Disability Advocates Move to Hold Suffolk County in Contempt for Violating Settlement in Disability Rights Lawsuit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 9, 2026
CONTACT:
- Patrick Fowler, Communications Strategist, NCLEJ | fowler@nclej.org
- Alex Dery Snider, Empire Justice Center | aderysnider@empirejustice.org
Suffolk County, New York – The National Center for Law and Economic Justice, Empire Justice Center, and Dentons US LLP have moved to hold the Suffolk County Department of Social Services (SCDSS) in contempt of a 2022 class action settlement order due to the agency’s continued unlawful denials of reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to disabled individuals applying for and receiving public benefits, including Medicaid, SNAP, Temporary Assistance, and Temporary Housing Assistance. Reasonable accommodations are changes or modifications of rules, policies, or practices needed to allow individuals with disabilities to have equitable access to benefits and services to the same extent as people without disabilities.
The motion asks the Court to hold SCDSS in contempt for violating the 2022 order, order them into compliance, and order related sanctions and relief measures. The motion is available [HERE]. The case is Newkirk et al. v. Imhof, Case No. 19-cv-04283 (NGG)(PK) (U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York).
Background:
After Plaintiffs succeeded in certifying a class, in October 2022, the Court approved a settlement ordering SCDSS to ensure that disabled class members have meaningful access to public benefits in compliance with the ADA. Since then, the Plaintiff Class alleges that SCDSS has failed to substantially comply with key terms of the order. The Court twice extended its jurisdiction at the parties’ request and amended the order to provide SCDSS with more directed oversight and the opportunity to become compliant.
Yet, as the motion explains, SCDSS’s performance has worsened since January 2025. The agency routinely offers unsuitable and unsafe housing placements to people experiencing homelessness despite granting reasonable accommodation requests, and relies on illegal bases to deny accommodation requests, demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of the ADA. SCDSS’s efforts and internal oversight mechanisms are inadequate to remedy these failures, necessitating greater intervention from the Court.
The Motion for Contempt cites numerous cases demonstrating SCDSS’s violation of the 2022 Order. For example:
- A class member with an autoimmune condition was granted a request for a private cooking area and single room, but SCDSS still placed them in communal settings that risked their safety. They ultimately chose to sleep in their car rather than stay in SCDSS’s unsuitable placement.
- Another class member was granted a request for an accessible shower with grab bars, but SCDSS placed them with a standard shower, leaving them unable to bathe for six weeks.
- SCDSS denied a reasonable accommodation request from a deaf class member for a single room due to fear for their safety because “fearing for your safety is not a disability under the ADA.”
These are not isolated incidents but rather reflect a systemic issue.
Random sampling data has revealed that SCDSS’s failures to provide disability accommodations in violation of the 2022 settlement are systemic in nature, affecting many disabled individuals requesting public benefits:
- In June 2025, every case file sampled included a request for placement without stairs by individuals with mobility-related disabilities. In 71% of these cases, SCDSS failed to house the class member in a location without stairs.
- Between January and October 2025:
- SCDSS failed to provide reasonable accommodations for disabled individuals requesting public benefits at a monthly noncompliance rate between 29-71%.
- In 27% of cases where SCDSS approved a request for a temporary housing placement without steps to accommodate class members’ mobility-related disabilities, SCDSS still placed these disabled individuals in housing with steps.
- In 50% of cases where SCDSS approved a request for single occupancy, which class members request for anything from being immunocompromised to having PTSD, SCDSS still placed these disabled individuals with between one and 11 roommates.
“The stories of our clients are shocking and egregious, as the agency gives already vulnerable people the false choice between unsuitable, unsafe emergency housing and no housing at all,” said Maya Goldman, Staff Attorney at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice. “The County is violating the terms of the 2022 Court Order approving the parties’ settlement agreement and depriving disabled Suffolk County residents of human dignity and their most basic needs. We are asking the Court to hold SCDSS accountable and order the agency to live up to the promise of the ADA.”
“Amid surging rates of homelessness that disproportionately affect the disability community, it is more important now than ever that SCDSS be held to account for not only their failure, but continuing refusal, to follow the law. No one should ever be forced to endure the dehumanization, and danger, of illegal placement in a medically inappropriate shelter. Complying with the ADA is simply not optional,” said Elizabeth Woods, Supervising Senior Attorney at Empire Justice Center.
Sandra Hauser from Dentons US LLP, who serves as pro bono counsel for the class alongside NCLEJ and Empire Justice, adds, “Having a disability should not present a barrier to accessing the benefits and services to which our clients are entitled by law, and that they so critically need. It is unacceptable that Suffolk County, while showing progress in some areas, still leaves so many without reasonable accommodations.”
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The National Center for Law and Economic Justice is a legal nonprofit that advances disability, racial, and economic justice for low-income families, individuals, and communities across the country through ground-breaking impact litigation, policy advocacy, and support for grassroots organizing. Founded in 1965, NCLEJ fights for access to critical benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, and childcare, protects low-wage workers’ rights and safety, advocates for the rights of people with disabilities, and fights unlawful debt collection.
Empire Justice Center is a statewide nonprofit law firm whose mission is to make the law work for all New Yorkers, particularly for those who need its protection most. We take a full-circle, 360-degree approach to changing systems by engaging in three major and interconnected areas of service. We teach the law by providing training, support and technical assistance to legal services and other community-based organizations; we practice the law by providing direct, civil legal assistance to low-income people with a particular focus on those from marginalized communities; and we change the law by engaging in policy analysis, research and advocacy and undertaking impact litigation to get at the root of systemic issues. Since 1973, Empire Justice has helped protect and strengthen the rights of millions of New Yorkers.
Dentons US LLP is a law firm providing pro bono services to Plaintiffs and the Class.
