All Bad Loans Have One Thing in Common: The Cycle of Debt
Monday, July 28th, 2014
Payday loans, car title loans, line of credit loans and Internet loans: What do they have in common? The cycle of debt. What is the cycle of debt? Well, here is a picture of it from the training manual at Ace Cash Express, a large national payday, internet and car title lender: This picture comes from […]
New Law Helps Exploited Virginians Recover Lost Assets
Thursday, July 24th, 2014
Victims of financial exploitation now have a better shot at getting into court and getting their property back. Financial exploitation of vulnerable adults is a serious and growing problem in Virginia. Too often, exploited individuals don’t have any money to pay an attorney to take their case. Thanks to a bill sponsored by Del. David […]
Virginia’s Early Lease Termination Law for Domestic and Sexual Violence Victims
Monday, July 21st, 2014
Virginia’s early lease termination law went into effect July 1, 2013 and aims to help renters who are victims of domestic or sexual violence. The law provides certain victims of family abuse, sexual abuse and sexual assault the right to terminate their residential leases with approximately 30 days’ advance written notice to their landlords. To […]
Rent-To-Own Stores Can No Longer Use Prosecutors as their Debt Collectors
Wednesday, July 9th, 2014
Virginia has many rent-to-own stores where you can “buy without credit” things like computers, appliances, furniture and electronics. The idea is that if you make all the rental payments, you will own it. To read more about rent-to-own, check out our fact sheet. On the surface, this sounds great, right? But what happens if […]
More Virginians Than Ever are Stuck in Car Title Loans they Cannot Afford
Thursday, July 3rd, 2014
The Virginia Bureau of Financial Institutions just published data about car title loans made in Virginia in 2013 and it isn’t pretty. Does it seem like there are a lot more car title loan stores than there were a year ago? That’s because we had a 23% increase in car title loan stores: […]
The Case for Medicaid Expansion
Tuesday, July 1st, 2014
Governor McAuliffe vowed to move forward with Medicaid Expansion in Virginia at a press conference on June 20. Despite attempts by the legislature to derail his efforts, the Governor made clear that his promise to expand Medicaid to 400,000 uninsured Virginians would not go unmet. Why is Medicaid expansion such an important issue to […]
Operation Choke Point- Why it’s Important and What You Need to Know
Tuesday, June 24th, 2014
1. It is a Department of Justice initiative to stop identity theft, scams, and money laundering through fraudulent debiting of bank accounts. 2. Banks and payment processors that originate payments play a critical role in enabling wrongdoers to debit victims’ bank accounts and to move money around. This is how many scams, frauds and illegal […]
Some Still Able to Enroll in Virginia Marketplace
Monday, June 16th, 2014
By Prue Salasky, Daily Press Enrollment in health insurance through Virginia’s federally facilitated state marketplace, established by the Affordable Care Act, is continuing. While open enrollment for 2014 ended on March 31, there are changes in status and other situations that allow people to enroll, according to Jill Hanken, director of Enroll Virginia!, an arm […]
Missed your chance to get affordable health insurance? Maybe not . . .
Tuesday, June 10th, 2014
Getting married? Having a baby? Moving? If so, you may still be able to get quality private health insurance and financial help under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Even though open enrollment ended on March 31, certain changes in your life might allow you to sign up for low-cost health insurance through www.healthcare.gov and (800) […]
Released today: Expand Medicaid! – The Music Video
Thursday, June 5th, 2014
VPLC thanks the Healthcare for All Virginians coalition and all of the many people who helped make this video happen. Listen to why it’s so important to expand Medicaid coverage in Virginia. Share far and wide!
Annual Statewide Legal Aid Conference October 22-24
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014
Thank you to everyone who attended our Annual Statewide Legal Aid Conference in Portsmouth! A special thank you to our Training Coordinator, Danielle Manuel, for organizing an informative and fun conference. We would also like to thank our sponsors: Advocate Level: Consumer Litigation Associates Guardian Level: Boleman Law Partner Level: Dominion Hunton & Williams LeClairRyan […]
Three Things You Need to Know about Summer Food Participation in Virginia
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014
The end of school is often the start of hunger for many of Virginia’s low-income children. This week, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) released “Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation” – its annual report on summer food participation for the nation. Here are three things the report tells us about kids receiving summer meals […]
Christie Marra Winner of 2014 Virginia State Bar Legal Aid Award
Monday, May 5th, 2014
Christie Marra, VPLC’s Family and Housing Law attorney, is the winner of the 2014 Virginia State Bar Legal Aid Award. She was selected by the Virginia State Bar Special Committee on Access to Legal Services to receive this honor. Read more here. She was nominated by the VPLC staff, Virginia Senator George Barker, Southwest Virginia Legal […]
Number of Virginians Enrolled in Affordable Care Health Plans Has Doubled
Monday, May 5th, 2014
By Laurence Hammack, The Roanoke Times A final, six-week surge in enrollment has more than doubled the number of Virginians who obtained health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. A total of 216,356 people in the state purchased coverage through Healthcare.gov, an online marketplace that is a key part of the new federal health care law. […]
ACA Enrollment Deadline Passed; Peninsula Counselors Still Enrolling Exceptions
Wednesday, April 16th, 2014
By Prue Salasky, Daily Press At midnight Tuesday, the clock officially ran out on 2014 enrollment in the state health insurance marketplaces established by theAffordable Care Act, but that doesn’t mean the work of the navigators and certified application counselors, funded by the government to promote enrollment, will come to an end. “There continues to […]
Health Care Insurance Enrollments Tops 100,000 in Virginia
Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
By Michael Martz, Richmond Times-Dispatch With one month to go, Virginia already has passed the federal target for enrollment in health plans in the new insurance marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act. Almost 103,000 Virginians have enrolled in health plans through the marketplace operated by the federal government, or 101.2 percent of the target […]
Car-Title Lenders Surge in Northern Virginia
Monday, December 2nd, 2013
By Michael Pope, WAMU In the last few weeks, drivers have noticed a subtle change at the intersection of Fairhaven Avenue and Route 1 in Northern Virginia. The palm-reading fortune teller who had this location for decades has closed up shop, and the building is now a LoanMax — the newest location of the growing […]
Slow Start for Health Care Enrollment in VA, Nation
Thursday, November 14th, 2013
By Michael Martz, Richmond Times-Dispatch Virginians account for slightly less than 1 percent of the 106,185 Americans who enrolled in health plans through the federal and state insurance marketplace in the first, rocky month of operation. Just more than 1,000 Virginians had enrolled in health plans in the marketplace from Oct. 1 through Nov. 2, […]
Food Stamp Challenge: Reflections on Eating for $32 a Week
Friday, November 8th, 2013
Could you eat for $32 a week? Since Monday, November 4, Virginia Poverty Law Center staff have been doing just that. We kicked off our first annual Food Stamp Challenge with shopping trips to area grocery stores and then began the onerous work of making our fares stretch. Predictably, peanut butter and pasta were staples […]
Food Stamp Challenge: November 4-8, 2013
Thursday, October 24th, 2013
Could you eat for $32 a week? Join The Virginia Food Stamp Challenge! November 4th-8th, 2013 The Food Stamp Challenge offers a glimpse of what life can be like for the nearly 1 million Virginians who struggle to put food on their tables. Most participants take the challenge for one week, budgeting about $32 for meals […]
Minding the Gap
Thursday, October 3rd, 2013
By Tina Eshleman, Richmond Magazine The health-insurance marketplaces established by the federal Affordable Care Act are intended to make insurance accessible to those who don’t have it. But when enrollment opens Oct. 1, thousands of uninsured Virginians won’t be able to sign up. That’s because the state has not yet expanded its Medicaid program to […]