CWA 1180 - HRA Watch

HRA Watch

New unit for 'disruptive' adds stigma and hurdles for clients, increased tension for workers
May 2001

HRA has once again come up with the wrong solution to a problem—this time, the increased threat to workers' security in welfare centers—and along the way, they have once again inflicted horrible abuse on the English language. They have created a so-called "Enhanced Service Unit" to which disruptive or abusive clients are to be directed. The unit is housed in the basement of the Riverview center in East Harlem.

"This is not a solution. It throws gasoline on the fire," Second Vice President Bill Henning told the Chief when they asked what 1180 thought of the idea. It does not take a degree in psychology to figure out that telling troubled clients that they must now go somewhere else to get service because they have been deemed disruptive can only increase tensions. For workers at HRA, it offers no help for their urgent need for better security. Bringing back the peace officers—unionized city workers with the authority to issue summonses and make arrests—would help. In 1997 the city replaced the peace officers with low-paid privatized security personnel that are reluctant to intervene in conflicts.

Moreover, making troubled clients from all over the city go to another office is just another way to add more hurdles to the process of getting public assistance. And to call that office an "Enhanced Service Unit" is an insult to the language—there is nothing "enhanced" about it, except the stigma of being a welfare recipient.

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