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Paul, Weiss celebrates the culmination of one of the longest and most meaningful pro bono engagements in the firm’s history: a landmark civil rights effort in New York to ensure that residents of so-called adult homes in New York City—for-profit residential care facilities, licensed by New York state, primarily for adults with mental illness—have the choice to instead live and receive services in integrated, supported housing appropriate to their needs. Following more than two decades of litigation and settlement monitoring, and because the state has complied with its obligations under a settlement agreement negotiated by Paul, Weiss on behalf of a class of adult home residents with serious mental illness in 2013, the settlement agreement will terminate.

The matter stems from a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative by The New York Times in 2002, which shone a harsh light on adult homes. The report spoke of squalid, inhumane conditions—including sweltering or vermin-ridden facilities—unqualified, negligent or abusive staff, and, for some residents, untimely, agonizing death.

The following year, Paul, Weiss partnered with Disability Rights New York (then known as Disability Advocates, Inc.), the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Mobilization for Justice (then known as MFY Legal Services) and the Urban Justice Center to bring a lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York against the N.Y. Office of Mental Health and the N.Y. Department of Health on behalf of residents in over 20 adult homes. The lawsuit claimed that adult homes violated the “integration mandate” of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), unnecessarily isolating individuals with mental illness in segregated facilities, and sought to give adult home residents the choice to live in more integrated settings.

Representing Disability Advocates, Paul, Weiss led a bench trial in 2009 resulting in a ruling by the court that adult homes violate the ADA. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the ruling on technical grounds, we filed a new, class action complaint, while the U.S. Department of Justice intervened and filed a related lawsuit. Both suits were resolved in a landmark settlement, approved by the court in 2014. The firm has continued its committed advocacy over the past decade, including twice renegotiating the settlement and helping to ensure its proper implementation.

Per the terms of the settlement, the state agreed to move thousands of adult home residents to supported housing—apartments that afford individuals greater autonomy, privacy and interaction with their community, and where residents can receive the support services they need on a one-on-one basis. As of the latest status report in May 2025, the class included 6,854 members.

The effort to improve the lives of adult home residents faced substantial obstacles along the way, including fierce opposition from an entrenched adult homes industry incentivized to preserve the status quo; initial resistance on the part of the state to fulfilling its obligations under the settlement agreement; personnel changes at the relevant state agencies; the significant challenge of working with numerous stakeholders across multiple state agencies to implement the settlement; and the New York City housing crunch. The challenges were exacerbated by the difficulty of needing to find homes appropriate for the individual needs of the class members.

During the more than a decade that the settlement has been implemented, nearly 1,300 class members have transitioned out of adult homes and into community housing. Importantly, although the settlement is terminating, the state has committed to continuing to offer to adult home residents the same opportunities to transition to community housing on an ongoing basis. At the conclusion of the third settlement agreement, the court will dismiss both the class action and the DOJ’s lawsuit with prejudice on June 30. The class plaintiffs will continue to monitor the state’s efforts to transition individuals and can move to restore their action to the court’s calendar during the following year in the event any systemic issues arise that require intervention.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who has presided over the litigation from the start, has repeatedly lauded the efforts of the Paul, Weiss lawyers. In approving the landmark settlement in 2014, he made special note of Paul, Weiss’s “outstanding and comprehensive advocacy.” During the final status conference on June 30, the judge again commended Paul, Weiss’s committed efforts throughout the long history of this matter. Judge Garaufis noted that the court “deeply appreciates their pro bono efforts to implement the Supreme Court's decision in the Olmstead case,” in which the Court held that the ADA affords individuals with disabilities the right to receive community-based supports in the “most integrated setting” appropriate to meet their needs.

Spanning 22 years, the engagement involved almost 50,000 hours contributed by more than 330 Paul, Weiss lawyers, paralegals, researchers, e-discovery specialists and other professionals.

The 2009 trial was led by partner Andrew Gordon. Settlement negotiations, compliance litigation and settlement monitoring efforts over the past decade have been led by partner Geoffrey Chepiga. The team also included counsel Robert O’Loughlin, and associates Edward Friedman and Adam Asher.