Mobilization for Justice

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.