MLASSP AmeriCorps members every day make a difference in the lives of poor, elderly, and disabled people in Massachusetts. Here are some of the stories members tell about their work.
How Can A Client Get Medical Care With No Health Insurance Coverage?
I have started to learn first-hand the important meaning of victory in the lives of the clients we serve. I have been working with a client who was initially denied Mass Health coverage because she was reportedly over-income. However, after reviewing her case, I learned that not only was her only source of income the disability benefits she received from Social Security, but also that she had tons of expensive medical bills that she was unable to pay. I learned that even if a person appears to be over-income, Mass Health allows a medical deductible standard that, if met, would allow an applicant to be considered for coverage. So, on this basis, I appealed to the Division of Medical Assistance (which administers Mass Health) for reinstatement of my client’s health care coverage. While I waited for a hearing date to be scheduled, I organized the mountains of bills my client had, and calculated all the medical expenses that would help her meet Mass Health’s very high deductible standard of $6,732. Ironically, it turned out that her high medical bills are what saved her, because my client’s bills went well over the deductible standard. I sent copies of all of the paperwork I compiled to Mass Health, and after spending weeks trying to get an updated status on my client’s case, I found out that we were victorious. Mass Health agreed to reinstate her coverage, and now my client can continue seeking the intensive medical care she needs.
I’m aware that victories like this one, however slight, can mean the world to our clients who depend on these benefits for survival. I’ve also become more aware that these slight victories only address the tip of the mountain of hardship faced by our clients, and that many of them may go back to teetering near instability after we have closed their cases with us. My role as an AmeriCorps paralegal has opened by eyes to the amount of work that needs to be done for society’s disadvantaged. I feel that my responsibilities with Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services are increasing, and I want to keep working hard so that my contributions to the important work done in our office will have a lasting impact on or organization and the clients we serve.
Sabrina AcloqueWhat Happens When Your Roof Caves In (Literally)?
For the past month here in the Housing Department of Western Massachusetts Legal Services, my time has been spent working mainly on one very large case under the supervision of my supervising attorney. This case involves about 15 clients from a rent-subsidized apartment building in Springfield that has attracted the interest of several members of the news media in the past several weeks. Throughout October, Western Massachusetts and the rest of New England have seen a record breaking amount of rain fall that has caused a great deal of flooding and other damage in several areas. At this apartment building on Temple Street in Springfield, the rain poured down onto a flat roof with three working drains out of a total of four. The blockage of just one drain caused the water to back up to the point that the roof collapsed under the weight of several feet of rainwater. The water rushed into the apartments below damaging the property of several tenants, and causing the building to be condemned.
For the past month I have been responsible for maintaining contact with all 15 of the clients from Temple Street, answering their questions and advising them as the attorneys worked to put together a case that would require the landlords to pay for the temporary housing of our clients while the building is being repaired. Last week the judge ordered that the landlords would, indeed be responsible for paying for temporary shelter. The clients, who are very low-income and were at risk of homelessness, had the judgment not been in their favor, were extremely relieved to know that they would have a place to stay until they could go back to their apartments.
I found the experience of working on this case to be very rewarding. It felt good to know that I was able to play an active role in giving legal assistance to those who would not otherwise be able to afford it. In this case, it meant the difference between a place to live, and homelessness, for 15 people.
Kerry BakerMLASSP Member Takes On the Massachusetts Food Stamp Program
These past two months have been very exciting for me working as an AmeriCorps member with the Public Benefits Unit at Massachusetts Law Reform Institute! Already I feel like I am contributing to reform initiatives. My focus for this year is on the access barriers that exist in the Massachusetts Food Stamp Program, which has one of the lowest state participation rates in the country. Through research and collaboration, I have been tracking the procedural difficulties that many clients, advocates, and legal services staff encounter when trying to access food stamps.
My most notable accomplishment thus far has been my work on the Food Stamp Program Client Access Review Report. Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) was asked for input on the barriers in Massachusetts to food stamp applicants. To gain a broader understanding of the problems, I contacted various advocates and outreach workers across the state and inquired about the experiences they and their clients had with the Food Stamp Program. I was provided with specific examples of access barriers: 1) inability to reach the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) staff by phone, 2) failure to schedule phone interviews, 3) access barriers for limited English proficient households, 4) inadequate filing and recordkeeping by DTA, 5) excessive and inappropriate verification demands, and 6) insensitive customer service. We compiled the information for a report that documented the access barriers, suggestion for improvement by advocates and “star” players and submitted the report to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service and DTA Central.
Further research entailed looking at other states and their practices for possible models to present to the state in order to improve the Massachusetts Food Stamp Program. Since a lot of the barriers in the program exist in the applications process, I evaluated other states’ food stamp applications, looking at their questions for expedited food stamps, their penalty warnings, and their signature pages. I also looked at other Massachusetts public benefit applications for models. With this research, I was able to devise a rough draft of an improved signatures page and improved expedited questions with my supervisors. In addition, I investigated the use of self-addressed stamped envelopes in other state food stamp programs and Massachusetts public benefit programs. With this research, I am hoping to write a letter to the Food stamp Program Director, encouraging the state to start mailing out self-addressed stamped envelopes to its food stamp applicants to aid in the verifications process.
During January, I continued my policy work in food stamps, co-writing a letter to the director of the Food Stamp Program and policy directors at the Department of Transitional Assistance, asking them to clarify the policy on birth certificates. We have received numerous reports from clients and advocates indicating that DTA workers are demanding applicants to verify their children’s existence or citizenship through birth certificates. This is not only unnecessary, but also illegal in many cases. DTA workers should not be requesting verification for citizenship unless questionable. Moreover, it is discriminatory and illegal to request proof of citizenship simply on the basis of appearance or speech, which is the case in many of the reports. We have a meeting scheduled with the state this week, and I am hoping that they will agree to issue policy clarification to the field.
The USDA food and Nutrition released their Program Access Review results in January 2006. The review focused on the certification and application process and was prompted by high rates of application denials. I spent a lot of time talking to social service agencies and legal services staff in order to compile the report that MLRI released to the USDA in November when they began conducting their review of local offices. The USDA results were very refreshing because it identified many of the barriers that we had in our report, such as paperwork mismanagement, inconsistent scheduling of interviews, etc. The USDA results have issued required corrective actions and the Department is working to fix many of the access barriers that were identified. I feel so proud to have worked so hard to put together the MLRI Program Access Review report to the USDA (which was also featured on the front page of the December 31 edition of The Boston Globe). In doing so, I really feel as if I contributed to some of the reforms that will take place and improve the Food Stamp Program in Massachusetts.
In response to the letter I co-wrote last month regarding the excessive and unnecessary demands for birth certificates for food stamp verification, the DTA policy directors have agreed to issue out to the field policy clarification on the subject in the upcoming staff newsletter. We are hoping that the policy clarification will help end some of the confusion regarding birth certificates.
Patricia KuoDo You Speak My Language?
Every story I hear at Casa Myrna is so unique from the other, but they all have one thing in common: all these women were once subjected to cruel and abusive behavior by their loved ones, and have all taken the courage to get out of this relationship, and are fighting for their lives by seeking legal aid. We always encourage and empower every one of our callers and make them realize the strength they have!
By being trained in how to handle a call from a domestic violence victim/survivor, I make sure to pay attention to meet their needs and to help them understand their human rights. Since I cannot directly give legal advice, I am responsible for gathering as many facts as possible, so that when I present the case to the lawyers they will have a clear view of what options to provide our callers. Through experience, I have managed to ask nonjudgmental questions to put our clients at ease and to strengthen and support them through difficult struggles that are happening in their lives, most of which include mental health support, divorce issues, child support, restraining orders, housing and welfare benefits, etc.
I also make sure that our non-English speaking clients get all the information and resources that we offer to them by communicating in Spanish to ease the stress of not being able to understand a document. I carry my work wherever I go and represent my team in a very professional manner to spread the word about our services. I always demonstrate commitment to the success of the legal program. I have made sure that I put any skill that I have coming from a business background to try to use various marketing strategies for outreach to those that are underserved. With my fluency in Spanish we are better able to reach a larger range of community clients.
Viera Moya
Community Organizing Is Education AdvocacyOn February 15, 2006, we held another in our series of meetings with concerned parents of students who attend the B.B. Russell School. This meeting was a little different than the others, as the primary focus shifted from addressing the legal aspects of the parents’ concerns to building a strong base of support among parents, and reaching out to uninvolved parents that might be interested. A volunteer with the Coalition Against Poverty who has much experience in community organizing facilitated the meeting, which was very productive. Even though there were a small number of parents present, it seemed as though they were engaged in getting organized and that there is a solid nucleus of leadership that could really help to galvanize a parent organization in the B.B. Russell School. We will continue to work with these parents until they have the additional support and expertise to be self-sufficient.
Matt BohenekA Lawyer’s First Day In Court
I attended court for the first time as a lead attorney (along with a supervising attorney). The client was new and we had a chance to prepare for the hearing together a few days before. The skills learned at the training came in handy as I outlined her case and tried to address any issues that might come up while in front of the judge or the Family Services Officer. The case was a paternity matter where the father of her very young child was alleging that he was not the father and therefore did not want to pay child support. There was one incident of domestic violence in the relationship and the client was nervous to be around the father as well as with the entire court process. While you can try and prepare a client for what is going to happen, I realize more and more that, sometimes, unexpected things happen for which you cannot prepare. You also have to be very patient and be prepared to wait. I now take the time to stress both of those things to any client with whom I go into court.
After four hours in court and much back and forth negotiation with the opposing counsel, a Stipulation Of The Parties was drawn up that changed the whole nature of the case. The paternity action was dropped and the father acknowledged paternity. He also agreed to regular child support payments. The mother agreed to modify an existing restraining order to allow for communication between them about their child. They also agreed to a regular visitation schedule with the child. The last time that I spoke to this client, the visitation process was a going well and child support payments were regular. She felt very happy with how court went that day and with the overall outcome of the case. I expect to be able to close this case in April when we go back to court for a review date.
Mary Snyder