Violations to the Right of Water, Utilities, Food and other Basic Necessities

Brandy S.

No county or town given

Brandy S is a 23 year old young woman and the mother of three beautiful young children.  Brandy has two sons and a daughter.  Brandy is a Certified Nurse’s Assistant for one of the local nursing homes in the Rochester area.  Being employed Brandy was able to support herself and her family very well.Brandy recently had to face some hardship due to the pregnancy of her son.  Brandy was pregnant with her third child and was faced with Hyperemesis.  Brandy was not able to sustain working due to her being sick all the time.  Brandy and her children did receive medical insurance as well assistance with the purchase of food through Department of Human Services (DHS).   Brandy had to apply to the Department of Human Services for cash assistance, rent and TANF services. 

Unfortunately, Brandy has not been able to receive any cash assistance or qualify as a participant in the DHS program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).  Brandy has been without cash for two months.  Brandy applied for TANF and went without a response after she turned in all of the proper documentation.  Brandy proceeded to be proactive and called many of the necessary individuals that had the power to open her case at DHS.  Meanwhile, Brandy made several calls and they have gone unanswered.  A call was finally placed to Brandy instructing her that she needs to provide more documentation.  Brandy turned in all of the paperwork requested.  Brandy called the case worker who is responsible for her benefits to follow up with the status of the receipt of the documents.  She never received a response from the caseworker assigned to her.  Brandy eventually had to call the supervisor over the case.  None of the DHS staff that Brandy met was helpful.  Brandy had no toiletries for her family, she could not pay bills that were due, and this put a strain on her.

The supervisor finally gave Brandy a call back and told her that their office did receive her calls.  The supervisor then told Brandy that she has no way of looking in her file and would tell the caseworker to call her with the updated information.  Once the caseworker called Brandy back, she told her that she has approximately ten business days to process the paperwork and put the cash benefits in the system to be made available to her.  Brandy pleaded to the case worker that she was in desperate need of money at this time.  The case worker waited until the deadline to open the TANF case for Brandy. 

Once the case was opened Brandy received a letter telling her that she would qualify to receive a small amount because she was being sanctioned for child support issues.  So once she finally received money she was not allowed the amount that was due to her and her children.  Brandy called to get an explanation and the case worker told her that she was being sanctioned due to a missed child support appointment back in November of 2007.  Brandy had a hard time understanding why they would sanction her for something that took place so many months ago.  Brandy was aware that she missed the appointment because she called in advance to reschedule the appointment and someone was supposed to get back in touch with her as to when the next appointment was.  As the situation stands right now Brandy continues to struggle to get the necessary benefits from DHS that her family is entitled to.