NLSLA Spearheads Effort to Help Low-Income Victims of Woolsey Fire

The Southern California Woolsey fire is finally contained, but the devastation it caused is just beginning to come into focus. That devastation has a disproportionate impact on low-income people, many of whom lost their homes or place of employment as a result of the fires. And so NLSLA is stepping in to help, spearheading a groundbreaking effort to help the low-income victims of the Woolsey fire, and we need your support.

NLSLA mobilized quickly—in less than a week, we created a hotline for fire victims, and put our attorneys on rotation at County disaster assistance centers. We are reaching out to survivors of mobile home parks destroyed in the fire, as well as to day laborers and others who worked in areas that burned to the ground. We are helping people resolve problems with FEMA, unemployment, welfare, food stamps, medical insurance, landlord-tenant issues, and other civil legal needs, and we are keeping an eye out for systemic issues.

NLSLA has always jumped in to help after a natural disaster—first with the Sylmar quake of 1971 and then with the 1994 Northridge quake, when we mounted a response that became a national model. We are one of just eleven groups nationwide—and the only legal organization in Southern California—to receive a federal grant to provide legal aid in the aftermath of natural disasters, and the only legal organization in Southern California.

Today, we stand with the victims of the Woolsey fire, and pledge to help them with both their immediate needs, and with the longer, more difficult process of rebuilding their lives.