Mellani Calvin is one of Portland’s unsung heroes. Hundreds of social workers and individuals on the streets empower thousands of people to gain a myriad of services and are often times are overlooked in the political landscapes that make up planning processes, organizational agendas and 10-year plans to end homelessness.
A case worker with Central City Concern, Calvin’s work is rare in her field. She was one of four individuals in the state invited in December 2005 to be trainers for a federally sponsored initiative called SOAR (SSI-SSD Outreach, Access and Recovery). The program is designed to provide better understanding of the disability application process for people experiencing poverty.
In April, Calvin was recognized with an award by the Oregon Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, and recently was awarded the 2007 Mental Health Award of Excellence from Oregon Addiction and Mental Health Services.
Israel Bayer: Can you give us SSI/SSD 101?
Mellani Calvin: When an American citizen becomes disabled there are two pots of money that the federal government uses for creating monetary security for people. Most of the folks I work with are homeless.
One of the pots is the Social Security trust fund that everyone pays into with every paycheck. The trust fund is designed for three things — retirement or survivor’s benefits, or if you become disabled, disability benefits (SSD). Social Security Income (SSI) is an adult welfare program for people that have become disabled and have very limited resources or income. That’s what they call the SSD — Social Security Disability Insurance.
I usually work with individuals who have exhausted every other option and they’re accepting the fact they aren’t going to be able to go back to work. For people on the streets, the questions can be a real barrier. So when a person can’t return to work or care for themselves in any capacity then they start an application.
The first thing they will need is an ID, just to walk through the door into the Social Security office. The application itself can take anywhere from two to four hours of sit-down face time at the social security office.
After that initial application is completed a person gets a packet of questionaires that’s ominous as all get out. For a person with mental or emotional disabilities it is extremely difficult. If a person is homeless they may never even receive the packet. Many people are denied.
Once the forms are completed, the third step of the process is usually a doctor’s appointment with an orthopedist or psychologist. What’s being asked of people is to spill their guts to a total stranger for an hour or so and somehow the doctor is supposed to gage the full extent of a person’s disability.
These examinations are nerve-racking to begin with, because individuals know after going through so many hoops that it all rides on those doctor appointments. Walking individuals through each step, and jumping through all of these hoops, is what I do.
I.B.: What happens after these three steps?
M.C.: There is an office in Salem that does the actual records review and makes a disability determination based on a body of evidence. Another really key piece of my job is to make sure I drum up every single stitch of medical evidence. Many times the analysts in Salem don’t have a good historical medical picture on homeless individuals. Initial denials are pretty darn regular. I spend a lot of time doing research for individual’s records.
I.B.: How long does the process take from A to Z?
M.C.: If a claim is denied and a person appeals, the process can take three yeas to even get a hearing in front of an administrative law judge.
I.B.: On average how many people are we talking about being denied?
M.C.: In 2004, about a third of the 2.1 million disability claims filed were approved at all levels. The administration’s definition is very strict. The burden of proof is very high. Say you’ve been a good worker all your life and your back completely goes out. You've been paying into this fund your entire life, and when you have to access the funds deserved to you because of an injury, or a mental health, the government fights you every step of the way. That's a punch in the gut.
I.B.: One of the criticisms from the right has been that people are living off the welfare state. Does a taxpayer end up paying more per individual for not having people plugged into the system?
M.C.: Yes. Unpaid medial bills and visits to the ER alone are very costly to taxpayers. If you receive the minimum for SSI, which is $623 dollars, you then qualify for housing assistance. A third of that check will be paying for rent, while the rest of that money is goes to supplement food and clothing. Those dollars are going right back into our community.
The perspective that we are somehow floating all these people is flat out wrong. Getting on Social Security is extremely hard, the burden of proof is very high, and lastly, no one is getting rich. In fact, the reality is that this federal safety net is underutilized, and what ends up happening is that we have a bunch of cost shifting to local governments to take care of people on disabilities, and often people on the streets.
I.B.: Can you tell us some of the barriers you face as a social worker doing this work?
M.C.: The homeless population has a very high percentage of dual-diagnosed individuals. That means they have mental health and addiction disorders. These are the tough cases. Up until 1996, addiction was listed in the list of mental health disorders. Individuals could get Social Security for dual-diagnosis. Then came the welfare reform of 1996, and Clinton was doing his thing, but Congress changed the definition for being eligible for drug and alcohol disorder. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were pulled off of social security for addiction disorder, and now when the claims come up with people who are dealing with addiction issues, they're denied right off the bat.
The rules say you have to determine if you took away the drugs and alcohol, the problems would still be there. So when it comes to physical disabilities, let's say you have an amputee that's drinking like a fish. When you take away the booze, he's still an amputee. But when you have a dual diagnosis for mental health and addiction, when you take away the drugs, we have to prove that their life is just as severe without the drugs, and that's a high burden of proof. About 25 percent of all claims nationally get approved for mental health disorders, and about 11 percent for dual-diagnosis, so there's the huge disparity for mentally disabled people on the streets.
I.B.: What are some of the success stories you've been able to see?
M.C.: [Laughs, and points to her wall full of thank-you cards, photos and paintings] One woman, from what I can gather, was given a one-way ticket, for whatever reason, from North Carolina. She lived under the Burnside Bridge for eight months. In North Carolina she had gotten SSI disability benefits, a really high amount. They had cut her off because she was so mentally ill she couldn't follow through with her determination letter. Every few years the federal government will check in and make sure you're just as disabled as you where when you started receiving benefits. Her family had set up doctor's appointments, but she refused to go because she was so paranoid.
We reopened the whole thing, and got a new claim. It was so hard on her. She had been on the early curve of the dot-com era, and she was making six figures before her breakdown. She had spent a year in a mental hospital in North Carolina. We finally started working with Cascadia to get her off the street. Finally, after living under a bridge for eight months, with no support, she was able to get $1,500 a month through SSI, which is really high. She was awarded back pay of $12,000. Cascadia was able to get her an apartment. She still has her check sent to me, because she doesn't trust anyone else, but with a network already in place we could help support her. She just needed help navigating the system.
Most people can’t imagine living on $623 a month. But to people experiencing homelessness, it literally can mean life or death.
