Congrats to Housing Works' own Armen Merjian for winning a Lifetime Achievement Award from New York Law Journal. Read more about Armen's incredible work here: His work has benefited millions of Americans. He has succeeded, moreover, on a shoestring budget, without so much as a paralegal, while overseeing an office providing legal services to thousands of indigent New Yorkers. His victories include: • Society of Surgeons v. Axelrod: he and co-counsel defeated the attempt of a group of surgeons, beginning in the late 1980s, to trigger draconian, counter-productive measures such as quarantining of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs). • Hanna v. Turner: he challenged the failure to provide emergency shelter to homeless New Yorkers living with AIDS, with severely disabled, homeless individuals sent into the streets even in sub-zero temperatures and snowstorms, securing a decision requiring same-day placement of PLWHAs in emergency housing, the first such ruling in U.S. history. • Henrietta D. v. Giuliani: the largest welfare/disability case in U.S. history, he and co-counsel established that the welfare system was “chronically and systematically failing to provide plaintiffs [living with AIDS] with meaningful access to critical subsistence benefits and services, with devastating consequences.” Henrietta D. created important precedents under the ADA and helped to reform the welfare system on behalf of hundreds of thousands. The case reached the Supreme Court, where Mr. Merjian convinced the Court to deny certiorari. • Denning v. Barbour: he and co-counsel successfully challenged Mississippi’s draconian limitations on prescription drug coverage under Medicaid, a devastating policy affecting a whopping 26% of the state’s residents. Mississippi placed a hard cap of no more than five drugs a month, a death sentence for those with many co-morbidities, and no more than two brand-name drugs a month, a death sentence for those living with HIV, since an HIV drug “cocktail” requires at least three brand-name drugs. • Hernandez v. Barrios-Paoli: the Court of Appeals struck down the onerous eligibility review process for tens of thousands of indigent New Yorkers living with AIDS, which forced clients to travel to one site for a duplicative eligibility interview regardless of mobility impairments, then to wait at home all day for another duplicative visit, with any failure resulting in the termination of life-sustaining benefits. His victory was the lead story of the day in the New York Times. And More; Check out the article link below https://lnkd.in/ePFyNzkP
Marie Nahikian
6mo
Well deserved. Thank you for your service!
Congratulations!
Jennifer Avril
6mo
Go Armen!!!
Felicia Carroll
6mo
Congratulations Armen 🎊🤩
MSW intern/MH clinical therapist at GMHC
6moCongratulations