The Covid-19 Pandemic has had an impact worldwide but its effects have been particularly harshly felt by certain vulnerable groups. Public benefits recipients, workers subject to layoff or required to work minimum or low-wage jobs deemed essential have been pushed closer to financial and health ruin. As with so many other health and economic disasters, communities of color, immigrants, and people with disabilities will experience the present and future impacts most severely.
NCLEJ continues its work on behalf of affected communities and has been actively involved in addressing the new, heightened challenges that have resulted from the Covid-19 Pandemic. Later newsletters will highlight NCLEJ’s developing advocacy on behalf of groups including home health care workers, people with disabilities, and immigrants adversely affected by changes in public charge regulations, but I wanted to mention examples of the ways that NCLEJ immediately stepped up to provide vital information to individuals affected and to serve as a resource to other advocacy organizations helping those individuals.
NCLEJ, working with Make the Road New York, and the Legal Aid Society, and our partners at the New York City Low Wage Workers’ Task Force, have created a quick reference fact sheet providing information about new programs for workers enacted in response to COVID-19, including New York State emergency leave and federal emergency leave programs, unemployment insurance; and public benefits programs like SNAP, WIC, and cash assistance.
https://nclej.org/news/covid-19-quick-reference-guide-ny-workers
Senior staff attorney Greg Bass will be participating in a panel discussion sponsored by the American Bar Association Civil Rights and Social Justice Committee on April 20, 2020 on Protecting Safety Net Benefits during the pandemic:
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/events_cle/program-archive/covid-safety-net-benefits/
On March 19th, NCLEJ, as co-counsel with Selendy & Gay, the Tennessee Justice Center and the National Health Law Program, filed A.M.C. v. Smith, a federal class action complaint in the Middle District of Tennessee, challenging Tennessee policies and practices that have unlawfully deprived eligible children and adults of Medicaid coverage, known in Tennessee as TennCare. The state employs a defective bureaucratic process for the periodic redetermination of the eligibility of individuals enrolled in TennCare, which has resulted in thousands of low-income individuals being terminated from this critical health care coverage without due process in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Medicaid Act, and in a manner that employs eligibility criteria that screens out persons with disabilities, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
On April 10th, the plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary injunction, seeking immediate reinstatement of TennCare coverage to class members, or in the alternative, expedited notice and hearing opportunities, to class members who were wrongfully terminated from the program. Plaintiffs are seeking this relief because of the imminent irreparable harm they face, not only because of the loss of critical health care coverage, but also because of their high-risk vulnerability of exposure to infection from the novel coronavirus. The COVID-19 pandemic presents a potential medical crisis for plaintiffs that is greatly exacerbated by the loss of TennCare. Plaintiffs’ motion is pending before the court.
And NCLEJ continues the work initiated before the Covid-19 era, work which will also assist the people whose economic burdens were magnified by the Pandemic. In
Sanders v. Houslanger and Associates, NCLEJ and co-counsel (Mobilization for Justice, New Economy Project, and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady) sued a local debt collection law firm and several debt collectors for unlawful debt collection practices. The debt collectors had been freezing people’s bank accounts and garnishing their wages on fraudulently obtained default judgments. These practices had a clear disproportionate impact on low-income people of color. In February, the Southern District of New York granted final approval of a settlement in the action. The settlement provided for the return of $340,000 to 670 class members who had been subject to collection in the last three years and—critically—for a process to vacate and dismiss about 25,000 default judgments with a face value well in excess of $50 million. Last week, checks went out to 180 class members who submitted claim forms. NCLEJ is proud and grateful that we were able to return money to our clients at a time when it is so sorely needed. Litigation and Advocacy Director Claudia Wilner leads NCLEJ’s work on the case.
NCLEJ could not step up to meet these severe challenges without the generous assistance of its supporters like you. We pledge to continue this increasingly important work and thank you for joining us in the fight.
