Just a few of the cases of mistreatment by the Department of Homeless Services
These stories are direct quotes from a class action case in the UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK between SANDRA BUTLER; RICKY GIBSON; O’BRIEN MORRIS; RICHARD EMMETT; ROSELLE DIAZ; KEVIN FAISON; SHANIQUA JACKSON; CENTER FOR INDEPENDENCE OF THE DISABLED, NEW YORK and COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS and Plaintiffs, for themselves and on behalf of all others similarly situated, against
CITY OF NEW YORK, THE NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF HOMELESS SERVICES and STEVEN BANKS, as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services, DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL Defendants.
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Found at this link:
#1 Family of Sandra Butler & Ricky Gibson
16. DHS failed to accommodate the disabilities of Sandra Butler and Ricky Gibson in
making shelter placement decisions despite their obvious and apparent need.
17. Ms. Butler experiences sickle cell disease, chronic asthma, a seizure disorder,
hypertension and high blood pressure. She requires the use of a walker and is unable to access
stairs. She receives treatment through systemic steroids which cause her immune system to be
susceptible to infection. She also uses an oxygen tank and electric oxygen concentrator and
nebulizer several times a day and every night.
18. Mr. Gibson sustained injuries in two automotive accidents and has been
diagnosed with lumbar spondylosis, cervical spondylosis, and cervical radiculitis.
19. At the time of his initial application for shelter, Mr. Gibson was experiencing
severe back pain and occasionally needed the assistance of a cane to walk.
20. Mr. Gibson and Ms. Butler have one or more impairments that substantially limit
major activities within the meaning of the ADA.
21. After Ms. Butler and Mr. Gibson became homeless and sought shelter from DHS,
DHS staff working at the Adult Families Intake Center (“AFIC”)—the intake office for families
with no minor children or pregnant women at the Bellevue campus in Manhattan—failed to
assess or address their disabilities. AFIC staff assigned them to multiple temporary
“conditional” shelter placements that did not accommodate their needs, particularly their
collective mobility issues and Ms. Butler’s susceptibility to infection. For example, on August
13, 2014, DHS placed the couple at the El Camino Hotel where the elevators were consistently
broken, there were not enough electrical outlets for Ms. Butler’s medical equipment, and the
room was dirty with vermin and required daily sterilizations.
22. DHS staff also erroneously determined that the couple was ineligible for shelter
because they could live with Ms. Butler’s mother
stairs, making it inaccessible for Ms. Butler. AFIC staff also counseled the couple to seek shelter
separately, despite Ms. Butler’s reliance on Mr. Gibson for her daily care.
23. The couple eventually received a conditional placement that accommodated their
disabilities. As recently as May 26, 2016, however, DHS failed to accommodate Ms. Butler
when shelter staff refused to repair or replace a broken air conditioner in her shelter unit, placing
Ms. Butler at high risk for an asthma attack and seizure.
#2 Family of O'Brien Morris
24. When Mr. Morris and his wife Andrea Anderson became homeless, DHS failed
to provide them with a shelter unit that accommodated Mr. Morris’s disabilities.
25. Mr. Morris suffers from edema, spasm of the muscle, chronic pain in the limb,
venous insufficiency, foot pain, and diabetes. Due to mobility issues and a hip replacement
surgery, he uses a wheelchair to ambulate and requires a hospital bed for sleeping. In order to
use a toilet, he requires the use of a device that is attached to a regular toilet seat.
26. Mr. Morris has one or more impairments that substantially limit a major activity
within the meaning of the ADA.
27. Previously, DHS placed the family at the agency’s Auburn Residence (“Auburn”),
where they were forced to use congregate bathrooms. It was both unsanitary and painful for Mr.
Morris to use his special toilet seat in Auburn’s congregate bathrooms. As a result, he was
forced to leave the shelter and travel to a friend’s home whenever he needed to attend to his
bodily needs.
28. Additionally, Mr. Morris did not have access to cooking facilities at Auburn.
Auburn provides processed food and does not allow residents to cook or bring their own food.
These limitations contributed to Mr. Morris’s inability to properly manage his diabetes.
29. DHS was unable to transfer the family to a facility that would accommodate Mr.
Morris’s disabilities for two months.
#3 Family of Kevin Faison
40. Kevin Faison and his wife, Ivy Faison, are homeless and reside in a DHS contracted
shelter.
41. Mr. Faison has severe asthma and experiences seizures, high blood pressure,
anemia, back pain, and has mobility impairments due to trauma (he has a bullet lodged in his
spine that cannot be removed without causing him to be paralyzed). He uses a cane to ambulate.
He receives disability benefits from the Social Security Administration.
42. Mr. Faison has one or more disabilities that substantially limit one or more major
life activities within the meaning of the ADA.
43. Exposure to heat significantly increases Mr. Faison’s likelihood of experiencing
an asthma attack and seizure. Last year, DHS refused to allow him to turn on the air conditioner
in his shelter unit until his lawyers requested an accommodation from the agency. This left Mr.
Faison without air conditioning for weeks.
44. This year, DHS again refused to permit him to air condition the unit until his
lawyers again intervened. When Mr. Faison was granted permission to use an air conditioning
unit, the facility in which Mr. Faison resided did not have a functioning air conditioner to offer
the family. DHS eventually transferred the family to a new facility with a functioning air
conditioner. However, Mr. Faison experienced repeated seizures on an almost daily basis while
waiting to be provided with an air-conditioned unit.
#4 Family of Shaniqua Jackson
45. Shaniqua Jackson is homeless and lives with her partner, their two children, and
her son T.J., in shelter. T.J. is seventeen months old and was born prematurely at 29 weeks. As
a result, he suffers from chronic lung disease, which requires a tracheostomy and ventilator
support. He also suffers from pulmonary stenosis, congenital heart issues, and a feeding issue
requiring a gastrointestinal tube. He receives nursing care at the shelter 24 hours a day, seven
days a week.
46. T.J. has one or more impairments that substantially limit one or more major life
activities within the meaning of the ADA.
47. DHS initially placed the family in a shelter unit that could not accommodate
T.J.’s needs, thereby requiring him to live separately from his family with another relative. After
Ms. Jackson’s counsel intervened, DHS moved the family to a shelter unit in the Bronx where
T.J. could be reunited with his family and receive the necessary nursing care. However, that unit
was too small to fit all of his medical equipment. The family of four and the full-time nurses
were forced to share one small room.
#5 Family of Roselle Diaz
35. Ms. Diaz, her adult daughter, and her teenaged daughter are homeless and are
currently placed at a DHS-contracted shelter. Ms. Diaz is living with multiple serious chronic
conditions, including major depressive disorder, panic disorder with agoraphobia, dysthymic
disorder, asthma, vitiligo, Bell's Palsy, transient ischemic attack, herniated lumbar disc, migraine
headaches, diabetes, and high blood pressure. She uses a wheelchair to ambulate and she
receives home health care services seven days a week for seven hours per day. When the home
health aide is not present, Ms. Diaz relies on her daughters to help care for her. Ms. Diaz
receives Supplemental Security Income (“SSI”) and has been designated as “homebound” by the
New York City Human Resources Administration (“HRA”), which means that Ms. Diaz is
unable to attend office appointments at HRA or the DHS intake facilities.
36. Ms. Diaz has one or more impairments that substantially limit one or more of her
major life activities within the meaning of the ADA.
37. In addition to the two daughters who currently reside with her in shelter, Ms. Diaz
has another daughter, Sabrina Diaz. Sabrina previously resided in shelter with Ms. Diaz and,
during that time, she gave birth to a baby girl named L.D. on April 4th, 2016. L.D. had surgery
shortly after birth because of a birth defect relating to the connection between her esophagus and
stomach. As a result, L.D. is eligible for homecare services and will need to have surgery.
38. When Ms. Diaz notified shelter staff that Sabrina and L.D. would be coming back
to the shelter after they were discharged from the hospital, shelter staff required Ms. Diaz to
travel on her own to Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing (“PATH”), DHS’s intake
center for families with children, to add her new grandchild to her family’s case, despite the fact
that DHS knew Ms. Diaz was not physically capable of enduring the application process or the
required travel. Ms. Diaz became so ill from the travel that she was forced to immediately leave
the intake center and return to her shelter, without being able to complete the add-on process
until her counsel intervened that afternoon. The add-on process was not completed until later
that evening, keeping Sabrina and L.D. separated from the family for nearly the entire day.
39. A few months later, in the middle of the summer, shelter staff turned off the air
conditioning unit in Ms. Diaz’s shelter room because the unit was leaking. An air conditioner is necessary to prevent exacerbation of Ms. Diaz’s conditions. The shelter staff refused to replace
the unit, leaving Ms. Diaz without air conditioning for nearly two weeks until her counsel
intervened. Ms. Diaz experienced difficulty breathing while waiting for the replacement air
conditioner. Shortly after, the elevators in the building malfunctioned, trapping Ms. Diaz in her
shelter unit for three days. As a result, Ms. Diaz was unable to attend her medical appointment
to obtain medication for the migraines she was experiencing or to update her other prescriptions.
#6 Richard Emmett
30. Richard Emmett is a homeless single man who suffers from Hepatitis C. He
resides at DHS’s Bellevue men’s shelter.
31. Mr. Emmet has an impairment that substantially limits one or more major life
activities within the meaning of the ADA.
32. Mr. Emmet’s doctor has prescribed him Harvoni pills, a medication that can cure
Hepatitis C if taken daily for 90 days. Each Harvoni pill costs over $1,000. Due to the pills’
value, Mr. Emmett’s doctor instructed him to carry no more than four to five pills with him at a
time and to leave the rest with a friend who does not live in a communal shelter. The doctor
gave Mr. Emmett an unmarked container in which to store the four to five pills to help conceal
their value.
33. On July 1, 2016, Mr. Emmett left the shelter to get breakfast. He returned and
emptied out his pockets, per DHS security’s instructions. A female DHS police sergeant was
present for the security screen. She picked up the unmarked container holding the pills and asked
Mr. Emmett about them. He explained that they were pills to cure his Hepatitis C. He was then
handcuffed by the sergeant. She took him to her office and researched the name of the
medication. When Mr. Emmet asked if he could get his pills back, she refused. He volunteered
to have his friend bring the original prescription bottle to prove that the pills were Harvoni and
prescribed to him. The sergeant refused to call the friend and smashed Mr. Emmett’s cell phone,
so that it no longer functioned. She then wrote him a ticket for disorderly conduct.
34. Mr. Emmett has asked the staff at the shelter to help him locate the pills, but no
one has been able to assist him. His doctor cannot order additional pills, as Mr. Emmett’s
insurance will not cover the missing pills. Mr. Emmett is at risk of not being able to cure his
Hepatitis C if he does not have access to the full 90-day pill regimen. He continues to suffer
from dizziness and chest pains due to the stress of this situation. Recently, he suffered a seizure
due to stress and was hospitalized for multiple days.