Press release. Disability Groups Win Landmark Case Affirming Rights of People with Mental Disabilities in State-Funded Adult Homes

September 8, 2009, Washington, DC - A federal district judge today ruled in DAI v. Paterson that New York is not providing services in the most integrated setting to thousands with mental illnesses who are being warehoused in private "adult homes" paid for by the state. Applying the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the 1999 Olmstead case, the court held that despite the state's labeling of these board-and-care homes as community- integrated, they "do not enable interaction with nondisabled persons to the fullest extent possible" and thus the state's use of them violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).