City Shuts Door, Court Throws Away Key
Ruling Excludes Advocates for the Poor From City Job Centers; Advocates Urge City Council to Pass Legislation to Remedy Situation

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, August 4, 2004

Contact Information:
Natalia Kennedy, Brennan Center for Justice (212) 998-6736

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a ruling in Sanchez v. Turner permitting New York City's Human Resources Administration to continue excluding advocates from welfare office waiting rooms where welfare applicants contend, alone, with bureaucratic red tape and misinformation. As a result, some of the city's most vulnerable members will remain victims of agency error, unable to obtain accurate information and the help they need to buy food for their families, or to keep a shelter over their heads.

Inocencia Nolasco, a member of Make the Road by Walking, which brought the lawsuit, says, "The City Council should step in and pass legislation to stop the City from keeping welfare claimants and recipients in the dark. Allowing advocates into welfare offices would help enable low-income New Yorkers to obtain the public assistance benefits and services they need to survive and to find and keep employment. It would also provide the City with free assistance in correcting errors that otherwise prevent benefits from reaching people who are eligible for them. Such a law would not be a drastic change – it would merely reinstate a policy that the City had in place for decades prior to the Giuliani administration."

Laura Abel, an associate counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, one of the legal services organizations which represented the plaintiffs, says, "My clients are considering whether to appeal. The court's decision is bad law and bad policy. The City's practice is out of step with the government's enlightened practices in other settings, for example, the state's several year old practice of allowing advocates to sit at a help desk in housing court, to help tenants get the information they need to protect their rights."

This case began on March 6, 2000, when the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, the New York Legal Assistance Group, and the Welfare Law Center filed a complaint asking a federal court to declare unconstitutional New York City's rules barring welfare advocates from welfare offices. Plaintiffs in the case are the membership-based community organization Make the Road by Walking and two welfare recipients who endured terrible hardships as a result of City error in suspending their benefits while the City gave them partial and/or inaccurate information regarding their cases. The plaintiffs sought an injunction requiring the City to allow advocates to enter welfare offices in order to provide information enabling interested individuals to learn about their rights. Although the City allows advocates into welfare offices when they are representing individuals, it does not allow them in when they want to assist other people sitting in the waiting rooms.

Plaintiffs and attorneys are available for comment or interview. Get more information, including briefs filed and the court's ruling, by calling Natalia Kennedy at 212.998.6736 or visiting www.brennancenter.org.

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The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, founded in 1995, unites thinkers and advocates in pursuit of a vision of inclusive and effective democracy. Its mission is to develop and implement an innovative, nonpartisan agenda of scholarship, public education, and legal action that promotes equality and human dignity, while safeguarding fundamental freedoms.
Please visit www.brennancenter.org.