From The New York Times (3.01.10):
Judge Orders New York to Move Mentally Ill Out of Large, Institutional Housing
by A.G. Sulzberger
New York State must begin moving thousands of people with mental illness into their own apartments or small homes and out of large, institutional adult homes that keep them segregated from society, a federal judge ordered on Monday. The decision, by Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, followed his ruling in September that the conditions at more than two dozen privately run adult homes in New York City violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by leaving approximately 4,300 mentally ill residents isolated in warehouselike conditions...
...Gloria Thomas, who lives in a shared room at the Queens Adult Care Center in Elmhurst, reacted to the ruling with joy. “Thank you Jesus, this is what I’ve been waiting for for the longest time,” said Ms. Thomas, 54, who has been at the home for two years. “I need to get out of here.”...“This will give adult home residents the opportunity to live the way the rest of us do,” said Jennifer Mathis, deputy legal director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, which provided legal support for the lawsuit. “In the future people should not be steered to adult homes if they don’t want it and they don’t need it.”...
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