Public Benefits
The Public Benefits Group uses a two-pronged approach of education and legal advocacy to help families and individuals obtain and maintain the income, nutritional, and medical assistance to which they are entitled under state and federal law.
Advocates in this group provide clients with legal representation in matters related to Public Benefits Law.
The Health Law Team represents clients who have been wrongfully denied medical benefits, and Medical-Legal Partnerships are coordinated efforts between TRLA and medical providers with the mission of providing holistic services, especially to the medically needy.
The Advocacy for the Homeless team works with those living in homelessness, helping them access benefits and services to transition into a better life.
The Veterans Advocacy Project works with veterans, the spouses and widows or widowers of veterans, and dependent children of veterans to obtain benefits and services that they are entitled to, as well as legal representation in other non-criminal matters.
Calendar of events: click here
Reneé Treviño, Group Coordinator
Advocacy for the Homeless
The Advocacy for the Homeless Team provides legal assistance to help people living in homelessness obtain and retain housing, employment, and public benefits that enable them to live dignified, self-sufficient lives off the streets.
Services & Activities
Provide representation on class C misdemeanor citations, including warrants recall, and in other legal matters, including simple divorces, wage-theft recovery, and appeals of denials of Social Security and other public benefits:
Secure disability benefits for people experiencing homelessness, and provide advice and brief services on other legal issues;
Raise awareness within social worker and case manager communities of the legal options available to the homeless;
Conduct on-site outreach at homeless shelters;
Improve outreach services throughout TRLA's service area by participating in coalitions such as the El Paso Legal Clinic for the Homeless and the South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless (SARAH) in San Antonio.
FEDERAL TAX
The Federal Tax Team helps low-income taxpayers exercise their rights in federal courts, including the United States Tax Court, and at all administrative levels of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). We assist low-income taxpayers with most disputes with the IRS, including when the IRS erroneously denies or offsets a refund or takes collection action that causes economic hardship.
The project - known as the Texas Taxpayer Assistance Project (T-TAP) - is a Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) housed within TRLA. The project’s mission includes providing outreach and other advocacy to protect low-income taxpayers from exploitation by unscrupulous tax return preparers, employers, and debt collectors.
Services & Activities
Represent low-income individuals in administrative proceedings before the IRS, including in correspondence examinations, office audits, audit reconsideration requests, innocent and injured spouse claims, collection due process hearings, and requesting other collection alternatives;
Represent low-income individuals in tax disputes before the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and the U.S. District Courts;
Educate low-income and Limited English Proficiency (LEP) communities about federal tax rights and responsibilities through consultation, written materials, presentations, and public service announcements.
T-TAP generally does not provide tax return preparation.
Polly Bone, Team Manager
HEALTH LAW
TRLA's Health Law Team works to increase both health-care access and healthy outcomes for low-income Texans by representing and advocating for them in extended and brief-service cases. Through administrative proceedings and litigation in state and federal court, the team's attorneys advocate for clients who have been wrongfully denied medical services, supplies, and/or procedures by Medicaid, Medicare, or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Bernadette Segura, Team Manager
Medical Legal Partnership
TRLA partners with medical providers in Brownsville, El Paso, and San Antonio as part of a national effort to improve the health and wellbeing of low-income people by combining the expertise of attorneys and medical practitioners. Our Medical-Legal Partnership program (MLP)—part of the National Center for Medical Legal Partnerships—operates in recognition that poor health is linked to poverty and related problems such as substandard housing and inadequate education. In fact, research has established that about 60 percent of an individual's health is determined by social and economic factors such as personal and family stability, income and health insurance, immigration status, housing and utilities, and education and employment. As such, TRLA's MLP staff work with their medical partners—both hospitals and health clinics—to identify the legal problems that compromise the health of their patients. Once TRLA's medical partners have referred patients for free legal services, MLP staff work to resolve adverse legal and administrative problems to the benefit of both the clients and their families.
Bernadette Segura, Team Manager-El Paso
Priscilla Noriega, Team Manager-Brownsville
PUBLIC BENEFITS (STATE AND FEDERAL BENEFITS) TEAM
The mission of this team is to improve low-income families' access to nutritional, medical, and income-support benefits by providing legal advice, counsel, and representation to people who have been unlawfully denied or terminated from government assistance programs. The team represents clients who have been denied access to local, state, and federal benefit programs, including SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps); Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF); the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP); and Social Security benefits (SSI), as well as retirement, survivors, and disability insurance.
Services & Activities
Conduct outreach and provide education to people who have been denied access to public benefits;
Represent low-income people through administration hearings and litigation in public benefits cases involving SNAP, TANF, Medicaid and Social Security;
Provide advice, counsel, and brief services and assistance to clients.
Reneé Treviño, Team Manager
VETERANs ADVOCACY PROJECT
The Veterans Advocacy Project represents veterans and active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces, along with their spouses, widows and widowers, and dependent children, in a wide range of legal matters.
Services & Activities
Help low-income veterans receive well-deserved benefits, including assistance from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), as well as SNAP (food stamps), MEDICAID and TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) benefits from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission;
Assist homeless veterans in obtaining disability benefits, housing benefits, and other assistance aimed at ending veteran homelessness;
Conduct public education about benefits available to low-income veterans and their families, and about their rights when applying for and receiving those benefits;
Legal representation, advice, and counsel for veterans in a wide range of civil legal matters involving housing, consumer, civil rights, employment, and family law;
Ask-a-Lawyer sessions at VA facilities and events sponsored by veteran service organizations, which provide veterans with immediate legal advice and identify veterans who need extended TRLA representation;
License recovery activities to help veterans clear the legal hurdles to obtaining new driver's licenses.
The Veteran Advocacy Project is supported by a grant from the Texas Veterans Commission Fund for Veterans' Assistance and the Texas Access to Justice Foundation. The fund provides grants to organizations serving veterans and their families.
Calendar of events: click here
Reneé Treviño, Team Manager