[HPN] NYC can't force homeless to take workfare jobs, Judge rules FWD

[Tom Boland]

http://newsfinder.arinet.com/fpweb/fp.dll/$stargeneral/htm/x_dv.htm/_ibyx/cg0302
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FWD  Associated Press - AP Wire Service - Feb 22, 2000

     JUDGE SAYS NYC CANNOT FORCE HOMELESS TO TAKE WORKFARE JOBS

     By SAMUEL MAULL
     Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) _ A judge ruled Tuesday that New York City may not
force homeless adults to accept workfare jobs in exchange for city
shelter, a decision that was immediately blasted by Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani.

Justice Stanley Sklar said the law city officials cite in
support of the requirement may be constitutional, but it violates a
consent decree that requires the city to give shelter for every
needy adult who seeks it.

Giuliani, who has pushed to put the workfare rules into effect,
denounced Tuesday's decision, saying, ``I expect the Court of
Appeals to reverse it pretty quickly.''

``Justice Sklar is clinging to his desire for a city of
dependents,'' the mayor said.

Mary Brosnahan, executive director of the Coalition for the
Homeless, called the ruling a ``legal slam-dunk'' and said Sklar
``recognized that the consent decree's fundamental purpose was to
save human life.''

Under the city program known as workfare, welfare recipients are
put to work by city departments.

The law requiring the homeless to work stems from a 1995
regulation issued by the state Department of Social Services at the
city's request. It requires anyone seeking shelter in New York _
even for one night _ to comply with welfare eligibility rules.

But in 1981 and 1983, the city signed consent decrees in which
it agreed to provide shelter to every needy, single adult who asked
for it.

Sklar ruled that the consent decrees hold. Because the
agreements only cover single people, lawyers for the homeless could
ask the courts to extend the ruling to homeless families with
children.

The city did win a workfare ruling in the state's highest court
Tuesday. The Court of Appeals upheld a ruling allowing the city to
pay people on workfare minimum wage rather than the higher wages
regular workers generally get for the same jobs.

AP-CS-02-22-00 1848EST
Received  Id AP10005345B48B7E on Feb 22 2000 17:54

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