April 20, 2007
HOLDING COURT
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Protesting got us a meeting with the MTA—but the lawsuit is ongoing. |
Housing Works legal department hit the ground running in 2007 when it filed suit against the New York City Transit Authority, aka the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), over the harassment of transgender Housing Works employee Tracy Bumpus last January. A quarter of the way through the year, there have been notable developments in Bumpus’ case and two other critical Housing Works legal actions: One involves New York State’s attempts to cheat families who receive benefits from the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) if they also get SSI for a disabled child. The other relates to preposterous rent increases for low-income folks with HIV.
Next Stop: Transphobia
Almost one year has passed since an MTA employee cruelly harassed Tracy Bumpus on her morning commute with homophobic and transphobic slurs, which led to further harassment by passengers when Bumpus got off the train.
After Housing Works’ legal team filed the lawsuit against the employee for gender discrimination and the NYCTA itself for failure to properly train and supervise its employees, Housing Works staged a demo outside MTA headquarters that earned it a meeting with MTA director for policy and media relations, Ernest Tollerson.
That meeting was productive—MTA lawyers said they would look into transgender sensitivity training for all its frontline workers—but last month, the Transit Authority filed a motion to dismiss the case. The MTA claims they cannot control their employees and therefore shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. “If they win the motion to dismiss with that argument, then MTA employees can trans bash, gay bash, and race bash all they want, and the MTA will have impunity,” says Armen Merjian, senior staff attorney for Housing Works. “That would be a chilling result.”
Housing Works’ legal department is busily preparing opposition to the motion to dismiss, which they hope to file later this month. It’s then up to a judge to decide whether or not to reject the MTA’s motion—which could take months. If the case is not dismissed, it will eventually go to trial. Unless, of course, the MTA decides to do the right thing and settle the case with Bumpus.
Family Values
On May 1, the dramatic case of Melendez v. Wing will be argued before the New York Court of Appeals. 1,100 poor New York families struggling with both HIV and a disabled child wait with bated breath to find out whether the court will allow New York City and State to impose a horrendous and harmful policy regarding housing assistance.
Back in 2003, Housing Works filed a lawsuit challenging a New York State policy that severely reduced public assistance available to families with a disabled child who receives federal disability, or SSI, payments. Previously, the city and state considered the disabled child “invisible,” meaning that the SSI payments were not included when tallying up a family’s public assistance benefits. However, the state did away with SSI invisibility, and for the Melendez family—a Manhattan family of five wrestling with AIDS and caring for a disabled child—that meant a $480 reduction in HASA rental assistance.
In 2005, an appellate court ruled that the state and city’s policy violated the law. (This ruling assisted another lawsuit filed by thousands of welfare recipients that upheld “invisibility” for non-HASA families. It is currently being appealed). The state–and not the city–appealed the appellate ruling. “We’re optimistic. There is a critical provision of New York welfare law that expressly states that children receiving SSI checks should be allowed to remain invisible and retain the SSI funds that were earmarked to address their disability,” says Merjian.
As reported in the Update, the Spitzer administration has thus far failed to reverse the SSI invisibility policy, but there is still time.
"This is a harsh Pataki policy that should have changed on Spitzer's 'Day One'—we're hoping he'll find the heart to change it by May 1," says Michael Kink, legislative counsel for Housing Works.
Rent check
The legal department’s work is never done. Spitzer appointee David Hansell, Commissioner of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, told a cheering crowd of people living with HIV and their advocates last February that the state would not pursue a cruel policy that would have skyrocketed rents for people with HIV in rent-subsidized, supportive housing. Nonetheless, Housing Works is still hard at work trying to hammer out an official settlement with the state’s lawyers.
Announced in October 2006, the city’s Human Resources Administration’s policy would have forced all people living with AIDS and residing in federally subsidized housing who receive federal disability checks or Veterans’ benefits to contribute all but $330 of their income toward rent, leaving them with just $11 a day to live on. That violated federal law mandating a 30 percent rent cap on rent contributions for people who receive income (for example, social security or veterans checks). Housing Works and co-counsel won a preliminary injunction in late October 2006 that prevented the policy from taking effect on November 1, 2006.
“Following the commissioner’s announcement, we are optimistic that we will get a fair settlement and stave off this illegal and cruel policy,” says Merjian. “We just want some reassurance in writing that it will not go into effect.”