D.C.’s imperiled safety net: legal aid groups

Today’s Washington Post ran an editorial urging the D.C. government to reconsider a 40-percent reduction in funding to legal aid programs. “Such groups help represent the homeowner who is on the brink of losing a house or the tenant who may be days away from living on the streets,” the editorial said. “They also, in many instances, serve as liaisons for people in need of food stamps, unemployment benefits or temporary shelter. They find help for the battered woman and the sick child. They are, in short, gateways to a number of services already provided by government but which many residents would not know existed or would have no clear idea how to obtain.” To read the entire editorial, click here.

Legal Aid sues Maryland for moving ventilator patients

Legal Aid filed a lawsuit against the state yesterday for moving low-income patients on ventilators in chronic-care hospitals to nursing homes, where they receive less-expert care.  In the complaint, Legal Aid claims the state didn’t follow legal requirements when it changed guidelines for patients’ eligibility for hospital care in order to save money–and, as a result, several patients died after they were moved to nursing homes.

“Their goal was to save money, plain and simple,” Assistant Director of Advocacy Jennifer Goldberg told The Baltimore Sun in an article in today’s paper. “Of course, everyone wants patients to get the best quality care in a setting that is appropriate and that is cost-effective,” she said. “But if it is hurting people, that’s where the problem comes in.”

To read the article, click here.

HUD’s affordable housing crisis

Assistant Director of Advocacy Greg Countess

Legal Aid client Sharon Burley and her lawyer, Assistant Director of Advocacy Greg Countess, are interviewed in an investigative news report by the American News Project. The video segment focuses on renters trying to survive in an economy wrecked by the foreclosure crisis and on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, responsible for the deplorable condition of the nation’s housing stock for low-income people.  “Baltimore has extremely poor housing for  folk looking for an affordable place to live,” Countess says. “As an advocate, I’m hoping that [HUD] will make affordable housing a priority. In Baltimore City, there are approximately 30,000 affordable housing units. It’s calculated we need an additional 60,000 units to meet the need.”

Concern over a new wave of mortgage fraud

On Saturday, a Washington Post article about a new mortgage fraud task announced by the Maryland U.S. attorney quoted Maryland Legal Aid’s Kathleen Skullney.  With governments stretched for resources and federal aid flooding the economy, criminals will become more active, Skullney warned. “We are very concerned about the fraud that is already out there, but we are also concerned about a new wave of fraud that will inevitably flow from the money made available by way of mortgage rescue efforts,” said Skullney, director of the Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project at Legal Aid.

To read the article, click here.

Legal Aid helps people cope with the economic downturn

Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project staff attorney Kathleen Skullney

Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project staff attorney Kathleen Skullney made a return appearance on WYPR-FM’s Midday show today. The topic: Coping with Recession. “People feel like they can’thave one more piece of bad news,” Skullney said about Legal Aid clients at risk of losing their homes. “They can’t pay the mortgage, think nothing can be done and put off asking for help.” Skullney told host Dan Rodricks that listeners battered by the recession need to be practical. “Capture your financial picture on paper,” she recommended. “It’s an essential part of the solution that brings another focus, shifts the fears and anxieties and makes it possible to talk about alternatives to foreclosure.” Skullney was joined on the program by University of Maryland School of Social Work professor Jodi Jacobson.

MS Patient Gets Reprieve from Nursing Home

Maryland Legal Aid staff attorney Anne Haffner

A nursing home resident with multiple sclerosis and threatened with involuntary discharge because of an outstanding bill will be allowed to stay, Baltimore’s WBAL-TV reported on Friday.  Melanie Conaway’s attorney, Maryland Legal Aid staff attorney Anne Haffner, successfully negotiated an agreement with the facility, Future Care Northpoint in Dundalk.  “We were prepared to go into a hearing and lose the hearing and be faced with a difficult decision about where Mrs. Conaway was going to be living,”  Haffner told WBAL investigative reporter Barry Simms.

But under a last-minute settlement, Conaway will remain at the nursing home.  “She said she was just so happy she would be able to stay and get her medical needs met at this nursing home,” Haffner said in the news segment. “The settlement agreement allows Mrs. Conaway to stay while we pursue a judgment against her ex-husband.”

The whole dispute focused on a $300 a month payment–alimony Conaway is supposed to receive from a divorce settlement in Tennessee. The funds are considered income and must be used for her nursing home stay, Simms reported.

Legal Aid Assists Needy Patient Facing Nursing Home Eviction

Maryland Legal Aid staff attorney Anne Haffner

Long Term Care Assistant Project staff attorney Anne Haffner appeared on Baltimore’s WBAL-TV yesterday evening in a news segment about a client threatened with involuntary discharge from a nursing home. “This is a really tragic case,” Anne said on camera about her client, a 53-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis who could get kicked out over an outstanding $2500 bill. The good news: After talking with WBAL investigative reporter Barry Simms, the nursing home agreed to let the woman stay as Anne tries to get a judgment against the client’s ex-husband, who stopped paying $300 a month alimony (that was turned over to the nursing home).

Legal Aid raises record amount for abused children

Maryland Legal Aid’s Child Advocacy Unit in Baltimore (which represents abused and neglected children in the foster care system) raised a record amount of money this year–$5,125, nearly $1,000 more than last year–for its Holiday Giving Program, reported Legal Aid social worker Meira Shapiro. “We bought $40 gift food cards for 121 children in 50-some families,” said Shapiro, who managed the program. “We also bought additional things as needed to supplement families sponsored by Legal Aid employees, as well as giving gift food cards to families with last- minute emergencies.”

Sun series on medical debt collection quotes Legal Aid expert

Legal Aid Housing/Consumer Law Unit senior attorney Louise Carwell

Part two of a front-page Baltimore Sun series on bad hospital debt collection practices included a comment by Baltimore Housing/Consumer Law Unit senior attorney  Louise Carwell. “Most people don’t know their rights,” said Carwell about a client who was illegally sued by the University of Maryland Medical Center for a hospital bill that should have been paid by Medicaid. “There’s lots of judgments entered that need not be entered. Those bills can be really significant down the line. It totallay messes up their credit.”

Migrant camp owner fined $24,000 over violations

An article in today’s Dover Post revealed that more than $24,000 in civil penalties were levied against a Delaware farmer for migrant farmworker camp violations. The farm owner, quoted in the article, denied some of the charges, saying conditions were “fine,” and called other violations “nitpicking.” But one legal expert disagreed.

“The camps are quite old and have not been maintained,” said Maryland Legal Aid Farmworker Program supervising attorney Daniela Dwyer, quoted in the article. “They had far too many people in there than the space allowed.” Dwyer, who had visited the camps, also pointed out that the trailers and wooden clapboard houses had “holes in the wall, leaks in the ceilings and windows boarded up with thin pieces of pressed wood or cardboard.” She also noted that the common area “had three stoves and no main refrigerator; one family had to ask several times to be provided one. At least one of the stoves had a gas leak and the wiring in the kitchen didn’t seem to be professional.”