Observer Editor Honors the Life of One Homeless Man

Rick Thames, editor of the Charlotte Observer, honored the life of Ronald McKoy in his Sunday column. Many at the Urban Ministry Center knew and loved Ronald and watched him waste away before our eyes. Thank you, Rick Thames, for your words and your concern.

A tragic case led reporter to dig deeper
Homeless man's plight foreshadowed delays in getting disability help
RICK THAMES

If any good comes from today's Page 1 story about thousands of disabled Carolinians who are stranded within the bureaucracy of Social Security, we can all thank a man named Ronald McKoy.

Regrettably, the thanks will come posthumously.

Ronald died early last year, a reluctant resident of Charlotte's Uptown Men's Shelter. He had waited more than two years to find out if he qualified for Social Security disability benefits.
A day laborer, Ronald was HIV positive. He had dwindled to barely 100 pounds. He needed money for shelter, food and medicine. But his case remained unresolved as he took trips to a hospital, vomiting blood. He died at age 50.

Ronald's plight so incensed others in the homeless community that they looked for another avenue of appeal. They found it on the other end of a telephone when they called Observer reporter Fred Kelly.

At that point, Fred could not have fathomed that Ronald's case was emblematic of widespread problems with Social Security's disability system. He's the kind of reporter prone to check out even an isolated instance of injustice. He simply cares that much.

But when Fred arrived at the shelter, he quickly learned that many of its beds were filled with people like Ronald, destitute and appealing denials of disability benefits. He dug some more and discovered that applicants at Charlotte's disability hearing office wait, on average, nearly four months longer than others across the nation.

Fred's story, appearing in January, focused on Ronald and the long waits. Soon, others called. They were not yet homeless, but illness or injury had sidelined them from work. They said they also struggled for months or years to be approved.

So Fred widened his lens, writing in February about Terrie Sloan. Terrie, 49, was a former travel executive who suffered from a brain cyst and other ailments. A physician said that she was unemployable, yet Social Security had rejected her application for disability benefits four times.

As Fred wrote about her case, Terrie was about to lose her home. She had been told not to expect another hearing on her circumstances for 18 to 24 months. A month after the story appeared in the Observer, a judge who hears disability appeals approved her for benefits.
Terrie's story triggered dozens more calls. Some people even drove for hours just to tell Fred their stories.

Fred dug deeper. In February, he filed a request under the federal Freedom of Information Act. He asked for detailed information about the operation, staffing and efficiency of the Charlotte office that hears appeals of denials for disability benefits for this region.
Only in June did the federal government comply with even a portion of Fred's request. But it was enough to help produce today's rare glimpse at a cluster of courtrooms that operate largely outside of the public's view.

Among the troubling findings: Disability appeals are critically backlogged across the country. But as a group, Charlotte judges lag well behind peers in the Carolinas and the nation on the number of decisions they make.

Fred and reporter Josh Lanier spent about 40 hours observing the office's activities over a two-week period. Several times, Fred asked permission to interview the judges. All said they were prohibited from speaking publicly.

Office employees asked Fred to leave multiple times. He declined, explaining that he needed to be there to understand how the office operated.

That would have mattered a great deal to Ronald McKoy. It should also matter to every working adult in our region. All of us, after all, pay into Social Security on the premise that it will be there when we need it. All of us are just one accident or diagnosis removed from disability.
So, thank you Ronald. We are very sorry that you suffered, yet grateful that you touched other people so powerfully that they could not let your case rest.

And thank you, Fred, for listening, and for working ceaselessly to understand the important message behind one homeless man's story. Editor Rick Thames