Panel hears testimony on legal services for poor
Woman tells story of housing authority barring support dog
The Glens Falls Housing Authority approved Julianne White for an apartment.
Her request for an emotional support animal received a different response: No dogs allowed.
White, 76, had called several attorneys to no avail until her plight reached the attention of the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York. There, staff attorney Brenna K. Sharp mailed a letter to the housing authority explaining its policy violated state and federal law. The policy is now no more.
On Monday, White — joined by Fiona, her 11-year-old longhaired chihuahua told her story at the Court of Appeals to a panel chaired by Chief Judge Janet Difiore. The judge held the latest of what is now an annual Statewide Hearing on Civil Legal Services.
“The result we got was far above what I expected,” White told the panel. “I would not have had the same result without Legal Aid’s assistance.”
White was one of 15 witnesses to testify. The issue of civil legal services for the poor, the signature issue for former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, remains a major focal point under Difiore. The chief judges have in recent years held hearings in which witnesses have testified about the plight of low-income New Yorkers facing legal issues such as domestic violence, eviction, credit card disputes and childsupport problems.
Difiore included $100 million in the state court system’s budget for civil legal services for the poor.
White explained her story as follows:
In 2014, the housing authority approved White, who lives on a fixed income, for an apartment. The next year White, who suffers from anxiety and depression, lost her best friend — her exhusband Bob. She started going to counseling but her symptoms persisted. A doctor and counselor recommended an emotional support animal. White’s spirits improved as she looked forward to getting a small dog.
The local housing authority denied her request, saying it does not allow dogs in any of its 300 apartments in four buildings. White’s apartment was in Hudson Falls. The authority offered to put her name on a waiting list for one of three buildings that allow pets.
Frustrated, White called private attorneys, none of which knew about emotional support animals. At the time, White was already working with Teresa Depaul, a Legal Aid paralegal on an application for food assistance and with Rose Landau, a Legal Aid attorney, on drafting a will and dealing with health care issues. They referred her to Sharp who, in turn, wrote the letter to
the authority and filed the complaint with the state’s Division of Human Rights and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In January, the Division of Human Rights found probable cause to believe the housing authority may have engaged in unlawful discrimination by refusing to allow White the emotional support animal for her disability. White has since moved to Warrensburg, but is allowed to return to the housing authority’s buildings at any time with Fiona or another service animal.
Posters in the buildings now ensure all tenants and applicants can see the new rules.
“There are over 300 people who rent from the housing authority and all of them now see their rights clearly posted,” White told the panel.
The panel included Difiore, state Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks; the state’s four presiding justices of the Appellate Divisions of state Supreme Court (Elizabeth Garry of the Albany-based Third Department; Rolando Acosta of the First Department in Manhattan; Alan Scheinkman of the Brooklynbased Second Department; and Gerald Whalen the Rochester-based Fourth Department) and the state’s bar association president, Michael Miller.