Politics on the Hudson

   Following a federal court decision last week, legal-rights and mental-health advocates and adult-home residents held a news conference today demanding that the state overhaul the system that places thousands of New Yorkers with psychiatric disabilities in adult homes. They want the state Office of Mental Health to dedicate 25 percent of new mental-health housing for adult-home residents and are urging officials to move swiftly in helping place residents in community settings.

   Last week, a District Court judge rejected the state’s attempts to dismiss a lawsuit filed six years ago on the issue and ordered a trial. Several non-profit groups allege in the lawsuit that the state is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act because adults with mental illness are not being placed in the least integrated setting, meaning independent housing in their communities. In-depth reports by the New York Times brought to light that many adult-home residents in New York City were living in poor conditions.

   “The state has delayed long enough,” Cliff Zucker, executive director of Disability Advocates, said in a statement. Diability Advocates is one of the groups that brought the suit.

   “The governor should resolve this matter by creating the integrated community housing that adult-home residents are entitled to under the Americans with Disabilities Act,” he said.

   Judge Nicholas Garaufis noted in his decision that the state failed to implement the recommendations of the Adult Home Work Group, which was convened by former Gov. George Pataki. The panel said the state should develop plans and a timetable to move 6,000 adult-home residents to alternative housing.

   “We are hopeful that the judge is on his way to finding that New York State has indeed denied residents their just opportunities for deinstitutionalization, sending state hospital patients instead to adult homes rather than creating more appropriate community-based settings,” said Harvey Rosenthal, head of the state Association for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services and co-chairman of the state Coalition for Adult Home Reform.

   Derek White, an adult-home resident from Yonkers, said the judge’s ruling “provides a light at the end of the tunnel for the many of us who feel we are being warehoused. I’ve waited a long time already. Please don’t make me wait any longer.”