April 26, 2007
HASA’S HIGHWAY ROBBERY
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Hand over your SSI! |
The HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) is supposed to help poor New Yorkers with AIDS improve their lives. One Housing Works client—a Bronx resident who also has hepatitis C and struggles with other painful, disabling maladies—is experiencing just the opposite.
Housing Works is suing New York City and State over HASA’s disastrous handling of on Mr. Williams’ rent benefits. According to the suit, HASA wrongly sent rent checks totaling $3,500 to Williams’ landlord for several months even though it knew that his rent had already been paid through the federal Section 8 housing program. Naturally, the landlord cashed the checks, but when HASA realized its mistake, it went after Williams—and not his landlord—for reimbursement.
When Williams’ pending application for federal SSI disability was finally approved after years of waiting, he was slated to receive a lump sum of retroactive disability payments. The federal government sent the money to HASA so it could deduct the amount of assistance provided to Williams during that period—a normal formality—and HASA deducted $3,500 for the mistaken rent payments.
“Mr. Williams never saw that $3,500 or benefited from it,” says Robert Bacigalupi, lead counsel on the case. “He shouldn’t be held accountable for the mistakes of the city or landlord.” Housing Works is suing the city for wrongfully taking Williams’ disability money to pay for its own mistake and demanding that the money be returned. Adds Housing Works’ Senior Staff Attorney Armen Merjian, “Instead of going after the landlord who profited wrongfully, they used a shortcut and took federal disability money from a poor man who is living AIDS—that’s just wrong.”
The State of New York was included in the lawsuit for failing to correct the City’s error when it had the opportunity: Williams challenged the SSI deduction last December during a fair hearing, which is run by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, overseen by commissioner David Hansell. The officer refused to hear the challenge and failed to record the decision to deny the hearing. “By refusing to hear the case and not documenting that decision, the officer deprived Mr. Williams of his constitutional right to due process—his day in court,” explains Merjian.
Adding insult to injury, Williams was told his only recourse was to sue his landlord, a preposterous suggestion given Williams’ financial situation. In fact, such actions often go uncontested because low-income people can’t afford an attorney. Bacigalupi and Merjian hope that the Housing Works lawsuit will put a stop to the scandalous financial scapegoating of HASA beneficiaries like Williams.
“The city made a mistake and they have to make a choice who to go after,” says Robert Bacigalupi, lead counsel on the case. “The city always chooses to go after the little guy. They don’t usually get caught, but this time, they did.”