At a time when the Sarasota County Commission is slashing social assistance in one of the most expensive housing markets in the nation, hundreds of households could soon face eviction or foreclosure proceedings without legal help.
That’s because – among numerous nonprofits whose county funds were cut during this summer’s budget hearings – Legal Aid of Manasota lost support for a second year in a row.
Eviction and foreclosure cases are growing, especially among Sarasota’s seniors
As a court-designated agency providing pro bono legal assistance to struggling residents in both Sarasota and Manatee counties, Legal Aid helps everyone from disabled veterans to survivors of domestic violence, as well as tenants experiencing wrongful eviction.
Over the past year, housing cases – usually about a third of the roughly 5,000 people it serves every year – have risen by at least 10%, said Linda Harradine, CEO of Legal Aid of Manasota.
And of those, many are increasingly seniors with nowhere to go. They are facing either eviction because of skyrocketing rents or foreclosure due to costly homeowners’ insurance bills and repairs they cannot afford, Harradine said.
Hundreds may go without housing help after Sarasota County Commission cuts Legal Aid funding
Even though eviction and foreclosure cases are growing, the Sarasota County Commission cut $172,000 of funding for Legal Aid. At the same time, it defunded the only family homeless shelter of its kind in the county, while support for a separate eviction-prevention program remains in limbo.
The agency was already trying to pull from other programs to make up for last year’s cut of $172,000 – cuts the commission made after more than two decades of support for Legal Aid.
“Absolutely, it’s going to have an impact on the services that we can provide to the community,” Harradine said of the Legal Aid cuts.
As a result, Harradine estimates that several hundred households with eviction and foreclosure problems will have to be turned away from the nonprofit’s legal help this coming year.
Mike Moran: “No interest” in asking taxpayers to foot the bill for other people’s free legal advice
In both years, the commission went against the recommendations of its own citizen-led advisory councils to make cuts to Legal Aid during a controversial process led by Commissioner Mike Moran.
Last year, funding for Legal Aid was removed with no explanation.
Moran – who publicly cast himself as a “steward of taxpayer money” – made statements at this year’s budget meeting that he had “no interest” in funding Legal Aid or asking taxpayers to foot the bill for other people’s free legal advice.
However, Moran recently has come under fire for his own use of public funds following reports that he spent $30,000 in taxpayer money on high-end restaurants and hotels while heading a government agency tasked with helping low-income families with energy-efficient home improvements.
Legal Aid generates a high return on funding
For her part, Harradine disputed insinuations that Legal Aid clients are looking for freebies.
Instead, they are hardworking families; retirees near homelessness; widows facing foreclosure after a lifetime of work, she said.
All of them, she added, are experiencing one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives and Legal Aid helps them navigate a legal system that is confusing in the best of times.
Plus, she noted, legal aid more than pays for itself. Statewide studies show that every $1 spent on legal aid generates $7 in positive economic impact through client income, program reimbursements, and savings on other social services through prevention.
What’s more, Legal Aid of Manasota “quadruples” the value of its county funds by leveraging them with the pro bono work of area lawyers – many of whose services normally cost hundreds of dollars an hour.
Legal Aid’s pro bono lawyers help residents stay safely housed while preventing evictions and foreclosures, which can haunt household records for years, Harradine stressed.
“If that is the only intervention we can provide,” she said, “that is huge and can be life-changing for people, for the stability of the whole family, for kids, for their stability in schools.”
Sarasota County Commission puts Sheriff’s Office eviction help program at risk
The cuts to Legal Aid of Manasota could not come at a worse time for families and seniors, advocates say. It follows a summer in which the Sarasota County Commission made massive cuts to numerous other social service programs.
That includes $510,000 in childcare subsidies for working parents; $310,000 for Harvest House’s major emergency shelter for homeless and at-risk families; and $180,000 from Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Suncoast, a mentoring program serving more than 1,000 at-risk youth.
Possibly compounding Legal Aid’s loss most directly was the commission’s decision to suspend a vote on whether to grant $160,000 to SHIELD – an eviction-prevention program pioneered last year in a partnership between the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office and United Way of South Sarasota County.
SHIELD gives deputies a way to provide those in danger of being evicted with a hotline run by the United Way before they have to be removed from their homes In its first year alone, it helped about 300 families.
In the absence of requested county support, SHIELD will not be able to continue, said Chris Johnson, United Way’s chief operating officer.
Coupled with cuts to Legal Aid of Manasota and other services – all coming amid an ongoing housing crisis and recovery from Hurricane Ian and Tropical Storm Debby – seniors and families are more vulnerable than ever, he said.
“It increases their risk of entering the homeless system,” Johnson said. “It puts our community at risk of more of our families with children living in their cars or living in the woods.”
This story comes from a partnership between the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Saundra Amrhein covers the Season of Sharing campaign, along with issues surrounding housing, utilities, child care and transportation in the area. She can be reached at samrhein@gannett.com.