After four hours, two appearances before a judge, a clerk’s curt denial and a court order, Bobby Hartwell, a disabled man who faced losing his home if he couldn’t prove citizenship, on Tuesday got a state identification card.
Department of Revenue hearing officer Thomas McEwen ruled that Hartwell had proved his citizenship.
“He’s my judge!” Hartwell said.
Hartwell, who has cerebral palsy and mental retardation, is among dozens of disabled people put at risk by tougher state rules for proving legal residence to obtain public benefits.
The battle to get Hartwell an ID was waged by Nola Nash of Denver’s Atlantis/Adapt Center, which helps the disabled live on their own.
Since January, Nash has devoted much of her time to rounding up elusive documents and visiting state offices in an effort to keep about 40 clients from losing food stamps, housing assistance and Medicaid.
Hartwell’s case was the toughest because he lacked a birth certificate.
In 1951, when he was a year old, his parents left him at what was then the Ridge Home for Mental Defectives and never returned. Hartwell became a ward of the state.
In the early 1980s, Hartwell and a dozen others were part of a first wave of what was to become a national trend: disabled people leaving institutions to live on their own.
After the home closed in the late 1980s amid charges of abuse, the state destroyed former residents’ records.
For the past 24 years, Hartwell has lived in his own apartment with housing assistance and food stamps.
Early this year, however, he briefly lost his food stamps and was on the verge of losing his apartment.
Nash began the hunt to find Hartwell’s birth certificate, which she finally got last month.
On Tuesday, Nash and Hartwell sat in McEwen’s hearing office with the birth certificate and Social Security documents but no Social Security card.
Aggie Zaragoza-Garcia of the Division of Motor Vehicles said that because Hartwell could not recite his number, he must produce his original Social Security card – which he doesn’t have.
Zaragoza-Garcia suggested that Nash get him one. “They won’t give us one without the photo ID you won’t give us,” Nash said.
Nash pointed at the documents they had. “Is this not enough to prove he’s been here his whole life?” she asked.
McEwen told Nash to reapply for an ID now that they had the birth certificate and to return to him if they were denied.
After waiting two hours, Nash and Hartwell went before a clerk, who asked for his Social Security card.
No card, no ID, the clerk said, and wrote out a list of documents that would suffice instead: divorce decree; passport; marriage license; military ID.
Back in McEwen’s office, the judge asked Hartwell whether he understood “truth.” With a little coaching, Hartwell said “yes,” raised his right hand and swore to tell it.
Then Nash did likewise, and verified Hartwell’s Social Security number as the one used for years to secure his benefits.
“I’ve been in a nursing home,” Hartwell said. “I’ve been there two times. I will never go back there again, never again.”
Paulette Terry, manager of the DMV office, said Hartwell should have gotten his ID. “My clerk made an error, and I apologize,” she said.
Terry explained that the laws are still new. “We need a lot more training, and we’re going to be getting that,” Terry said.
The state government is moving to make it easier for people like Hartwell to obtain IDs, said Andrew Romanoff, speaker of the state House of Representatives.
A pair of bills, one signed into law and the other awaiting final Senate approval, will expand the list of acceptable documents and simplify the process.
Gov. Bill Ritter’s office also is trying to get state agencies “up to speed,” said Romanoff, a Denver Democrat.
“We aren’t there yet, but we are moving in the right direction,” Romanoff said.
As Nash pushed Hartwell’s wheelchair to have his ID photo taken, she said, “Congratulations, Bobby. No one ever worked harder than you to get an ID.”
Staff writer Karen Augé can be reached at 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com.
