Mohamed Mohamed came to Minnesota with a flawless rental history. When he and his large family moved into an apartment in St. Cloud, the landlord charged a deposit of $1,800. That seemed high, but Mohamed paid it, not knowing that $600 of that was...
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The first time Melissa Dosick Riethof, Special Counsel at Meagher & Geer, P.L.L.P., entered the complicated maze of special education law, she wasn’t representing a client. She was the mother of a child with a new diagnosis, and she was overwhelmed. “I’m a lawyer...
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Sophia Grujin moved from Cincinnati to be closer to her daughter Vera. She was 90 years old, so the move was a big adjustment. After three years of trying to find a suitable place, Sophia settled into an assisted living facility and lived there...
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Jamila is a United States citizen and the single mother of three children. Her husband died before she and her children moved to the United States. Jamila studies hard, but English is still difficult for her. Most of her income goes to cover the...
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Ron Mingo, father of seven boys, lived in an apartment in South Minneapolis on a month-to-month basis. The boys lived with their mother and attended a school a few blocks away. Mingo loved the neighborhood and community. In February, he received a Notice to...
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The first reports of “lunch shaming” in Minnesota came to Legal Aid’s Legal Services Advocacy Project (LSAP) back in 2008. School cafeteria workers were publicly dumping students’ lunches in the garbage or serving alternative meals because their parents hadn’t paid the bill. Much has...
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Benjamin is nine years old. He lives in Red Wing, Minnesota with his parents and three siblings. Ben has quadriplegia and cerebral palsy and lives with occasional seizures and major reflux issues. Ben’s mother, Carrie Quade, recently made a request to the family’s health...
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Amina Warsama’s fourth child, Marwa, was born with significant health conditions. Diagnoses of Down Syndrome and a heart defect, among other things, meant that Marwa spent several months after her birth at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. Those months were very difficult for her parents...
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“Housing vouchers are like gold,” says Staff Attorney Joey Dobson. “There’s nothing more valuable to a low-income tenant. The waiting list is years long.” Gigi’s StoryGigi and her husband had separated because of his abuse. Gigi came home from work one day and found...
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Katrina* is 12 years old. Her parents are divorced, and Katrina lives with her mother, Megan, in Minnesota. The court gave her parents joint legal custody and ordered that Katrina have regular visits with her father in North Dakota. She was with him for...
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