VL

ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR A PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

Plaintiffs are disabled and elderly Californians who need in-home assistance with one or more of the activities of daily living, such as eating, bathing, toileting or taking medication, in order to live safely at home without risk of serious injury or harm. Plaintiffs seek to prevent the State from applying a change in the law to reduce or terminate these services to over 130,000 people who receive them from the state In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, by changing the eligibility criteria of the program in a way that, the Court concludes, likely violates federal law. This change would reduce or terminate services to recipients based on numerical rankings and a complicated mathematical formula devised years ago, which was not designed, and has never been used, to measure an individual’s need for care.

Plaintiffs provide ample evidence that they and others like them will be irreparably harmed if they lose their in-home help. They will be unable to care for themselves, suffer injuries, and be relegated to emergency rooms, hospitals, and other institutions. Although the State counters that its budget crisis…