Disability Assistance Project

The Disability Assistance Project works to ensure that low-income, disabled individuals in our region have access to medical care and a subsistence income, through Medicaid and other forms of government assistance.

Pisgah Legal Services promotes strategies that enable people with disabilities to live as independently as possible.  In some cases, securing access to disability benefits allows a client to move from homelessness into stable housing.  Over the years, PLS has been instrumental in developing supportive housing in local communities for people with disabilities.

VIDEO: PLS attorney Robin Jacobs helps clients secure health care, subsistence income and other essentials.

Success Story

PLS hELPS Preserve jUSTIN'S Independence

"Pisgah Legal Services has been a Godsend. Because of PLS' help, Justin can go to the job he loves and keep on living at home."

When Loni's son Justin was born at just 25 weeks, she was advised not to name him or to visit him in the neonatal intensive care unit because he would not survive more than a few days.  Justin has severe cerebral palsy.  When he lived past a few days, doctors still painted a grim picture for Loni and her husband of a child who would never talk or walk or laugh.

Twenty-two years later, Loni says that Justin makes his co-workers laugh with his great sense of humor.  She has fought to help Justin live up to his full potential his entire life.  For years, she fought to keep him in mainstream classes in school.  Last year, when the N.C. Office of Medical Assistance cut the supportive services (personal aides and tutors) that allow Justin to work and live life as fully and independently as possible, Loni went to bat for him again.  PLS attorney Curtis Venable helped Loni advocate for her son and the services were restored.  Justin works as a greeter at Walmart and, with the help of tutors, he is learning to handle his own money and plan his meals.