The Mental Health Project empowers low-income New Yorkers with psychiatric disabilities to break the devastating cycle of homelessness, hospitalization and incarceration. To reach the people who need us most, we go to jails, psychiatric units, and shelters. We focus on essentials such as food, housing, medical care, and disability benefits. When we discover systemic problems, we educate, organize, and litigate to solve them.
Through our direct service, we help more than one thousand people each year regain dignity and hope. Through our systemic advocacy, we help tens of thousands more.
If you need help, call our toll-free number, 1-877-MHPLAW1 (877-647-5291).
Click here for more information.
News and Events
The Urban Justice Center's Mental Health Project presents:
The Americans with Disabilities Act and Mental Health:
Exploring Public Benefits and Child Welfare
April 8, 2010
9:00 am – 5:00 PM
Check in at 8:30 am
Moot Courtroom at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
55 Fifth Avenue • New York, NY
Featured speakers:
- Cary LaCheen, Esq., Senior Attorney, National Center for Law and Economic Justice
- Jennifer Mathis, Esq., Deputy Legal Director, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
- Matthew B. Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
- Dale S. Margolin, Esq., Assistant Clinical Professor of Law & Director of the Family Law Clinic, University of Richmond School of Law
- Van Yu, M.D., Medical Director, Center for Urban Community Services
- Jeffrey R. Senter, Esq., Mental Health Fair Hearing Initiative of Project FAIR & Urban Justice Center, Mental Health Project
Visit us at http://www.urbanjustice.org/ujc/projects/mental.html for up-to-date information.
The event is free and lunch will be provided. Space is limited. Please register by March 1 by emailing hrosenblum@urbanjustice.org with your name and organization. Your registration will be confirmed via email. Also indicate if you need CLE credit.
MHP ADA Conference
MHP ADA Conference Program Schedule
Mental Health Project Summer Internships
Undergraduate Internships and Legal Internships available.
SSA Begins Implementation of $500 Million Class Action Settlement
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has begun implementing the relief provided in a settlement agreement reached in Martinez v. Astrue, a class action lawsuit challenging the SSA’s policy of automatically suspending and denying benefits based on an outstanding warrant. The settlement provides for full retroactive reinstatement of benefits of approximately 80,000 individuals, and limited retroactive reinstatement for approximately 120,000 additional class members. SSA has already begun reinstating the benefits of some class members, and will continue to administer relief in stages, depending on the type of benefit, and the date of the suspension or appeal.
For more information, contact Emilia Sicilia at (646) 602-5668, or click here.
"Important Information for Social Security and SSI Recipients,"
February 2010
Long version
"Important Information for Social Security and SSI Recipients,"
February 2010
Short version
UJC's Mental Health Project Helps Win ADA Victory for 4300 Adult Home Residents with Mental Illness
On September 8th, United States District Judge Nicholas Garaufis issued a 210-page decision in Disability Advocates, Inc. v. Paterson finding that New York State violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act by warehousing 4,300 people with mental illness in institutional adult homes. The court quoted one former State official who testified that adult homes were "institutional living at ... its worst," like "little ghettos" that "impede community integration," with "people sitting out front [of] the adult home, smoking, going back in ..." Now, the State will have to offer supported housing and services to adult home residents with mental illness in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.
The decision followed six years of litigation and a five-week trial. MHP assisted Disability Advocates, Inc., the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, MFY, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and pro bono counsel Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, and Wharton & Garrison.
"Despair's Profiteers,"
NY Times,
September 14, 2009
"State's Homes for Mentally Ill Adults Violate ADA, Judge Rules,"
New York Law Journal,
September 9, 2009
"State Discriminated Against Mentally Ill, Judge Rules,"
New York Times,
September 9, 2009
"A Cycle of Promises Not Kept,"
New York Times,
September 9, 2009
MHP Law Suit Secures $12 Million IN Back Food Stamps Owed TO New York City's Poor
Just in time for Thanksgiving, New York State began distributing $12,000,000 in food stamps to low-income New Yorkers with severe disabilities. This is a landmark step in the enforcement of Harris v. Eggleston, a 2002 class-action law suit brought by MHP and the Homelessness Outreach and Prevention Project of the Urban Justice Center, with pro bono assistance from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Read the New York Times article.
Most Recent Press
"La policia debe hacer lo correcto,"
El Diario,
March 4, 2010
"The police should do the right thing,"
El Diario-English Version,
March 4, 2010
"Judge Orders New York City to Move Mentally Ill Out of Large, Institutional Housing,"
New York Times,
March 1, 2010
