The Silent Minority

The September 11 Victims Compensation Fund (VCF) announced in its most recent update that is has awarded upwards of $3.6 billion to more than 19,000 claimants who suffered personal injury as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath. The vast majority of these injuries take the form of illness caused by exposure to toxic materials that were released by the destruction of the World Trade Center.

But people who lived in Lower Manhattan at the time of the attacks appear to comprise a tiny minority of people who have filed such claims. According to the VCF’s April 30 “Program Statistics” report, only 1,325 applicants have submitted claims in the “residents” category, meaning that fewer than 3.8 percent of the 35,000-plus individuals who have filed claims (and under 6.9 percent of the 19,000 who have been granted financial compensation) were people who called Downtown home between September 11, 2001 and May 30, 2002.

Among the 1,325 residents who have filed VCF claims, 306 have thus far been awarded a total of $61 million in financial compensation for their illnesses, making the average award among residents slightly more than $200,000.

The VCF is open to six broad categories of people made ill by the attacks, all of whom are defined by their presence, for different reasons, within the “exposure zone” (which consists roughly of Manhattan south of Canal Street) during that time period. In addition to residents, they are:

* Responders — those who performed rescue, recovery, demolition, debris cleanup, or other related services
* Non-Responders — who did cleaning and maintenance work
* Non-Responders/Other Capacity — those who were employed in the exposure zone
* School/Childcare/Adult Daycare — children enrolled in a local school or daycare facility, or elders enrolled in a day program for adults
* Other Capacity — meaning a visitor, tourist, and any other individual who was in the exposure zone during the relevant time period and is not included in another category.

For perspective, the category of people who worked in Lower Manhattan has yielded more than five times as many claimants as the residents’ cohort (with 6,693 people filing requests for compensation), and more than six times the total in awards, with $374 million thus far paid out for this group. Even the tourist category has generated nearly half as many claims as the residents’ group, with 611 filings, resulting in a total of $23 million in awards.

These metrics are, in some respects, counter-intuitive, because anecdotal indications are that increasing numbers of Lower Manhattan residents have begun to develop illnesses that are among those presumed to arise from exposure to dust and debris related to September 11. Among these are more than 50 types of cancer.

Rupa Bhattacharyya, the Special Master who administers the VCF, says that she and her team, “remain committed to awarding compensation as quickly and fairly as possible, and to handling each claim with the individual attention it deserves.” She also urges anyone with questions about the VCF claims process to call the VCF’s toll-free helpline at 1-855-885-1555.

Under the terms of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (which created the VCF), any individual seeking compensation for an illness related to September 11 must register his or her claim based before the Fund closes for submissions on December 18, 2020. (Registration does not create an obligation or commitment to file a claim.) For more information, please browse: www.vcf.gov