Get Help

Health Care Wishes and Advance Directives

Every competent adult has the fundamental right to make decisions about their own health, including the right to choose or refuse medical treatment. If you become incapacitated and can no longer make your own decisions, “advance directives” are helpful tools to enforce your health care wishes. Properly executed advance directives…

Family & Personal

Wills, Estates, & Powers of Attorney

Housing

Community Legal Services (CLS) provides legal information and representation to renters and homeowners to help you stay in your home. Information available here includes evictions, landlord-tenant disagreements, subsidized housing, unlawful detainers, ejectments, reverse mortgage foreclosures, mortgage foreclosures, and more. By offering our legal expertise on these issues, CLS helps Central…

Family & Personal

Housing

Housing Choice Vouchers – Subsidized Housing

Families who participate in the Housing Choice Voucher Program use vouchers issued by local Housing Authorities (HA) to rent privately-owned apartments or houses from landlords approved by the HA. Families sign leases with landlords, just as they would in private housing, and the HA pays a portion of the family’s…

Family & Personal

Housing

Housing Discrimination and Fair Housing Laws

The Federal Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 3601 – 3619) makes housing discrimination in the rental, sale, financing, or insuring of housing or housing-related services illegal if the discrimination is based on race, national origin, color, sex or gender, disability, religion, and familial status (presence of children under the…

Family & Personal

Fair Housing | Housing

Housing Providers and Fair Housing Laws

As a housing provider, you have an obligation to uphold fair housing laws. Individuals looking to buy or rent from you have rights under the Federal Fair Housing Act and Florida’s Fair Housing Act that protect them from housing discrimination It is just as important that you know these specific…

Family & Personal

Fair Housing | Housing

Landlords in Foreclosure

Your Landlord is Facing Foreclosure If the person who owns the home that you are renting does not make their mortgage loan payments, they may end up in foreclosure — a lawsuit where their lender attempts to have the court sell off the property to pay off the loan. This…

Family & Personal

Housing

Financial Matters

Debt & Creditors

Lending Discrimination

Your race, color, religion, gender, familial status, or national origin should never affect your ability to qualify for a mortgage — this concept is called “fair lending.” Fair lending is a right provided to you by the Federal Fair Housing Act, with equal protections offered by Florida’s Fair Housing Act.…

Family & Personal

Fair Housing | Housing

Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Program was designed to encourage private investors to develop affordable housing through new construction, purchasing, and renovation of affordable rental housing for low-income households. The program offers tax credits to landlords, investors, and developers ― allowing them to pay less money in taxes to…

Family & Personal

Housing

Medicaid Unwinding

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, protections were put in place so that Medicaid recipients kept coverage even if they no longer qualified. This was done so people had access to COVID-19 testing and treatment. These special protections are coming to an end, and the Department of Children and Families (DCF) has…

Family & Personal

Health

Military & Veterans

Veterans benefits are earned through military service in the United States Armed Forces. If you are not eligible for certain VA benefits, it may be because you have a less-than-honorable discharge and need a discharge upgrade. There are also benefits available to survivors of veterans who have passed away. A…

Family & Personal

Military & Veterans