Jackie Ebert

The Project

Jackie will provide legal assistance to guests at Lotus Village, a trauma-informed homeless shelter serving women and families in Miami, FL, to remove guests’ barriers to stability, self-sufficiency and self-determination.

Homelessness is a symptom of several different problems that result in barriers to housing stability. Legal advocacy often removes these barriers and shortens lengths of homelessness. For example, challenging a denial of Social Security disability benefits provides a modest income for a disabled person, representation to naturalize as a US citizen opens employment opportunities, and securing Medicaid benefits promotes good health necessary to work.

Jackie has spent the last year working with Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. to address the self-identified legal needs of Lotus Village guests. This opportunity will allow her to utilize the skills learned during her 8 years of volunteering and working in homeless shelters across the nation and her Masters in Social Work to be an effective advocate.

Fellowship Plans

Jackie will work with Lotus Village women and families, many of which are chronically homeless, have unmet health needs and histories of trauma, to address guests’ emerging legal needs in a wide range of areas such as public benefits, housing application denials, replacement of lost identity documents and special education issues. Jackie will also implement legal strategies to resolve systemic legal issues facing the guests and provide shelter staff with legal training and technical assistance to help mitigate guests’ barriers to stability.