Washington Post: Legal Counsel for the Elderly Is Part of One Woman’s Story

The Washington Post has a fascinating piece about Wanda Witter’s decades-long battle with the Social Security Administration. At the age of 80, Wanda’s story appears to be one of success, after many years of living in shelters and on the streets of D.C..  

At the shelters all those years, Witter tried to get someone to listen to her. She explained at different offices providing homeless services that those suitcases contained the evidence. She was owed money, lots of money, and she could prove it.

 

Witter is not a particularly warm or outgoing person. She isn’t rude, just direct. And suspicious of just about everyone. And obsessed with Social Security.

 

“They kept sending me to mental counselors. I wasn’t crazy. I wasn’t mentally ill,” she said.

With the help of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, Legal Counsel for the Elderly (LCE) and a dedicated, patient and persistent social worker, Julie Turner, it appears that Ms. Witter is now in her own apartment and will receive some $100,000 in back Social Security payments.  

For the full story, read “‘I Wasn’t Crazy.’ A Homeless Woman’s Long War to Prove the Feds Owe Her $100,000.”