HALO Aids Victims of Katrina, Deepwater Spill in Biloxi

Students in the UC Davis School of Law Humanitarian Aid Legal Organization (HALO) traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi over spring break to work on a variety of legal aid and community outreach projects benefitting victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Students travelled to the impoverished Gulf Coast city, which had also been the destination of the HALO spring break legal aid trip in 2008.  They worked with the Mississippi Center for Justice, which has been at the forefront of federal and state policy battles to restore safe and affordable housing to Hurricane Katrina's survivors and has initiated a number of policy campaigns to address the wide range of legal issues currently facing Mississippi residents.

HALO students worked to provide residents of Biloxi and neighboring communities with information about the settlement fund set up by British Petroleum to compensate victims of the oil spill, producing and distributing fliers and conducting follow-up interviews.  They also prepared materials for an upcoming Mississippi Center for Justice clinic on the Fair Housing Act, assisted with federal Sustainable Communities Initiative study on food pricing, store locations, and transportation issues, helped to advocate for the reopening of an important, historically African American school, provided elderly residents with debt reduction advice, and helped Katrina victims acquire valid titles to their properties so that they would be eligible for government aid.

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