Free Civil Legal Help in Harris County from Lone Star Legal Aid
For low-income residents of Harris County dealing with a civil legal problem — an eviction notice, a wrongfully denied disability claim, a landlord refusing to make repairs after a flood — Lone Star Legal Aid is the primary free resource in the region. This page provides easy to understand information on what is provided by the legal aid organization. The nonprofit serves Harris County out of its Houston office and covers a wide range of civil legal matters at no cost to qualifying individuals.
Lone Star Legal Aid does not provide criminal defense, immigration representation, or personal injury cases. Their focus is civil legal matters — the kind that affect housing, income, family stability, and access to public benefits — which are exactly the issues that most often push a low-income family deeper into crisis.
Lone Star Legal Aid's Houston office is at 1415 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77002. The main phone is (713) 652-0077, with a toll-free line at (800) 733-8394. You can also apply online anytime at https://www.lonestarlegal.org/. Telephone intake runs Monday through Thursday during morning hours; the office is open weekdays and also accepts walk-in applications. All clients must meet income and financial eligibility requirements — call or apply online and they will determine whether you qualify.
Eviction defense in Harris County
One of LSLA's most active programs in Harris County is its Eviction Right to Counsel Initiative, which operates in partnership with the Harris County Eviction Defense Coalition. This program functions somewhat like a public defender's office for tenants. If you are facing eviction and qualify financially, attorneys from this program will try to represent you directly in court, not just hand you paperwork and send you on your way.
The initiative covers all 16 Harris County Justice of the Peace courts, with attorneys regularly stationed at several of those courts on eviction docket days. If you have a hearing coming up, you do not need to wait — contact them as early as possible. Call 361-35EVICT (361-353-8428) or text the word APPLY to be connected. If you can get there early on the day of your hearing, at least 30 minutes before your scheduled time, ask for LSLA staff when you arrive. The Eviction Defense Coalition also includes Houston Volunteer Lawyers, South Texas College of Law Houston, Thurgood Marshall School of Law, and the University of Houston Law Center. We also have other eviction prevention resources listed for Harris County.
NOTE: Evictions in Harris County move fast — a hearing can be set within 6 to 10 days of the initial notice. That timeline leaves very little room to find help on your own. If you receive a notice to vacate, call the same day.
Disaster legal help
Harris County has experienced more federally declared disasters than nearly any county in the country, and the legal problems that follow a flood or major storm are distinct from ordinary civil cases. Home repair contractors who take money and disappear. Landlords who use a disaster as an excuse to push tenants out. FEMA denials that can be appealed but only within a short window. Documents — leases, deeds, IDs — destroyed or lost.
LSLA has a dedicated Disaster Relief team with experience working through these situations specifically in the Houston metro area. They can help with FEMA appeals, contractor disputes, landlord problems after a disaster, proof of home ownership issues, and replacement of lost legal documents. After President Biden declared a federal disaster for Harris County in connection with the 2024 storms, LSLA was active on the ground here — this is not a theoretical service line for them.
If you are dealing with legal issues tied to a recent disaster, call the disaster legal hotline at 866-659-0666 or apply online. Materials on flood risk, document replacement, and disaster rights are available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese at lonestarlegal.org.
Public benefits — when a denial isn't final
Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation in part because the state did not expand Medicaid, which means many low-income Harris County residents navigate a coverage gap that leaves them dependent on programs with narrow eligibility and complex application processes. When those applications are denied, most people assume the decision is final. It often isn't.
LSLA's public benefits advocates work with people who have been denied or cut off from programs including SNAP (food assistance), SSI, Social Security Disability, Medicaid, TANF, County Indigent Healthcare, and unemployment insurance. If you were terminated from a job under circumstances that felt unfair, they can also review whether you have an employment claim worth pursuing. For SSDI cases in particular — where the appeals process involves multiple stages and often takes years without an attorney — having representation from LSLA can significantly change the outcome.
Family law, domestic violence, and crime victim services
LSLA handles divorce, custody, child support, termination of parental rights, and guardianship matters for qualifying clients. Harris County's size and diversity mean that many people navigating these issues face language barriers, unfamiliar court systems, or abusive situations that make self-representation dangerous. LSLA has staff focused specifically on domestic violence survivors, including help with protective orders, custody issues, and safe housing. They also work with survivors of sexual assault through a separate project, and with crime victims on matters like victim compensation and impact statements.
If you are in immediate danger, call 911. For legal help connected to domestic violence, LSLA can be reached through their main line or online intake.
Military and veteran services
The Houston metro area is home to the nation's second-largest veteran population — Texas' largest — and LSLA has a dedicated Military and Veterans Unit (MVU) to serve them. The MVU handles a broad range of civil legal matters specific to veterans and their families, including discharge upgrades, service-connected disability appeals, VA benefits denials, bankruptcy, expunctions, family law matters, housing, and employment issues. Spouses, dependents, and surviving spouses of veterans may also qualify.
To reach the Veterans Unit directly, call 1-844-400-8387) Monday through Friday during business hours. You can also apply online or by email at [email protected]. You will be asked to provide a copy of the veteran's DD-214 or a military ID — if you do not have one, they can help you obtain it at no cost.
Medical-Legal Partnership — help through a doctor's office
This program is easy to miss but worth knowing about if you or a family member receives care at certain Houston-area clinics. Lone Star Legal Aid is partnered with UT Physicians and UH Health Family Care Center through a Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) that embeds legal services directly into the healthcare setting. The idea is that many health problems are driven by legal ones — unsafe housing, lack of insurance, insufficient income — and addressing the legal issue can improve the health outcome.
If you are a patient at one of the participating UT Physicians locations or UH Health Family Care Center in Houston, you can ask your clinic staff for an MLP referral form during your visit. Cases the MLP handles include evictions, custody concerns, benefit denials, unsafe housing, and employment matters. This is a Harris County-specific service and is not widely advertised, so patients at these clinics often do not know to ask.
Who qualifies and how to apply
All applicants must meet income-based eligibility requirements, which are tied to the federal poverty guidelines and updated annually. Even if your income is somewhat above the general limit, you may still qualify under one of LSLA's special funding projects — the application process is the way to find out. Call, walk in, or apply online at lonestarlegal.org; the online application is available any time of day or night.
LSLA is clear on one point: they cannot help everyone who is eligible. When capacity is limited, they may offer brief advice or a referral rather than full representation. The Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program — reachable at (713) 228-0735 — is one of their regular referral partners for cases they cannot take on directly.
Harris County's legal landscape
Harris County is the most populous county in Texas and one of the most diverse counties in the country. It is majority-minority, with large Latino and Black communities, a growing Vietnamese-American population — one of the largest in the nation — and significant communities of other immigrant and refugee residents. It also has one of the highest poverty rates among large urban counties in Texas, with concentrated pockets of need in the Fifth Ward, Third Ward, Alief, Pasadena, and areas along the Ship Channel. For residents of those neighborhoods, legal problems around housing and benefits are not abstract: a single eviction, a wrongfully denied benefit claim, or an unresolved flood insurance issue can set a family back by years.
LSLA's Harris County work reflects those realities — their eviction court presence, their disaster legal team, their Vietnamese-language materials, and their Medical-Legal Partnership all grew out of what low-income Houstonians actually face.
A word of caution
People dealing with eviction, FEMA denials, and debt collection are frequently targeted by scammers who pose as legal helpers and charge upfront fees. Lone Star Legal Aid's services are free to qualifying applicants — they will never ask for payment to process an application or represent you. If someone offers to solve your legal problem for a fee and claims to be affiliated with a legal aid organization, call LSLA directly to verify before paying anything.
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