legal Aid
National Center for Law and Economic Justice
Public Interest Law Project
Advocacy, Inc.
Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program
Texas ACORN
Center for Public Policy Priorities
National Low Income Housing Coalition
Housing Texas
Texas Interfaith
Office of Public Utility Counsel
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
Steptoe & Johnson, LLP
Mississippi Center for Justice
Louisiana Justice Coalition
2007 Major Accomplishments
Access to Disaster Recovery Centers/TRLA v. FEMA – Texas Appleseed accompanied a Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid
(TRLA) attorney to one of the Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC) that FEMA set up in the wake of flooding in Texas and confirmed
that FEMA was denying access to TRLA and all other attorneys who refused to be bound by a “gag rule “ that prevented their
advising or representing hurricane victims in claims against FEMA. The gag rule was part of FEMA’s Disaster Legal Services
contract with the Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association (ABA). Appleseed testified in TRLA’s suit against FEMA.
Under pressure of the suit, FEMA renegotiated its contract with the ABA to remove the gag rule and has readmitted attorneys to DRCs.
FEMA IV Class Action Litigation – Texas Appleseed is part of a coalition of advocacy groups that filed the class
action Ridgely v. FEMA in April 2007. The suit was filed on behalf of a group of low-income individuals displaced from their
homes by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita who either were terminated from FEMA’s rental assistance program before being provided an
opportunity to appeal or had no meaningful opportunity to challenge FEMA’s attempt to recover alleged overpayment of benefits.
The district court judge entered a preliminary injunction requiring FEMA to conform its policies and procedures to the Due Process
Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution in August 2007. However, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the portions
of the injunction that applied to rental assistance and remanded the case to the district court for further review.
Jefferson Parish Trailer Ordinance - Greenberg Traurig agreed to assist with a potential class action suit challenging
Jefferson Parish’s enforcement of an ordinance requiring the removal of FEMA trailers from private property. The trailer removals
threatened to render some hurricane disaster victims homeless, including a number of elderly and disabled residents. Working with
Texas Appleseed, the Loyola Law School Clinic, and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Greenberg attorneys conducted
research and drafted claims. This pressured Jefferson Parish to hold hearings on this issue—making litigation unnecessary.
Disability Rights Advocacy – Texas Appleseed and other organizations pressured the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
and FEMA to develop a policy governing communications with disaster victims who are deaf and hard of hearing. Our advocacy has resulted
in new guidelines for FEMA employees that now will make it possible for people with hearing impairments to obtain information on their
pending applications for housing and property assistance, rental assistance recertification and appeals; obtain explanations of program
requirements and notices; get questions answered; and provide FEMA with information necessary to obtain or retain benefits.
ABA Section of Litigation, Children’s Rights Litigation Committee Project-Texas Appleseed’s Mayer Brown Legal Fellow
participated in a working group of the ABA Section of Litigation’s Children’s Rights Litigation Committee on a project entitled
“The Rule of Law in a Time of Calamity.” Her work will be reflected in a white paper recommending policy changes to better meet
the educational needs of children after a disaster.
Reports & Publications
Media Coverage
Court Issues Preliminary Injunction in Class Action Lawsuit Against .
FEMA; Judge Orders FEMA to Continue Rental Assistance and Afford Due
Process
Infobolsa Noticias,
June 15, 2007
"FEMA Sued Over Denied Rental"
Associated Press, April 2007
"FEMA Sued Over Rent Aid
Denial; No Chance to Appeal Given, Lawyers Say"
The Times Picayune, New
Orleans, April 20, 2007
"Violations of Constitutional Due Process Rights Claimed"
Lawfuel.com New Zealand, April 20, 2007
"Victims of Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita File Class Action Lawsuit Against FEMA"
Press Release, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, April 19, 2007
"Cut-off Families sue FEMA"
Mike Synder in Houston Chronicle, May 27, 2006
Links
Equal Justice Works Katrina Initiative 
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Photo Gallery
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