[NYAPRS Enews] AP: Welfare Recipients File Lawsuit Against NYS

[Matt Canuteson]

Welfare Recipients File Lawsuit Against NY

By Valerie Bauman The Associated Press December 9th 2008  

 

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A class action lawsuit against New York State on
behalf of hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients seeks to increase
the welfare grant, which hasn't changed since 1990.

Attorneys representing three anti-poverty groups for no fee said the
state's inaction violated the constitution and has created a class of
citizens forced to live in poverty.

The state Assembly passed an increase in the welfare grant, but it
didn't survive the Republican-led Senate.

According to the suit, the current grant provides assistance equal to
less than half of the national poverty level. New York has 501,049
residents receiving temporary public assistance, according to September
2008 records from the New York state Office of Temporary and Disability
Assistance. That's a nearly 70 percent decrease from 12 years ago, said
Michael Hayes, a spokesman for the agency.

A family of three receives $291 a month, plus a housing allowance that
varies by county. In New York City that allowance brings the assistance
to $691, while in Albany it's $600 a month, according to the state
Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation has increased
about 65 percent since 1990.

Officials in Gov. David Paterson's office said they are reviewing the
suit. Paterson, along with state of New York, Senate Majority Leader
Dean Skelos, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver are named as defendants
in the suit.

The state has added more than $170 million in additional food stamp
benefits for New Yorkers, and enrolled an additional 100,000 households
in the food stamps program in the past year to help low-income families,
according to the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

The maximum value that a single-person household may receive in food
stamps in New York City is $176 per month.

"Some days I eat just one small meal, a few chicken wings, and other
days I have to skip eating altogether," said Warren Taylor, a 50-year
plaintiff in the case, in a written statement.

The Yonkers native worked for 25 years as a printer until his hand was
injured, and now he struggles to find work. Taylor lives in one-room
public housing and can't afford a telephone or public transportation -
which makes it more difficult to hold down a job.

Poverty advocates from The Urban Justice Center, The Economic Justice
Project, Main Street Legal Services, and attorneys from Paul, Weiss,
Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison were involved in filing the suit on behalf
of the poor.

"The Legislature is sitting on its hands at a time when more and more
people are going to need help," said Doug Lasdon, executive director of
the Urban Justice Center and co-counsel for the plaintiffs.

http://www.silive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-39/122883988039050.
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