Victory for Poor, Disabled New Yorkers
Legal Services E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Source: Press Release, Legal Aid Society of New York|Lovely H. v. Eggleston
Date: 4/20/2006
A New York City policy requiring people with physical and mental disabilities to go to one of three _hub_ centers to obtain food stamps, public assistance, and Medicaid violates the American with Disabilities Act and the due process clauses of the federal and New York constitutions, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled. Represented by the Legal Aid Society of New York and private counsel, three named plaintiffs challenged the policy, which came into effect as part of the City_s Wellness, Comprehensive Assessment, Rehabilitation, and Employment program (WeCARE). When the City_s Health Resources Administration (HRA) implemented the hub system, it informed roughly 23,000 public benefits recipients with physical and mental disabilities that they would have to go to one of three centers in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn, unless doing so was _impossible._ The court found that the automatic transfer of WeCARE participants to hub centers imposes _substantial additional travel burdens_ that can prevent people with disabilities from receiving public benefits. The court ruled, _To permit the continued expansion of the current involuntary program . . . would be to turn back the clock . . . for a society that has made tremendous efforts and strides to improve, rather than constrict, accessibility for and integration of the disabled into all aspects of mainstream life._ The court certified a class of all public benefits recipients whose cases have, or will be, involuntarily transferred to a hub center. The court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting HRA from automatically reassigning class members to hub centers involuntarily, and ordered HRA to give all WeCARE participants who had been transferred to a hub center the option of transferring back to their neighborhood centers. Press Release, Legal Aid Society of New York: Victory for Poor, Disabled New Yorkers, Apr. 20, 2006; Lovely H. v. Eggleston, 05 Civ. 6920 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 19, 2006).