{"id":221720,"date":"2026-05-06T09:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/221720\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T09:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:51:10","slug":"disabled-new-yorkers-oppose-bill-to-end-24-hour-shifts-for-home-aides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/221720\/","title":{"rendered":"Disabled New Yorkers Oppose Bill to End 24-Hour Shifts for Home Aides"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disabled New Yorkers and disability advocates spoke out against a City Council<\/a> bill that would ban 24-hour home care shifts<\/a>, saying their own care will suffer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bill, which was stalled in the Council, would replace the 24-hour shifts with 12-hour shifts performed by two separate workers.<\/p>\n

But those who rely on the support of home health aides say the\u00a0 proposed change \u2014 which has strong support from advocates for home health aides \u2014 would uproot their lives.<\/p>\n

The \u201cNo More 24\u201d bill has turned allies into opponents, pitting workers\u2019 rights activists against disability advocates and those who need round-the-clock care. Both Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a> and Council Speaker Julie Menin<\/a> reportedly still have questions about funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the current home care system, health aides are required to spend 24 hours with a client even when they are paid for only 13 hours. Current rules allow for rest and meal breaks, but members of the largely immigrant workforce say they are often exploited and forced to work around the clock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CouncilmemberCouncilmember Shahana Hanif (D-Brooklyn) chairs a hearing on disability work access, May 5, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n

The home care system is funded through the state, which has not budgeted for the increase in spending that would come from two 12-hour shifts by two fully paid workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jose Hernandez, a wheelchair user who has had home care aides for 31 years, interrupted Tuesday\u2019s Council oversight hearing to speak out against the bill, saying he and others were being ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt scares me, as someone that was threatened to be placed in a nursing home when I was 16,\u201d he said after he left the hearing. He receives around-the-clock care with home health aides like Bakary Sawo, who came with him to Tuesday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want the people that look like me, that need home care like me, to be placed in institutions because [the city doesn\u2019t] want to find a solution and do the hard work and work together with the disability community and the home care workers to ensure that a bill that supports both worker and patient is found.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hernandez and others urged Councilmember Shahana Hanif, the chair of the disability committee, to take her name off the bill<\/a>, where she\u2019s currently a co-sponsor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some really bad conditions for home care workers, but the rules around living shouldn\u2019t come at the cost of the safety and the well-being of people with disabilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Of the approximately 300,000 home care workers in New York City, about 8 to 10% work 24-hour shifts, according to the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.<\/p>\n

At a Feb. 18 City Council hearing, DCWP external affairs director Carlos Ortiz said that the city supports the bill\u2019s intent but that it has concerns that \u201cprohibiting 24-hour shifts\u201d without more Medicaid funding.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the bill have rallied outside City Hall; several home care workers went on a week-long hunger strike<\/a> last month to protest it being stalled.<\/p>\n

They ended their hunger strike<\/a> after an apparent deal to bring the bill to a vote \u2014 although its future is still uncertain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Evan Yankey, advocacy director at the Brooklyn Center for the Independence of the Disabled, testified that many people who receive 24-hour care are given it \u201cthrough no choice of their own\u201d in their managed care plan, and had no say in how their aides are compensated.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly an individual can appeal it, but it is a long process with hundreds of steps,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Under the proposed bill, agencies that still provide 24-hour care would be fined.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than face a fine, people will go without care, the home care industry will collapse, workers will lose jobs,\u201d Yankey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looming Medicaid Work Requirements<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s hearing focused on economic opportunities for the more than 1 million New Yorkers living with a disability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nisha Agarwal,<\/a> commissioner of the Mayor\u2019s Office for People with Disabilities, testified about her agency\u2019s work in helping people find \u2013 and keep \u2013 jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core focus of our work is about jobs for people with disabilities \u2013 the dignity of their work, the independence that it could provide, and the ability to build a life in the city that we all love,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Recent data shows that just 40% of New Yorkers with disabilities of working age are employed, compared to 73% of the overall working age population, she said.<\/p>\n

Upcoming federal Medicaid cuts<\/a> also loomed over the agency, with uncertainty over who would ultimately be exempt from work requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not clear because there\u2019s no finite rule until June,\u201d Agarwal said, saying she was unclear on how many people could be affected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people are nervous,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m nervous, everybody\u2019s nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

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