Poverty Law News

Attorneys/Legal Services

Client Grievance Procedure
The Legal Services Corporation has published a proposed rule that would amend LSC's client grievance procedures. The proposed changes are intended to improve the utility of the regulation for grantees and their clients and applicants for service. Comments are due September 20, 2006.

Survey Finds Adults Likely to Turn to the Web for Legal Information
According to a survey recently commissioned by Lawyers.com, three times as many adults turn to the Internet to get advice and information about legal matters, aside from asking a lawyer, than did so six years ago. Other than family and friends, and aside from asking a lawyer, the Internet is now the single biggest source for legal information.

Disaster Assistance

Disaster Preparedness
The Government Accountability Office has published "Catastrophic Disasters: Enhanced Leadership, Capabilities, and Accountability Controls Will Improve the Effectiveness of the Nation's Preparedness, Response, and Recovery System."

Employment

Migrant Workers Cleaning Up After Katrina Win Unpaid Wages
A major Hurricane Katrina contractor has agreed to pay more than $200,000 to migrant workers who were denied overtime pay. In a federal lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the workers alleged that Belfor USA Group, Inc., and its subcontractors systematically denied the workers overtime pay, despite the fact that they were often working 12-hour days, seven days a week, to remove mold, mud, and other toxic contamination from flooded buildings.

Housing

Suit Challenges Landlord's Conversion of Federally Financed Housing
A group tenants represented by the Shriver Center have filed suit in federal court claiming that their landlord is converting their apartment building to corporate and student housing, despite the fact that the building was financed with government support and built for the express purpose of providing affordable housing to Chicago-area senior citizens and disabled persons.

Social Security/SSI

Income and Resources for SSI Purposes
The Social Security Administration has published a final rule revising the the methods used to determine income and resources under the Supplemental Security Income Program. This rule implements provisions of the Social Security Protection Act of 2004.

Opinions from Sources That Are Not "Acceptable Medical Sources"
The Social Security Administration has published notice of Social Security Ruling 06-03p, which clarifies how SSA will consider opinions from sources that are not "acceptable medical sources" and how it will consider decisions made by other governmental and nongovernmental agencies on the issue of disability or blindness.

Welfare

The Changing Role of Welfare in the Lives of Low-Income Families with Children
The National Survey of America's Families, conducted by the Urban Institute as part of its Assessing the New Federalism project, documented changes in low-income families' circumstances at the national level over the 1996 to 2002 period. This study uses these data to summarize what was learned about families in the welfare system. The authors describe outcomes for three low-income groups: families currently on welfare, families that recently left welfare, and those that never received welfare. The outcomes discussed include family structure, demographic characteristics, work and barriers to work, income, and well-being.

Regional Trends in Child Poverty
This report from the National Center for Children in Poverty examines regional differences in the family characteristics of children who have seen the greatest rise in poverty. During the last five years, children living in the Midwest experienced the biggest increases in child poverty, accounting for 43 percent of the national rise in the number of poor children. At the same time, poverty did not increase among children living in the West.

States Stumble Privatizing Social Services
This article from Stateline.org describes the early results of privately run social services projects in Texas and Indiana.

Poverty Law News
September 9, 2006