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May-June 2011 Clearinghouse Review

Topics covered in this issue include using disparate impact theory under the Fair Housing Act to challenge housing barriers against people with criminal records, ensuring fair wages for individuals with disabilities under the Fair Labor Standards Act, reforming the H-2B guest worker program, the impact of the move toward electronic benefit cards on low-income beneficiaries, and residential mobility for Housing Choice Voucher families in Illinois.

About This Issue
Advocacy Stories: Justice Crosses the Tracks: Settlement Brings Katrina Funds to Low-Income Mississippi Residents
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

By Noah C. Shaw and Joseph D. Rich
Advocacy Stories: Medical-Legal Partnership Helps Suspended Kindergarten Students Receive Special Education Services
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

By Lucas F. Caldwell-McMillan
Advocacy Stories: Litigation in Federal and State Courts in Hawaii Preserves Critical Health Care for Micronesians
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

By Victor Geminiani and Deja Marie Ostrowski
Moving or Moving Up? Understanding Residential Mobility for Housing Choice Voucher Families in Illinois
The federal Housing Choice Voucher program offers very low-income families the opportunity to move to communities with improved access to jobs, schools, diversity, and other advantages. “Voucher portability,” or the process of moving outside the jurisdiction of the voucher-issuing housing authority, has been burdensome for participants and public housing authorities, even though the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reminds housing authorities of their duty to comply with fair housing laws and other requirements. Regional and statewide cooperation among housing authorities and advocates, coupling moving with housing mobility counseling, landlord outreach and education, and establishing a HUD complaint process for affected households are, in this analysis of the Illinois experience, among recommended ways to improve a voucher holder’s right to move to communities of opportunity.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

By Andrew Greenlee, Janet smith, Sharon Legenza, and Katherine E. Walz
The Next Frontier in Public Benefits: Electronic Benefit Cards
Electronic benefit transfers are now the primary means that states use to deliver public benefits, and a growing number of states are moving to the use of commercial-brand prepaid debit cards, or electronic payment cards. A recently passed law requires that, without a waiver, all federal nontax payments be delivered electronically. While this mechanism offers many advantages for clients over paper checks, the need for consumer protections has received insufficient attention. Proposed federal legislation would extend consumer protections to government-sponsored electronic payment cards.

Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Content
- Webinar archive and resources on electronic benefits transfer
- Karen K, Harris and Susan Ritacca, Alternative Credit Data: To Report or Not to Report, That Is the Question (Nov.-Dec. 2010)
- Ji Won Kim et al., (webinar recording), The Next Frontier in Public Benefits: Electronic Benefits Cards (I couldn’t find a date--maybe something to keep in mind for future archiving?)
- Barbara Leyser, Recipient Concerns with the Use of Electronic Benefit Transfer Systems for the Delivery of State and Federal Benefits (Sept.-Oct. 1998)
By Karen K. Harris and Ji Won Kim
Ensuring Fair Wages? Subminimum Wages for Individuals with Disabilities Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
Workers with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to exploitation by their employers. When these workers are employed pursuant to Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, however, they are entitled to protections with which many advocates may be unfamiliar. Recent events in Atalissa, Iowa, should prompt advocates for workers with disabilities to familiarize themselves with Section 14(c) and related state legislation.

Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Articles
- William P. Quigley, Primer on Minimum-Wage and Overtime Issues Under the Fair Labor Standards Act for Low-Wage Workers and Their Advocates (Feb. 1996)
- Rick McHugh, Recognizing Wage and Hour Issues on Behalf of Low-Income Workers (Sept.-Oct. 2001)
By David T. Hutt
i Information Interaction Interchange
A Season of Change: Reforming the H-2B Guest Worker Program
The mistreatment of seasonal nonagricultural workers brought to the United States through the H-2B program is an area of concern for many immigration and workplace justice advocates. While recent proposed revisions of the H2-B regulations may bring some positive changes in the scheme, the H2-B program remains the same until the regulations are finalized. Examining the structure and flaws of the current H-2B framework shows that H-2B workers face many challenges, both when they try to participate in the program and when they try to challenge unfair treatment by their employers.

Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Articles
- Rebecca Smith, Cynthia Mark, and Anita Sinha, Protecting the Labor and Employment Rights of Immigrant Workers (Sept.-Oct. 2004)
- Susan Reed and Ilene J. Jacobs, Serving Farmworkers (Sept.-Oct. 2004)
By Jayesh M. Rathod
Considering Eligibility for Public Benefits in Settling a Client's Claim for Damages
When settling a client’s claim for damages, an attorney must consider the settlement’s possible effect on the client’s present and future eligibility for public benefits such as SSI (Supplemental Security Income), Medicaid, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and public housing. Many public benefit programs impose limits on the amount of income and assets that a recipient may have. For some clients, a (d)(4) Supplemental Needs Trust offers a beneficial way to structure a settlement award.

Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Articles
- Susan G. Haines, Protecting the Disabled Individual with the Medicare Set-Aside Trust (Sept.-Oct. 1999)
- James R. Sheldon Jr. and Diana M. Straube, Supplemental Security Income and the Family Law Attorney: Using Creative Alimony, Child Support, and Property Settlements to Maximize Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid (July-Aug. 1999)
By Douglas Sea and Andrew Cogdell
Poverty Warriors: A Historical Perspective on the Mission of Legal Services
Sargent Shriver and the other founders of the federally funded legal services program believed the program should advocate on behalf of entire poor communities and pursue an antipoverty mission. The current push for “access to justice” and “Civil Gideon” strays from that original mission by focusing on individual legal problems that do not target the underlying causes of poverty. Even with Legal Services Corporation regulations, legal services programs can pursue an antipoverty agenda if they have the desire and creativity to do so.

Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Articles
- Jamie Price and Kenneth R. Melchin, Recovering Sargent Shriver’s Vision for Poverty Law: The Illinois FamilyCare Campaign and the Insight Approach to Conflict Resolution and Collaboration (Jan.-Feb. 2010)
- Ross Dolloff, Rediscovering the Organizations We Worked to Invent--How to Build an Environment and Culture that Support Affirmative Advocacy (March-April 2008)
- The Fellows of the Center for Legal Aid Education Leadership Institute, Emerging Legal Aid Leadership: The Fellows' Manifesto (March-April 2008)
By Gary F. Smith
Beyond Fear and Myth: Using the Disparate Impact Theory Under the Fair Housing Act to Challenge Housing Barriers Against People with Criminal Records
Housing barriers targeting people with criminal records are vulnerable to attack under the Fair Housing Act. The Act prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race. Because of the disproportionate number of racial minorities with criminal records, housing policies banning people with criminal records have a disparate, adverse impact on racial minorities. Disparate impact claims against criminal records policies have succeeded in the Title VII employment context; similar claims under the Act may succeed as well. A housing provider with a criminal records policy also may violate its duty of affirmatively furthering fair housing under the Act.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Articles
- Marie Claire Tran-Leung, Katherine E. Walz, and Richard M. Wheelock, Advocacy Note: Past Arrests May Not Be Sole Basis for Rejecting Public Housing Applicants (Jan.-Feb. 2011)
- Louis Prieto, Persis S. Yu, and Jason Hoge, Using Consumer Law to Combat Criminal Record Barriers to Employment and Housing Opportunity (Jan.-Feb. 2011)
- Craig Gurian & Michael Allen, Making Real the Desegregating Promise of the Fair Housing Act: “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” Comes of Age (March-April 2010)
- Sharon M. Dietrich, When “Your Permanent Record” Is a Permanent Barrier: Helping Legal Aid Clients Reduce the Stigma of Criminal Records (July-Aug. 2007)
- Margaret Stapleton, Chicago's Title VII Working Group (July-Aug. 2007)
By Marie Claire Tran-Leung

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