Executive Director Jackie Kiger shares how this NC IOLTA grantee is responding to the unprecedented levels of need for civil legal aid following Hurricane Helene.
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Pisgah Legal Services: Western North Carolina Is Our Home, and This Work Is Personal
Our home, Western North Carolina, bore the brunt of Hurricane Helene. Pisgah Legal Services is based in Asheville, which is located in Buncombe County, where the largest number of deaths from the storm have been reported.
It’s hard to explain in words the level of devastation not only in Asheville, but also in other WNC communities where Pisgah Legal has offices, including Burnsville and Spruce Pine; our Marshall office was completely flooded along with the rest of the town and must be rebuilt.
Several members of our staff lost or had homes severely damaged by the storm. We’ve seen our neighbors’ businesses and livelihoods destroyed, our communities literally washed away, so this recovery effort is extremely personal for us.
After the storm hit on Sept. 27, our first priority was to reach out to our staff and ensure they were safe. Thankfully, all our staff were accounted for. We quickly mobilized and held two of our first FEMA application clinics at our Asheville and Hendersonville offices on Oct. 7, even though most of the area didn’t have power or running water, including homes of our employees and volunteers.
We’ve seen our neighbors’ businesses and livelihoods destroyed, our communities literally washed away, so this recovery effort is extremely personal for us.
In the month since, we have held clinics throughout WNC with staff and volunteer attorneys and deployed our mobile “Justice Bus,” which is equipped with much-needed Wi-Fi capability. What our clients and neighbors have survived and are still experiencing is heartbreaking, and we know this recovery will take years. Pisgah Legal Services is in this recovery for the long haul.
Number Served/How We Are Helping
As of this writing, we have held more than a dozen FEMA application clinics throughout WNC, assisting over 2,000 people. We’ve worked in partnership with nonprofits across the mountain region and in conjunction with FEMA and LANC.
Here are a few specific ways that Pisgah Legal is assisting people in WNC:
- FEMA and Disaster Benefits: Applying for FEMA assistance or other disaster relief benefits can be complicated. Our staff is assisting families with these applications to ensure they receive the help they’re entitled to. We are also assisting with appeals for qualifying families who may have been denied FEMA assistance.
- Housing and Evictions: Evictions tend to rise sharply after natural disasters and our housing team is working to stop homelessness before it happens by delaying or preventing unlawful evictions. WNC already had an affordable housing crisis, and Helene has exacerbated it.
- Know Your Rights: Pisgah Legal’s attorneys and advocates are providing resources for our WNC community members to understand their rights following a natural disaster in areas such as housing, consumer protections and benefits.
- Community Lawyering: Our pro bono staff are hosting community legal clinics with volunteer lawyers. We are partnering with grassroots organizations who have established trust and know the needs of the community best.
- Domestic Violence Prevention: Domestic violence increases in times of high stress such as a natural disaster. PLS attorneys are working to support survivors during this stressful time, including helping them navigate complicated custody issues due to relocations and lack of contact.
In addition to direct services, Pisgah Legal has shared important information on our website and social media channels. We are also serving as a resource in media interviews to reach people in our 18-county region via television, newspapers and radio, which has been particularly important for those who lost internet service for several weeks. (Some people still do not have internet, power or water, and Asheville will be without drinking water until mid-December in the best-case scenario.)
Pisgah Legal Services assists more than 23,000 people each year in WNC. Our work is made possible by generous community support as well as strong volunteer involvement. Volunteer attorneys are vital members of the Pisgah Legal team — more than 250 attorneys provide pro bono legal assistance to help Pisgah Legal’s clients each year. Now, many of those attorneys are stepping up to assist with our crucial work in connecting individuals to disaster assistance following Hurricane Helene.
Moving Forward
We stand alongside our WNC communities, and we will do everything we can to ensure that justice is served during this recovery process. With the support of the NC State Bar, we can continue to make sure that our state’s most vulnerable populations have equal access to the legal assistance they need to rebuild their lives. We are grateful to be collaborating with Legal Aid of North Carolina, as we know that the needs of Western North Carolina are great, and by working together, we can help the many people who are in need.
If you would like to volunteer or make a gift to Pisgah Legal Services’ Hurricane Recovery Fund, please visit pisgahlegal.org.
This grantee spotlight originally appeared in the Winter 2024 NC State Bar Journal article “Responding to Disaster: Perspectives From the Legal Services Community.” You may read the full article here.