Justice For All coalition launches 'Right to Counsel' initiative

"In 2011, Willie Espino Jr. moved into a New York City Housing Authority apartment building. But without access to ramps, the mobility-impaired U.S. veteran had to rely on a makeshift piece of plywood to enter and exit the building in his wheelchair.

The 63-year-old resident of NYCHA's Patterson Houses in the Bronx borough also depended on a home health aide or a neighbor to lay down the plywood ramp, which often slipped on the three flights of stairs inside and outside the building and bent under the weight of his 350-pound motorized wheelchair.

According to court documents, Espino for several consecutive years asked the public housing development for a reasonable accommodation for his mobility impairment — the installation of a ramp at his building or a transfer to a wheelchair-accessible building — but NYCHA refused his requests. In 2018, Espino brought his case to federal district court.

"Discrimination against disabled people is never right, and nobody should be treated poorly like I was treated," he said in a statement last month.

With the help of a pro bono team from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, Espino last month secured a settlement in his bias lawsuit against NYCHA that will reform the agency's reasonable accommodation and transfer procedures for its tenants across the city's five boroughs..."

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