City Limits Magazine, November 1984 Issue

NOV 2 71984
THE NEWS MAGAZINE OF NEW YORK CITY HOUSING AND NEIGHBORHOODS NOVEMBER 1984 $2.00
NEW YORK'S HOM EI.F:SS FAMIIJES
\\ ... we're going to have to scream awful loud to be heard."
J
OSEPHINE CARfER CLOSED THE DOOR BEHIND HERSELF AND HER FIVE CHILDREN
for the last time on December Zl, 1983. Behind her she left a one-family house on a leafy street
in Cambria Heights in southeastern Queens .. Once the property of her common-law husband, they
had lived in the home for ten years until they separated and the bank foreclosed on a mortgage she
could no longer pay. A local speculator bought it and asked for $350 rent. This was almost a hundred
dollars more than the amount she received in her welfare check for shelter. She was soon evicted.
As she and her children came down the stoo they stepped across this city's sharpest dividing line
S 2 0 0 A. N )I 0 A. M 3 N r and the desperate. They stepped out of one

3snOH (Continued on page 7)
J.ONV
66) '02
I D I I I D I I ~ ____________________________________________ ___
FEATUBES
The Homeless Families Speak Out. .. 7
There are 3,100 homeless families right now stuck in the
city's hotels and shelters. In spite of city efforts, they're
staying longer because there's no place to go. But who
are they? And how did they get there? The answers are
changing.
Whats Poverty Got to Do WIth It? ... 13
More than six years after Ed Koch campaigned into City
Hall with denunciations of the "Poverty Pimps,N his Com-
munity Development Agency oversees a funding system
rife with charges of corruption.
Helmsley Cashes in his Subsidies . ... 19
The courts have given real estate magnate Harry Helms-
ley permission to convert Park West Village on Manhat-
tan's West Side. Now other housing constructed under
the federal govement's Title I slum clearance program
is similarly threatened.
Banks Must Pay A Price . .......... . 21
Now that the state has given the banks drastic new
freedom of investment, banking department regulations
will try to maneuver them into low and moderate income
development.
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial
The Unworthy Homeless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Neighborhood Newsstand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Short Term Notes
Lincoln West's Troubled Developer ..... .... . . 4
Fighting for Code Enforcement in the Bronx . .. 4
Lofts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5
Foreign Policy on the Lower East Side . . . . . . . . . 6
A Lot for a Little . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Legislation
An SRO Moratorium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 23
City Views
No Ties from Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 24
People
Geno Baroni: People's Advocate . . . . . .. .... . . 26
Organize!
A Rehab Victory on Sedgewick Ave. . . . . . . . . . . 27
Review
Tactics Against Toxics . ... . . .. . .... . .. . .. . . . 29
Resources/Events . ... .. . .. .......... . ..... . ... 30
Workshop .. . . . . ...... .. ... .... .. . .. .. ..... .. . 31
CITY LIMITS/November 1984 2
What's Poverty Got to Do
With It? 13
mMKWUGH
Helmsley Cashes In His
Sub . . 19
r
...

Volume IX Number 8
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Cily LimiL' (ISSN 0I99-U330)
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Editor
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UNWORTBY BOllELBSS?
T
HE WRONG QUESTION IS BEING ASKED AS ANOfHER RECORD
winter of homelessness approaches. City Hall would have us wonder: Are
there "worthy" and "unworthy" homeless? Are those families frozen, burned or
vacated out of their buildings worthier than those who are priced or harassed out?
That's the scenario being presented by a city administration swamped with an
ever-growing number of families without shelter. In a reversal of earlier trends,
the majority of shelter-seeking families are now victims of evictions, many of
them because of an inability to pay escalating rents or by filmilies with whom
they've doubled up. Increasingly, as an article in this issue reveals, they are two
and three-time victims in neighborhood and landlord abandonment who, for
months or even years have been clinging to the bottom rung of the housing
ladder-doubled-up with friends or family-but who are now falling off.
Successful homeless solutions, city officials caution us, could lead to more such
homeless, not less. Referring to homeless individuals, Mayor Koch told a reporter
last month that even if "by some stroke of genius" he were to create 6,500 apart-
ments for the homeless, "another 65,000 would appear the next day."
His clear implication is that we might do better by doing less.
We think he's dead wrong_ The cascading flow of the homeless - both
individuals and families - now descending on city shelters is the result of years of
policies with similarly flawed housing reasoning: that soft-pedalling code enforce-
ment will "prevent" landlord abandonment; that declining neighborhoods be
wholly written off because we allegedly lack the resources to save them, until they
are turned over to "free market" forces of development that exacerbate the
problems. Our homeless tragedy is not only the result of a vanished federal role in
providing low cost housing (although no long-term solutions can be developed
without one). There are several causes closer to home: the fililure to protect the
housing stock we have and those who live in it, and the refusal to folly utilize the
resources we do have.
Before we judge the worthiness of anyone's homelessness, let's test the worthi-
ness of those who govern. 0

Developer Source?
A
NEW YORK TIMES ARfICLE ON
development in the Lower East Side
(Oct. 14, 1984) claims to have canvassed
many experts and highlights one in partic-
ular, SarilUel M. Glasser. Had reporter
Anthony DePalma known more about his
"expert," Glasser, he might have saved his
quotes for an article on alternative careers
for disgraced lawyers.
It seems that Samuel M'Cheyne Glasser
was a practicing attorney until he was con-
victed for a Class D felony, namely "distri-
bution and possession with intent to
distribute a controlled narcotic substance,
cocaine" in January, 1976_ Soon after, the
New York City Bar Association was
its motion by the Appellate Division of the
3
Supreme Court to strike GI.asser's name
from the roll of attorneys.
In DePalma's article, titled "Can City's
Plan Rebuild the Lower East Side," Glasser
is identified as a developer who has reno-
vated several buildings in the area and would
buy any property "if the price is right ." One
can't help but marvel at the enterprising
spirit of Glasser who, in a matter of eight
years, has parlayed a drug dealership into
a thriving real estate business and promi-
nence in the pages of the Times_Of course
there are those who would claim that the
gentrification process Glasser is profiting
from is as much a blight on the Lower East
Side as the drug pushers of Alphabet City.
But that's another story.DA.F.
CITY LIMITS/November 1984
Lincoln West's Troubled Developer
T
HE MAMMOTH DEVELOP-
ment project for 76 acres along the
Hudson, called Lincoln West, is like a
clumsy, young bird that simply cannot get
off the ground. The one billion-dollar ven-
ture would transform the abandoned Penn
Central railroad yard from 59th Street to
72nd Street into a luxury residential com-
munity for approximately 10,000 people
where one-bedroom apartments sell for
$437,500. But consistent and vehement
opposition from local residents and the
developer's own financial difficulties have
stalled Lincoln West since its inception in
1982.
On October 5, the city's Board of Estimate
gave developer Francisco Macri a four-
month extension to complete his financing
package. Chase Manhattan, which reneged
on an earlier $462 million construction loan
pledge, now is foreclosing on another $24.1
million loan for Lincoln west. -As it stands,
Macri has until February 4 to get the needed
financial backing to make his scheme a real-
ity and few observers think he can pull it
together.
Looking at Macri's track record in this
country, it's not surprising that people are
skeptical. According to the Hall Street Jour-
nal , the Argentinian businessman has
The Penn \Brd tracks where Lincoln ~ t is slated to be built.
Bronx Tenants Push Code Enforcement
C
ITYWlDE, THERE ARE AN ESTI-
mated 1.5 mill ion pending housing code
violations. With an increasing loss of low
and moderate income housing, the mainte-
nance of affordable rental units is crucial.
To get that point across, over 300 tenants and
members of the Northwest Bronx Commu-
nity and Clergy Coalition crowded the
school gym of Our Lady of Mercy Parish on
October 25 to meet with city officials
responsible for housing maintenance.
Present were Carol Felstein, Deputy Com-
missioner of the Office of Rent and Housing
Maintenance and officials from HPD's code
enforcement, emergency services and liti-
gation units.
The community had a long list of pro-
nounced problems: lack of thorough and
quality inspections, improper follow-up and
reinspections to certify repairs, poor
response to emergencies, inadequate
response time for inspections of building
wide petition complaints, difficulties in
obtaining 7A administrators and an overall
inadequate record on the part of HPD in
seeking court imposed penalties against
landlords who repeatedly fail to correct vio-
lations. Many tenants, detailing their
experiences with the city's code enforce-
ment and litigation units, expressed concern
that HPD's current policy seems weighted
in favor of the landlords.
While acknowledging some of the
problems raised, Commissioner Felstein
cited a limited inspection and litigation staff
and the lack of administrative authority to
directly impose penalties as two significant
obstacles in effectively enforcing the hous-
ing maintenance code. The commissioner
pointed to a pilot cyclical inspection project
due to start in the next few weeks in another
section of the Bronx as one step that HPD
4
several major flops to his credit. A $;I mil-
lion convention center he planned for Den-
ver failed to get off the drawing board last
year. In Manhattan, Macri had a plan for a
development called Hancock Square on the
East Side that never materialized but instead
led to a contract dispute with a consultant
engineer and a $200,000 settlement. And
then there's the condominium conversion of
a nursing home he masterminded in 1982,
the majority of whose 26 units are still
vacant.OA.F.
hali started as a means to provide routine,
roof-to-cellar inspections.
The Northwest Bronx Group's Code
Enforcement Committee submitted its own
proposals to deal with immediate opera-
tional problems. These included comple-
tions of inspections for building wide
complaints within two weeks, adequate
notice to tenant leaders as to the date and
time of scheduled inspections, follow up on
'B' and 'C' violations until corrected, coor-
dination of voluntary agreements with the
Coalition and revisions of criteria used for
buildings considered for 7A proceedings.
Commissioner Felstein made a commitment
to look into these proposals and to continue
to address ways to improve code enforce-
ment with the community on an on-going
basis. OMary Breen
Can Artists
Stay as Lofts
Go Legal?
lAJft tenant addresses City Loft Board '-ring, as
lAJft resident representative Chuck Delaney listens.
By Lisa Wilde
T
HERE'S NO CURE FOR AN AlLING
neighborhood like a good sprinkling of
loft-dwelling artists. At least that's what City
Hall has insisted over the past two years as
it has pushed its artist housing projects in
city-owned, tax-foreclosed buildings. But
while those proposals to create needed artist
housing get strong administration backing,
the largest body of the city's working artists
are clinging perilously to their still quasi-
legal living and working loft spaces. And
although some progress has been made, loft
tenants fear that the mayorally appointed
board tapped to carry out legalization may
ultimately lose more artists' living spaces
than it protects.
In fact, the legalization procedure created
by the 1982 Loft Law now being decided
upon by the nine-member Loft Board could
result in the opposite of the law's intentions.
Instead of transforming an estimated 3,000
residences whose illegal commercial leases
were long winked at by authorities into
approved and regulated housing, loftlords
could end up pricing out their artist tenants
and creating a new crop of luxury co-ops or
rentals.
The legalization process currently being
debated before the board is supposed to
bring lofts up to residential certificate of
occupancy standards paid for initially by the
owner, and then charged back to the tenant.
These paybacks, however, may ultimately be
so high that large numbers of loft tenants
could be forced to move. Others may be
harassed out during the in-place work
process.
The fate of these tenants rests in the hands
of the New York City Loft Board which will
vote on a schedule of costs which can be
passed on to the tenants in early December.
Like payments made to an owner under the
Major Capital Improvements (MCI) provi-
sions for rent stabilized apartments, these
pass-through' costs may end up as gravy for
owners already eligible for J-51 tax abate-
ments and tax depreciation. Owners will
also get the interest on rehab loans covered
by tenants while benefitting from fuel sav-
ings at the s ~ m e time.
Will Tenants Pay for Neglect?
A major fear for tenants is that the board
will approve a high schedule of costs.
Because tenants are liable for interest
charges, even an extremely low legalization
cost schedule results in substantial monthly
payments. For example, a total payback cost
of $15,000 over the statutory period of 15
years and at an interest rate of 13 percent,
will cost a tenant $19,161 in interest in addi-
tion to the $15,000 loan. The board is also
considering an open-ended list of the kinds
of work for which loftlords can pass on
costs, which could result in tenants reward-
ing landlords for years of neglect and
deferred maintenance.
Some loft tenants may not survive the
legalization process itself. Because lofts are
tenant-created living spaces, the issue of
how legalization is accomplished is crucial.
Tenants have won the right to sell their
improvements to the owner. But a purchas-
ing landlord also gains the right to rent the
vacant unit at market rents. Needless to say,
this creates huge incentives for owners to try
to use legalization to force tenants out.
5
This in-place rehabilitation is made more
complicated because of the uniqueness of
each tenant-created loft. Without strong
tenant protection measures, owners win
have free rein to abuse the process with
deregulation the ultimate goal. The board's
current draft for the process has taken some
steps toward recognizing these dangers but
does not go far enough.
Tenants Win Input on Rehab
One such measure is the board's approval
of a form of upfront tenant consent regard-
ing proposed work. This would prevent
owners from making.such drastic changes
as turning open work space into smaller, but
eventually more marketable rooms. The
board would grant a tenant a hearing after
the approval of the owner's alteration appli-
cation, but before any building permit is
issued.
But Arthur Atlas, a loft-dwelling architect
who is a member of the membership and
advocacy group Lower Manhattan Loft
Tenants, points out that approved alteration
permits are traditionally difficult to change.
To encourage cooperation, he says, tenants
must be brought into the process before the
application is approved.
Tenants have cited other loopholes as
well, such as allowing owners to remove a
non-code complaint heating system in Janu-
ary and replace it a month later, leaving
tenants without heat, but also without risk-
ing penalty.
An overall concern is whether the board
is up to the task of enforcing the law against
owners who will seek to harass their tenants.
So far, although 15 complaints have been
filed, no harrassment cases have been
brought to the board for a vote. And
although the board has drafted an expedited
procedure for owners denied access by
tenants, there is no comparable recourse for
residents. A tenant who applies for a hear-
ing because an owner has violated work
notice procedures can wait six to ten months
for judgement.
With these kinds of gaps in the protections
offered to in-place artists, the loft dwelJers
view the Mayor's fiercely pro-artist rhetoric
with growing irony and skepticism. Mean-
while, the law which was originally sup-
posed to protect these tenants, could end up
as a vehicle for a universe ofJegal, deregu-
lated lofts affordable only to an elite group
of people. 0
Lisa Wilde is a member of the steering com-
mittee of the Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants.
Getting a Lot for a Little
V
ACANT LOTS CAN BECOME
fertile ground for individual and com-
munity projects under the city's new Adja-
cent Homeowners Program implemented at
the end of September. Thirty-three Brook-
lyn residents were chosen through sealed
bids to take title to properties next door to
their homes. Conditions of the program re-
strict the lots to accessory use such as a
garden or yard and prohibit sale of the
property for five years or building of a
house. Only lots in low density neighbor-
hoods where one- and two-family homes
predominate, that are less than 2 fJX) square
feet in area and assessed at less than $3,000
will be sold through the program. Those
requirements effectively exclude much land
in residential communities, noted Steve
Schwartz at the Trust for Public Land. "The
value limit will keep most properties in
Manhattan out of the picture," he lamented,
"but it is a good idea for land use that will
improve neighborhoods. Such a program
has existed in other cities for years. It's good
it's finally here."
All together, the city has identified some
2,000 vacant lots for sale. Twenty-three were
sold in the South Bronx in October; seventy
will be offered in Brooklyn and Queens in
February and another 200 throughout the
city will be sold in springtime. The average
price paid for the first properties was $800,
generating income for the city and return-
ing to the tax rolls lots abandoned by owners
and foreclosed on by the city for tax arrears.
While the program will be an immediate
shot in the arm to neighborhoods where
burnt-out shells or garbage strewn lots
depress the environment, it also holds the
potential for involving people in revitaliz-
ing projects. "The Adjacent Homeowners
program could limit access to community
land for the landless in many neighborhoods
where single-family homes are the rule.
What we need is more public, open space,"
commented Tom Fox of the Neighborhood
Open Space Coalition.
CITY LiMITS/November 1984
, I
Foreign Policy on the Lower East . Side
D
ANIEL ORTEGA SAAVEDRA, COORDINATOR OF THE NICARAGUAN
government, paid a visit to 742 E. 6th Street on October 3 while in New York to
address the United Nations. He got a tour of the building which made headlines in Sep-
tember when former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalyn spent a week there assist-
ing a renovation project. The rehab is the work Of Habitat for Humanity, an ecumenical
group, which has housing programs going on in 52 cities from Amarillo, Texas to
Burlington, Vermont. The Lower East Side rehab will create nineteen cooperative apart-
ments to sell for an average of $30,000 each, with 25 year, no-interest mortgages.
Ortega decided to visit the building when he learned that Habitat plans to construct
100 houses in his country's Chinandega province in the near future. Like all of the organi-
zation's projects, it will be financed by fundraising and private donations only with labor
provided by the people who will occupy the homes. The houses will cost from $500-1000.
When his tour of the building was over, Ortega was besieged by reporters waiting
on the sidewalk. Asked about his country's support of the Contadora peace plan, Ortega
emphasized that the American and Nicaraguan people want peace but the Reagan
administration is building for war. After a half hour, he was whisked away by secret
service agents in a six-car motorcade as onlookers scattered. One, who said his name
was Johnny, commented, 1'hey all come here. I saw Carter when he was here. I went
up to him and said, 'Hi, Jimmy! You don't mind if I call you Jimmy?' Maybe Reagan
will come here next."DA.F.
Steve Schwartz echoed the same concern,
saying he hoped to see cooperative uses of
the vacant lots. He mentioned one success-
ful joint venture between the owner of a
Lower East Side building next to an empty
lot on 12th Street and Avenue A and other
area residents. Together they got title to the
plot and created El Sol Brillante, a garden
for the community. In addition to Adjacent
Homeowners, the city has two other open
space programs. Green Thumb grants
12-month leases to community groups for
$1 and another gives a five year lease to
groups willing and able to make significant
investments.DA.F.
For more information contact Maria
Gurewilsch, Division of Real Property, 2
lAfayette St., N.Y., 10007; (212) 566-3841.
6
NEW YORK'S
BOMELESS
FAMILIES
SPEAK OUT
By Tom Robbins
Continued from front cover
A feisty, thirty-eight-year-old, Carter describes herself as "a pri-
vate person, with my own ways." It was this that made her decide
not to grab onto the last rung of the housing ladder by doubling-
up with family or friends. At her Income Maintenance Center she
was told to get, as best she could, to Roberto Clemente State Park,
a gymnasium in The Bronx that has been made over into a mass
shelter for families by the city. Her sister and brother-in-law drove
her and Simka, who is 15, Obadiah, 13, Emoh, 11, Shoshana, 9,
and "the baby," Ketayrah, who is 4, to The Bronx.
There they entered through a balcony overlooking a massive
room filled with rows of cots, separated only by the feeble attempts
of families to screen themselves off from one another.
"I looked down into the place," recalled Carter, "and saw all those
little cots and all those people. There were these state troopers
walking around on the balcony and the guards down below. I
couldn't believe it. The kids said, 'I fecllike I'm in prison, but
I didn't do nothing wrong.'''
On that day, Josephine Carter's family joined some 6,000 others
who, during the course of the year, had stepped across that same
dividing line. And like her, many of them remained there. Last
month, hers was one of 3,100 families - nearly 11,000 parents and
kids-who were sheltered by the city: enough people to comprise
an average-size American town.
It's a population that has already increased by a third over last
year and shows every sign of swelling even more. And, although
few of those in charge of coping with the families have ventured
to say so out loud, it's a population for whom the admittedly defi-
cient and stop-gap shelters are becoming permanent housing.
In September, the average stay in the hotels and shelters grew
to 7.3 months; 451 families had been there for over a year, 76 of
them for more than two years. And it is still climbing.
1'he length of the stay has got to grow," said a top official of
the city's Human Resources Administration.
The questions of who those families are, and how they managed
to stumble into the bottom of New York's housing barrel, have
been put aside in favor of the more urgent issue of what to do with
them. And meanwhile, the media's erratic but widespread report-
ing on their dismal plight, with not a little help from the city, has
distorted public perceptions. In a classic 'blame the victim'
scenario, the shorthand explanation for homeless families is that
they have somehow created their own misfortune and accelerated
their own decline. It's an analysis which forecloses hope for change
and solution as much as it lets government and society ease them-
selves off the hook.
As New York City enters a winter which will once again break
post-depression homeless records, the snapshots are being readied
of a nameless and homeless mass, filled with misfortune and
tragedy to be sure, but nonetheless beyond the reach of effective
intervention.
Parents and Friends on the Move
7
Doubling-Up
As the numbers of the homeless families have grown, the rea-
sons for homelessness have changed as weU. When the firestorms
of arson were raging across neighborhoods in the South Bronx,
the Lower East Side and Brownsville, and when landlord aban-
donment was at its height, the breakdown of reasons for home-
lessness remained filirly steady. Some two-thirds of the population
sought relocation because of Ii catastrophe such as fire or a win-
tertime burst boiler, and a third of the families had been evicted.
As late as 1982, that breakdown held true. But then the propor-
tion began to shift as the numbers started to swell.
"We began to get a new source of families," reported Robert Jor-
gen, the head of HMs Crisis Intervention Services unit and a
veteran of city efforts on behalf of the homeless. "Many had been
evicted by primary tenants, often other family members. A lot
were young, new at parenting." Many had never had their own
apartment.
Today, the 3,100 families in the shelter system are a direct reverse
of two years ago: two-thirds are homeless because they were
evicted, while only a third are from fires or building vacate orders.
The picture that is slowly coming into focus is one of an enor-
mous number of near-homeless families, clinging tenuously to
the last rung of the housing ladder, most of them doubled up with
friends or family and living in severely overcrowded conditions.
Last year, bisect on an analysis of water consumption in its
projects, the City Housing Authority estimated that some 17,000
of its 150,000 public housing units are doubled up. That's the only
official estimate of the doubling-up phenomenon. But policy
makers are beginning to fear that they may be sitting atop a
phenomenon of possibly massive proportions. "I wouldn't even
hazard a guess on the number of families doubled-up," said Larry
Perlman, the Assistant Director of Income Maintenance Opera-
tions at HRA who is responsible for the agency's housing activities:
You don't have to look far to see the policy implications of this
homelesslnext-to-homeless situation. If families who have either
lost their own housing (or never had their own) have been able
to somehow make do through their own arrangements by living
with friends or family, then there's little reason to figure they can't
keep doing so.
As Perlman says: "About 30 families every business day show
, up at the EAU [Emergency Assistance Unit at 241 Church Street
in Manhattan] and seem to be eligible for temporary housing. But
less than a third of them enter the system because the shelter doesn't
appeal to them .... It doesn't stretch my credulity," he adds, "to
assume that not everybody in the system is a victim."
The picture coming into focus is of an
enormous number of near-homeless
families, most doubled up with family
or friends, clinging tenuously to the last
rung of the housing ladder.
It is a very small step from this point to reckoning that the bet-
ter the homeless remedies offered, the more needy, homeless fami-
lies will appear. "If you create a system where at the other end
of the pipeline you get a better apartment," suggests Perlman, "it's
going to draw more people."
Two years ago, said Robert Jorgen, he saw exactly that happen.
"When the city was still sending people to New Jersey hotels we
got tremendous publicity. ~ had some filirly nice hotels out there.
People saw on TV all the kids splashing around in the swimming
pools. Our EAU was packed with people wanting to go to New
Jersey who turned around and left when they were told they
couldn't."
Since HRA pressured City Hall two years ago for greater access
to city-owned property, almost all in rem vacancies have been allo-
cated to the homeless. Deputy Housing Commissioner for
Property Management Joe Shuldiner is now overseeing a
2,500-unit rehab program aimed exclusively at homeless fami-
lies. "I wonder whether or not we're dealing with a homeless cri-
sis," he said recently, "or a crisis in bad housing."
But we should also ask, does it make any difference? City offi-
cials voicing the "homeless-by-choice" or "good-homeless-
solutions-breed-more-homeless" theory are on thin ice and they
know it. For one thing, the decision to cross that dividing line
between homeless ness and its poss,ible alternatives-including
unbearable overcrowding amid squalid conditions - is one peo-
ple are going to make by themselves. No matter what the city's
homeless policies, it's hard to see how they can forestall for long
the day when families fall off that bottom rung of the housing
ladder.
For years, housing activists and others have asked where most
of those displaced by the massive abandonment and arson of the
late seventies went. Part of the answer may now be emerging.
East 5th St.-Puerto Rico-Newark-The Brooklyn
Arms
Sonia Zapata's youngest child was born in the Brooklyn Arms.
Jason, who is now eight-months old, arrived about six months
after Zapata was shipped out of the Lincoln Motel in Newark in
the June '83 New Jersey hotel evacuations. A Lower East Side resi-
dent, Zapata, her husband and her two older sons had lived with
her sister for several months after returning from Puerto Rico.
She was h?m and raised around Delancey Street and lived fur years
on East Fifth Street between Avenues C and D. "Now it's all torn
down," she says.
She moved with her family to East Eighth Street but there too
the landlord abandoned the building. While living with her sis-
ter she besieged local housing offices with applications. She had
high of getting into Pueblo Nuevo, a new six-story Section
8 on East Houston Street, but lost out. A friendly social
service 8lde helped her get the Newark hotel placement for which
she was grateful.
. Her Arms room is larger than many, although there
IS no furniture other than the three beds, a crib which she fought
l? get, a bureau and a single table fur the food and hot plate which,
like all the families, she uses in violation of hotel and health code
rules. The second floor room has gotten the hotel's recent partial
rehab - a paint job, a new light fixture. The bare cement floor is
a dull grey.
"When 1 first came it was a hell house," she says. "I was robbed
in front of my eyes, all my luggage, everything 1 had, was taken."
Each day her four-year-old boards a minibus fur the Nat Thrner
Daycare Center. Her 18-year-old son is graduating from high
school. She worries about the neighborhood she'll end up in,
should she be lucky enough to snag one of the city-owned apart-
ments off the "vans" that take families around to see them.
"My kids keep asking me why we have to live here. 'Why can't
we live across the streetT they want to know." Out the window,
the Brooklyn Academy of Music Local Development Corpora-
tion has renovated a large apartment building across. the street using
a city low interest loan. She has checked out the rents, however.
They are $500 for a two-room apartment, $600 for three rooms.
The Recycled Crisis
Most New Yorkers recollect that the welfare hotel crisis isn't
new. In 1972, when the city was sheltering nearly 1,000 families
in expensive, barely habitable and dangerous hotels, plucky
Department of Social Service caseworkers placed a family in the
Waldorf Astoria. And then told the press.
The grisly exposes of the largest welfare hotels compounded
the Waldorf outrage and then-Mayor John Lindsay threatened to
knock agency heads together unless they came up with a solution.
They did, temporarily.
First, the Department of Social Services agreed in emergen-
cies to waive rent levels which exceeded the maximums; second,
the Housing Authority, then headed by Simeon Goll\r, let home-
less families cut in front of the waiting list on some of its new,
outer-borough, projects.
The Housing Authority also looked for a way to provide decent
emergency transitional housing with social services. The result
was the Urban Family Center on Baruch Place on the Lower East
Side. The 46-unit building, operated in conjunction with the Henry
Street Settlement House, opened in 1973 and was able to offer a
wide range of services and counseling for the same emergency
shelter payments as the hotels.
Meanwhile, Robert Jorgen and his aide, Ed Kopp, were dis-
patched as HRA troubleshooters to the hotels. What became the
Crisis Intervention Services placed workers at each hotel and
linked families with apartment application infurmation, the Board
of Education and other needs. But while they can answer ques-
tions and log complaints, the CIS little ability to
affect the day-to-day crisis of homeless hv10g 10 a rundown hotel.
Back in the Hotels
Having survived the hotel horrors of the 70s, with like
The Hamilton, the Broadway Central and the GreenWich, It was
The Hotel Carter on 43rd Street.
When ordered to provide window
guards, the Carter simply chained the
windows shut. Angry mothers responded
by smashing the glass to let in air.
Robert Jorgen's fervent hope that he would be out of the hotel busi-
ness. Jorgen, who has developed a reputation as a Cassandra of
the homeless crisis for his gloomy yet correct predictions about
the scope of the problem, pushed for creation of enough family
care centers to cover the ebb and flow of homeless clients. They
weren't built.
What happened to the aggressive Lindsay-era drive toward solu-
tions? "People lost interest," says Jorgen simply. "When the popu-
lation went down, the attention went down too."
Today, the City of New York is a better customer of grade-B
hotels than ever. At summer's end, the city was farming out fami-
lies to 50 different hotels and motels in all five boroughs. Pay-
ments per room vary, from an average of $50 to a high of $100
per night. Since most hotels charge by the head, packing fami-
lies into small rooms doesn't affect their volume.
"It's a seller's market," said HRA's Larry Perlman. "The rate is
what the traffic will bear."
But no single fact sticks in the public craw as the startling gap
between what the city pays in "the welfare hotels" and what it gets
for the money. In the fiscal year ended last June 30, the city's hotel
tab was a staggering $45 million - nearly twic: the amount allo-
cated for low interest housing rehab loans. Eighty-five percent
ofthe homeless families live in hotels, at a per-head subSidy that
(were they somehow able to leap over race and anti-children bias)
9
Mothers from the Brooklyn Arms Hotel singing at August rally of Parents and Friends on the Move.
would comfortably house them in some of the city's choicest rental
apartments.
But just like in the early 70s, there's an embarrassing lack of
correlation between payment and service.
Some of the worst abuses have been curbed through a vigorous
new family hotel inspection program operating out of the Mayor's
Office of SRO Housing. Yet the system remains as vulnerable as
ever to its more than decade-old bind of paying top dollar for
rotten conditions.
The Hotel Carter
Josephine Carter and her kids got out of Roberto Clemente in
three days. They were shipped to a hotel on West 43rd Street in
Times Square with the same name as hers. She welcomed the
prospect of the Hotel Carter as a chance for privacy after her 72
hours of exposure at the wide open barracks-style gym. But the
Carter, the most recent large hotel to be brought into the city's
system, had perils all its own.
In June 1983, the city was forced to yank over 300 families out
of New Jersey hotels after an infuriated Newark City Council
denounced it for "dumping" on their city. The city scrambled
desperately for local space. A large number of families were taken
in by the Hotel Carter which was owned by a Vietnamese business-
man, Tran Dinh Truong. Jack Doyle ofthe American Red Cross
Disaster Services unit , which has played the major voluntary role
in assisting the homeless, said his agency had recommended that
the city tread warily with the Carter. Stories abounded of well-
organized drug and prostitution rings operating within the hotel,
allegedly with management's knowledge. "We proposed some sort
of net lease arrangement ," said Doyle, "so that we'd be sure to get
some of what we pay for."
10
But the New Jersey evacuations made it more than ever a seller's
market. The city not only gratefully placed hundreds of families
in the Carter's rooms, but paid a higher price to boot. Less than
a year later, after Carter horror stories outstripped all others, the
city reluctantly resolved not to place more families there, and was
waiting for hotel management to show up in court to respond to
a contempt order for failing to make repairs.
The Carter's management has insisted on a shroud of secrecy
around itself. When Steve Banks, a Legal Aid attorney, sought
to bring a doctor to Josephine Carter's children, management
called the police to have both lawyer and doctor arrested. Through
much of 1983-84 the Carter charged any guest, including baby-
sitters, $12.50 just to go upstairs. More recently, the hotel has said
no guests at all are allowed.
During the eight months Josephine Carter's family lived at the
Hotel Carter, the city shelled out $95.10 for every night her six-
member family spent in a ten-foot by twelve-foot room with one
bed, a single cot and a moldy fungus that started on the bathroom
ceiling and grew out into the other room. The monthly rent tab
for sheltering families there in April was nearly a half million dol-
lars. During the entire period the Carter remained obstinately out
of compliance with the demands of the new beefed-up inspections.
Management's sole gesture, when ordered to provide window
guards, air conditioners or somehow to secure windows against
defenestration of children, was to chain shut windows in a num-
ber of rooms. Angry mothers responded by smashing the glass
to bring in some air.
Parents and Friends On the Move
Against the gloomy background of growing homelessness, a
remarkable demonstration held in late August in City Hall Park
burst like a long pent-up storm. As if in defiance of the listless-
ness and inner fatigue bred by month after month of hotel living,
a group calling itsel f Parents and Friends On the Move shouted,
chanted and sang its denunciations of homelessness and the city's
hotel and shelter systems. Over a hundred families from hotels
in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens were joined at the rally by
much of the social services and legal network which has emerged
to advocate and assist for the homeless.
But for that afternoon at least, homeless families were their own
clearest and most articulate advocates. As parents from the hotels
who had never before approached a microphone told the noon-
time crowd over and over, they were there because they needed
housing above all else. When the mother's chorus from the Brook-
lyn Arms sang their own lyrics of hotel life to gospel tunes and
rhythms and a couple of hundred pairs of hands clapped in time
along with them, it seemed as if for the first time the unbalance
of power vs. powerlessness might well be altered.
To the left of the speaker's platform a tall, four-sided white card-
board construction provided both diversion for the dozens of hotel
children as well as an outlet for their own testament about hotel
life. With colored felt-tip markers, the kids drew pictures of them-
selves and their parents, contrasting what life was like in the hotels
and what they imagined it could be like outside of them.
When City Council President Carol Bellamy told the families
that she also knew that the answer was "Housing, housing, hous-
ing; and that no hotel should be paid without a signed contract
obligating it to provide decent conditions, she won stormy
applause. But as she tried to work her way back to her City Hall
office she found herself hemmed in by a crowd of women and men
Drawing a picture of home at the rally in August.
from the hotels who demanded on-the-spot answers to tough
questions.
Not surprisingly, this rumble out of the cauldron of the hotels
received little press. In the weeks that followed many of those who
had worked to organize it felt that their dilemma and needs
remained as invisible as ever. Although it remained cohesive and
in pursuit of its agenda in Brooklyn where the aid of the settle-
ment house Brooklyn Colony South and the office of Assembly-
man Roger Greene had helped to initially organize and launch it,
citywide the group groped for ways to bring more families into
action. But its impact on individuals was clear. Josephine Carter,
who had never addressed a crowd before, described at the rally
the harassment she and others underwent at the Carter. She told
the crowd that she had been threatened by guards that if she
attended the rally her room would burn. A few days later HRA
moved her to a hotel in Sheepshead Bay. for her protection.
Waiting in Queens
Out on Ditmas Avenue in Queens, across the parkway from the
runways of laGuardia Airport, Jewell Bryant's family is one of
100 similarly non-travelling welfare families housed at the
Travellers Inn. Stocky and soft-spoken, Bryant was one of the prin-
cipal organizers of the City Hall rally although just a couple of
weeks afterwards she is questioning its impact. She is quick to
point out that this lodging is clean, safe and comfortable com-
pared to her earlier stays. Her single room boasts two neatly made
double beds, a collapsible cot in the entranceway, night tables and
a bureau. School certificates and awards won by her four chil-
dren are taped to the four walls. Almost every foot of space is taken
by their clothes and belongings. Food is stacked tidily on a shelf,
11
Jocelyn Brinson and her children walking to school from the Brooklyn
Arms Hotel.
perishables on a ledge outside the second-floor window beyond
which airplanes at LaGuardia steadily land and ascend.
In January of 1983, the owner of the two-family home in
Bedford-Stuyvesant where she lived told her that the building had
been sold and she'd have to leave. For two months she and her
children moved in with her sister and her three kids. The only
apartments she found affordable were studios.
"It was just too crowded," she says. "Just too much." A case-
worker at the Bureau of Child Welfare managed to get her into
the Conca D'Oro, a Staten Island hotel. To keep her children in
school in Brooklyn she left the hotel with them every morning
before six. The hotel was located in a white residential commu-
nity of single-family homes and there was frequent hostility
towards the mostly black and Hispanic hotel families. One night
a rock crashed through a window where her youngest son was
sitting.
But when she and a friend from the hotel went to the local com-
munity board she found a number of sympathetic listeners. "They
hadn't known what was going on. When we told them how our
[$2.13 per person per day] restaurant allowance couldn't buy us
meals in the only restaurant at the hotel, they organized to bring
us food." The hotel's management was less pleased with the new
local alliance, especially when Bryant brought the leaking roofs
and uncleaned rooms to the attention of local papers and politi-
cians. When management harassed her she was able, with the help
of ugal Aid, to wrangle a switch to the Hotel Carter, from which
she thought it would be easier to get the kids to school.
The Carter was far worse. "The drugs, the pimps, the prosti-
tutes, the robberies .... There was nowhere for the kids to play.
We were in the middle of Times Square and I didn't want them
outside." In June, 1983 she was able to shift once again, this time
to Queens where she promptly enrolled her oldest daughter in high
school and her three sons in junior high and grade school. When
the Parents and Friends group began meeting last spring she joined
them. But she fears she has little to show for her efforts. With the
kids in local schools she desperately wants a Queens apartment
although none she's seen are close to her range.
Meanwhile, the daily hotel grind takes its toll . "We've got no
privacy, no way to get away from each other; she laments. "We're
always bickering and fighting." Most worrisome is the effect on
her kids. Her daughter, once a proud and active student and ath-
lete, is now apathetic and listless. "She comes home and just wants
to sleep," said her mother. The hotel stigma has also caught up
with them. "One day one of the mothers here overheard my daugh-
ter tell some schoolmates on the bus she only got off here to visit
her aunt. That's the kind of thing that hurts the most. People have
been living in hotels for a lot of years," she notes, "and we're going
to have to scream awful loud to be heard."
Battlefronts
Over this winter, as the number of homeless families grows,
there will be at least two battlefronts over policy. Last year, the
Board of Estimate did not act on a resolution from Carol Bellamy
to have the city arrange signed contracts with its larger welfare
hotels. Bellamy aide Cindy Friedmutter says the resolution will
be reintroduced this fall.
But doubts about the ability of contracts to alter the stand-off
between the city's emergency shelter needs and recalcitrant owners
remain. Vigorously enforced, HRA officials say that contracts
could drive more hotels out of the system, recreating the situa-
tion which led to farming families out to New Jersey. Adequate
enforcement procedures already exist, they say, pointing to fire,
building and health codes and the success of the Family Hotel
Inspection Program in coordinating them.
Betsy Haggerty, manager of the program, cites the major suc-
cess the office scored against the Brooklyn Arms, one of the lar-
gest welfare hotels with some of the most major repairs to be made.
A massive consent agreement has been signed and management
has been carrying out a phased repair and moderate rehabilita-
tion program. The hotel, however, has already started the count-
down to when it will be demolished or turned into a different use.
Owners recently sought and received Board of Estimate approval
to demolish the structure.
While the city has been seeking to enforce the consent orders
against various hotels, it has been less active in the court case
brought against it by a group of homeless families last year. Mayor
Koch has seized every opportunity to state that the city made a
mistake in signing a consent decree concerning provisions for
homeless individuals. It has led to far rougher terrain for a simi-
lar suit on behalf of homeless families known as McKean vs. Koch.
Although an interim order handed down by the judge in that suit
is somewhat ambiguous, it does hold the city to providing cer-
tain minimal necessities in its hotels. But ugal Aid attorney Mar-
cella Silverman, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, says that the
city has been grossly out of compliance in its placement of fami -
lies in rooms without adequate space or bedding. "The Corpora-
tion Counsel has been fighting this case as though it was World
War III," notes Silverman.
Almost as invisible and uncharted as that dividing line crossed
by the homeless, is the effect that homeless ness is having on fami-
lies. Josephine Carter says that she explains homeless ness to her
children thus: "I tell the kids, 'This is a good experience. You're
going to learn. This is what happens when you're on welfare and
they control your life.'" But, she warns, "What you're doing to these
kids you'll be paying for in the end. They'll look on society with
hate and shame."O
WHAT'S POVERTY GOT TO DO wlTa IT?
Is the Community Development Agency Fighting Poverty or Funding Patronage?
"/ had, during my campaign, lashed out at poverty pimps, ' ... the message sent by (my) Executive Order No. / was clearly
that / was not going to allow incompetence and corruption to continue in those poverty Ed Koch,
in Mayor.
By Annette Fuentes
F
IVE YEARS AFTER MAYOR KOCH REVAMPED THE
city's scandal -ridden anti-poverty program and its adminis-
trating agency, they are once again at the center of controversy.
There has been growing coverage in the news media of irregular-
ities and allegations tied to the Community Development Agency
and several of the Area Policy Boards which disburse federal anti-
poverty money to community groups. The Inspector General of
the Human Resources Administration is conducting his own inves-
tigation of charges by a former employee of document falsifica-
tion and improper staff actions at the CDA. The Department of
Investigation is checking into several matters at CDA, but then
there are "always allegations about programs being funded and
the CDA itself' according to Rachel Gordon at the DOl. Attor-
ney General Robert Abrams' office is investigating two groups
receiving money through Area Policy Board 3 in the Lower East
Side, one of the most volatile and conflict-torn Boards. Some-
thing is most definitely amiss at anti-poverty central .
City Limits decided to conduct its own investigation of an agency
intimately tied to the health and well-being of housing and com-
munity services. Four weeks and thirty-five interviews later, a pic-
ture emerges of the CDA as a volcano about to erupt. Its
cOfl'lTlissioner, Roger Alvarez, brought in by Mayor Koch in 1978
to clean house, is described by one who knows him as a fright-
ened man, hidden from his staff and uninvolved in their numer-
ous problems. His original mandate to restore fiscal and
administrative integrity to a program notorious in the 1970s for
subsidizing poverty profiteers has been lost. Now the name of the
game is numbers; not the quality of services provided by funded
agencies, just the quantity of clients served. And the once holy
crusade against corruption and conflicts of interest has a new
strategy: if you can't fight 'em, join 'em. Was this what Koch had
in mind back in 1978?
After taking office in January, 1978, Koch's first executive order
started a three-year rehabilitation ofthe Community Action Pro-
gram, "beset by controversy and abuse over the he said.
He pledged to roust the "poverty pimps," instructed Deputy Mayor
13
Herman to evaluate over 400 projects
placed all administrative and fiscal authonty 10 the
Development Agency, which would now answer to the mayor s
office.
The Council Against Poverty, born in 1965 as
Johnson's Great Society, used to have these responsibilitIes. Made
up of equal numbers of members from poor and the
public sector, the Council all.ocated and City to 26
community corporations which would 10 turn contract With dele-
.gate agencies for services. But in June 1fJ77, the
nity Service Administration suspended the Council not
elections in five years. The indictment a year earlier of Council
chair David 1. Billings for taking a $16,000 loan didn't help mat-
ters. In its place, Koch proposed one anti-poverty board for each
borough.
The year saw splashy headlines for the mayor as he made good
on a pledge to purge wrongdoers. In March, 1fJ78, the took
control of the Puerto Rican Community Development Project for
chronic mismanagement. The action was spurred a commu-
nity organized sit-in protesting fraudulent board electIOns an?
control of former chair Ramon Velez. In June, three of the Project s
officers were indicted for grand larceny, perjury and conspiracy
and the city ended contracts with five established anti-poverty
agencies for mismanagement. Meanwhile, community activists
made news opposing Koch's restructuring plan. One thousand
traveled to Albany on March 15 to demand local control and a
return of the Council Against Poverty. At hearings on the plan held
throughout the city, the same message was presented condemn-
ing the elimination of the 26 community corporations.
What emerged in 1979 as the "Final Plan for the Restructuring
and Reorganization of New York City's Community Action Pro-
gram" sought to divide control between the CDA and 33 elected
boards for designated Neighborhood Development Areas. The
CDA would have full control over finances, contracting directly
with community service groups. The Area Policy Boards, as they
were called, would establish program priorities for their commu-
nities, evaluate funding proposals and select those it considered
necessary and worthy. An open submissions process was
implemented to discourage funding the same groups year after
year. Monitoring of contract agencies' performance and guide-
lines for conflict of interest were important elements incorporated
into the new system. Neighborhood Development Areas were
created based on the latest statistics of population receiving pub-
lic assistance and social security, updating the geographic distri-
bution of dollars. Area Policy Boards were to be elected every
two years, with 21 members: three from the private sector, II poor
people and seven elected officials or their representatives. A CDA
liaison would be present only to advi se on procedures, never to
take part in the meetings.
Business as Usual
Five years and one election since Koch's clean-up, the verdict
on the new improved CDA is not favorable. While initial meas-
ures did eliminate some phony organizations and profiteers,
several of the latter merely slipped behind the scenes to take vicar-
ious control of the Area Policy Boards and influence funding.
Take Ramon Velez, for example. Founder of the Hunts Point
Multi-Service Center in 1967, Velez built a power base in two
assembly districts by building low income housing, was elected
to City Council in 1m and gained leadership in the Democratic
Party in the 77th assembly district in 1fJ74. "If you want to run in
14
the South Bronx, come to Ramon" is how Assemblyman Jose Ser-
rano put it after his election to state legislature in IfJ74. .
While the administration s initial
measures did eliminate some phony
organizations and profiteers, several of
the latter merely slipped behind the
scenes to take vicarious control of the
boards and the funding.
After his people at the Puerto Rican Community
Project were hauled away, Velez low, his time.
and connections in his favor, Velez IS back 10 the public eye, thiS
time spearheading a Democrats for Reagan effort after receiving
a chunk of federal Housing and Urban Development money.
According to a South Bronx community organizer, "Velez has a
strong influence on Area Policy Boards I, 2 and 6, well as
munity Boards I and 2. A lot of people are talking about It but
not many want to challenge him." Velez's power was instrumental
in bringing Rafael Colon to City Council and Hector Diaz to the
state legislature. He is still chair of Hunts Point Center, on the
boards of the Puerto Rican Day Parade Committee, the South
Bronx Community Corporation and has taken control of the Mas-
sive East Bronx Health Center, which is funded by the CDA.
When Antonio Vin, a former Velez employee at Hunts Point ,
became the new director at Massive E. Bronx, he named Velez
board consultant.
The Politics of Gentrification
Roberto Napoleon is the Ramon Velez ofthe Lower East Side.
Napoleon, in alliance with the leaders of the Grand Street co-ops,
and members of the Democratic Truman Club, controls the
majority of votes on Area Policy Board 3.
As chair of the Puerto Council (El Concilio), president
of the Baruch Tenants Association and power behind the Lillian
Wald Tenants, Napoleon controls hundreds of thousands of pub-
lic dollars. In 1981, his machine took over the Association of Com-
munity Service Centers, a main Hispanic force in the area which
he had long coveted. When the Association needed to add
representatives of the poor to its board to meet CDA guidelines
it had trouble until Roger Alvarez suggested eight people as tem-
porary members. Napoleon was one of them. After highly con-
troversial elections his temporary status became permanent and
virtually the entire old staff was ousted.
The United Jewish Council , the dominant Grand Street organi-
zation, uses its alliance with Napoleon to stymie groups which
challenge ethnic and racial segregation at the 4,500 Grand St.
apartments. In addition, their pooled forces are currently subvert-
ing APB 3's open submission process with the tacit approval of
the CDA. Groups such as Action for Progress and Cooper Square
Committee, long active in opposing gentrification, were defunded
while El Concilio increased its piece of the action from $90,000
last year to $233,000 this year. The UJC will receive $127,000
despite serious questions about its project board being totally
different from the main board (in contradiction to CDA rules),
an issue the Attorney General is investigating. Abrams is also
investigating EI Concilio for having failed to register as a charitable
organization with the state, as required.
Napoleon's other groups, the Baruch and Lillian Wald Tenants
Associations, would have received $23,000 each but for the
research of members of Cooper Square Committee, one of the
defunded organizations and a champion of low income housing.
"We looked at the proposals submitted by the PRC, Lillian Wald
and Baruch and found serious problems," says Val OrselJi, direc-
tor of Cooper Square. For one thing, Orselli points out, Domingo
Torres, an APB member, was listed on the Baruch board of direc-
tors, a clear conflict of interest. Baruch's proposal for an educa-
tional after-school program lacked required evidence of linkage
to other agencies and service coordination and had administra-
tive costs almost 20 percent higher than the CDA suggested limit
without required documentation proving need.
The Lillian Wald proposal to provide training tor unemployed
youth was equally questionable, lacking important documenta-
tion. Moreover, it showed the group to have been formed just this
past May while CDA rules require one year of existence at time
of application. It lacked linkage to employment sources and a
description of client follow-up, as required and a resume for staff
member Susana Paredes was found to be false after checking with
her listed former employer, Sunset Park Senior Center.
Due to Cooper Square's efforts, the CDA was forced to over-
turn the APB's approval of Baruch in August because of blatant
conflict of interest. Lillian Wald's proposal held on until a Vil-
lage Voice reporter queried Alvarez on it. At the October 1 APB
meeting, a letter from Doris Bowers, chair of Lillian Wald, stated
they were giving up the $23,000 grant and withdrawing their
proposal because it was "insufficient" funding. On October 22,
the Board met to hear the final appeals of groups which were
denied funding. Orselli presented an appeal as well as new infor-
mation uncovered by William Bastone at the Voice which shows
Ramon Iglesia, chair of the APB 3, to be an officer of El Con-
cilio. Other documentation identifies William Rapfogel as a board
member of the UJc. His wife, Judy, sits on the APB representing
Assemblyman Sheldon Silver. "They denied our appeal so we will
now appeal to Roger Alvarez," says Orselli.
The events on the Lower East Side raise serious questions about
C D ~ s role. How could such glaring gaps and ineligibilities pass
through the agency's preliminary proposal review? Why did a com-
munity group have to do C D ~ s work?
Alvarez, who has known Napoleon for years and has "met with
him frequently," points to the defunding of the tenant groups as
evidence that "the system works." In the case of the United Jew-
ish Council, "there was confusion regarding the relationship
between the boards of the parent organization, the newspaper and
the project board requesting funds. I asked for affidavits from the
board to certify no conflict of interest. In 1980, the issue with the
UJC was compliance with the 51 percent representation of poor
people on their board. rd like to deal with a new issue with the
UJc." Alvarez insisted that discrepancies were flagged by the CDA
during the preliminary review, but no action is taken unless the
group is selected by the Board and goes to contract with the CDA
in December.
Meanwhile APB members Nilda Pimentel, Miriam Friedlander
and Minerva Chinn are pushing to halt their Board's work and
re-open the proposal review. They claim that due process was vio-
lated when proposals were not thoroughly reviewed by board
members and when chair Iglesia made calculations of highest rated
proposals in private, excluding other members.
Meanwhile, too, Roberto Napoleon was seen showing Manhat-
tan Borough President Andrew Stein and Herman Badillo around
the Lower East Side October 21.
d.
Protesting funding cuts outside Assemblyman Sheldon Silver's ofrlCe on tbe
Lower East Side. .
Let the Sun Shine
One of the most frequently made criticisms of the Area Policy
Boards is that they don't always allow open meetings. According
to the Wl7 "Sunshine" or Open Meetings Law, "It is essential to
the maintenance of a democratic society that the public business
be performed in an open and public manner ... :' The law clearly
lists eight specific instances in which a public body may vote to
exclude the public, going into an executive session. These relate
to public safety, investigation of criminal wrong-<ioing, litigation,
employee matters, sale of property and examinations. It stresses
that all votes involving expenditure of public monies must be open
to the public.
Vicki Morris, chair of Area Policy Board 7 in Manhattan's
Upper West Side, has her own.interpretation of the Sunshine Law.
She and Commissioner Alvarez are the subjects of a legal action
charging them with violation of that law. A petition filed August
28 claims that Morris tried to bar l5 supporters of Sinergia, a serv-
ice group for handicapped youth and their families, from a Board
meeting July 25. Though unsuccessful, Morris would not permit
members of the public to speak out on behalf of their proposals
and barred translators from helping many of the Spanish-speaking
people present.
The petition by Sinergia parents also claims that, on August
1, Morris again forced 30 members of the public to leave a Board
meeting. When challenged by Legal Services attorney Liz Gon-
zales, Morris claimed the right to go into executive session at will .
Sinergia subsequently received a letter from the Board stating that
a vote on funding was made at that closed meeting and the group
would receive no money.
Morris, described by a member of Strykers Bay Neighborhood
Council as running "a one-woman show," defended her actions.
15
Roger Alvarez (center), Commissioner of the Community Development Agency and two of the main recipients of the agency's funds, Ramon Velez (left) and Robert.
"Executive session was necessary. There were people shouting
and screaming, thirty babies running around. The Board felt
intimidated by community members. There would have been
danger to them if the meeting was open," she claims. Alvarez, co-
respondent in the petition, says the" issue rises and falls on
whether an Area Policy Board is a public body" and therefore sub-
ject to the Open Meetings Law. "Up until this time they have not
been considered such," he states, "but (the city) Corporation Coun-
sel is checking into it."
When they do they will find public bodies defined as "entities
consisting of two or more people that conduct public business and
perform a governmental function for the State, or an agency of
the state ... including cities." Given the role APB's play in allocat-
ing public monies, it is hard to see how they could be excluded
from this definition, except as a desperate attempt to protect the
illegal practices of Board members and the CDA itself. At the
August 21 meeting of APB 3, CDA liaison Richard Harris sup-
ported chair Iglesia's decision to call an executive session despite
protests from community members present. No minutes of that
meeting existed during an examination two months later of docu-
ments at CDA; only a memo from Harris acknowledging his error
after discussions with a superior. But his "error" is nothing com-
pared to what his counterpart on Area Policy Board 3 & 4 in
Queens did.
Let's Make A Deal
"When I came back from Vietnam in one piece, no limbs miss-
ing and mentally sound, I decided lowed my maker something.
I decided to serve my community," Mike Hill explains. A com-
munity group consultant, member of his Community Board and
a Human Resources Administration advisory board, Hill was also
the chair of Area Policy Board 3&4 covering Elmhurst and Corona
in Queens until he stepped down September 22. "I never missed
a meeting and followed the rules. They told me I was overzealous,"
he remarks. The real problem was that Hill refused to participate
in a blatantly political deal to fund a paper organization favored
by local politicians.
Twelve proposals were submitted to the Board by the June 22
deadline for a piece of its $266,000 allocation. On August 1, the
Board met to discuss the proposals. Before the meeting began,
there was discussion of the Open Meetings Law by Board mem-
bers who wanted community members to leave. The minutes state
that "The CDA representative (Betty Fling) said that the rule was
that representatives of organizations could not be present during
the discussion and decision process. Representatives of organi-
zations were asked to leave." Nowhere in CDA rules and guide-
lines is such a rule even vaguely hinted at.
On August 3, CDA Assistant Commissioner David Hepinstall
sent APB 3&4 the results of his eligibility review of the 12
proposals. Two of them were found ineligible because of board
composition. One of those, the Corona Community Development
Corporation, showed its board to include Anthony Caminiti, Area
Policy Board representative of Assemblywoman Helen Marshall,
and James Lisa, step-brother of City Councilman Joseph Lisa,
who also has a delegate on the APB. The Corporation also did
not meet the requirement of having more than 50 percent poor
members, but promised in writing to make amends by Decem-
~ r 1, the CD.Ns deadline for compliance. What they could not
do was meet the CD.Ns deadline fur clearing the conflict of interest
posed by Caminiti and Lisa, since the CD.Ns Administrative Guide
clearly states: "Any potential conflict of interest must be resolved
prior to July 20, 1984." That's where having some friends in the
right places helps.
The real problem was that Hill refused
to participate in a blatantly political
deal to fund a paper organization.
The Area Policy Board meeting August 6 was classic. As the
minutes reveal, CDA liaison Betty Fling called an executive ses-
sion and barred eight community members from attending. The
reason given was "that if representatives from one group are per-
mitted to be present then representatives from other groups should
be given equal opportunity." After Board members scored the var-
ious proposals they were collected and rated, with the top five
scoring groups receiving funding. At the meeting, Corona Com-
munity Development Corporation's proposal got the second
highest score, despite Hill's insistence that the conflict of interest
posed by Caminiti and James Lisa made it ineligible. The Board
voted to approve specific amounts fur the five groups, with Corona
Corp. receiving $66,000. Hillabstained. AgaIn, a vote on alloca-
tion of public money behind closed doors.
"I held up that proposal for two weeks. I refused to sign it
because there were so many mistakes, dates didn't correspond.
I spoke with Andrea Jackson (a deputy commissioner at CDA)
demanding a letter which reversed the previous ineligibility of
the Corona agency. She swore she would get one to me in August.
I went to the CDA four times, but no one would see me," Hill
recalls. He never did receive a memo declaring the conflict cleared
up, but he's not surprised: "That Wfrj they can say it was the Board's
fault; that CDA notified us they were ineligible, but we funded
them anyway."
John Donahue, chief of staff fur the CDA, says the problem was
resolved when letters of resignation from James Lisa and Caminiti
were received a week after the July 20 deadline. In fact, exami-
nation of the relevant documents indicates an attempt to deceive
the public. James Lisa's letter of resignation from the board of the
Cornoa Community Development Corp. is dated August 15 and
was stamped ~ e i v e d by CDA two days later; Caminiti's resig-
nation letter is dated July 15, a remarkable achievement since a
memo to Hepinstall from the Corona agency lists him as one of
four board members and is dated July 31; more remarkable since
on August 16, a representative of the agency came before APB
3&4 to request funds for a senior center and named Caminiti as
aboard member when queried by Hill.
Conflicts of interest aside, the proposal submitted by James
Lisa's group was deficient by any standards. No listofboard mem-
bers was originally submitted with it. The date of formation is
given as April 29, 1983, but no minutes of meetings proving that
were attached, as required; several application questions were
answered "to be determined;" no resumes are attached for the fuur
17 CITY LIMITS/November 1984
positions listed and no salaries or specific duties. Materials and
equipment needed were listed as balls, bats and games although
the program narrative describes career training, computer and
typing courses for youths under 25 years as well as counseling
for chronic truants in the seventh grade.
Councilman Lisa could not be reached for comment but he
apparently tried to persuade CDA officials that "stepbrother" was
not specifically cited as a relational conflict. But the CDA insisted
and the Councilman's stepbrother James submitted a letter of resig-
nation. Regarding Anthony Caminiti, CDA accepted his word that
he did not participate on the board during open submission. But
doubts are raised by attendance lists from the APB meeting August
1 on which both Marshall and Caminiti are marked present but
did not sign, as all other board members did.
. Assemblywoman Helen Marshall, who placed Caminiti on the
Board May 8 as her surrogate, claims she never spoke to Coun-
cilman Lisa or Commissioner Alvarez about funding the Corona
agency and was satisfied that any conflicts of interest were cleared
up.
Not so satisfied are members of Concerned Citizens of Queens,
a Hispanic organization which requested funding to do education
and counseling on family violence, pregnancy and drug abuse for
the growing Spanish-speaking community. They were rejected at
the August 6 funding meeting of the APB because "Proposal is
poorly written. Some of it is in Spanish." ABRIL, another
Hispanic organization which provides youth training and employ-
ment services, requested $ll7,()()() but only got $42,500 because
the Board deemed its staff salaries too high and "the program
is ... aimed primarily at female participants. Training of males
in other areas is needed," amonguther reasons. Appeals by both
agencies were rejected by the Board and a second appeal by Con-
cerned Citizens of Queens to the CDA questioning the conflict
of interest was likewise turned down. Their treatment by APB
3&4, says Hill, bears the mark of anti-Hispanic policies.
Another youth advocacy group, Project Make A Stand also has
a bone to pick with the CDA and Board 3&4. The Manhattan-
based group, which had planned to apply to all 33 Area Policy
Boards for funding, filed an appeal with Commissioner Alvarez.
In it, group chair Eric Heron charges that the CDA consistently
denied him information on the submissions process or gave it to
him too late; that CDA liaison Fling violated the Sunshine Law,
made a call to Alvarez to reverse Corona Community Develop-
ment Corp:s ineligibility; and that Fling instructed the Board not
to fund Make A Stand because they were "radicals, trying to rip
off the system."
Trouble Ahead, Trouble Behind
On the face of it, the Community Development Agency seems
doomed to repeat its unhappy history of favoritism, corruption
and political abuses. But another restructuring won't solve the
problems if rules are not enforced and guidelines are not
implemented. Conflict of interest rules should be tightened and
hewn to, not stretched with the full approval of CDA officials. All
the rules in the world are meaningless if CDA staff members are
accomplices to their violation. Luis Soler, former member of Area
Policy Board 3 in Manhattan, feels "the CDA needs better
employees, people who know the regulations and enforce them.
Where there's a conflict of interest, they should have to submit
a work history and all affiliations. And there should be no more
than a 10 percent raise in funding."
The question of involvement of elected officials should also be
considered. While the federal Greene Amendment, passed in
1967, requires community action boards to have one third elected
officials or their representatives, many believe it is inappropri-
ate. State Senators Leon Bogues and Franz Leichter choose com-
munity members to fill their seats. "I think community people
should be brought into the system rather than my staff member.
I'm beginning'to bel ieve political representatives are too many,
it contributes to some of the problems. I'm moving in the direc-
tion of sending an observer to the meetings, who will not be
involved," he stated.
Increased community involvement is certainly a way to stem
abuses, especially at a time when drastic cuts in funding sources
create competition among groups for scarce resources. Says Soler,
"We need heavy support from the community to expose what's
happening. People should protest at CDA." His sentiments were
echoed by a Brooklyn-based priest, "All these local bocal boards
are a farce. They're just set up so central office doesn't get hassled.
In the '60s we got the best results going straight to the city adminis-
trators."
A year from now, the third Area Policy Board elections will
be held. Chances are the events of the coming year will make them
the focus of much scrutiny by the CDA as well as community
organizations who have a stake in creating honest, effective
Boards. With the spotlight on its scandals, as community activists
continue to ask questions and find skeletons in closets at CDA.
the agency will have a difficult time conducting business as usual
behind closed doors. 0
Helrnsley Cashes In His Subsidy
Joseph Lawrence, president of Park West Village
'Jenants, lobbying at City Hall.
T
HE FATE OF OVER 50,000 CITY
tenants of federally subsidized apart-
ment buildings hangs precariously in the
balance after a state appeals court ruled in
fuvor of Harry Helmsley, owner of seven
such buildings at Park West Village on Man-
hattan's West Side. On September 26, five
members of the Appellate Division unani-
mously reaffirmed the decision of Judge
Martin Evans in March that Helmsley does
not need the approval of the city's Board of
Estimate and Planning Commission before
converting Park West Village apartments to
condominiums or cooperatives. At issue is
whether- !lOUSing, such as Park West Village,
built with government assistance under the
"slum clearance" programs of the 1950's can
be yanked out from under the tenants now
living there.
The Park West Village controversy began
in 1981 when Helmsley first conceived of a
conversion plan for some 800 apartments in
two of the complex's buildings. "In 1983,
Helmsley presented a "red herring" or
preliminary plan for the proposed conver-
sion to Attorney General Robert Abrams for
his required stamp of approval. In June of
that year, Abrams turned down Helmsley's
plan because he believed such a major
change would require the approval of the
Board of Estimate, as dictated in the origi-
nal development contract. The relevant sec-
tion ofthat contract states: "No increase in
density or change in land use shall be made
for a period of 40 years except with the
approval of the Board of Estimate of the city
of New York."
Instead of attempting to secure the
approval of the Board which passed a reso-
lution in September 1983 that co-op conver-
sion is exactly the kind of change which
would require its okay, Helmsley opted for
a court action against Abrams and the City.
That action led to Judge Martin Evans'deci-
sion in favor of the owner. In his remarks,
Evans stated that a conversion is not the kind
of change which needs Board of Estimate
approval and to require it would be "stretch-
ing the meaning of the contract beyond its
facial and contextual intent." Evans inter-
prets the development contract's clause to
encompass only changes in population deQ-
sity or site use.
That pivotal c l a u ~ e was a mandatory part
of the covenants entered into by developers
with cities across the country in the late
1950's under the federal Title I legislation.
Title I was passed by Congress in 1949 to
authorize federal aid for local public agen-
cies that were fucing a massive housing
shortage after World War n. Park West Vil-
lage was built under Title I as part of a slum
clearance program specifically to house
middle income tenants. The original
developer, Manhattantown, Inc., agreed
with the city that basic changes in the com-
plex could not take place without a go-ahead
from the Board of Estimate and the Planning
Commission 40 years from the date the last
certificate of occupancy was issued, which
works out to 2002. In exchange for agree-
ing to those conditions, the developers
received hefty subsidies from the federal
government. In the case of PaFk West Vil-
lage, Manhattantown received property
worth some $13 million for jqst $1 million.
Tenant Group Opposes Conversion
Park West Village Tenants' Association
has been active for two years in opposing
Helmsley's plan and submitted amicus briefs
to both the Supreme and Appellate Courts.
19
Helmsley's action, they believe, is not only
a direct abrogation of the original intent of
federally subsidized housing, but threatens
to displace thousands of middle-income
tenants throughout the city. "We are in the
midst of a well-orchestrated plot to drive
working and middle-income people to the
wall. The greed of big landlords may cause
the middle-income tenants of our great city
to become the next. wave of the homeless,"
says Joshua Lawrence, President of the Park
West Village Tenants' Association.
Lawrence points out that Helmsley's offer-
ing plan would price most tenants right out
oftheir homes, with a one-bedroom apart-
ment selling for $65,000. Many Park West
tenants earn incomes between $20-40,000,
well below the estimated $45-52,000 annual
income needed to obtain a financing
mortgage.
Another apartment complex built with
federal subsidies, Coliseum Park, which is
owned by Punia and Marx, is also fucing
possible conversion to condos. One thou-
sand tenants there, represented by attorney
Stephen Marcus, submitted an amicus brief
along with Park West Village to the Appel-
late Court. "The Attorney General approved
the red herring and then revoked it on the
basis of Title I. There is an eviction plan
pending which means if the owners get more
than 51 percent of lease holders to buy, they
would have the right to evict non-buyers
after three years:' said Marcus.
As it stands now, Attorney General
Abrams must decide whether to petition the
State Court of Appeals for the right to
another appeal on the legality of Helmsley's
plan. He has thirty days from the issuance
- of the Appellate CQurt's decision to make
such an appeal and Park West tenants feel
confident that he will . On October 15, the
tenants held a press conference in front of
City Hall and delivered petitions with 1,000
signatures to Mayor Koch, urging him and
Abrams to make the appeal. Many promi-
nent elected officials have taken up the cause
of the Park West Tenants, including Con-
gressman Charles Rangel , State Senator
Leon Bogues, Assemblymen Jerrold Nadler
and Edward Sullivan and City Councilmem-
ber Ruth Messinger. Nadler, who was
present at the press conference, remarked,
"The Board of Estimate usually looks to the
Borough President in such matters and Stein
is clearly behind the tenants. So far the
mayor and the Attorney General are also
fuvorable. We're here to ask them to continue
that
Maggie O'Donovan, a spokesperson for
Helmsley, said the owner will proceed with
condominium conversion as soon as
Abrams approves the red herring, which he
may be forced to do should a higher court
reject a further appeal. In anticipation of an
eventual green light for his plan, Helmsley
is holding vacant 75 apartments at Park West
Village which, in combination with tenants
who may want to buy their apartments,
would comprise the needed IS percent of
lease holders for a non-eviction conversion
plan.
With the spectre of condominium conver-
sion looming over 1,000 residents of Park
West Village, the tenants association has
prepared a pamphlet titled, Ques-
tions and Answers About Conversion: What
Conversion Means to In it is valuable
information for anyone considering the pur-
chase of a co-op or condominium as well as
a chronology of the events at Park West Vil-
lage dating back to its construction three
decades ago. To highlight Harry He1msley's
philosophical bent on low and middle
income people, the Association dug up
some revealing quotes from a Daily News
.
Park Village tenants protest at City Hall rally.
interview, including his solution to the lack
of affordable middle income housing :
always trailers down south and used
houses, though not in the best areas . . . and
this is what a lot of people are going to have
to get used to."OA.F.
The pamphlet is avaiklble for soc from
Park West Village Tenants' Association,
P.O. Box 20339, Cathedral Finance Sta-
tion, New York, N.Y., 10025; 662-2610.
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Ask Jean Canbonari
BANKS MUST PAY A PRICE
New Regulations Seek Neighborhood Reinvestment
By P.J. Kamens
T
HE NEW YORK STATE BANKING
Department reacted last month to com-
plaints that the recently passed Omnibus
Banking Bill would drain money from low
income neighborhoods as banks sought
more lucrative investments permitted by the
bill. The department proposed new regula-
tions which would tie the banks' ability to
use the bill's expanded powers to invest-
ments in low and moderate income neigh-
borhoods. Community activists welcome
the promised infusion of funds , but caution
that unless the regulations are refined, the
real benefit to low and moderate income
people will be elusive.
Under the plan, a bank with a good Com-
munity Reinvestment Act (CRA) rating for
meeting credit needs of low income areas
would be permitted to invest more of its
assets in real estate holdings. A bank with
a perfect CRA score would be able to invest
the full 5 percent of its assets permitted by
the regulation in real estate equity projects;
banks with less satisfuctory ratings would be
able to invest less, with a maximum 2 per-
cent investment for banks with the lowest
ratings.
The proposed regulations would also
change the way that banks are evaluated
under CRA. A five point rating system
would be used, rather than the present
pass/fuil system. The ratings will be based
on each bank's performance under 12 stated
criteria, including the geographic distribu-
tion of its credit extensions, the opening and
closing of branches and its participation in
local community development projects. For
the first time, a bank's CRA rating and a
summary of the Department's findings will
be made public.
For banks that choose to make real estate
equity investments, the CRA rating would
have greater consequences. Each such bank
would have to commit a certain percentage
of its assets to investments in low and moder-
ate income areas. The percentage would
vary with the CRA rating. With an excellent
or satisfuctory rating of one or two, a bank's
investment in low income communities need
only equal 5 percent of its real estate hold-
ings. With an adequate rating of three, a
bank must invest 7.5 percent of its real estate
equity dollars in the communities, and with
an inadequate or unsatisfactory rating of
21
four or five, a 10 percent investment would
be required.
Links Deregulation to Reinvestment
The Banking Department believes New
York is the first state to tie banks' expanded
powers to community 'reinvestment. "The
proposal appeals to the banks' greed so that
we can get a pound of flesh from them,"
Banking Superintendent Vincent Tese told
a grQup of community activists. The state
believes that the proposal will produce
between $750 million to $1.2 billion in
investments to communities where bank
investments now total only $60 million. In
addition, money market banks whose serv-
ice areas do not include low and moderate
income neighborhoods will be required to
invest in these areas for the first time if they
plan to take advantage of the expanded
powers.
Community activists are encouraged by
the Banking Department's approach. "I
think it's exciting," says Elaine Dovas of the
Coalition Against Redlining (CAR). "It has
the potential for helping groups assess their
needs and obtain needed money." Reinvest-
ment specialists still counsel caution as they
point to the proposal's rough spots.
First, community workers point out that
the designated low income neighborhoods
covered by the new rules include commu-
nities like Clinton and the Lower East Side
in Manhattan, where upscale development
has caused displacement of long term low
income residents. Some fear that unless the
new funds are earmarked for low and
moderate income xesidents of these commu-
nities, they may be used for more attractive
upper income developments. In addition,
the regulations would permit the funds to be
used for office construction in covered
neighborhoods, which inciude the Times
Square area and the blocks surrounding the
Convention Center.
Low Rates, Good Terms Needed
Community redevelopment groups note
that the funds will not be useful to them
unless they are available at reasonable rates
and terms. "We have twelve different
projects that we're working on that would
qualify for private money under the regu-
lations," observes Jim Buckley of the
Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy
Coalition. "But our use of the funds depends
on the kind of terms the banks offer. The
proposal will be a total bust unless we can
get money in at reasonable rates and terms."
Buckley wants the regulation to include
incentives for banks giving long term, fixed-
rate or below market rate loans.
Activists are also concerned that invest-
ment in neighborhoods may not be as great
as promised. They point to the California
experience, where only 16 of Tl3 eligible
banks used their new real estate equity
powers, with a total investment of only $10
million. They also note that the banks are
not required to invest in community projects
each year, as long as the amount of outstand-
ing community investments is a fixed per-
centage of their total real estate holdings.
"The banks can give a big loan now and say,
"I gave, its on the books, that's it," notes
CAR's Al Drummond.
"It looks like there will be a static amount
available as opposed to floodgates of money,"
agrees Buckley.
Finally, there is some question as to the
effectiveness ofthe proposal's sanctions and
incentives. Under the regulations, all banks
will get a perfect CRA rating the first year
and can undertake the maximum permissi-
ble real estate equity investments. Yet if their
CRA rating drops the following year, the
regulation protects them against the sanc-
tion of divestiture. Since community groups
will not be given access to the banks' reports
indicating which projects met their commu-
nity obligations, they will not be able to
serve in an effective oversight capacity.
The Banking Department may be amena-
ble to community suggestions during the
45-day comment period that will follow the
official publication of the proposed regula-
tions. The department needs community
support against charges that state deregula-
tion has been too fast and loose. The depart-
ment has thus been eager to cooperate with
community groups. Superintendent Tese,
who met informally with reinvestment
groups shortly before the proposed regula-
tions were made public, even promised a
revision to include incentives for loans at
below market rates.
"Overall , I'm pleased to see a real effort
to deal with the issues raised by the Omni-
bus Banking Bill," says Buckley. "The thing
now is to refine what we have so we can use
the money without being wiped out by it."O
P.l. Kamens is an attorney and an active
member of the Coalition Against Redlining.
Anyone interested in submitting comments
on the proposed banking regulations is
encouraged to call Elaine Dovas at (212)
964-7200.
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Legislation: Albany
We Can Win the SRO BaHie
By Donald M. Sakano
E
VERY UNIT OF SINGLE-ROOM
occupancy (SRO) housing that is lost
through the relentless conversion process
translates into another person on the streets
or floating around in our no-exit shelter
system.
Much of the remaining SRO stock isn't
very pretty. The ramshackle and often
"seedy" look of the SRO is the result of years
of calculated benign neglect. The absence
of a positive public policy response to assist
this important part of our city's housing
stock is no surprise to those who are
acquainted with how government normally
deals with the poor and powerless.
True, there have been a whole series of
city and state programs to help upgrade a
few hotels and to address the worst instances
of harassment and illegal eviction. But it is
not unlike offering a man an aspirin while
leading him to execution. The supply of
SRO housing has dwindled so low that we
now might classify it, along with the baby
seal and the corner candy store, an endan-
gered species.
There is dearly a state of emergency in
this city around the lack of affordable hous-
ing. A segment of the population that has the
most to lose in this crisis is the single, low
income person. The homeless family may
get placed in a hotel and has the opportu-
nity to get an aparnnent in an in rem build-
ing, but the only resources for single people
are the armories and Bowery flops. There
is no permanent housing plan at all.
Hearing the cry for relief from tenants,
former (homeless) tenants and housing
advocates, the New York State Assembly
has actually passed a bill (A.1l629) that
would impose a moratorium on the conver-
sion of all SRO hotels and rooming houses
throughout the city of New York. Enacted
in June, this measure will still be "alive"
when the legislature returns to Albany this
December to finish up the session's
business.
The legislative session in December is
meant to be quick and quiet. With Senate
and Assembly leadership in tight control of
the agenda, a consideration of SRO's is, at
the moment, the furthest thing from their
minds. Only an enormous public outcry is
going to get the legislature centered on pas-
sage of a moratorium measure.
As sponsor of A.1l629, AsSemblyman
Pete Grannis has shown strong leadership
on the issue. Senator John Daley, Chair of
the Senate Housing Committee, had indi-
cated an interest in the moratorium after
conducting a series of hearings last winter
on the subject of SRO's. The real up-hill
climb to victory, of course, is with the

Senate itself.
The SRO Tenants Rights Coalition, The
Coalition for the Homeless and groups
throughout the city are strategizing to have
the moratorium on SRO conversions passed
in the December legislative session. A key
factor in moving the Senate is Mayor Koch's
support for the moratorium. And it is pos-
sible! Already religious, civic. housing and
social service groups have communicated to
the mayor their outrage at the continuing
"hemorrhaging" of human beings onto the
streets. Growing numbers of people are
writing their state elected officials. espe-
cially the five Republican Senators-
Goodman, Calandra, Marchi. Padavan,
Knorr-to enlist their help.
Won't you join in this emergency cam-
paign to enact a moratorium of SRO conver-
sions in order to keep thousands more from
being thrown out on the streets? Yes, it may
be a "band-aid" approach but the bleeding
is profuse and must be stopped. With your
help. we can win this one. 0
-,P
. /'; SInce 1980. the HouaIng Energy AIIIMce for TenMta CooperMM Corp. (H.EAT. COOP) ............ low
/ ' ; .. I coat home '-ting 011 lind -vY !I.e ...tuctIon -w:..
r !, ,- .f; The H.E.A.T. Coop has targeted for services the IaIgeIy minority low and middle income 01 ..
:: I I --: Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and H.E.A. T:s general is to pnMde Ind ..w.1hII1I.cI
to neighborhood stability.
As a proponent of economic empowerment for revitalization 01 the CIty's 00II1IIUIiIIee. H.E.A. T ....... CCIIWIiIId
to assisting MWIy emerging managers and owners of buildings with the reduction 01 -vv CDIa (lang
the single most expensive area of building management). H.E.A. T. hal pI..-...cIlMgIbIe lor ....
associations. housing coops. churches. community Ind IIIIIIII to gIIIW
substantial savings and lower the costs of building operation.
Through the primary ..-vIce of providing low coat home ....... 011, ___ ....................
-rvv INIIIIIgIInI8Il ..vices, H.E.A. T. m.nbers h8ve coIIectI., ...... _ 1.5 mIIDn .....
Wl/king coUaboratively with other community SIIIVice organizations with end wortdng to eIIIbIIh ..
viability as a business entity. H.E.A. T. has committed its revenue generating capecity end pcMnlllto pIOVIdIng
seMces that wor\( for and lead to stable. productive COITlIIU'1ities.
If you are interested in leaming more about H.E.A. T. or H you are interested in bec:onW1g H.e.A. T. ___ c:II
or write the H.E.A. T. office.
Housing Energy Alliance for Tenants Coop Corp.
853 Broadway. Suite 414. NeIN 'tbrk. NY. 10003. (212) 5()5..0286
23
1IIiIIIIIIIII---------------------------------------
No Low Income Contribution
Asked of L1IX1UY BuDders
jBy John Feuerbach
'LAST YEAR, IN THE WAKE of sev-
. era! major construction projects which
altered the look of New York City and also
challenged the city's zoning practices,
t:-1ayor Koch formed a study commission to
address developer trade-off practices and
planning issues. The Commission has is-
sued its report and recommendations. The
Development Commitments Study Com-
mission, piloted by Mitchell Sviridoff, had
dual responsibilities. It was asked to review
the developer commitment practices in
other cities and New York City's current
system of granting special permits and zon-
ing bonuses, as well as to examine whether
developer contributions can and should be
u!d "to supplement low and moderate in-
come housing programs."
The Commission, a group of 14 profes-
sionals that included Seymour Durst, a
major midtown real estate developer,
George Raymond, a prominent planner, as
well as a bank vice president, lawyers and
one community representative, held two
hearings before issuing its report and recom-
mendations. In the end, they had to take a
stand on a body of information that is as
complex as it is controversial.
Testimony reflected the many concerns
currently held by housing and community
development groups. Among the most chal-
lenging questions were: Could an "inclu-
sionary zoning" amendment be enacted
whereby 20 percent of all new or substan-
tially rehabilitated apartments would be set
aside as affordable units? Could a Housing
Trust Fund, financed by an assortment of
measures, but most notably by commercial
and residential developer commitment, be
established in New York City to spark
development of affordable housing? Numer-
ous speakers showed the relationship be-
24
tween private commercial and residential
development and the protracted housing
crisis in New York City. A number of exam-
ples were brought in from other localities
where developers required to make conces-
sions to mitigate housing shortages still
enjoyed good returns on investment. Com-
mission recommendations, however, show
that they did not favor and endorse such
ideas.
"Viewing the present zoning process as
unpredictable and haphazard, the Commis-
sion endorsed as-of-right zoning, which
limits the discretion currently available to
developers. Within as-of-right zoning, the
Commission endorsed bonus provisions,
which state what trade-offs are necessary,
as well as "mandated planning features."
Jack Huston, a spokesperson for Herb
Sturz, Chairman of the City Planning Com-
mission, said that Sviridoffs views on as-
of-right zoning are close to those of Sturz.
Sturz, Huston said, believes that housing
production would be enhanced by a zoning
system that is more predictable and that fol-
lows the patterns of as-of-right.
No Tie to More General Social Good
In an interpretation of the city's Zoning
Resolution that was to shape things to come,
the Commission believed it was the Resolu-
tion's intent to separate zoning matters from
revenue generation. The writing was on the
wall that private developer revenue commit-
ment for affordable housing, by way of zon-
ing standards, would have a tough time with
this particular Commission.
To do this, zoning had to be distanced
from the social well being. Bernard McDon-
ald, Program Officer in Charge of the Urban
Poverty Program for the Ford Foundation,
a Commission member, said "it was not the
intent of the Commission to load all social
good into zoning." Essentially, there would
be no role for zoning in addressing and
resolving inequities in housing, or in fur-
thering the "general welfare."
The report has been criticized for this re-
strictive view. City Planning Commissioner
Martin Gallent disagreed with the narrow
interpretation of zoning. "Responsible plan-
ning needs to look at social aspects of zon-
ing," said GaJlent . Another critic, paul
Davidoff, Director for the Center for Metro-
politan Action at Queens College, pointed
out legal precedent. Citing the New Jersey
Supreme Court ruling, in Mount Laurel II,
which set mandatory statewide measures for
localities to remedy exclusionary practices
and to spur affordable housing, Davidoff
said that zoning must be concerned with
social issues in mitigating housing inequi-
ties. The Commission, he said, ignored
zoning's social aspect.
The Report also decided against those
who seek to tie the office .and residential
boom into a Housing Trust Fund. While the
Commission did recommend a few sources
of income for such a Fund-a uniform tax
to be levied on a broad base of real estate
activity was one such measure - these ideas
were offered with much trepidation. The
Commission flatly rejected the idea of tap-
ping into the building boom. Study Com-
missioner McDonald said, "Developer
contributions would not be appropriate for
the Housing Trust Fund."
Once again, response was critical. Brian
Sullivan, Assistant Professor of Planning at
Pratt Institute, said that the Commission
failed to address the larger issue of commer-
cial boom and affordable housing bust. Re-
garding developer contributions, Sullivan
suggested that there is less resistance from
developers than there is from the study
Tenth Anniversary Journa.
GREETING FORM
Commission. Commissioner Gallent also
backed the idea of developer contribution.
"Other cities are doing it," said Gallent,
"perhaps we can refine it for New York."
Professor Frank DeGiovanni, also of Pratt
Institute, said there was a lack of research
to support the Commission's stand on the
Housing Trust Fund. "The Commission did
not address the important question of
whether the Trust fund or developer exac-
tions would impact development," he said.
DeGiovanni was also critical that there was
no comment on testimony which showed
that in San Francisco, and in limited cases
in New York City, there was little or no
resistance to exactions, and that the devel-
oper actually made a good return on invest-
ment.
Although the Commission has closed
shop, work on these issues will nonetheless
continue. DeGiovanni and Sullivan, repre-
senting the Pratt Institute for Community
and Environmental Development, are cur-
rently involved with Davidoff ofthe Center
for Metropolitan Action in a report which
studies and confronts these issues. 0
John Feuerbach has researched equitable
economic development in New 1brk City and
formerly was an organizer with the Center
for Metropolitan Action.
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__________________________________________________ ___
GENOBABON.
Tribute to a
People's
Advocate
Father Geno Baroni.
By Joseph McNeely
W
HEN MONSIGNOR GENO C.
Baroni died at age 53 on August n,
1984, the Neighborhood movement lost an
important leader and visionary. I, and many
others in a wide variety of movements on
behalf of justice and equity, lost a friend and
an inspiration. I find it overwhelming to
describe precisely the impact and life of
such a great man. What made him great? Is
it the history of his career, the story of his
activities? [s it the legacy that he leaves
behind? The institutions he created and or
influenced? T.he programs and policies he
fought to shape? For Geno, it is all of these
and more.
His story has the qualitiel! of an epic, a
journey from one important battle to
anotner. As the son of an immigrant coal
miner, he was exiled as a young priest from
his home in Southern Pennsylvania for
hlessing a strike. As a parish priest in the
hlack ghetto of Washington, D.C. he became
an important voice in the early civil rights
struggle. He built the first housing for the
poor under sponsorship of the Catholic Dio-
cese of Washington , and almost bankrupted
the Diocese in the process. He was the first
Catholic clergy to receive permission to go
to Selma for that historic march, thereby
creating a precedent that allowed hundreds
of Catholic nuns, brothers and priests
around the country to publicly join the
demonstrations of the civil rights move-
ments in Selma and other cities. He was the
Catholic coordinator for the March on
Washington. He was one of the creators and
founders of the Catholic Campaign for
Human Development, still the single most
important national funding source for grass-
roots organizing. He was the first national
spokesman to see the connection of the civil
rights agenda with organizing ethnic and
blue collar communities. He was a spear-
head in lobbying for civil rights legislation,
subsidized housing, federal support ofhous-
ing counseling, credit unions, The Home
Mortgage Disclosure and Community Rein-
vestment Acts, The National Commission
on Neighborhoods, The Neighborhood
Self-Help Development Act and The Con-
sumer Cooperative Bank. He was the
highest ranking clergyman to hold an office
in the federal government when he became
the Assistant Secretary in the Department
of Housing and Urban Development in the
Carter Administration. As social policy
advisor to Washington Archbishop James
Hickey he spearheaded the important
Catholic church opposition to United States
involvement in EI Salvador.
Geno Baroni's story is exciting but bewil-
dering. It tells us little of the meaning of the
man. The legacy he leaves behind tells us
a little more. (The people he inspired, the
organizations he created and supported and
the programs and policies he influenced are
a lasting memory of his impact.) More
important than any program or institution
are the people who Geno influenced. He had
a unique gift, a very priestly ability to con-
vince people oftheir ability and encourage
them to act for the val ues they held dear. He
had a transcendent beliefthat ordinary peo-
ple could do extraordinary things. He had
a gift of being able to communicate that
belief to individuals and to groups of peo-
ple he met in the wide variety of domains
in which he walked: the ghetto, the civil
rights movement, churches, neighborhood
organizations, politics, ethnic organizations.
He believed in you when you had little con-
fidence in yourself and shored up your
courage to work in the world for a vision of
justice and community.
26
I sat in the back ofthe church at the wake
that was held for Geno and watched thou-
sands of people come to pay their respects
and attest to the impact he had on their lives.
Members of Congress and Mayors, block
leaders and community activists, social
service agency staff and bureaucrats. They
came from states from Washington to
Massachusetts and every state in between.
They were black and white; Italian, Polish,
Irish, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Korean and
Japanese. They were Catholic, Lutheran,
Episcopal, Methodist, Jewish and they were
the unchurched. They were teenagers and
they were the octagenarians. I talked to
dozens who told the same story: [ would
never have attempted the leadership that I
have taken in life if it hadn't been for Geno.
When I had big thoughts about a new course
of action, about confrontations, about step-
ping out to organize my neighborhood,
about entering politics, Geno encouraged
me, he gave me a vision of the meaning of
my action and he stuck with me when I met
obstacles that otherwise would have made
me quit.
In my own life, I would have "moved
from community organizing were it not for
Geno. Neighborhood development would
have been a passing phase for me as it had
been for so many activist of the 60's. Geno
placed the work I was doing in Baltimore in
larger national context. He put my activi-
ties in a wide enough framework to last a
lifetime. He kept pointing to new possibili-
ties at each stage of my work. I can say, with
hundreds of others at his funeral and those
who eulogized him, "if it hadn't been for
Geno, I wouldn't be where I am
In his presence in every significant move-
ment in our country in the last twenty-five
years he carried the same messages: That
the only lasting attack on the problems fac-
ing our society is to organize the people who
experience those problems and to provide
them with the technologies and resources
they need to shape their own solutions. That
the only path to full humanity is in the abil-
ity to act, the power to make a difference in
your own life and your own community.
That through organizing, isolated
individuals can mount the power to over-
come the greatest obstacles to equity and
justice. That neighborhoods and community
organizations are the building blocks of a
healthy city. That non-government institu-
tions bring civility and values to the life of
the city. That the progressive movement for
equity and justice requires a coalition of all
peoples in our society. That coalitions for
change and for justice can be built only by
bringing together organized communities.
That there needs to be a strong bond
between black, Hispanic, Asian and other
minority inner city communities and the
ethnic, blue collar neighborhoods that also
suffer from economic discrimination, red-
lining and the urban crises brought on by ill-
advised private and public policies.
Geno never stopped fighting to help
others overcome the pain he saw in their
lives. He saw a great connectedness between
all organizing movements.
In the last years of his life, while he was
suffering from terminal cancer, he began
organizing other terminally ill men and
women to both support each other and to
bring about change in the practice of medi-
cine and in the operation of hospitals. Even
the hospital in Washington to which he went
to die has been altered: at his urging they
recently created a specialized Oncology
Ward for appropriate treatment and support
for those who are dying.
Geno's message and legacy were not about
himself. His hope, his confidence was in us.
His optimism was for our organizations,
however difficult it is to keep them together.
In his dying we lost a temporal part of our
selves but in the renewal of commitment that
his funeral was, we see with more clarity
who we are. He was in many ways, a part
REVIVALON
SEDGEWICK AVENUE
New phl7.a and rebuilt building at Sedgewick Avenue and Kingsbridge: End of an abandonment cycle.
T
HIS PAST AUGUST WHEN A
group of residents of the Kingsbridge
Heights section of The Bronx invited a flock
of elected officials and other guests to join
them and their development partners in cut-
ting the ribbon on 120 newly renovated low
rent apartments, they celebrated more than
just the completion of an innovative rehab
project.
For the north Bronx community, perched
on a series of hills above the Harlem River,
the renovation of the cluster of buildings at
2719-35-41-47 Sedgewick Avenue represented
the culmination of nearly eight years of
organizing to stave off what had seemed in
bleaker times to be an almost inevitable
neighborhood deterioration. To get there,
the community had to confront a series of
27
of all of us. His ability to sense the pain of
others created bridges that bound him in
identity with them. One Italian-American
leader, looking around the diverse crowd at
Geno's funeral, remarked that "Geno was
not Italian. He was black, he was Puerto
Rican, he was a Pole, a Greek, an Italian,
a Slav." He was everyman; he was for all of
us.O
Joseph McNeely is director of the
Development Training Institute in Balti-
more, which is a unit of Public/Private Jton-
tures. He was formerly director of HUD's
Office of Self-Help Development.
negligent building owners, repeated arson,
rampant drug traffic, disinterested
mortgage-holding savings banks and a
governmental and financial apparatus
which, at the time, knew little about suc-
cessful affordable building rehabilitiltion.
The fruit of their work, a $3 million
project, consists of both the gut rehabilita-
tion of one abandoned building and the
moderate rehab of three others. The
development was financed in almost equal
parts by the city through its Participation
Loan Program, using federal Community
Development funds loaned at one percent
interest matched against a loan from the
Aetna Life and Casualty Insurance Com-
pany at 13.5 percent interest. The construc-
tion loan was providea by Chemical Bank.
The city also earmarked federal Section 8
rent subsidies for the apartments which will
E remain with the units for 15 years.
~
~ The Neighborhood's 'Hinge'
~ As far back as 1976, the Kingsbridge
~ Heights Neighborhood Improvement
~ Association viewed the apartment buildings
~ at the corner of Sedgewick and Kingsbridge
;;: Avenues across from the sprawling U.S.
Veterans Administration Hospital as "the
hinge to the survival of the neighborhood,"
according to Joe Muriano, who was then an
organizer with the group. In the summer and
fall of that year, 18 arson fires emptied one
of the largest buildings, 2710 Sedgewick, on
the east side of the intersection.
"The neighborhood was in crisis," recalled
Muriano. "Not only was that building
empty, but people all around were moving
out." Other nearby owners took the aban-
denment as a sign to begin milking their own
properties before the rest of their investment
was lost.
The Kingsbridge group pleaded with the
Harlem Savings Bank, which held the mort-
gage on the burned building to make a loan
to put a roof back on it. The bank said no.
"We had two choices," said Muriano. "We
could push for demolition, or fight for
rehab." Demolition, he said, would have
been a sign that there was no hope. The
organjzation focused on rehab.
Through steady pressure on the Borough
President's office, a setaside of Section 8
subsidies for the building was secured and
a developer, Continental Wingate named.
Paperwork, however, moved slowly. At one
point thirty angry residents marched outside
the offices of Borough President Stanley
Simon and then, boarding the subway once
more, rode to Federal Plaza in lower Man-
hattan where they made an unannounced
group visit to the Regional HUD office.
By 1979, the rehab of 1710 Sedgewick was
underway. But its toll on other buildings was
painfully evident. Across the street , 1719
Sedgewick was faltering. Next door, m5
was also losing tenants. Up the hill, at a
three-building complex, owners were also
withdrawing services. Drug sales were rife
on the block.
In the winter of 1981, 1719 succumbed to
the most common fate of ailing city apart-
ment buildings. Its pipes broke and its boiler
froze into a solid block of ice. Fires routed
the remaining tenants from m5. Organizers
from the community group worked intense-
ly to hold the still occupied adjoining build-
ings together.
The Computer Maps Glitch
Dear City Limits:
Just a few comments on your October
review of the Department of City Planning's
new computer map atlases for community
districts (District Atlas 84) . Computerized
maps are an exciting tool, but they aren't
magic, and they can't be any more accurate
than the computerized information which
they depict. With regards to the in rem maps,
this is a very serious limitation, because
these maps of tax-foreclosed property are
drawn from a Department of General Serv-
iceslDivision of Real Property computer file
which is riddled with inaccuracies (some
users estimate the error rate at 25 percent .)
The computer file is not updated regularly,
so many of the supposedly in rem proper-
ties are now privately owned (through sale
or redemption by the former owners) , and
many ofthe "buildings" are currently vacant
Development Partners
But shortly after 1719 and 1725 were
abandoned, a developer named Michael
Schmeltzer became interested in the string
of properties and, together with the neigh-
borhood group, suggested their rehabilita-
tion to the city's local Neighborhood
Preservation unit. Felice Michetti , director
of the office, agreed that the project was vital
to the community and became a strong
advocate. She took the neighborhood group
and the developer to see the Community
Preservation Corporation, a consortium of
banks created to make neighborhood rehab
loans. But the CPC balked. The project, it
said, was too big.
"We said, 'So what are you here for?'"
recalled Muriano. When the consortium
was eventually persuaded to make a loan,
the offered rate of 17 percent was higher than
some banks of the time and would have been
too expensive to accommodate even subsi-
dized Section 8 rents.
The Kingsbridge group then took its
proposal to the Aetna insurance company
which, as part of a national effort in urban
neighborhoods, was providing both
administrative support and financing
assistance to the group's parent organization,
the Northwest Bronx Community and
Clergy Coalition. A Kingsbridge leader,
Denis Boyle, made a presentation to the
company and a preliminary approval for the
project was granted.
With the go ahead from Aetna in hand,
the neighborhood group successfully pres-
sured Dollar and Eastern savings banks to
sell their defaulted mortgages to developer
lots. In addition, many ofthe buildings are
classified incorrectly: commercial buildings
are called apartment buildings, etc. As they
say in computerese: garbage in, garbage
out.
While City Planning has invested over a
million Community Development Block
Grant dollars in computer mapping inac-
curate information, Housing Preservation
and Development's Office of Property
Management (OPM) has been quietly doing
the laborious checking of information and
facts necessary to produce the City's most
accurate listing of in rem property, plus
some usable (non-computer) maps. The
OPM Base Map Portfolio is a listing and set
of block and lot maps for community dis-
tricts with a large in rem stock . (Maps are
or will be available for Manhattan 3, 4, 7,
9-12; Bronx 1-7; Brooklyn 1-9, 13, 17; and
Queens 12. The Portfolio maps are ideal for
small scale community work; in their loose-
28
Schmeltzer. The owner of the three
occupied buildings. m5-4l-47, also agreed
to sell as part of the project. When ongoing
fires in m5 made the building unsalvage-
able, it was demolished. But instead of inter-
rupting the project , the vacant lot was
incorporated into the plan as an enclosed
park and playground.
Once rehab was underway, the Kings-
bridge group kept its organizers in the
occupied buildings, where tenants asked the
developer for some 250 changes to be made
as work progressed. Further up the block,
the organization was able to get three
equally troubled buildings taken out of the
hands of a negligent landlord and placed
under the court-monitored care of Joseph
Bodak, a Bronx owner who frequently han-
dles troubled buildings. When the buildings
were seized by the city for back taxes they
were entrusted to Bodak under the city's Pri-
vate Ownership Management Program.
Joe Muriano, who now serves as direc-
tor of the Northwest Bronx Coalition, sees
the completed rehabs as the last develop-
ment piece ofthe almost decade-long strug-
gle to preserve the Kingsbridge-Sedgewick
Avenue corridor. The organizer's jobs are
still not over, however. Last month the
Kingsbridge group forced HUD to withhold
rent subsidy payments from the manage-
ment of 1710 Sedgewick, the block's first
rehab victory, because it had failed to main-
tain and repair the building. OT.R.
leaf format, one page contains from one to
four tax blocks, and tells you at a glance
vacant properties, in rem buildings, and
other City investments (from schools and
subsidized housing to J51 abatements and 7A
Seed Money Loans). The looseleaf format
also allows for corrections and updating;
new lists and corrected map pages will be
available periodically. Since all of this is
hand-work (not even a word processor!) and
unfunded, copies of the maps are limited.
Each community district has a copy, or you
can call the mastermind of the system, OPM
Director of Planning Richard Bass (806-
8459) , for more information.
Sue Reynolds
Associate Director, Association for Neigh-
borhood and Housing Development
NOT IN OUR BACKYARDS!
TAC'I'ICS FOR TOXICS
STOP 1
POISONING, 0
QUilt
____ I"'''.
NOT IN OUR BACKYARDS! Community
Action for Health and Environment by
Nicholas Freudenberg, Dr. P.H., Monthly
Review Press, 155 W 23rd St . N.Y.. N.Y.
IOOIl. 304 Pages, $10 Paperback.
By Maxine Golub
H
ERE IS AN IMPORTANT addition
to the literature on community organ-
izing and empowerment. It belongs on our
shelves next to such classics as Saul
Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, and Paulo
Freire's The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Not
In Our Backyards! merges Alinsky's
demanding confrontational tactics with the
conscientious science of Freire's educational
methods.
Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg, a New York
City health activist and environmentalist,
dedicates Not In Our Backyards! to his
futher, "who died unnecessarily from expo-
sure to and to his son, "who de-
serves a healthier and more just world."
It is an appropriate beginning for a book
that examines both the frightening reality of
environmental hazards, and the future of a
nascent movement to address these issues.
The volume is full offdscinating, ifsome-
times horrifying, information. Did you
know, for example, that in 1975, a concerned
mother found there were eleven cases of
leukemia among Rutherford, New Jersey
elementary school students, six of whom
attended the same school? Or that in 1978,
a tanker truck slowly leaked PCB-contam-
inated transformer oil down 200 miles of
North Carolina highway rather than pay for
more appropriate waste storage?
There are several pointed indictments of
the multinational chemical corporations'
disregard for human health. In Fort Worth,
Texas, after the managers of the Stauffer's
chemical plant willingly demonstrated the
effectiveness of the company's air pollution
monitors to members of ACORN (Associ-
ation of Community Organizations for
Reform Now), the members asked the state
Air Control Board to inspect the devices.
The inspector's report found the monitors
inoperative. In Elizabeth, New Jersey, forty-
five thousand drums of illegally stored
chemical wastes caused an explosion which
hospitalized sixty-six people. "Only a
chance change in wind direction averted the
necessity of evacuating tens of thousands of
people .. :'
Not In Our Backyards! contains 22 care-
fully researched case studies of responses
by communities to such environmental in-
vasions, as well as a thorough analysis of
effective organizing for change. Freuden-
berg has successfully merged useful infor-
mation about environmental health with a
clear, straightforward approach to the pro-
cess of building a grass roots movement.
Chapters such as "Building an Organization
that Can and "Coalition Building:
Issues and Problems-Labor/People of
Color /Women/ Peace Groups/Third World
Groups" will benefit any organizer or com-
munity leader, regardless of their particular
issue.
29
It is of particular interest that Freudenberg
has chosen to focus primarily on urban
environmental hazards, especially those
which affect minority groups. One success
story involves the Parents Association ofPS
208 in Harlem, which forced the Board of
Education to close down a school which
contained flaking asbestos. The parents
insisted that their children be relocated in
other schools, and that the removal process
be one which was safe for the workers.
Freudenberg also discusses the limita-
tions of environmental health research and
the infrequent success of regulatory agency
efforts to protect the public health and safety.
The highlight of the book, however, is his
consistent, methodological approach to
community organizational development.
From how to research a problem, share
information, build leadership, and make
decisions, to strategies for action, Freuden-
berg stresses democratic process and skill
building. The book even contains tables on
the advantages and disadvantages of various
organizational forms, and obstacles to com-
munity education.
Freudenberg has clearly committed him-
self for the long haul. "In the decades to
come the environmental movement will be
battling for two fundamental rights: the right
to live in an environment that does not dam-
age health and the right to participate in
making decisions about the environment in
which one lives."
He excludes no one from the struggle,
challenging each of us to learn to work with
the other-the Sierra Club with labor
unions, housing organizers, feminists, peo-
ple of color . . . each has something to
contribute and a lot to gain from a compre-
hensive strategy which will improve all
aspects of our lives-our health, our hous-
ing, and our environment. He urges us to
learn from our counterparts, citing the
national movements which have gained real
political power in West Germany and Japan.
Not In Our Backyards! is a powerful con-
tribution to the cause of environmental
health and community action. It is also a
comprehensive and comprehensible manual
for organizers and educators. Read it for
either reason.D
Maxine Golub is the Coordinator of the
Lead Poisoning Prevention Project at the
Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx.
She is active in city and statewide organ i-
wtions aimed at reducing childhood lead
exposure.
r:::r NYSTNC 10TH ANNIVERSARY:
The New York State Tenant and Neighbor-
hood Coalition is having a 10th Anniversary
Party Saturday, November 10 at .8 p.m. at
The Encore, 250 W. 49th Street, near
Broadway. There will be entertainment by
Ednah Holt and Street the Beat, hot and cold
buffet, music and dancing. Tickets are $12
in advance, $15 at the door and include a free
. drink and a chance at a raffle prize.
NYSTNC is also printing an Anniversary
Journal in which supporters can place an ad
or list their names. Copy deadline for the
journal is Wednesday; October 31. Contact
NYSTNC at 198 Broadway, New York
10038; (212) 964-7260. 0
r:::r COMMUNITY BLUEPRINT: The
Municipal Art Society will present a new
exhibit titled, "Community Blueprint: A
Plan for East 96th Street" opening Novem-
ber I. A reception will be held November
7 at 5:30 with a panel discussion to follow
at 7 p.m. The exhibit is at the Society's
Urban Center, 457 Madison Ave. and will
run through December I. Admission is
free. 0
r:::r MASS TRANSIT THEATER:
"Neighbors," the latest production by Mass
Transit Theater, will have a run of perfor-
mances this month at the Washington Square
Methodist Church. A musical comedy with
a social point, "Neighbors" can be seen
November 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, and 30 and
December 1 and 2. Fridays and Saturdays
the play will begin at 8 p.m. ; Sundays at 3
p.m. TIckets are $7; $3.50 for students and
seniors and low income persons. Group
rates are available. Call (718) 748-0785 for
infonnation.O
c::T GUIDEBOOK ON PARTNER-
SHIPS: The National Alliance of Business
has produced a book titled "The Employ-
ment/Economic Development Connection:
New Tools, New Rules, New Directions."
For organizations involved in community
development , the guide provides important
strategies for strengthening public/private
partnerships, job creation and economic
growth. Funded by the federal Housing and
Urban Development's office of Community
Planning and Development , it can be
obtained from the NAB Clearinghouse, 1015
15th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20005
(202) 457-0040.0
c:::r VIDEO VIEW OF GENTRIFICA-
TION: "Where Can I Live" is a 32-minute
color video documentary of women fight-
ing the speculation which is threatening to
re-make their community. It is an aid to
organizing that looks at why gentrification
happens and how people can combat it. For
infonnation on sales and rental, contact Erik
Lewis Productions, 554 East 4th Street,
Brooklyn, NY 11218; (212) 851-8672.0
c::T LEGAL RIGHTS FORUM: New
York Law School will feature Assemblyman
Roger Greene and Councilmember Ruth
Messinger at a symposium called "Know
Your Legal Rights" November 17, from 9-5
p.m. at the Law School, 57 Worth Street.
Workshops will cover immigrants' rights,
government benefits, tenants' rights and con-
sumer self-defense. The event is being spon-
sored by the National Lawyers Guild. A $1
donation is suggested. For information call
431-2865. 0
30
c:::r FOCUS ON AFFORDABLE HOUS-
ING: "Litigating and Legislating for Afford-
able Housing" is the name of a day-long
conference December I at New York
University School of Law. Sponsored by the
Review of Law and Social Change, the pro-
gram will bring together community
activists, lawyers, developers and elected
officials to discuss gentrification, single
room occupancy hotels, rent control,
production of housing, conver.sion of Title
I and in rem property and a litigation case
in Chinatown. Featured panelists include
George Sternlieb of the Urban Institute at
Rutgers; Peter Marcuse, professor of urban
planning at Columbia; Jerrold Nadler, state
assemblyman from Manhattan's West Side;
Wallace Ford, President and Chief Execu-
tive Officer of the State of New York Mort-
gage Agency; Daniel Rose, a developer and
Council Member Ruth Messinger, who will
make a closing address. Registration is at
8:30 a.m. at 40 Washington Square South.
Admission is free. Call 598-3919 for infor-
mation.O
c:::r LIST OF LEGAL MANUALS: Com-
munity Action for Legal Services has com-
piled a list 'of legal educational materials
developed over the years by the city's legal
services programs. Topics covered are wel-
fare, family law, health, social security,
immigration, rights of disabled people and
housing. Under housing are three guides:
"A Tenant's Guide to Housing Court" and
"How to Force Your Landlord to Repair Vio-
lations; both available from South Brook-
lyn Legal Services, 105 Court St.,
Brooklyn, NY 11201 for $2 and $1.25
respectively; the third, "A Tenant's Manual
on New York City Housing Authority Ter-
mination of Tenancy Proceedings," is avail-
able from the Queens Legal Services, 89-02
Sutphin Blvd., Jamaica, NY 11435 at no cost
to legal services and for $5 to others. All
three are in English only, but other materials
listed are in Spanish and Chinese as well .
The entire list can be obtained from CALS
Legal Support Unit, 335 Broadway, New
York, NY 10013; (212) 431-7200.0
--
---------------------------------------------
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER
Foe seeks experienced, independent creative organ-
izers to join its comprehensive neighborhood revitali-
zation efforts. Organize and assist tenant associations,
block associations. Work with rehab programs, tenant
management and computerized arson prevention strate-
gies. Good pay, good benefits. Mark Levy, Flatbush
Development Corporation, 1411 Cortelyou Road,
Brooklyn, NY 11226.
MSW sought for project housing homeless adults in
Washington Heights. Leadership skills and supervis-
ory experience necessary. Fluency in Spanish preferred.
Salary: $20,000 and Fringe Benefits. Position available
November lst. Send letter and resume to: Ellen Baxter,
CHIH, 105 East 22nd Street, NY, NY 10010.
REAL ESTATE COURSES
Principles of Real Estate Investment
(NY311) 6 Mons., 5:50-7:35 p.m. Begins Nov. 26. $95.
Abram Barkan,Presldent, James Felt Realty Services, a
diviSion of Grubb & Ellis
Landlords, Tenanll and the Law
(NY309) 5 Tues., 5:50-7:35 p.m .. Begins Nov. 13. $80.
John A. Milano, Judge, Housing Part, Civil Court
Planning the Shape of the Clty-
1984 and Beyond
(NY308) 6 Mons., 7:45-9:30 p.m. Begins Nov. 26. $95.
Sylvia Deutach, ChalrpersonlCommissioner, Board of
Standards and Appeals
Landmark Preservation: looking Back,
Looklna Forward
(NY306) 6Thurs., 5:50-7:35 p.m. Begins Nov. 29. $95.
Gene A. Norman, Chairman, landmarks Preservation
Commission
Real Estate Law for the Non-Lawyer Real Estate
Practitioner
{NY313) 5 Thurs., ~ : O O - 9 : 1 5 p.m. (15 hra.)
Begins Nov. 15. $135.
Stephen M. RaphHl, real estate attorney
CO-Op Buyer's Workshop
(NY314) One day, Sat., Dec. 1,9:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. $65.
Stephen M. RaphHl
Housing the Homele ..
(NY310) One day, Fri., Nov. 16,9:30 a.m.-4:3O p.m. $65'
Carol Lemberg, Executive Director, Settlement
Housing Fund
'I1IE" For information
SCHGGL please call (212) 741-5890.
Community Organizer. Renovation Supervisor. Weatherization Coordinator.
Urban Housing Specialist. Community Management Director. Policy Analyst.
Housing Paralegal. Business Manager. Housing Director. Loan Arranger. Project
Director. Construction Specialist. Activist. Accountant. Housing Attorney. Execu-
tive Secretary. Energy Specialist. Assistant Editor. Executive Director. Activist.
These are just some of the positions recently advertised in CITY UMI1S. The advertising choice of
housing professionals in government, non-profit organizations and industry. Call 239-8440 to place
your ad.
CITY LIMITS JOB ADVEIUISING GETS RESULTS.
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(JUST $12 FOR THE FIRST GIFT,
$10 FOR EACH ADDIDONAL GIFT.)
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What better, easier, way to deal with your shopping list this year than City Limits gift
subscriptions? Community organizers, homesteaders, urban planners, homeowners,
tenants, even landlords and politicians will appreciate receiving New York's best
coverage of housing news and neighborhood revitalization. Ten times a year theyll
thank you for news they can't get anywhere else.
A terrific gift at any price, especially ours: $12 for the first gift subscription, $10 for each
additional gift. And that includes a special holiday card announcing the subscription.

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City Limits Magazine, November 1984 Issue

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NOV 2 71984

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