Lou v. Troia
In October 2026, Disability Rights Advocates and the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court seeking to restore In Home Support Services benefits for Benjamin Lou – a 23-year old California resident and Ph.D. candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studies quantum gravity.
Ben has severe spinal muscular atrophy, which causes profound neuromuscular weakness and severe restrictive lung disease. As a result, he requires 24/7 assistance with all activities of daily living. Until his benefits were unlawfully terminated, Ben received full-time IHSS benefits through San Diego County, which allowed him to obtain the daily personal assistance support he needs to continue living in the community, pursuing his education, and working toward a future career in theoretical physics.
In November 2024, the County abruptly terminated Ben’s IHSS services because he had been out of California for more than 60 days, while completing the final semester of his undergraduate studies at MIT. This decision was later affirmed by the California Department of Social Services.
Although Ben is temporarily out of state during school semesters, he has always remained a California resident: his family home and permanent residence is in Poway, California and he returns home as often and for as long as his school breaks allow. Ben votes in California, maintains a California identification card, receives Medi-Cal benefits from California, relies on an extensive team of California medical providers for his care, and will return to California full-time once his academic studies have ended. He has never voted, applied for state identification, applied for benefits, purchased real property, or leased non-student housing in Massachusetts or any other state. The decision to terminate Ben’s IHSS benefits ignored these facts, as well as the fact that his temporary absences should have been excused for “good cause” under applicable California law.
In addition to seeking restoration of Ben’s own IHSS benefits, this case seeks to reform the California Department of Social Service’s unlawfully narrow interpretation of what can constitute “good cause” to be out of the state, which prevents people with disabilities who rely on IHSS, like Ben, from pursuing educational and internship opportunities that will allow them to obtain employment and lead independent lives.
California’s public assistance programs are explicitly meant to foster such efforts to achieve self-reliance and self-support, not to frustrate them, and through this case Ben, DRA, and DREDF aim to move the California Department of Social Services policies and practices back into alignment with that ultimate goal.