Legal Assistance
Mobilization for Justice
(212) 464-8110 or
toll free at (877) 417-2427
MFJ began working collaboratively with
the Coalition of Institutionalized Aged & Disabled
in 1992 to reach out and assist adult home residents. MFJ’s
persistent and vigorous advocacy and litigation helped
bring widespread public attention to the plight of adult
home residents and the lack of viable community-based
housing and supports for clients exiting the state’s
psychiatric hospitals.
Among the adult home clients they have
represented is a group of 17 men from the former Leben
Adult Home in Queens who were subjected to unnecessary
prostate surgery. In Bowen et al v. Rubin et al, they
joined with other advocates to win a $7.5 million
partial settlement for the victims. They challenged home
operators who withheld residents’ SSI income as a form
of behavior control in Cortigiano v. Oceanview Manor
Home for Adults.
In the landmark case O'Toole v. Cuomo, MFJ
and other legal advocates sued New York State for
violating the Americans with Disabilities Act for
warehousing mentally ill adult home residents in adult
homes.
MFJ also provides individual free legal
assistance to adult home residents.
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