McCain v. Koch
| Decision Date | 13 May 1986 |
| Citation | 502 N.Y.S.2d 720,117 A.D.2d 198 |
| Parties | , 32 Ed. Law Rep. 1027 Yvonne McCAIN, Emily Moses, Steven Moses, Yvonne Perez, Barbara Dancy, Lillie Sullivan, Belinda Randolph, Barbara Downs, Jeri Evans, Mary Brown, Patricia Rodak, William Sanders, Carolyn Sanders, Victoria Smith, and Carolyn King, on behalf of themselves and their children or other dependent minor relatives in their care and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Respondents-Appellants, Donna Keyes, Barbara Rivera, Suzette Walker, Raphaela Campos, Sylvia Free, Wanda Perry, Linda Turner, Roslyn Elson, Lydia Robles, Roberta Hackett, Lola Scott, Bethziada Serrano, Sondria Kennebrew, Camella Kennebrew, Marie Kennebrew, Eric Sullivan, Flora Colley, Jewel Bryant, Cammie Singleton, Anita Shepard, Loretta LaFrenier, Marsha Cunningham, Genell Satterwhite, Marie Boursiquot, Mildred Kornegay, Adoph Kornegay, Evril Patterson, Valerie Frazier, Barbara Storms and Elsie Burgos, Plaintiffs-Intervenors-Respondents-Appellants, Carolyn Lee, Shirley Haywood, Miriam Byer, Ramon Remedios, Ernestine Robinson, Betty Hodge, Fred Nesbitt, Jonathan Mims, Jorge Crespo, Norma Gomez and Tonia Sebastian, Proposed-Plaintiffs-Intervenors-Appellants, Linda James and Ronald Eric Wright, on behalf of themselves and their children and other dependent minors in their care, Plaintiffs-Intervenors-Appellants, v. Edward I. KOCH, as Mayor of the City of New York, The City of New York, James Krauskopf, as Commissioner of The Human Resources Administration of the City of New York and of the New York City Department of Social Services, Martin Burdick, as Deputy Director of Income Maintenance Operations of the New York City Department of Social Services, Robert Jorgen, as Director of Crisis Intervention Services of the New York City Human Resources Administration, Anthony Gleidman, as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Wilfredo Vargas, as Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Deve |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Ann Moynihan and Arthur J. Fried, of counsel (Steven Banks, John E. Kirklin, Shawn P. Leary, Stephen J. Loffredo, Foster S. Maer, Scott A. Rosenberg, Alan Rosner and Marcella Silverman with them, on brief; Kalman Finkel, New York City as Attorney-in-Charge for The Legal Aid Society, attorneys) for plaintiffs-respondents-appellants (other than Barbara Downs); plaintiffs-intervenors-respondents-appellants; proposed-plaintiffs-intervenors-appellants; and petitioners-respondents.
Lee Bantle, of counsel (Debevoise & Plimpton, New York City attorneys) for plaintiff-respondent-appellant Barbara Downs and as co-counsel for the remaining plaintiffs-respondents-appellants; the plaintiffs-intervenors-respondents-appellants; the proposed-plaintiffs-intervenors-appellants; and the petitioners-respondents.
Samuel J. Silverman, of counsel (Jay Greenfield, Anne Louise Oates and Todd Stern with him on the brief; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and Robert M. Hayes and Nadine Strossen, New York City, representing, respectively, the Coalition for the Homeless and the Washington Square Legal Services, Inc., as attorneys) for plaintiffs-intervenors-appellants.
Barry P. Schwartz, of counsel (Fay Leoussis with him, on brief; Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr., New York City, attorney) for all of the muncipal appellants.
Lillian Z. Cohen, of counsel (Robert Abrams, attorney) as the Atty. Gen., New York City of the State of New York representing Cesar Perales as Com'r of the New York State Dept. of Social Services.
Before KUPFERMAN, J.P., and SULLIVAN, ROSS, FEIN and ROSENBERGER, JJ.
On these consolidated appeals we are called upon to consider whether homeless families with children are entitled to emergency shelter under the guarantees of equal protection of the New York State Constitution, the federal Constitution, and the State Plan for Emergency Assistance to Families with Needy Children. The issues arise in the context of appeals and cross-appeals from four orders entered by Special Term, New York County, in Yvonne McCain v. Koch and from an order entered in Matter of Sharon Fulton v. Krauskopf.
Under the New York Social Services Laws, policy and rule-making authority are concentrated in the State Department of Social Services (State DSS). See Social Services Law § 20. Primary responsibility for providing assistance and care, and for day-to-day administration of the manifold public assistance programs devolves upon the local social services departments. See, Social Services Law § 62.
New York participates in the federally funded program for Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC). In conjunction with the AFDC program, New York has elected to participate in the program for Emergency Assistance to Needy Families with Children (EAF). Additional emergency and short-term aid are available under state-funded public assistance programs such as Home Relief (HR) and Emergency Assistance to Adults. Social Services Law §§ 157, 300. The State DSS monitors the local services departments, and when it discovers a failure to adhere to binding policies, directives, state regulations, or federal regulations in the AFDC and EAF programs, it may withhold or deny state reimbursement or require corrective action. Social Services Law § 20, 45 CFR 206.10(a)(12).
The City Department of Social Services (City DSS) operates Income Maintenance Centers (IMCs) which administer, inter alia, the AFDC, EAF and HR programs for client-recipients on a daily basis, and place families who have requested emergency shelter. The City DSS operates an Emergency Assistance Unit (EAU) in each borough except Staten Island. Families who seek emergency shelter during a weekend, or who have not received referrals to temporary housing from an IMC at the end of the business day, are referred to an EAU for placement. The City DSS attempts to locate hotel accommodations for homeless families. It provides shelter allowances for such accommodations for six months, and thereafter, for so long as the client seeks permanent housing. It receives state reimbursement for these payments for six months and thereafter, unless the average length of stay in such accommodations exceeds six months. 18 NYCRR 352.3(f). More recently the City DSS has sought space for clients in three family shelters operated by non-profit sponsors under contract with the City.
Families who are without shelter because of damage to their homes or because of vacate orders are initially assisted by the Bureau of Emergency Housing Services within the City Department of Housing, Preservation, and Development (HPD). HPD provides emergency shelter, makes referrals to permanent housing in the area of choice, and pays relocation expenses. It transfers those families it has been unable to rehouse to the City DSS for assistance.
Plaintiff Yvonne McCain and members of thirteen other homeless families with children commenced an action against the City, the State and City Commissioners of Social Services, and various city officials charged with the administration of programs to assist homeless families in locating housing, seeking a declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, and class certification. They allege in their amended complaint, inter alia, that the state and municipal defendants arbitrarily deny them adequate emergency shelter without written notice and an opportunity for a hearing, and shuttle them between local welfare offices, IMCs, and EAUs in cycles lasting for days, sometimes weeks at a time. Plaintiffs also claim that defendants lodge them overnight in the EAUs, having them sleep under fluorescent lights on floors, formica counter tops, desks, and chairs and relocate them in squalid and dangerous hotels, located at considerable distances from their children's schools.
The following poignant scenarios illustrate plaintiffs' allegations that defendants arbitrarily deny adequate emergency shelter to homeless families with children. Plaintiff William Sanders, his wife Carolyn, and their two daughters, aged 10 and 13, became homeless in June 1982, when a fire destroyed their home and Mr. Sanders lost his job. The Sanders plaintiffs allege that City DSS denied their request for emergency shelter on March 26, 1983. Housing was later provided, but terminated on March 31, 1983, for no stated reason. Their AFDC benefits were discontinued on the ground that they lacked a permanent address.
Plaintiff Barbara Downs, a recipient of Social Security Survivor's benefits, and her two children left their apartment in December 1979, because of unsafe, unsanitary conditions. They allege that the City DSS terminated their shelter allowance grant of public assistance upon learning that they had moved in with relatives. When Ms. Downs reapplied for assistance, a social worker advised her to seek permanent housing, since the hotels were unsuitable for families.
In March 1983, plaintiff Patricia Rodak and her five year old daughter, AFDC recipients,...
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... ... See McCain v. Koch, 117 A.D.2d 198, 502 N.Y.S.2d 720 (1st Dep't 1986), modified, 70 N.Y.2d 109, 517 N.Y.S.2d 918, 511 N.E.2d 62 (1987); Tucker v. Toia, 43 ... ...
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