Homelessness And Social Security Disability

You have to wonder why the media had little interest in reporting on this issue until Democrats tok control of Congress. Some excerpts from a New York Times article:

When a biting winter storm descended on the Coney Island Boardwalk one afternoon last month, whipping sand and trash into the air, a flock of seagulls lost no time in taking wing. But Patrick Garbiras, a gaunt, shambling, 51-year-old homeless man, could only do what he has been doing ever since filing his claim for Social Security disability benefits 440 days earlier: seek shelter in slow motion.

If Mr. Garbiras were capable of scurrying, he probably would have done so. But a seizure disorder and three operations over the past 14 months, including an open-heart surgery, have left him feeble.

Since becoming homeless in late 2005, Mr. Garbiras has often spent his nights on the subway ...

But as he struggled, it was not the elements Mr. Garbiras cursed. It was the Social Security Administration. ...

John Shallman, a regional spokesman for Social Security, said the agency does not comment on individual matters. But while in Mr. Garbiras’s case, poorly updated agency records and his homelessness have complicated the process, the biggest obstacle is the 503 days it takes, on average, for hearings of disability appeals to be conducted in Brooklyn — 37 days more than the national average.