Description
LSLA is the fourth largest free legal aid provider in the United States.
• We serve approximately 60,000 square miles, one-third of the state, including 72 counties in the eastern and Gulf Coast regions of Texas, and also four counties of southwest Arkansas.
• In addition to our Houston headquarters, our staff works from 12 branch offices in Angleton, Beaumont, Belton, Bryan, Conroe, Galveston, Longview, Nacogdoches, Paris, Texarkana, Tyler, and Waco.
• Based on 2000 Census data for our service area, there are almost 1.5 million people at 125% of federal poverty guidelines (for example, $13,613 for an individual or $27,938 for a family of four in 2011) who are eligible for our services.
• In 2010, LSLA handled almost 25,000 legal cases, and completed over 20,000 of them, which benefitted nearly 48,000 people.
• In 2010, the firm helped its clients obtain more than $7.7 million in one-time benefits and annualized monthly payments (including Social Security, SSI, food stamps, child support, and consumer-related savings or recoveries).
• LSLA helps children, veterans, seniors, people with disabilities, and those who are homeless.
• The majority of LSLA’s clients are women, most of whom are mothers.
• Many of LSLA’s clients face isolation due to limited literacy, living in rural and remote locations, and language barriers.
• Limited access to modern mass communication media (telephones, computers, and cable television) is common among LSLA’s client community, and there is little or no public transportation in most of the rural areas we serve.
• More than 1.3 million people in LSLA’s service region speak a language other than English.
• In Texas, there is one attorney for roughly every 307 people in the general population; however, there is only one legal aid attorney for approximately every 17,000 people in LSLA’s service area with income at or below 125% of the federal poverty limit.
