Farrah?

[Clara Oswald]

Hey I know your government work is with insurance companies, but I thought it was worth a shot to ask you about this anyway because you might have some insight.

A friend in New York has a family member who lives in a homeless shelter, and who is sickly, so they go into the hospital a lot. When she's in the hospital, the staff of the shelter break into her locker and steal things, including money, and open her mail.

Do you have any idea who he should report this to? I frankly told him to go to the police - he was looking for legal advice about it so I said to call Legal Aid.

 

[Karma]

wow. that's terrible!

well the first thing is definitely contact the police, get a report on file & if possible am exact list of all items taken, dollar amount taken etc. any receipts for these items will be helpful as well but the main thing is get this documented & on file w/ the police sooner rather than later.

as to who regulates these shelters? it varies slightly in some states but for the larger/more populous ones like NY it should be DHS (dept of human services). they'll need to contact them asap.

get all information possible such as address of the place, times/dates of theft/loss, any names of suspsected staff & the name of the shelter's director/supervisor.

here's a link: NYC Department of Homeless Services

email & call. don't just call.


this is a good way for the person or their relative to get in contact w/ someone about this & try to get it investigated w/ no charge to them. but if after this, they feel it hasnt been resolved to their satisfaction, they can try to find an attorney. neither DHS nor any other govt entity will provide any type of legal advice so they'd need to go their state's Free Legal Aid society chapter for that.

 

[Clara Oswald]

Thanks so much - that's all a big help!