Disaster Response Expertise

After the Northridge earthquake in 1994, NLSLA mobilized a local response that would become a model for legal services programs across the country. NLSLA sent teams of advocates to disaster recovery centers and worked with local, state and federal officials to address systemic issues. The organization built considerable expertise in disaster legal services, and was called upon to help when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. Today, the organization is one of just eleven legal aid groups across the country to receive federal funding for legal services in the aftermath of disaster, and it has focused those efforts on helping the low-income victims of the Southern California fires.