TESTIMONY OF DANIEL L. GREENBERG OF THE LEGAL AID
SOCIETY
BEFORE THE UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE
ON
ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS - September 24, 2002
My name is Daniel L. Greenberg, the
President and Attorney-in-Chief of the Legal Aid Society in New York City. I welcome this opportunity to testify before
this Committee about the Legal Aid Society=s vantage-point as a provider of
legal services to New Yorkers affected by the tragic events of September 11 and
as a major not-for-profit organization that has been displaced from its offices
which were directly across the street from the World Trade Center.
We are very grateful for the
assistance that we have received from Senator Clinton and the New York
Congressional delegation to address initial problems which we encountered when
we filed a reimbursement application with the Federal Emergency Management
Agency. We also greatly appreciate the
recent determination by FEMA to find the Legal Aid Society eligible for
financial assistance, and the work of FEMA staff to expedite the review of our
upcoming claim submission.
The Legal Aid Society in New York: The Legal Aid Society is the oldest and
largest law firm for low-income persons in the United States. For more than one
hundred twenty-five years, the Society has been part of the social fabric of
New York City as a leading not-for-profit organization and provider of essential
assistance for New Yorkers who cannot afford to pay for the legal help that
they need.
From offices in all five boroughs of
New York City and with a staff of 1,600, the Society handles 300,000 cases
annually in the areas of civil legal assistance, criminal defense and appeals,
and juvenile rights. Our lawyers
represent individual and groups of clients at all levels of the State and
federal courts, including a number cases that have been considered by the
United States Supreme Court.
Contracts with City, State, and
federal government support various of the Society=s criminal defense, criminal appeals,
and juvenile rights services. State,
City and federal contracts also support a portion of the Society=s civil
work, but the Society=s civil legal assistance is substantially
financed with private donations.
Several years ago, our Board of Directors voted to forego funding from
the Legal Services Corporation out of concern for the restrictions such funding
would have had on our work. Our Board
consists of leaders of the private bar, private industry, and private
not-for-profit agencies in New York City.
In partnership with the private bar, we operate an extensive volunteer
attorney program to leverage our limited resources.
The Impact Of September 11th
On The Legal Aid Society:
Like all of you, we were horrified by the events of September 11th. More than 700 Legal Aid Society staff
members, including both lawyers and legal workers, were housed in offices in
Lower Manhattan just to the North of the World Trade Center. Some 400 of these Legal Aid Society staff
members worked in our
headquarters at 90 Church Street, literally 50 yards across the street from the
North side of the World Trade Center.
The 90 Church building housed the
Society=s main
administrative offices and the entire staff of the Criminal Appeals Bureau and
the Capital Defense Unit, the Juvenile Rights Division=s and the
Criminal Defense Division=s central administration and special
litigation and appeals units, and the Civil Division=s central
administration, Civil Appeals and Law Reform Unit, Homeless Rights Project,
Health Law Unit, Immigration Unit, and Consumer and Bankruptcy Unit. The Society=s central library and central
computer system that supports the Legal Aid city-wide network were also at 90
Church Street.
Although plane parts landed on the
roof, debris crashed through windows, and many staff witnessed the horrific
events of that day, thankfully no staff members were lost or injured.
However, for the past year we have
been unable to reoccupy our headquarters at 90 Church Street. The other tenants
at 90 Church Street, a United States Post Office and the New York City Housing
Authority, have been in a similar limbo status for this past year as plans have
been developed to remediate the building and negotiations with the various
insurance companies have proceeded.
In the meantime, in order to continue
to provide legal assistance during this critical period for New Yorkers, we
have expended substantial resources to rent alternative space and equipment,
purchase replacement supplies and materials, arrange for the cleaning and
storage of literally thousands of boxes of files, and address disaster recovery
issues involving the 90 Church Street office space.
The Society=s Key
Disaster Relief Role:
Even as the Society itself was rendered "homeless" by the
September 11th tragedy, the Society has played a leading role in
providing disaster relief legal services in the aftermath of the September 11th
attack. With the loss of an estimated
130,000 jobs in New York City after September 11th, substantial
numbers of New Yorkers who were not eligible for or in need of our civil legal
assistance on September 10th, desperately needed our help on
September 12th and in the following weeks.
In the immediate aftermath of
September 11th, our staff was there for New Yorkers who needed
help. When the computer lines that ran
below the World Trade Center were destroyed, vulnerable New Yorkers could not
use their food stamps in their communities because local merchants could not
confirm their food stamp case status.
Society staff members worked with State officials to devise a "hold
harmless" procedure so that merchants could allow New Yorkers to buy food. When thousands of New Yorkers who lost their
jobs were left without heath care coverage, Society staff members worked with
State and City officials to devise expedited procedures to enable New Yorkers
to obtain Medicaid coverage.
When thousands of New Yorkers began
to seek help in the FEMA Disaster Assistance Center in Lower Manhattan and in newly
established City Disaster Centers, Society lawyers and paralegals were there to
staff "Legal Services" tables to provide legal help. Even as the fires were still burning in
Lower Manhattan, Society staff members were working on nights and weekends
along side of FEMA, State, City, and charitable organization staff to meet the
need for emergency help at the FEMA Center just blocks to the North of the
World Trade Center site.
In the months following the closure
of the FEMA Disaster Assistance Center, we have implemented a serious of
outreach programs to provide help to affected New Yorkers at settlement houses,
labor unions, and community agencies where large numbers of newly unemployed
workers are seeking help. Altogether,
our disaster relief services are directly benefiting some 5,000 New Yorkers
through one-on-one help, client-specific consultations, and "know your
rights" community education. The
legal problems of these individual clients have included housing, unemployment
benefits, Medicaid and other health care issues, food stamps, social security,
rental assistance, and immigration. Literally, hundreds of thousands of
additional New Yorkers have received health care or obtained food stamps
through our post-September 11th joint work with government to devise
new system-wide procedures to address the unimaginable circumstances that
confronted New York City on the morning of September 12th.
FEMA Help For The Legal Aid Society: In December 2001, the Legal Aid Society
itself turned to FEMA for help. The
Society applied for Public Assistance from FEMA to cover the extraordinary
costs associated with our displacement and planned recovery of the Society=s 90 Church
Street headquarters
Unfortunately, based on FEMA=s initial
interpretation of the Public Assistance criteria, in February 2002 FEMA found
that the Legal Aid Society was not an eligible private not-for-profit
applicant. Because we believed that
FEMA was mistaken, we appealed the initial determination and provided
supplemental information in April 2002 that included a series of supporting
level from City and State government attesting to the essential nature of the
Society=s services,
particularly in the criminal justice and juvenile rights areas in which the
City and State contract with the Society to provide constitutionally-mandated
legal assistance.
We also sought the assistance of
Senator Clinton and the New York Congressional delegation. Senator Clinton and
her staff, particularly Kara Hughes, were in regular contact with senior FEMA
staff who agreed that the Legal Aid situation should be reviewed.
We are pleased to report that earlier
this month FEMA completed its review of our request for help and found that the
Legal Aid Society is an entity eligible for reimbursement. FEMA and New York State Emergency Management
Office staff members are now working very closely with us to ensure that the
Legal Aid Society receives the assistance that we need. Both federal and State
emergency management staff members have been extremely helpful in setting an
expedited review for the Society=s claim.
Thank you again for this opportunity
to discuss our experiences with you. We hope that the experiences of the Legal
Aid Society as a provider of disaster relief legal assistance and as an
applicant for FEMA disaster assistance are useful to this Committee=s
consideration of the lessons learned following September 11th.
Submitted by,
Daniel L. Greenberg
President and Attorney-in-Chief
The Legal Aid Society