Landlord From Hell Won't Give Us Safety Deposit

Hi, I'm from North FL. Me and my partner lost everything to hurricane Helene back in September and now our old landlords Mainstreeet Renewal wants to keep our safety deposit after the hell they've put us throughout. Can someone point me in a direction where I can hire a probono lawyer. We're still rebuilding our lives and don't have the money to hire a lawyer, which is why they're doing this.

This company has been hell since we started renting with them. Everything was done in such a hurry that either we signed or we didn't have a home to live in, since the last home we chose they gave it to someone else since they paid the safety deposit first, even though we signed for the home.

Anyways, the house we rented for a year had mold and rotting wood under the sink, from a leak that they never came back to fix. Sliding glass doors didn't close properly nor windows securely sealed. It was so bad the AC drove up our light to almost 300 dollars a month. Months before the hurricane I requested maintenance again, for the leaks, doors and windows and we didn't hear anything until the week that Helene was supposed to hit. We were scheduled for Friday, hurricane came Thursday night. I called to clarify that by then it would be too late and they told me "mam, we have other house to deal with before the hurricane" and hung up. And so the hurricane hit overnight and our home was gushing water from EVERYWHERE water came in so fast we had to escape from a window with nothing but the clothes on our backs and our pets, not even shoes, the water was up to our chest almost to my chin. Luckily the sheriff who was rescuing other people from the neighborhood saved us and took us to a shelter. When we returned the house was uninhabitable and already starting to mold.

We immediately called renters insurance and Mainstreet. They said they would help us relocate and pay back lodging but not to stay there. We told them we won't be living there because it's uninhabitable and not paying rent because of it and they agreed but our belongings are still here and please not to throw anything away. Since we lost both our phones and cars we had to walk everywhere with our pets and try and get a car and phone. Once we went back to start gathering what was left.

Then not even a week and Milton came, at this point we had been living air bnb to air bnb rationing food. Couldn't go to work cuz we had no clothes or shoes or cars...used up all out time off...anyways Milton came and we evacuated to my parents down south FL for Milton and once the streets were cleared we went back to keep cleaning up. When we got there there was a construction crew gutting the house and throwing our belongings away....school degrees, citizenship papers, jewelry, books, pictures, both mattresses that we had managed to safe were now on the floor covered in mud, musical instruments tossed aside....when I asked the workers they said they were told everything in the house was 'garbage' we were never told anyone was coming to gut the house...to our knowledge they were still waiting on an inspection as we were told over the phone. The construction crew was awful to me and my partner calling us whore and bitch in Spanish (they didn't think we spoke Spanish as well) they continued to throw away our things even though we told them we'd be calling the police we hadn't even signed the end of lease yet! We tried to gather what we thought was important from the garbage pile outside and inside and moved to another location. Now almost 2 months later we've been calling and calling because we haven't received our safety deposit but as always no one answers or they ask to leave a VM and then no one calls. Last Friday I got a letter saying they don't wanna give us our safety deposit back. I'm furious.

Not only did they trap us with a renters insurance with no flood insurance that came with the rent. Not only did they destroy and threw away our property, but now want to withhold our safety deposit. Mind you, no one ever told us the house was in a dangerous flood zone and had 2 pumps in the back because even when it rains the backyard floods which I only found on it bc of our across the street neighbor. This company has so many people trying to report them as well, not only in FL but all across the US..

they also failed to return the money we spent on fees applying to other of their properties so we could get relocated as once again, they said they would. Do you guys think I have a case here?

There's so much more shit they've done but it's too much and I don't wanna type it.