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| Law Services News - March/April, 2004 Message from Jeffrey Seigel, Executive Director(Excerpted from March 23, 2004 Open House Remarks celebrating dedication of new community room in Hempstead) Thank you to all our friends, supporters, board members and advisory council members who join with us today to celebrate the official opening of our community meetting room. I especially want to thank our distinguished guests - our county executive, the Hon. Tom Suozzi, and the following distinguished members of the judiciary: the Hon. Dorothy Eisenberg, Hon. Denise Sher, Hon. Ruth Balkin, Hon. Susan Kluewer. We welcome also the Commissioner of Nass Co. Senior Citizens Affairs, Sharon Mullon, Louise Skolnick, Deputy Commissioner Nass.Co. DSS, TomLevin, Esq., President of the NYS Bar Association. What you see before you is the culmination of a year’s worth of planning and renovations which began at the end of 2002 with the renewal of our lease with Helen Keller Associates for the Blind. This began with the wonderful work of our pro bono architect, Bill Chalef, and the hiring of John Corley of Kromer-Corley as general contractor. All of this of course was overseen by our point person on the project - Patricia Ironside, our office administrator, who has done a remarkable job controlling the chaos which occurs when you renovate and build as you continue to provide services to the many individuals who come to our office each month. It’s been 38 years since Nassau County Law Services Committee opened its doors in a small upstairs office in a building here in Hempstead Village with a staff of less than ten. The Committee was conceived by a group of government officials and community leaders, led by then Nassau County Attorney and now the Hon. Jack Weinstein. We now have more than 50 staff and volunteers on 2 floors here in Hempstead and nearly 100 staff and volunteers at our locations in both counties. As we have grown, so has the number of people we serve. Today, we provide support to many thousands of men, women, and children annually - preventing evictions from their homes, protecting against domestic abuse, accessing health care and successfully representing clients whose basic survival needs are not otherwise being met, who may be discriminated against because of a disability, and who often struggle to get through the day. Over the years, we have strived despite the vagaries of public funding to build facilities which enable our staff to succeed at their challenging mission - to represent our clients to the best of their abilities and with the respect owed to every member of our society. This meeting room is an example of those efforts and we are pleased to be able to share it with the community. But we must remember, it is only a room, it is what takes place here within these walls that we should be celebrating today. Law Services Wins a $31,000 Overpayment Waiver for Elderly ClientPhil Easton, staff attorney of the Senior Citizens Law Project, Nassau Office represented a client who recently received a notice of a huge Social Security overpayment totaling $31,000. The claimant began receiving Social Security Disability benefits in August of 1993 and then began working in September of 1994 as part of his nine-month trial work period. His entitlement to benefits was supposed to end in September of 1995 but continued thru October of 1997, causing this significant overpayment. In these overpayments cases, two things must be proven in order to get the overpayment waived. One is that the claimant must prove he was not at fault in causing the overpayment, and the other is that he must also prove that his financial circumstances prevent him from repaying the overpayment. In a prior decision, in which the client represented himself, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found the claimant to be without fault in causing the overpayment. However, the ALJ did not waive the overpayment due to the client’s ability to repay it at that time. In the current decision, the ALJ found that the prior decision denying the waiver was not res judicata* on the question of ability to repay because the Social Security Administration grants waivers of overpayments if their financial circumstances change for the worse. Mr. Easton was able to demonstrate that the claimant’s financial circumstances did indeed deteriorate. He demonstrated that his monthly expenses exceeded his monthly income. The ALJ found that “even if some of the claimant’s expenses were considered to not be reasonable and necessary, or that he could restructure some of his debts to have longer repayment periods and thereby lower his monthly obligations, it is apparent that the claimant and his wife need all of their income and resources to apply toward ordinary and necessary living expenses, and they still fall far short of meeting those obligations.” Congratulations to Phil for pursuing this case and winning this important decision. *Res Judicata: Rule that a final judgment rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction on the merits is conclusive and constitutes an absolute bar to a subsequent action involving a same claim. Class Action Filed: Get Homeless Kids to School!The issue of homeless children missing school is one that Law Services has been monitoring carefully in Suffolk County over the past year. We have reported on this problem repeatedly in past newsletters and have continued to hear about frequent violations of the federal McKinney Act which contains strong, definitive language regarding the education rights of homeless children, specifically their right to an uninterrupted education and transportation to school. On February 20, 2004 a class action suit was filed in U.S. District Court claiming that hundreds of homeless children were missing school in Suffolk due to the school districts’ or Suffolk DSS’ failure to enroll the children or provide transportation to enable them to attend. The case was brought on a pro bono basis by Goodwin Procter, a law firm based in Manhattan, and the Long Island Advocacy Center in Hauppauge, which has a long history of fighting for the rights of students. The National Center on Homelessness and Poverty is a named plaintiff and is lending their support and expertise on this case as well. Named as the defendants in the lawsuit are the NYS Education Department, 13 school districts, and the Suffolk Department of Social Services. As has been our experience at Law Services, the lawsuit alleges that many children who reside in shelters/motels or who are doubled up living with friends or relatives face all kinds of barriers to an uninterrupted education. Sometimes the repeated moves by DSS from shelter to shelter require that new bus routes be set up resulting in delays and cumulative absences from school. Sometimes the school districts themselves refuse to bus the child (in a case where DSS has not been involved in the placement) or to even permit the child to enroll in school. The estimated 1400 homeless children in Suffolk who are potentially affected by the defendants’ failure to comply with federal law are the true victims in these cases. The social and monetary costs of homelessness are apparent to most of us but we expect that at least the constitutional rights and federal laws which specifically address the education of homeless children would protect these children from further harm. We applaud the efforts of Goodwin Procter, LI Advocacy Center, and the National Center on Homelessness and Poverty. No homeless child should miss a single day of school. If you are aware of homeless children who are missing school call us at 631 232-2400. Automatic Food Stamps for SSI Live-Alone RecipientsA New Food Stamps Program How Does it Work? Unfortunately, SSI live-alone applicants will not be entitled to this food stamp benefit. However, if they become SSI recipients, they will start receiving food stamps within the first or second month after the first ongoing SSI check is issued. Also, this food stamps benefit is not retroactive to the application date as with regular food stamps. This is why it is important that SSI applicants apply for food stamps through the regular food stamps application process, so that food stamps will be retroactive. What Amount of Food Stamps Can SSI Living-alone Recipients Receive? cost of shelter eligibility for standard utility allowance geographic location any other income Generally, all NYSNIP participants should get the same or more food stamps than they would receive under the regular food stamp program. New food stamp recipients under NYSNIP (those now getting SSI who had not been receiving food stamps) will initially receive the minimum benefit level ($16 –$20 per month). However, once they fill out and return a short form which asks about their shelter and utility costs, which will be attached to their opening notice, the amount they receive will be adjusted and may go as high as $141. When Will All This Happen? This article is an excerpt from an article written by Cathy Roberts, Food Stamp Specialist, Nutrition Food Consortium of NYS. For more information regarding this new program and the complete article you can contact Cathy at hungerFS@aol.com. New Regulations Mean Big Changes for Your Clients on Public AssistanceAs we discussed in earlier editions of our newsletter, there are some changes that are beginning to take effect for individuals of public assistance. They are as follows: Shelter Supplements: Another change involves the way DSS calculates rent payments for two public assistance households who live together. DSS can no longer pro rate rent payments when there are two unrelated families living together. In the past, DSS routinely prorated the shelter allowance in these cases but now, they must provide the full rent, up to the actual rent, to both families if there is no legal line of responsibility. Rent Arrears Type of Case:
New Plan to Fight HomelessnessAfter years of litigation and in response to lawsuits filed by Nassau Suffolk Law Services (Golding, Sharp, Holmes), the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTADA) increased the shelter allowance for public assistance households with minor children in November 2003. The increases were rather modest (see chart below) as we reported in our November 2003 issue of Law Services News.
However, the regulatory changes that brought about the increases in the shelter allowance throughout the State also allowed local social services districts to provide an additional monthly shelter supplement to families with children who are public assistance applicants or recipients upon the submission and approval of a plan to OTADA. Nassau and Suffolk Departments of Social Services have submitted plans that were recently approved by OTADA in February 2004. Nassau’s new Rent Supplement Program is intended to help families retain their current housing or to help those in emergency housing obtain permanent housing. Families with children, both Family Assistance and Safety Net Assistance eligible cases, are eligible for the supplement if they have documented legal evictions or are homeless.¹ For DSS to consider a rent arrears payment request, a court proceeding is not necessary. A legitimate verifiable threat of eviction is acceptable. The amount of the supplement will be an amount not to exceed the shelter allowance maximum for that household size. For example, a household of four would be entitled to a shelter allowance of $501 and would be entitled to a shelter supplement up to $501 for a total of $1002 maximum allotted for rent. (As with the shelter supplement provided thru intervention into the Golding lawsuit, the amount of the supplement is counted as income for food stamp purposes and in most cases food stamp benefits to the household, if being received, will decrease. The general rule of thumb is that for every three dollars of income, food stamp benefits decrease by one dollar.) There are a number of conditions that must be met and agreed to by the family in order to receive this benefit under the Program. Recipients must have their rent sent directly to the landlord; they must establish eligibility for public assistance and remain eligible without the rent supplement factored in (if the family is eligible for public assistance, then they can have the rent supplement added to their grant); they must apply for Section 8 when available and accept the program if offered; homeless families must secure a written lease on the premises for at least a year. In addition, 30% of the income of non-public assistance household members must be applied toward the rent. This includes SSI household members and earnings from household members who are not included in the public assistance unit. The Department of Social Services will approve a shelter allowance supplement when the actual rent is above the maximum amount (shelter allowance times 2), if there is some reasonable way to pay the difference. If there is enough money left in the household’s basic needs allotment, the Agency will restrict the amount and send it directly to the landlord. If the household will receive contributions from a non-legally responsible relative to pay the difference between the rent and the shelter allowances, DSS will verify various factors to determine if the promise to contribute is valid. If it is determined that the promise to pay is not valid and there is no viable means to pay the full rent with the shelter allowance and supplement, then the request for the supplement will be denied. Once provided, the rent supplement will be discontinued due to any sanction (eg., a work rule violation, failure to cooperate with child support enforcement). Similarly, if the public assistance case is closed for any reason, the shelter supplement ends. However, if the family reapplies for assistance the month after the case was closed (in non-sanction cases) and are found eligible for assistance, the shelter supplement may be reactivated. In addition, the shelter supplement will not be approved when any member of the household has lost Section 8 or public housing within the last two years without good cause. Finally, the Rent Supplement Program allows for an exception to the general rule that local districts cannot pay more than six months of rent arrears in a five year period. Households may be granted an exception after a review of their past management, willingness to be referred for financial counseling, future management, alternative housing, excess payments, and past excess rent pay backs. The Suffolk County Plan went into effect on March 15, 2004 and is similar to Nassau's in that it will also be available to both Family Assistance and Safety Net families who require the supplement in order to retain housing or to relocate to permanent housing from emergency housing. The same restrictions apply including: no sanctioned families; direct payment by DSS to the landlord; and the maximum rent supplement portion will match the shelter allowance for that family size for a total of twice the shelter allowance. The family may contribute between $150 and $300 over this amount from basic needs, earned income, or another source but the total amount of the rent will be subject to agency approval. Though a lease will be requested of the landlord, it will not be required. Applications for this rent supplement should be made at one of the five Suffolk DSS Centers (Wyandanch, Smithtown, South Shore, Coram or Riverhead). When appropriate, interventions into the Sharp and Holmes lawsuits will continue through Nassau/Suffolk Law Services, though we are hopeful that with the new county plan, this will become less and less frequent. 2003 Donors. Many Thanks to Our Friends!Our Sincere Gratitude for the Support Provided by... Advocates for Justice | Sponsors of Justice | Friends of Justice Advocates for Justice Morrison & Foerster, LLP AHRC Foundation #3 Neil H. Ackerman, Esq. Beware All SSI Recipients With Saving BondsTwice a year the federal government cross-checks the bank accounts of SSI recipients. This includes savings bonds, which are often tucked away and forgotten. Discovery of them can wreak quite a bit of havoc. If the total exceeds the $2000 SSI resource limit, termination of benefits and imposition of a whopping overpayment can result. Savings bonds, of which an SSI recipient is aware, must be reported to the Social Security Administration. Even though the bonds are sitting in a drawer or a safety deposit box, they are not invisible and count as a resource. However, there might be circumstances where the SSI recipient is not aware of savings bonds. For instance, a grandparent might have purchased them years before and retained them, and all involved have forgotten about them. These SSI recipients should promptly (within 10 days of the notice) challenge the termination of their benefits and seek waiver of any overpayment. SSI recipients may have one of several arguments. For instance, they can argue that they are not the actual owner of the bonds. According to Social Security law, the name on the bond (perhaps the grandparent’s) is the proof of ownership, not the Social Security number. In addition, although co-owners are usually deemed to have an equal share in the bond, if one co-owner has physical possession of the bond and will not relinquish it, it should not be considered a resource. Finally, most U.S. savings bonds, regardless of value, will not count as a resource during the 16 or 12 month mandatory retention period. If you receive SSI for a mental illness or AIDS or are a senior citizen,
an advocate at Law Services may be able to assist you at the hearing.
Unfortunately, though, for those with other disabilities our Disability
Advocacy Project can only handle disability hearings. However, DAP staff
would be happy to provide you with information over the phone so that
you can represent yourself, or our Legal Support Center for Advocates
can assist a community advocate to complete a waiver application or prepare
for a hearing. We Can’t Thank You EnoughOnce again the annual Probonathon sponsored by the Nassau County Bar Association successfully raised over $48,000 in donations for the Volunteer Lawyers Project. The phone bank was held at NCBA headquarters and for three days in December 2003, Past Presidents, Committee Chairs, Board of Directors, members and staff of the Nassau County Bar Association along with Jeff Seigel, Rita Linchitz, and Lori Cersosimo of Nassau/Suffolk Law Services, participated in the annual Probonothon to raise money for the Volunteer Lawyers Project. This fundraiser always receives overwhelming support from the members of the Nassau Bar Association. The We Care Fund, Inc. of NCBA generously granted the Project $10,000 in matching funds, as it has done for years. "The volunteers did a super job of eliciting donations," declared Miriam Pismeny, VLP’s Managing Attorney “I’m grateful to all of them." Thanks again for the generous support from all our friends. It is so crucial in sustaining our services to the community! Good News - Charity Care is Available at all Long Island HospitalsLet your clients know that all Long Island Hospitals must:
All of the above information must be made available in English and Spanish. Each hospital has its own charity care policy and sets its own criteria for eligibility. If your clients have problems applying for charity care they may call the county’s complaint line at the Department of Health in Suffolk (631) 853-3005, in Nassau (516) 571-2672. Volunteer Attorneys Recognized for Their WorkNassau — November, 2003 Since May 1989, when Arthur L. Spirn accepted his first case for the Volunteer Lawyers Project, hardly a month has gone by without his pursuing a VLP case. For the 265 hours he has spent on the nine cases he has concluded, the one he has been pursuing for the last three years, and the one he recently began, Spirn has been named Pro Bono Attorney of the Month for November 2003. The ongoing case to which Spirn has already devoted more than 150 hours came to him as a matrimonial action in which he is representing the defendant wife. Before he could begin working on the divorce, however, he first had to deal with a complicated real estate issue. His client lived in a house owned by her friend with whom she had arranged to pay the mortgage to the bank rather than rent to the owner. By the time Spirn entered the case, his client was no longer able to afford the full mortgage payment, the mortgage was being foreclosed, and her friend had become her ex-friend. Moreover, his client wanted to buy the house but the owner was reluctant to sell it to her. Arguments over whether or not she would be accepted as the buyer dragged on as she tried to get a new mortgage with Spirn assisting her. He was especially helpful in getting the bank that held the old mortgage to forebear long enough for her to succeed in getting a new mortgage. “For four months,” he said, “my office worked on her matter every day!” At last the ex-friend turned over the title to his client, and he was able to turn his attention to the divorce. It is now going forward, so far without complications. Spirn, who completed his undergraduate education at Gettysburg College in 1961, graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1964 and was admitted to the bar in 1965. He has been a partner in Korn & Spirn for thirty-five years, emphasizing matrimonial and family law , employment discrimination, real estate, and consumer rights. Suffolk - October, 2003 Patricia I. Calabro, Pro Bono Attorney of the Month for November 2003, is one of those young attorneys who spend many hours–in her case more than 173 and counting–at Pro Bono Project headquarters providing essential administrative help while getting their legal careers started. This in-house work includes doing client intakes, drafting memoranda, and assigning pro bono attorneys to cases. At the same time, these young attorneys get valuable experience in representation of clients in a variety of legal areas. Since joining PBP in June 2001, Calabro has devoted 278 hours to the Project. The 105 hours beyond her in-house administrative duties have been spent in representing clients in individual cases–five that she has concluded and three more that are still open. She has drafted wills, supplemental needs trusts, living wills, organ donor affidavits, and health care proxies, and she has handled bankruptcy and guardianship matters. The first bankruptcy case she worked on–for over thirty hours--surprised her. Until then she had not realized the extent of precision necessary or how much paperwork needed to be filed. Calabro is especially enthusiastic about how much she learns through her PBP experience. To top of page |
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