Court Says Move Disabled into Community

    Thousands of New York State residents with psychiatric disabilities must be moved out of institutions and into their own homes, a panel of federal judges has ruled.

     The June 23 decision by the Second Circuit Court upholds a lower court ruling that the state must begin moving residents into the community immediately. The announcement is a victory for proponents of home- and community based living over institutional living.

    The decision settles a lawsuit that was filed in 2003 against former Gov. George Pataki, charging that institutionalization violates Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). That section prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, including those with mental illness.

    The Act states that, “a public entity shall administer services, programs and activities in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of qualified individuals with disabilities.”

    The plaintiffs were Disability Advocates, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, MFY Legal Services, Inc., Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP and the Urban Justice Center.

    Disability Advocates, the lead plaintiff in the case, works to defend and expand the rights of adults and children with disabilities to enable their full participation in community life. These efforts include policy advocacy, litigation, building coalitions, distributing public information and providing technical support for disability rights advocates in New York.

    In March, Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the Eastern District Court of New York ordered the state to begin moving 1,000 people out of institutions immediately, rather than moving them out by 2016 as the state had offered.

    “For decades, people who can live in the community and receive services there have been stuck in these dismal institutions, when living in their own apartments and receiving services there would both enrich their lives and save the state money,” said Cliff Zucker, executive director of Disability Advocates, upon hearing that decision.

    “This order will give current adult home residents and anyone at risk of becoming a resident in the future the opportunity to live with the freedoms that the rest of us take for granted every day,” said Jennifer Mathis, deputy legal director at the Bazelon Center.

    The March ruling followed a November 2009 court decision that about 4,000 people who live in adult home residences have the ability to live in supportive housing, and keeping them there without the option to live in an integrated community setting violates the ADA and the Olmstead Act.

    The state appealed that decision, and the latest ruling denies that appeal. The state must now create at least 1,500 housing units per year for the next three years to comply with the court’s decision.

    The state must also hire assistants who are in recovery from mental illness to help in the transition and educate residents about their living options.

    This article was published in the August 2010 issue of Able News.