what is a clasp attorney pisgah legal

What is Pisgah Legal Services?

Pisgah Legal Services is seeking an attorney who will join the organization as the primary staff attorney representing clients in cases in the specialty area of healthcare and public benefits law primarily through both the administrative law appeal s.#N#– Public Benefits law includes but is not limited to: Work First Family Assistance (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI); Social Security Disability Income (SSDI); Food and Nutritional Services (food stamps and WIC).#N#– Healthcare law includes but is not limited to Medicaid, NC Health Choice Program, Medicare, and private health insurance.#N#Passion for promoting justice and overcoming barriers facing low-income people, being a creative and zealous staff member and a team-player and demonstrating commitment to achieving lasting results for clients and low-income communities are all important. By ensuring that the lowest-income people in Western North Carolina have access to holistic services we will increase opportunities for positive outcomes at the individual and community levels.

What is a PLS?

Pisgah Legal Services (PLS) is a community-based non-profit legal aid agency governed by a local Board of Directors. PLS has an annual budget of $7.5 million from a multitude of funding sources. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina (WNC), Pisgah Legal Services provides free civil legal assistance to low-income people in WNC. The organization currently has offices in Asheville, Brevard, Burnsville, Hendersonville, Highlands-Cashiers, Marshall, Newland, and Rutherfordton. With a dedicated staff of 91, including thirty-six attorneys plus program staff, and an active group of 300 volunteer attorneys, the program provides free services to more than 20,000 people per year to meet their basic needs, primarily in the poverty law areas of housing, public benefits, domestic violence prevention, health care, immigration, and consumer law.

Behind the hype

Glitzy billboards and Tourism Development Authority brochures depict an Asheville with no hint of poverty. But the hard numbers tell a far different story, contradicting the paradisal image that's being peddled nationwide.

The worker

Christopher Head has lived in Ashevile for 11 years. The 21-year-old says he's been "marginally employed" at the Carmike 10 movie theater for about a year. Before that he slept on friends' couches for seven months. "It beats being out on the street, but it still sucks," he says with a laugh.

The professional

Not so long ago, David Lynch, a self-employed graphic designer, had an office in the Flatiron Building and business was good.

No relief in sight

Local service providers believe the struggles will continue for some time to come.

The senior citizen

Marie Messer, 79, has lived in her West Asheville home since 1977. After renting for more than a decade, she and her husband bought the house in 1990. But he succumbed to Alzheimer's and died in a nursing home in 2004.

The mother

Alicia Martinez had worked at Mission Hospitals for four years, helping families and children with disabilities "navigate the system" to get what they needed, she explains.

Don't despair

However dire the situation may be, most local service providers say it's rarely hopeless.