NEW YORK, April 8, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a groundbreaking
victory for working families, the United States District Court of the
Southern District of New York today ordered the State of New York and the
City of New York to restore more than $7.2 million in food stamps to nearly
6,000 low-income families living in New York City. Under the terms of a
settlement approved and ordered by United States District Judge William H.
Pauley, federally-funded transitional food stamp benefits (TBA) benefits
will be restored to thousands of families who participated in a Parks
Department jobs program from March 2003 until October 2006.



    Elena Goldstein, an attorney for the plaintiffs from the New York Legal
Assistance Group (NYLAG) applauded the Court's ruling and said, "While it
is unfortunate that the City and State delayed paying these families their
rightful food stamp benefits for many years, this is an enormous victory
for working families in New York who struggle to provide food for their
families and make ends meet."



    For years, New York City's Human Resources Administration (HRA) has
assigned cash assistance (welfare) recipients to low-wage, short-term jobs
while simultaneously denying them transitional food stamps, a federal
program established in 2002 that allows states to temporarily freeze the
food stamp benefits of families who leave cash assistance. For a number of
years, HRA has been placing cash assistance recipients with the Parks
Department in temporary, six-month jobs paying $7.50 an hour. Since it
started this program, HRA has placed thousands of families with the Parks
Department. When assigning households to work in the Parks Department, HRA
simultaneously slashed households' food stamp benefits, denying these
families transitional food stamp benefits provided to other, similarly
situated households.



    In 2004, NYLAG filed a federal court case, Walker v. Eggleston, as a
class action challenging HRA's failure to provide transitional food stamps
to cash assistance recipients who HRA placed in jobs with the Parks
Department. HRA and the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability
Assistance (OTDA) had claimed that, for technical reasons, families who HRA
placed with the Parks Department were ineligible for transitional food
stamps.



    This position caused severe hardship to individuals working in the
Parks program such as in the case of lead plaintiff, Tanya Walker. When the
City of New York placed Ms. Walker in a Parks job, HRA reduced her food
stamps from $256 to $94 a month - a reduction of more than 60%. In hearing
that the case has been settled, Ms. Walker said, "I am glad that the case
has been settled and that the judge saw that welfare was wrong to not give
us food stamps. These food stamps were not just for us, but were also for
our kids."



    Randal Jeffrey, an attorney from the New York Legal Assistance Group
also representing the plaintiffs, projected that, under the settlement
agreement, the families in the class will receive an average of $1200 in
food stamps. He said, "We are pleased for our clients and that, under the
settlement, the process for restoring food stamp benefits will begin
immediately. Over the next nine months, families will be informed of the
amount of food stamps that they will receive and how to access these
benefits."



    Founded in 1990, the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) is a
not-for-profit law office providing free civil legal services to low income
New Yorkers. A full service agency, NYLAG provides consultation,
representation and advocacy. Last year, NYLAG handled 19,993 cases and
impacted additional thousands through successful impact litigation and
community legal education. NYLAG is a beneficiary of UJA-Federation of New
York and is supported by numerous foundations, organizations and
individuals. For more information on NYLAG, go to http://www.nylag.org.

Link to this page: