| Releases & Statements
Contact: Frank Sobrino
O: (212) 669-4193
For Immediate Release: May 23, 2006
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum announced
she will introduce a bill tomorrow to provide New Yorkers seeking
public benefits and services at city offices on-site access to
advice and representation from knowledgeable advocates. The bill
is being co-sponsored by Council Members Eric Gioia and Bill de
Blasio.
Drafted by the Brennan Center for
Justice and known as the Ready Access to Assistance Act (REAACT),
the bill calls for allowing advocates to set up information tables
in public benefits offices of city agencies, including the Human
Resources Administration, Department of Housing Preservation and
Development and Administration for Children’s Services.
In addition to access to advice and information, benefits seekers
would be able to enlist an advocate to represent them in their
meetings with agency caseworkers.
The purpose of the bill is to help
New Yorkers, particularly those whose primary language is not
English, to navigate the difficult and complicated process of
applying or recertifying for public benefits and services.
“People seeking benefits often
don’t understand what information is required of them and
don’t know their rights when they are wrongly denied benefits
or services,” Gotbaum said. “Whether you’re
applying for public assistance or food stamps, facing tenancy
termination proceedings or just trying to navigate the child welfare
system, advocates should be there on the premises to help you.
This bill is a first step in that direction.”
Councilmember Gioia, chair of the
City Council Oversight and Investigations Committee, said, “This
bill helps New Yorkers help themselves. Far too often we’ve
found that government bureaucracy and red tape is keeping New
Yorkers from getting the much-needed aid they’re qualified
for and deserve. This must change, and this bill is a step in
the right direction. I thank and commend the Public Advocate for
her hard work and leadership on this issue. Working together,
we’re going to make sure that every New Yorker has the tools,
information and access they need to improve their lives.”
Councilmember de Blasio, chair of the City Council General Welfare
Committee, said, "The question you have to ask is: why would
these agencies want to keep advocates for low-income families
out of their offices? Government works best when the doors are
open. The presence of advocates helping New Yorkers claim benefits
for which they are eligible can only improve the functioning of
the bureaucracy. Our Public Advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, has got it
absolutely right."
“This bill provides a no-cost,
common sense way to help government function more efficiently
and ensure that low-income New Yorkers can obtain the assistance
they need,” said Laura Abel, deputy director of the Poverty
Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University
School of Law.
“This bill will be incredibly
helpful to low-income New Yorkers, who need all the help they
can get as they navigate through the maze-like public assistance
system,” said Andrew Friedman, co-director of Make the Road
by Walking.
For many years, the
city permitted advocates to staff help desks and circulate in
the public areas of what are now known as Job Centers. During
the Giuliani administration, HRA began barring advocates from
centers, except when accompanied by an applicant, a policy that
remains in effect today. Advocates who seek to enter HRA Job Centers
unaccompanied are turned away by security.
“Those of us who work against
poverty recognize the value in being able to seek advice at a
help table,” Gotbaum said. “We are hoping the mayor
will join us in supporting this important effort to enable our
government to better serve the people.”
Gotbaum noted there are current precedents
for granting advocates access to public spaces in government benefits
offices. Buffalo, Los Angeles, and San Diego all allow advocates
access. New York State lets advocates staff a table inside the
public assistance fair hearings office in Brooklyn and on the
premises of family and housing courts in New York City.
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