N [ W Y O R K ' S U R B A N A f f A I R S N [ W S M A G A Z I N [

S U R VI VI N G
CU S O M S
H o < w dance parties, politics, prison, even porn shops,
turn new immigrants into New Yorkers.
Brownfields of Schemes
S
O they're not as glamorous as tax code reform-brownfields ought to be a hot
issue in Albany this year. More than 30 other states have passed some kind of
legislation making it easier to clean up and build on mildly polluted former
industrial land, space that is badly needed both to revitalize urban areas and to
counter relentless suburban sprawl. Such help is desperately needed all over New
York City and in the upstate Rust Belt, where abandoned factories lie fallow, pro-
viding neither jobs, nor open space, nor housing-just monuments to how little we
as a society care about the communities that host them.
Leave it to Albany to muck up what should be a no-brainer. After months of
pleading, negotiation and inside dealmaking on one side (community-based envi-
ronmentalists and developers) or the other (establishment environmental groups in
unlikely alliance with liability-obsessed business interests), the proposals Governor
George Pataki is pushing in the state budget will likely do little to change the shape
of neighborhoods. At the heart of his plans is a $12 million fund for tax credits,
deductions that builders could take to offset the cost of environmental cleanup. The
governor's proposal also provides cash for towns and cities to do their own
cleanup, and even room for limited input from residents who live near development
sites. What it doesn't do, though, is provide incentives for developers to change
their habits.
With such a humble plan in the offing, you'd never know that a group of environ-
mentalists, community developers, bankers, builders and lawyers conferred and
compromised to adopt a proposal-one that takes advantage of the lessons learned
from other states' successes and screw-ups. The group, called the Brownfields
Coalition, proposes a loan fund (and tax credits) for cleanup, and its bill releases
property buyers from having to pay to clean up old pollution. Other provisions link
the required level of clean-up to on the eventual use of a site-the max for a day-
care center, less for a cement plant-and provide grants to help cities and commu-
nity-based organizations plan recreational and other projects. On the whole, it pro-
vides a lot of affordable incentives to clean and green areas that need it.
The group is currently courting sponsors for its bill. Now all they have to do is get
past Joseph Brodsky, who chairs the Assembly environmental committee and insists
that New York State must make sure businesses, not taxpayers, foot the bill for environ-
mental cleanup. Brodsky does need to push businesses to pay their fair share. But that
shouldn't stop him and the rest of the legislature from passing an effective brownfields
bill, which will serve as a mandate for getting the private sector to pony up-and will
be worth every penny we spend on it.
Cover photo by Joshua Zuckerman
Alyssa Katz
Editor
City Limits relies on the generous support of its readers and advertisers. as well as the following funders: The Adco
Foundation. The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. The Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock. The Edna
McConnell Clark Foundation. The Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation. The Scherman Foundation. The Hite Foundation. J.P.
Morgan & Co. Incorporated. The Annie E. Casey Foundation. The New York Community Trust. The New York Foundation. The
Taconic Foundation. Deutsche Bank. M& T Bank. Citibank. and Chase Manhattan Bank.
City Limits
Volume XXV Number 4
City Limits is published ten times per year. monthly except
bi-monthly issues in July/August and September/October. by
the City Limits Community Information Service. Inc . a non-
profit organization devoted to disseminating information
concerning neighborhood revitalization.
Publisher: Kim Nauer
Editor: Alyssa Katz
Senior Editor: Kathleen McGowan
Associate Editors: Annia Ciezadlo. Jill Grossman (acting I
Contributing Editors: James Bradley. Wendy Davis.
Michael Hirsch
Intern: Laura Ciechanowski
Design Directi on: Hope Forstenzer
Publ isher's Assistant: Anita Gutierrez
Proofreader: Sandy Socolar
Photographers: Gregory P. Mango. Spencer Platt.
Joshua Zuckerman
Center for an Urban Future:
Director: Neil Kleiman
Research Director: Jonathan Bowles
Family Desk Director: Shalini Ahuja
Board of Directors':
Beverly Cheuvront. New York City Coalition Against Hunger
Ken Emerson
Mark Winston Griffith. Central Brooklyn Partnership
Amber Hewins. Granta
Celia Irvine. Manhattan Borough President's Office
Francine Justa. Neighborhood Housing Services
Andrew Reicher. UHAB
Tom Robbins. Journalist
Makani Themba-Nixon. GRIPP
Pete Williams. National Urban League
"Affiliations for identification only.
Sponsors:
Pratt Institute Center for Community
and Environmental Development
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
Subscription rates are: for individuals and community
groups. $25/0ne Year. $39/Two Years; for businesses.
foundations. banks. government agencies and libraries.
$35/0ne Year. $50/Two Years. Low income. unemployed.
$10/0ne Year.
City Limits welcomes comments and article contributions.
Please include a stamped. self-addressed envelope for retum
manuscripts. Material in City Limits does not necessarily
reflect the opinion of the sponsoring organizations. Send
correspondence to: City Limits. 120 Wall Street. 20th Fl..
New Yorl<. NY 10005. Postmaster: Send address changes to
City Limits. 120 Wall Street. 20th Fl.. New Yorl<. NY 10005.
Subscriber complaints call : 1-800-783-4903
Periodical postage paid
New York. NY 10001
City Limits (lSSN 0199-03301
(212) 479-3344
FAX (212) 344-6457
e-mail : CL@Citylimits.org
On the Web: www.citylimits.org
Copyright 2000. All Rights Reserved. No
portion or portions of this journal may be reprinted with-
out the express permission of the publishers.
City Limits is indexed in the Alternative Press
Index and the Avery Index to Architectural
Periodicals and is available on microfilm from University
Microfilms Intemational. Ann Arbor. MI 48106.
APRIL 2000
FEATURES
Points of Entry
Arriving in America by accident or design, New York's newest residents
can count on only a few things for sure: Paperwork. Prison, for some.
And the well-worn path to finding a job, a place to live and a home.
Once they open doors, immigrants find their work has just begun.
In Sri Lanka, Tamils and Sinhala were at war. In Staten
Island, their conflict comes down to sex and money.
The Garifuna survived enslavement, exile, a massacre, hurricanes
By N.F. P. Fernandes
and a couple of wars. Now they're ready for a party. By Laura Ciechanowski
Jesus told his followers to comfort those in prison. But for
prisoners awaiting political asylum, the INS turned the
Bible into contraband. By Lisa Tozzi
Blurry vision, bewilderment and unshakable grief
greet asylum-seekers who emerge from federal detention. By Karen Kaminsky
Refugees from the bloody war in Kosovo find that New
York City treats them like just another bunch of welfare cheats. By Jill Grossman
The Indo-Caribbeans of Richmond Hill are getting into politics to
protect their down payments on the American dream. By Jyoti Thottam
PROFILE
Fighting Fires with Fire
Anne Devenney's down-to-earth demeanor helped the Northwest
Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition come together-
and her fighting style gave the borough a fighting chance.
PIPELINES
By Jordan Moss
Counting Backwards ~
Going by the numbers, New York City should be getting additional
representatives in Albany. But count on politics as usual to tum
this year's census into another opportunity to core the Big Apple. By Jill Grossman
The Bed-Stuy Bubble ~
Who wants to be a millionaire? In Bed-Stuy, gifting clubs
help everybody get rich-until the music stops. By Matthew Blilnchard
Locked Out ~
Landlords assumed Asian tenants would up with some of their
ugliest tricks, including threatening letters, illegal evictions
and dilapidated apartments. They were wrong. By David Kihara
COMMENTARY
Book Review 130
Just Renew It By Gordon Mayer
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial 2 Ammo 29
Letters 4 Job Ads 31
Briefs 5
Professional
Directory 35

B
~ .
of
NEW YORK
INCORPORATED
Your
Neighborhood
Housing
Insurance
Specialist
For 20Years
We've Been There
ForYou.
R&F OF NEW YORK, INC. has a special
department obtaining and servicing insurance for
tenants, low-income co-ops and not-for-profit
community groups. We have developed competitive
insurance programs based on a careful evaluation
of the special needs of our customers. We have
been a leader from the start and are dedicated to
the people of New York City.
For In/ormation call:
Ingrid Kaminski, Executive Vice President
R&F of New York
One Wall Street Court
New York, NY 10005-3302
212 269-8080 800 635-6002 212 269-8112 (fax)
Boom -or bust?
Community economic development organizations are creating
jobs and revitalizing neighborhoods throughout New York City.
Since 1969, many of these organizations have turned to
Lawyers Alliance for New York for top quality business legal
services.
From structuring local development corporations and merchant
associations to establishing credit unions and community loan
funds, the staff and volunteer attorneys at Lawyers Alliance
understand the legal issues that economic development
organizations face.
To find out if Lawyers Alliance's free or low-cost legal services
can help your organization succeed, call us at 212219-1800.
330 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10001
212 219-1800
www.lany.org
Lawyers Alliance
for New York
Building a Better New York
LETTERS i
,
HOSTILE
EMVIROMMEMT
Bravo to Kemba Johnson and City
Limits for your report "Green With
Envy" (January 2000). While picayune
corrections are to be expected (i.e.-X
is/is not a member of Y coalition), the
overall characterizations of the politics,
players and agendas in conflict over
environmental justice are on target.
There are those who will attempt to spin
the story as personal attacks. Don't
believe the hype (although some of your
captioning choices were unduly harsh).
At bottom, the conflict is over naked
political power plays versus the empow-
erment of indigenous, community-led
environmental movements (which is
what environmental justice was sup-
posed to be all about).
One final note: Mainstream organiza-
tions attempting to install themselves as
intermediaries between environmental
justice activists and their elected repre-
sentatives are in for a rude awakening.
Communities of color have learned bitter
lessons from Robert Moses-style, top-
down planning politics and know how to
deal with would-be powerbrokers. We
will not be relegated to the back of the
environmental bus ever again.
Eddie Bautista
Director of Community Planning
New York Lawyers
for the Public Interest
CORRECTIOMS
In "The New Math" (December
1999), attorney Cathleen Clements
should have been identified as chair of
the Social Welfare Law Committee at the
Association of the Bar of the City of
New York. She is also director of the
Office of Public Policy & CLient Advo-
cacy at the Children's Aid Society.
In "Begin the Running" (March
2000), City Council candidate Rocky
Chin should have been identified as an
attorney at the New York City Human
Rights Commission, and June Eisland's
soon-to-be-open Bronx seat is in District
11,notI2.
CITY LIMITS
Bedfellows
Won't You Be My L a b o r ~ A
B
illary Cli nton isn't shy about shop-
ping around for what she (and the
Democratic National Committee)
wants. Open Senate seat? She'll take
it. And now that she's an official New
Yorker, Clinton is taking full advantage of the
state's oddball election laws. New York allows
"fusion tickets" in which a candidate goes on the
ballot with the backing of more than one political
party. In fact, no one has won a Senate seat in
decades without at least two endorsements-one
major, one minor.
Enter the Working Families Party. In the two
years of its existence, this alliance of labor
unions and grassroots activists has gone from a
long-overdue idea to a small but unmistakable
force in state politics. In 1999, its candidates
won more than a hundred races statewide, and
the party helped the Democrats stage major
upsets in Nassau County. The year before, it
backed Peter Vallone in his failed bid for gover-
nor, but Working Families got what it wanted:
APRIL 2000
the 50,000 votes it needed to secure a coveted
line on the state ballot.
Now WFP is putting that arsenal to use. It has
all but endorsed Hillary Clinton, and the First
Lady has readily accepted the overture. A Febru-
ary Working Families fundraiser showed why: The
reception room at the Sheraton New York was
crammed with folks who antagonize Rudolph
Giuliani for a living.
Call it Hillary's vast left-wing conspiracy.
Judging by the turnout, she may be the only thing
Legal Aid honchos, anti-waste transfer station agi-
tators, neighborhood rebuilders and rabble-
rousers, everyone Rudy ever beat, an alphabet
soup of progressive labor leaders, an army of
Dinkinistas, and half the editors of The Nation
have in common.
''This is our coming-out party," beamed party
co-chair Bertha Lewis, who as Brooklyn head
organizer of ACORN is more accustomed to fight-
ing the mighty-most recently pushing developer
Bruce Ratner to pay living wages to workers at his
malls-than she is partnering with one of the most
powerful political figures in the country. "You
have turned low-income people into the most pow-
erful voice in New York politics!" Lewis later con-
gratulated the crowd, with a suitably political dose
of hyperbole.
But don't expect to hear Clinton stump for the
disenfranchished so loudly-that's what she's
keeping Working Families around to do, says
Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf.
"It protects her left," says Sheinkopf, explaining
that Working Families can court union members
and other progressives to the polls with relatively
radical proposals-like living wages and single-
payer health care-without tainting Hillary's care-
fully crafted image as a centrist. "What this race is
about is her trying to move him to the right and
him pushing her to the left, so anything that pro-
tects her left helps."
Including, it would seem, a roomful of donors
with collective eons of experience making trouble.
-Alyssa Katz
w
Briem ........ --------...... ---------------
Federally Subsidized Summer Jobs by Neighborhood, 1999
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
o
Morrisania GreenpointJ
Williamsburg
Bedford-
Stuyvesant
Brownsville Lower
EastSide
Rockaway
Youth Jobs
Swnmer
Freeze
T
his year, New York City could lose
two-thirds of the roughly 40,000 subsi-
dized summer jobs for teenagers it
offered last year. Big changes in feder-
al jobs policy emphasize year-round
work and jobs for teens who are out of school,
draining much of the limited pool of federal cash
away from summer employment.
The governor is also allowed to skim off 15
percent of the federal funds for any jobs-related
use he wants, including simply using the money
to keep his state offices running. And so far, the
state and the city haven' t promised to come up
with any new cash for summer jobs.

Predictably, the . hit hardest in poor
neighborhoods. above, drawn from
numbers gather by United Neighborhood
Houses, mak it clear: While communities like
Bay Ridge and Forest Hills only had a ft;w score
of these jobs last summer, Morningside Heights,
Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York rely
heavily on these subsidies.
"Some neighborhoods could be losing a mil-
lion or two million dollars worth of income that
would certainly be spent locally," points out
UNH's Doug Turetsky. "What other opportunities
will these kids have to work?"
It's not just the poorest districts; even some of
the city's better-off neighborhoods put a lot of kids
to work through these programs. Borough Park,
for example, had 823 summer youth jobs last year;
Jackson Heights had 778, and Greenpoint and
Williamsburg had 1,897. UNH is now pushing the
state and city governments to replace the lost fed-
eral funding.
-Kathleen McGowan
Homelessness
Checkmate in
policies that w d toss families who
don't work out of city shelters and place
their children in foster care, a coalition
of the city's shelter operators did a rare
thing: They took a stand.
Now, the city's Department of Homeless Ser-
vices is literally making them pay for their
audacity.
In December, the Tier II Coalition, which
includes 42 of the groups that operate the city's
homeless shelters, encouraged its members to
refuse to implement the mayor's new policies.
(Tier II shelters provide emergency housing for
about 3,600 families every year, billing the city
for the service.) Nearly all of them joined the
boycott, and the majority skipped a special train-
ing session that DHS had organized to teach them
the new rules.
By February, at least a half-dozen of them
were wondering what happened to their checks.
Normally, DHS pays shelter operators each
month for the families they housed the month
before. But many shelters instead got notice that
their checks were stopped, with instructions to
call DHS Commissioner Martin Oesterreich's
office for a knuckle-rapping.
"Basically, they were reprimanded for having
taken a position in opposition to the city and were
re-read the rules in terms of compliance with con-
tracts, attending meetings, and toeing the line,"
says Gloria Nussbaum, executive director of the
Tier II Coalition. "It was a little routine that folks
had to go through."
Shelter operators report that after they visited
the commissioner's office, their checks appeared
to be freed up and were going through the normal
administrative check-cutting process. "[Oesterre-
ich] did release our money," says one shelter
operator, who asked not to be identified for fear
of retribution. "I think he just wanted people to
call up and grovel." DHS did not return repeated
calls for comment.
'''That the administration has used the contract-
ing process to seek revenge against critics is not
new; that's why HUD has taken away the city's
control of federal homeless funding," points out
Legal Aid homeless policy expert Steve Banks.
"It's clearly an attempt to chill criticism of a com-
pletely misguided shelter plan."
Mayor Giuliani threatened back in December
to shut down any shelters that disobeyed his new
rules. The regulations, hung up in court, have not
yet been put in place.
-Kathleen McGowan
CITY LI MITS
n ........ --------...... ---------------Brie&
I A VISIT TO THE NEW MUSEUM OF TIIhNYPD I-
i '! . I' . ' f I \ ~
" ~
~
"DON'T REACH FOR IT! "
rn
c
EVRYl)AY OBJEcrs COPS COMMONLY MISTAKE FOR GllNS
~
. ~
=
W
hile state and banking officials
trumpet the cost-cutting results of
the new Electronic Benefit Transfer
(EBT) system, poor New Yorkers
getting their food stamps and cash
welfare benefits with their new plastic cards won-
der if they're the ones paying the price.
Washington Heights, for example, has one of
the highest concentrations of welfare recipients in
the city. Yet cash access in the neighborhood is
much more limited than state and banking offi-
cials have promised.
On its web site, the state Office of Temporary
and Disability Assistance lists 47 stores and gro-
ceries in northern Washington Heights that accept
the EBT card for both food and cash benefits. But
a City Limits survey of 21 of those stores raises sig-
nificant questions about the state's claims. While all
but one of the stores do in fact accept EBT cards for
food stamp purchases, 11 of them-more than 50
percent-do not currently allow customers to
access their cash benefits. Customers can use their
cards to buy food, but they can't withdraw money
APRIL 2000
to buy clothes or pay bills.
The 10 merchants who did offer cash benefits
say that they limit the amount av ' Ie and that
they often do not have y cash fo stomers at all.
The owner of Bani ery ore, at 126 Nagle
Avenue, says that he h 't ' en out much cash to
customers. "Why w ople come here for .
cash?" he asked. "W offer $25, and most
people need more th that 0 pay their bills."
In addition, eight of the stores had no visi-
ble sign advertising EBT.
Sarah Ludwig, director of the Neighborhood
Economic Development Advocacy Project, is con-
vinced that the state's list of AIMs is deliberately
misleading, because it lists sites that don't actual-
Housing
Iy offer cash. ''There's a total misrepresentation
about which locations are actually cash access
sites," she claims. "Some of those listed require a
purchase; others charge a fee."
Customers who do find a store with cash
access may then be stuck paying a fee. "For a sin-
gle person who receives the standard $352 a
month in benefits-barely enough to live on-he
or she might make four separate withdrawals,"
explains caseworker Jenny Socorro of Seniors
Helping Seniors, which offers assistance to poor
elderly people. ''That's $8 to $10 in fees they
didn't have to pay before."
State and Citibank officials failed to return
calls for comment. -Matt Pacenza
In February, the Clinto Administration released a
Hun VOUCHES
. FOR IT
good-news budget for. housing. All eyes are
on one catchwo . . This budget proposal, S6
billion higher ast y 's, requests 120,000 new
vouchers for Section 8 subsidized housing. In New York City, where more than 200,000 families
now sit on an eight-year wait list for these certificates, that could help about 6,000 households.
The plans also include:
* 32,000 vouchers to help welfare recipients find stable housing near job opportunities;
* 18,000 focusing on homeless programs;
*10,000 designed to be combined with tax credit money, in a new initiative to build apart-
ments for very poor families. -Jill Grossman

Fighti ng Fires With Fire
The woman who told the Bronx "Don't move-improve" leaves a powerful legacy.
PROFILE i By Jordan Moss
__ ...... -.l'
:M
T
he Northwest Bronx Community
and Clergy Coalition would proba-
bly have succeeded in saving a
chunk of the borough without Anne
Devenney. After all, dozens of leaders
emerged to drive the influential commu-
nity organizing group and its 10 neigh-
borhood-based affiliates. But those who
worked with the folksy grandmother-
turned-rabble-rouser, who died in Janu-
ary at age 79, say it wouldn't have been as
much fun without her.
The coalition also might not have
yielded perhaps its finest accomplish-
ment: finding common cause across
neighborhood and racial boundaries. That
made it practically impossible for politi-
cians and bureaucrats to divide and con-
quer the Northwest Bronx by appeasing
some communities and ignoring others.
In the early 1970s, when tens of thou-
sands of fires a year consumed the South
Bronx and crept northward, and when
bankers and insurance companies sud-
denly abandoned entire zip codes, activist
Anne Devenney emerged to help the
fledgling coalition fight back, with humor
and without fear.
"The Irish wit that the good Lord gave
me held me many a time when I could ha
cried," she said in an interview last year.
Devenney was a heavy woman who
looked older than she was. She wore
loose-fitting dresses and didn' t get
gussied up for the work she did, save
maybe the time she received an honorary
doctorate from Fordham University.
The late
Anne Devenney
helped
bridge Bronx
neighborhoods-
and got the city
to pay attention.
People were not intimidated by Deven-
ney, except for the city bureaucrats and
bank executives who frequently met their
match in a likable, plainspeaking senior
citizen who didn't take no for an answer.
And her easy, approachable demeanor
brought many others into the fold.
John Reilly, who worked closely with
Devenney when he was a young organizer
in the 1970s, described her appeal this way:
"You see someone that you admire and you
think, I'd like to be like that person. What
was different about admiring Anne was that
you had the sense that you were like that
person. The qualities she had were things
ment and the city's unwillingness to step in,
passed the collection plates to form an
activist group to be staffed by young college
graduates and interns. Picking up the orga-
nizing lessons of Saul Alinsky and others,
the coalition set out to develop locally
grown leadership that would turn the tide.
Devenney, then in her mid-fifties, was
identified as a leader by her pastor at St.
Brendan's Church in the Norwood sec-
tion, an Irish and Jewish enclave tucked
neatly above Mosholu Parkway and
below Woodlawn Cemetery. The task at
hand was a far cry from the Altar and
Rosary Society, which she headed for 20
years. But Devenney, born in Hell 's
Kitchen to an Irish immigrant and his
Irish-American wife, knew a little bit
about what she was getting into. The
youngest of eight children, Devenney
would tag along with her father, who
tended boilers in Manhattan buildings, as
he picketed for labor causes. On the occa-
CITVLlMITS

sions they ended up on the receiving end of a tomato
or egg, Devenney's dad would tell her, "It don't hurt-
we can wash our clothes."
At a time when the fiscal crisis was an excuse for
doing nothing to improve city services, Devenney and
her neighbors were surprisingly successful in wring-
ing out their fair share from bureaucrats inclined to
write off the Bronx. Devenney looked after her neigh-
borhood, fighting r park improvements and safer
streets and helpin sa the 52nd Precinct, which city
budget-cutters w ted t merge with in Riverdale.
Her neighbor ood, la::l wn i oalitIOn parlance as
Mosholu Woodl n for it rders to the north and
south, was hard immu om racism, and the tone
of community nvolv ent ould easily have been
parochial. But v ney woul have none of it. Earli-
er" than anyone else, she reco
S
ome of the issues-like disinvestment by banks
and insurance companies-were complex. But
Devenney, who dropped out of high school to
take a job at Woolworth's, translated it into the under-
standable language of neighborhood survival. "You
didn't have to feel like you needed to get an MBA in
order to be able to follow an insurance or banking
agenda," says Jim Buckley, who was executive direc-
tor of the coalition during Devenney's tenure as pres-
ident of the board from 1979 to 1984. "And I think
that had a lot to do with the way Anne ran a meeting,
and the way she explained an issue."
Devenney further popularized tough issues by effort-
lessly corning up with slogans that became rallying
calls. "Don't move-improve" was her most famous.
The coalition also made waves by going to places
where it wasn't welcome.
nized that the coalition's neigh-
borhoods would fare better if
they formed a united front. The
coalition had issue committees
that leaders from different affili-
ates collaborated on, but it was
Devenney who literally walked
the walk, traveling to neighbor-
hoods to work on issues that
sometimes had little to do with
Mosholu Woodlawn.
The issues were
complex, but
Anne Devenney
translated them
Devenney and her neighbors
were not shy about showing up
at a corporate board meeting or
the private home of a landlord
or city commissioner. Their tar-
gets often felt the tactic-
known as a "hit"-went over
the line.
But Devenney believed they
had every right to be there
because their own homes were
in jeopardy. "No man is so
above us, or woman, that we
can't go where they live," she
said. With a joke or a glance,
Devenney was able to defuse
the tension inherent in such
confrontations. "You can't pos-
sibly be mad at us," was the
tone she easily conveyed, says
Reilly. "What would you
Reilly remembers an early
jaunt to Crotona that he believes
set the stage for the organiza-
tion's later development. The city
had cleared four square blocks of
apartment buildings in Crotona
for a new Fordham Hospital.
After the plan was abandoned-
another fiscal crisis casualty-
the city added insult to injury by
using the vacant lots as a dump-
into the
language of
neighborhood
survival.
ing ground for street cleaning trucks. Devenney insist-
ed on traveling to Crotona, at the southern end of the
coalition's turf, to support coalition leader Astin
Jacobo and his neighbors for a meeting with the San-
itation Department at St. Martin of Tours church.
"I think at that time there was still some concern
whether all these neighborhoods were going to work
together, that they were going to see their common
interest," Reilly recalls. "They weren't that sure that
[the Northwest Bronx coalition] wasn't just set up for
the neighborhoods that were whiter to keep other peo-
ple out." But when Devenney came down, Jacobo told
Reilly, it gave him a new outlook on what the coalition
could accomplish. Devenney and the Dominican
Jacobo called themselves "Salt and Pepper," and they
continued to collaborate over the years.
Reflected Devenney, "Even though I lived up in
[Mosholu Woodlawn], it was 10 neighborhoods that I
was always fighting for-never one park, never one
hospital, never one neighborhood."
APRIL 2000
expect us to do? We told you
we'd come here if we didn't get this."
The issues have changed a little, but the coalition
still bridges divides of race and geography, its neigh-
borhoods uniting to organize for school construction
and real community policing. Devenney's legacy also
survives in coalition veterans who continue working
for community renewal.
A self-described "short, shy Puerto Rican house-
wife" named Dalma De La Rosa became everything
but shy once she got involved with the coalition to
save her near-abandoned building. She credits her
friend and mentor with sending many people on the
path to neighborhood leadership, including herself-
like Devenney, she ended up president of the coalition.
"There are people that come into your life that kind of
point the way you want to go, " she says. "Anne was
that kind of icon."
Jordan Moss is editor of the Norwood News, a Bronx
community paper.
NANCY
HARDY
Insurance
Broker
Specializing in
Community
Development
Groups,
HDFCs and
Nonprofits.
Low .. Cost
Insurance and
Quality Service.
Over 20 Years
of Experience.
270 North
Avenue, New
Rochelle, NY
10801
914 .. 654 .. 8667


Counting Backwards
The census could give the city more Albany muscle-if legislators do 't give voters the shaft.
PIPELI NE i By Jill Grossman
........... w..l'
E
very year, the New York State Legis-
lature plays the same game. Democ-
rats control the Assembly, the Repub-
licans own the Senate, the two parties lock
horns, and very little gets done. The product
of an agreement between the two parties,
this setup keeps the powerful in power. It
could also get overturned by the next census.
In upstate New York, more and more
residents are leaving, fleeing troubled
local economies. Population estimates
suggest that upstate counties have lost
nearly 2 percent of their residents since
1990. At the same time, immigration and a
mini baby boom in the city are swelling
the downstate population
could shift the balance of party power-<>r
keep it just the way it is.
''It can't be said definitively how this will
play out," admits Doug Forand, a staffer to
Senate Minority Leader Martin Connor. But
one thing's for sure, he says: Republicans
"are going to do anything they can to mini-
mize the population in New York City."
I
n its last few surveys, the Census
Bureau has been plagued by embarrass-
ing undercounts. The errors were partic-
ularly bad in urban areas: Census officials
figure they missed about 277,fXXJ New York
State residents in
. l's Name?
What IS Person
last Name
\ \
First Name
\ \ \ \
Is this person ower upstate?
, party status?
What is thiS person s o Eager to keep P Sheldon Silver in
o looking to keep
o Democrat
o Republican
o Gutta luck
10M
charge? ther late budget?
O
looking for ano . k?
. Albany in gndl
oC
.
o Keeping
What is this person's .race?
o To win-again and again
by about the same amount.
The numbers suggest that New York
City stands to gain a couple of seats in the
Assembly and one more vote in the Senate;
Manhattan's population, for instance, has
grown by 4 percent in the last decade. Once
the census figures come out next spring,
these population shifts ought to have a big
impact on the state power structure.
But count on politics as usual to get in
the way. New York now faces the same
showdown over census data that launched
Washington into a partisan war over con-
gressional seats. Albany has to decide how
to play the census numbers, a decision that
1990. More than 85 percent
or the undercount was in the city.
So for 2fXXJ, the feds planned to use sta-
tistical sampling to correct raw headcount
data-a decision that became embroiled in
politics. Democrats favor sampling because
it is likely to tally more poor and minority
voters, who tend to vote left; Republicans
prefer headcounts. Eventually, the Supreme
Court ruled that federal districts must be
drawn using only headcount numbers.
But state legislatures are allowed to
choose which set of numbers to use. For the
city, the implications of this choice are pro-
found. Had Big Apple residents been prop-
erly counted in 1990, the city could have
won two new seats in the Assembly and
possibly another in the State Senate.
The s e high. Republicans' hold on
e Se has become precarious: After
o . ating r more than 50 years, their
argin over e Democrats is now only six
seats. The last . g Republicans can afford
is a new Senate eat in heavily Democratic
New York City.
Chances are, though, that lawmakers
will find a way to maintain the old order. In
1982, Assembly Democrats and Senate
Republicans hashed out an understanding
that each house would handle its own redis-
tricting. The parties promised to draw lines
so Dems would get to keep their margin of
seats in the Assembly, and the Republicans
would hold on to the Senate. As a result,
most districts have ended up overwhelm-
ingly Democratic or Republican, virtually
guaranteeing incumbents reelection.
'There's a deliberate effort to minimize
competition," says Blair Homer, legislative
director for the New York Public Interest
Research Group.
With the parties firmly in control of the
process, a lot of political maneuvering goes
into carving the state into new districts. A
task force crunches the numbers and holds
perfunctory public hearings, while elected
officials negotiate the details behind closed
doors. Legislators have argued for, and
won, lines redrawn in order to include their
apartments, or, in some cases, to draw an
elected official out of his district in hopes
of removing him from the legislature.
Retired Democratic Senator Franz Leichter
was "districted out" twice by Republicans
during his 30 years in office, forcing him to
move to stay inside district lines.
It's too early to tell if dealmaking will
quash the city's chances at getting a new
Senate seat. The outcome is especially
unpredictable because of recent U.S.
Supreme Court decisions that outlaw dis-
tricts drawn to promote the election of
minority candidates-something that's
been done extensively in the city.
Good government groups have called
for an independent commission to oversee
the redistricting process. Common Cause,
for one, is hoping to put forth a bill in the
next couple of months. But observers point
out that challenges are unlikely to fly: leg-
islators have repeatedly introduced similar
bills calling for an independent districting
body, which invariably go nowhere .
CITY LIMITS
.
.,

The Bed-Stuy Bubble
A wave of "gifting clubs" spreads wealth around Brooklyn,
bringing hope-and high risk-to desperate investors.
By Matthew Blanchard
prayer.
''Lord, protect us from all and
anoint us with the capability to become
wealthy. Amen." With that, the 20 people
assembled here at Bedford-Stuyvesant's
Elim International Fellowship Church take
their seats.
Everyone in the mostly female crowd
wears the tired expression that comes with
being not at all wealthy during this era of go-
go IPOs on Wall Street But tonight, with
their kids in tow, they've come to this Evan-
gelical church to witness their own financial
miracle. They've come to hear how-with a
little help from Wade, who presides at the
front of the room-they can tum their
friends, family and business associates into
"money, cash money."
The process is easy. Participants give a
$2,000 "gift" to enter the group, and if they
can recruit enough new members to come in
behind them with the same gift, they'll
receive $16,000 in just a few weeks. After
giving $500 back to the club for expenses,
the money is theirs to keep. ''Now what kind
of bank pays you that kind of dividend?"
asks Wade, raising her arms above her round
body in an exaggerated shrug. ''What kind
of CD matures that quickly?
''We are all increasing the circle of
money and friends," she says. ''This is
God's work."
If "God's work" sounds like a pyramid
scheme, that's because fundamentally, it
is. To make a profit, club members must
pull in an ever-larger number of new
investors to pass their cash up the pyramid.
When that pool of recruits dries up, the
club will have to collapse, and the latest
investors will find that the cash they gave
to a stranger won't be coming back.
It's an ancient financial girnrnick, bor-
rowwing from Peter to pay an 800 percent
return on Paul's investment. Such "Ponzi
schemes" are illegal in most states, includ-
ing New York. Yet gifting clubs are thriving.
Last year, a group called Amigos Associates
Social Club tore through New Jersey, draw-
ing in more than 4,000 people before
authorities shut it down in September.
APRIL 2000
Since then, devoted Arnigos members
have taken gifting underground, resurfacing
with splinter groups like Wade's. Organiz-
ers claim that gifting clubs have now taken
root in all five boroughs, Long Island, Con-
necticut and VIrginia.
Wade tells participants they have Bish-
op Wilbert McKinley to thank for their gift-
ing club. McKinley is head pastor at Elirn,
a thriving congregation in a trio of well-
kept buildings on Madison Street. McKin-
ley reportedly brought gifting to Elirn after
participating in a similar club and using his
winnings to buy supplies for the church.
Wade and McKinley both refuse to dis-
cuss the club, its finances, or its connec-
tion to the church. The amount of money
flowing through the club is sizable--each
time a recruiter cashes out, he or she gives
$500 back to the club for "expenses." Ten
rounds would produce $127,500.
Meetings are never publicized, and
admission is by invitation only. The goal,
according to organizers, is to "create a
strong economic base for members and
their communities."
Participants, too, insist that gifting is
no scam but a cooperative effort to lift
people out of financial limbo. Your
$2,000 doesn't go to Merrill Lynch, they
point out, but straight back into the com-
munity, where a neighbor or friend will
use it to buy a home, start a business or
send their kids to college. In that sense,
Pastor Wade's gifting club is a deeply
flawed but effective grassroots lending
network, helping at least some of its
members help themselves.
One member is counting on Wade's
payoff to save his stalled career. Once an
F
PIPELINE i
. ,

fW
Once an adjunct lecturer at Queens Col-
lege, he was just six credits shy of his mas-
ter's degree in political science when insol-
vency forced him to quit in 1991. Now he
supports his two children with a job at a
foster care agency, work he describes as
stressful and depressing. An extra $16,000
could mean everything. "It would certainly
help me payoff my student loans," he says.
For Wade, if gifting can help people like
him get their lives on track, it's nothing less
than a step toward racial justice. "When
black folks realized they didn't have to sit
at the back of the bus, they started standing
up," she explained at a recent meeting.
'That's what we're talking about here."
A
nd so the clubs persist, simply
because participants, many of
whom Uve from paycheck to pay-
check, desperately need the money. At a
time when huge fortunes are being built on
nothing but the uncertain promise of com-
panies' future earnings, gifting doesn't
sound like such an outlandish gamble.
Making $16,000 is pretty easy. All an
investor needs to do is find two frie s ill-
ing to join a pyramid, or "ship," of 5
pie: eight at the bottom, four and two in th
middle rungs and a "team captain" on top.
Those who can't come up with a $2,
entry gift can join $500 or $100 s . s.
Inevitably, though, this magi al ro-
cess has its limitations. Just 10 ounds
would put $16,000 in the hands of 255
people, but it would require the participa-
tion of over 2,000 others. Twenty rounds
would call on most of Brooklyn's 2.3 mil-
lion residents, and 32 would involve bil-
lions more than are currently alive on
Earth. None of this dissuades gifting club
participants, who say their enterprise will
never collapse because winners must rein-
vest $2,000 of their take after each round.
While economists say this recycling strat-
egy only postpones collapse, members
appear convinced they will prevail.
"How can you run out of people?" asks
club member Dennis McNeil. "Everybody
knows somebody. It's called networking:
talking to total strangers and showing them
that this can help their lives." And McNeil
THERE IS NO SUCH
THING AS A FREE LUNCH
But there is free legal assistance
Not-for-profits, community groups and organizations working to improve their
communities in New York City are eligible for free legal assistance through New
York Lawyers for the Public Interest's (NYLPI) pro bono clearinghouse. The
clearinghouse draws on the expertise of lawyers at our 79 member law firms and
corporate legal departments.
Our network of attorneys can work with you
on a wide variety of legal issues:
Establishing your group as a not-for-profit
Lease negotiations and other real estate matters
Establishing a long-term relationship with one of our member law firms
Representing your in litigation matters
If you believe your organization can benefit from legal assistance,
call Bryan Pu-Folkes at (212) 244-4664, or email at
bpufolkes@nylpi.org to see if you qualify.
All legal services are free of charge.
NYLPI, 151 West 30th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10001-4007
has an enticing sales pitch. Last year, he
wo 16,000 from Arnigos, a considerable
st for a former UPS driver who now
makes less than $30,000 a year as a foster
care caseworker. With his next payout,
cNeil hopes to move his family from the
B nx to Westchester or Long Island.
cNeil was one of hundreds to win big
with 'gos Associates, which was, before
the po . ce stepped in, the mother of all gift-
ing clubs. Meetings were held in the Garden
State Exhibition Center, where on a single
night last June more than 1,048 people gift-
ed a total of $2,096,000 to 131 team cap-
tains. Arnigos founder Linda K. Shepard, a
church musician and music store owner,
publicized the events and reportedly invited
law enforcement agents to attend.
Shepard assured the crowds that every-
thing was legal because gifts under $10,000
are exempt from IRS scrutiny. But the state
Division of Consumer Affairs didn't buy it.
A judge fined Arnigos $200,000 and barred
it from doing business in New Jersey.
The court, however, did not find Shep-
ard herself liable for any damages. After a
year's work, she had kept only $40,000,
diverting thousands of dollars to soup
kitchens, musical groups, a credit counsel-
ing program and a relief effort for the
flood-devastated town of Bound Brook.
According to judge and prosecutor alike,
Shepard walked a fine line between chari-
ty and fraud but never intended to do any
harm. "She's just an honest, God-fearing
woman who was trying to do something
good," says Mark S. Herr, director of the
New Jersey State Division of Consumer
Affairs. "She truly believed her gifting sys-
tem was going to help people."
For better or worse, say church leaders
in the neighborhood, these kinds of
arrangements have long been part of the
Bed-Stuy economy. 'These things resur-
face every five years or so," says Colvin
Grannum, the director of the Bridge Street
Local Development Corporation who, for
a brief period during the 1980s, fell prey to
a scheme then called the "airplane game."
'There was almost a religious fervor to
it," Grannum recalls. 'They were running
them out of church halls and people were
bringing in their mothers and fathers. I can
tell you, no one was trying to screw any-
body. I think they just didn't understand
what they were doing."
Matthew Blanchard is a Brooklyn-based
freelance writer.
CITY LIMITS
.
...
..
Locked Out
With help from the feds, A i n tenants strike back at bigoted landlords.
By David Kihara
T
wo years ago, Jyothi Desai an
husband decided to move from their
apartment on Roosevelt Island to
Queens. She called several real estate bro-
kers, all of whom were very friendly over
the phone. "You can tell I don't really have
an accent, unless it's an upstate New York
accent," says Desai, who moved from
India to the United States when she was
seven. But when she arrived at the real
estate brokers' offices, she says, she was
treated much differently.
"When my husband and I showed up in
person, we were often shown shoddy
apartments in areas we didn't want to live
in," Desai recalls. "Also, some of the real-
tors would never call us back after meeting
them. One even asked for a $25 cash
deposit for a credit check but refused to
give us a receipt."
A friend eventually referred her to
Asian Americans for Equality, a civil
rights group that operates a four-year-old
program fighting housing discrimination.
AAFE investigated and eventually filed a
case with the federal Department of Hous-
ing and Urban Development. The realtors
settled. In addition to awarding the Desais
a few thousand dollars, the brokers agreed
to attend a training session reminding
them of a basic rule of the business: Dis-
criminating against tenants and buyers on
the basis of race is illegal.
The bias Desai faced is hardly uncom-
mon these days. On the Lower East Side,
where vacant tenement apartments can
fetch $2,000 a month, landlords have
threatened to report Asian tenants to immi-
gration authorities and have posted signs
falsely warning residents that they must
vacate. In Queens, landlords commonly
force Korean and Chinese tenants to pay
hundreds of dollars for "key deposits" that
they will never get back.
And in cases in which Asian tenants do
find themselves in demand, it's for the
worst possible reasons: Landlords trying
to rent out dilapidated apartments-seek-
ing tenants who will not complain if hot
water is not running or paint is peeJing-
have been known to search out Chinese or
Korean tenants on the belief that these
renters will not fight back.
Landlords often base that assumption
APRIL 2000
stereotypes about Asian-Americans, but
the e also on to an uncomfortable truth.
In a city where generations of organizers
have pushed black and Latino tenants to
resist housing discrimination, many Asian
tenants remain uninformed of their rights.
That's finally been changing, as AAFE
and other groups working with Asian-
Americans, including the Committee
Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV),
embark on campaigns to make sure the
city's Asian residents understand and act
on their right to decent homes without
harassment.
AAFE looms largest among them. This
year, it's getting $687,291 from HUD to
educate and Worm the city's Asian tenants
of their rights-nearly double the amount
it received last year. ''First- and second-
generation Asian immigrants are finally
coming forward with their cases of discrim-
ination," says Chris Punongbayan, who
counsels tenants at AAFE's Fair Housing
Office in Flushing. 'The number of com-
plaints filed with HUD have been pretty
steady, but the number of people coming to
us for help is increasing."
With the city's Asian population expect-
ed to reach 800,000 with the next census,
the potential for harassment and discrimi-
nation is only growing. Organizing groups
from ACORN to Los Sures have worked
for decades to educate black and Latino
communities about housing discrimination.
Other groups translate HUD materials into
Spanish and help tenants navigate intimi-
dating housing courts. Asian organizations,
by contrast, have provided these services
for just five or six years.
"I think the Asian community is not in
the same place as their black and Latino
counterparts," concedes Punongbayan.
"But we've reached a critical mass. Now
we just have to start really organizing."
L
ately, Chinatown has become a par-
ti.cularl
Y
heated battleground.
Increasingly trendy, it's experienc-
s
PIPEliNE i
,
At 15. Peter Bit
(right) organized
his neighbors
against a lousy
landlord. with
advice from Eric
Tang of the
Committee
Against
Anti-Asian
Violence.
-e

e.
ing skyrocketing rents and a three percent
housing vacancy rate. Although most apart-
ments are rent-regulated-their landlords
cannot evict tenants without cause and can
only charge limited rent increases-
changes that went into effect three years
ago have left current tenants increasingly
vulnerable. Now owners can raise rents on
these apartments by anywhere from 18 to
30 percent or more-if they can get rid of
the current tenants.
Ai Ling Chan understands the depths
to which landlords will sink. Last Febru-
ary, her landlord told her family they had
to leave so he could renovate the building.
He soon began harassing Chan, her hus-
band and their three children, cutting off
their heat, then turning off the electricity.
Chan, who paid $850 for a two-bedroom,
says the landlord also carne by every
morning and pounded on her door with a
hammer, demanding they move out.
"Where could I go? I couldn't find an
apartment that I could afford," says Chan
through an interpreter. "We had a lease,
but that didn't matter to him." With
AAFE's help, they found a new apartment
in Chinatown.
The owner of another building, at 229
Elizabeth Street, sent a letter to his Asian
tenants-but not his non-Asian renters-
demanding that they supply him with birth
certificates and passport photos for every-
one living in their apartments. The letter
also stated that anyone who refused would
be reported to the Immigration and Natu-
ralization Service-unexpected news for
the many recipients who were legal immi-
grants. The landlord, Hanan Ofer, denies
sending the letter.
The tenants brought their case to
AAFE, but they were reluctant to bring a
formal complaint to HUD or even confront
the landlord. ''There is a lot of fear in the
Asian community," says Margaret Chin,
deputy executive director for AAFE.
''They don't know the laws, they're afraid
of landlords and they're afraid of harass-
ment. Even the tenants who received the
letters didn't want to fight it. They didn't
know if anything would get done."
After briefing the tenants in Korean on
their rights and the law, Chin says, she
eventually convinced them to file a com-
plaint with HUD's Office of Fair Housing.
HUD is still investigating.
Playing enforcer for a U.S. government
agency is a long way from AAFE's roots
as a Marxist organization notorious for its
Landlords take
advantage
of an
uncomfortable
truth: Many
Asi
do
protests against police brutality. Spurred
into housing work by a 1985 Chinatown
fire that left more than 125 tenants home-
less, AAFE has since become an establish-
ment force; with an annual budget around
$2 million, it has come to own 450 low-
income units and manage 25 buildings in
New York City.
Since 1997, AAFE has filed seven
complaints of racial discrimination with
HUD. During that time, HUD's New York
regional office has received just 33 com-
plaints of discrimination based on race or
national origin-a tiny portion of the 691
discrimination cases filed.
Chin says the numbers don't tell the
whole story. "Getting people to file a
complaint is different than experiencing
discrimination. In many cases, people
will come to us with complaints, but they
won't take it to the next step and file offi-
cial complaints." Chin says in some
cases, bad experiences with police or
government officials in their homelands
keep tenants quiet.
AAFE also conducts its own investiga-
tions. In cases like the Desais', involving
steering by realtors to undesirable apart-
ments' the group employs testers, non-
Asian (usually white) undercover agents
who ask to see apartments in the same
locations and price ranges. HUD finances
the testers, and their accounts often pro-
vide important evidence for investigations.
AAFE also uses its HUD money to trans-
late agency literature into Chinese, Kore-
an, and a few Indian dialects, and to hold
fair housing seminars with landlords.
But AAFE and its education efforts can
only go so far. More than 25,000 Asian
immigrants settle in New York each year,
fresh targets for landlords-like the one in
Queens whose leases relieved him of
responsibility for his buildings' water, heat
or maintenance. The agreements also stat-
ed that the landlord had free access to the
apartments at any time.
Says Punongbayan ruefully, ''The land-
lord rented only to Asian tenants because
he thought they wouldn't fight back."
I
n a building on East 183rd Street in
East Tremont, 18-year-old Peter Bit is
trying to prove the landlords wrong.
With training from the Committee Against
Anti-Asian Violence's Youth Leadership
Project, Bit organized his Cambodian and
Vietnamese neighbors three years ago.
"I was just tired of seeing the Asian
tenants getting pushed around," says Bit,
whose family is from Cambodia. Their
landlord at the time was allegedly sending
tenants phony letters from state officials,
claiming that anyone who complained
about problems-which included rodent
infestations, chipping paint, broken door
locks, and sporadic heat and hot water-
would get evicted.
Starting with five Cambodian families,
Bit eventually got all 10 Asian households
in the building to form a tenants' organiza-
tion. (To his regret, the building's 30 Lati-
no families declined to get involved.) The
tenants drew up demands and took their
landlord to Housing Court, where they
won an order for the problems to be fixed.
The hardest part, says Bit, was convincing
neighbors that he could bring a valid case
in court at his young age.
Eric Tang heads the Youth Leadership
Project, a coalition of young Asians
involved in community activism. Besides
promoting tenant organizing, the group
has held workshops on police brutality and
protested Governor George Pataki's failure
to provide resources for immigrants.
Tang says landlords are going to have
to get used to upstarts like Bit. ''There
might be a common perception that Asians
in general won't organize, but I think for
the most part this is manufactured," says
Tang. ''If it's 10 degrees out and you don't
have heat, you're not going to just sit there
and be servile. Saying Asians are docile is
a myth."
David Kihara is a Manhattan-based free-
lance writer.
CITVLlMITS
-"
APRIL 2000
It's a story with almost as many
variations as there have been
newcomers. As immigrant groups arrive,
they all find new ways of doing the same
thing: becoming New Yorkers. Six
stories show how unlikely business
ventures, tenuous political movements,
hostile government bureacracies and
neglected neighborhoods provide vital
footholds in a slippery new world.
Ethnic strife isn't what
splits a Sri Lankan
enclave. It's porn.
Video porn shops
give some Sri
Lankans a
viable-but
embarrassing-
way to make a
living.
-
by N.F.P. Fernandes
I
n 1967, when Leslie Gunaratne first saw the spanking new
apartment block in Staten Island's Park Hill Section, he
knew it was going to be perfect. The 31-year-old accountant
had emigrated from Sri Lanka only six weeks before, and
New York was still an unfamiliar and somewhat intimidating blur.
Living out of a rent-by-the-month hotel in Manhattan, he urgent-
ly needed to find a place for his wife and three children.
That's when he found Staten Island. A colleague stepped in,
organizing a house-hunting trip through the borough, assuring
Gunaratne that it was far more congenial than Manhattan-and
cheaper.
Gunaratne was charmed by Staten Island's slower rhythms and
small-town feel. The streets were quiet, and there was lots of open
space for his children to play in. "I simply fell in love with Staten
Island," he recalls.
For the Gunaratne family, Staten Island was a convenient respite,
a lucky accident. But for the thousands of Sri Lankans that were to
follow them, this small neighborhood was to be an outpost of home.
Leslie Gunaratne says that his family was the first from Sri
Lanka to settle on Staten Island when they moved into their tbree-
bedroom apartment on Targee Street on May 1, 1967. Then, a few
years later, Gunaratne got a phone call from the Sri Lankan mission
to the United Nations. A start a job in the city
was stuck at the airport with no place to go. Gunaratne instructed
the officials to send the young man and his wife to Staten Island,
and he promised to pay the taxi fare. (A foreign exchange shortage
in Sri Lanka allowed travelers to change only $3.50 before coming
to the U.S.) The kind gesture took root. "Leslie was nice enough to
allow us to stay with him for almost a week," recalls Dr. Fauzy
Saleem, who still lives in the borough almost 30 years later.
After that, the pace picked up. Many.of the early Sri Lankan
settlers on the island were members of Gunaratne's extended fam-
ily, who began to come over in 1973 after he became a United
States citizen. In just a few months, he helped his five brothers,
four sisters and their families move to the U.S. By then, he'd
bought a four-bedroom house in the New Brighton section of the
island. Each sibling "would come and stay with me for a month,
till they found a job," he explains. "Then they'd rent places around
the neighborhood." Soon, many of his married nephews and
nieces were bringing over their in-laws as well. By the time
Gunaratne moved to Houston in 1979, he estimates that 80 per-
cent of the roughly 500 Sri Lankans on Staten Island "were con-
nected to me by blood or marriage."
Gunaratne's relatives became the kernel of a community that has
since expanded to nearly 3,(XX) people, serviced by a restaurant, a
Buddhist temple and a cluster of grocery stores. The island is the New
York hub for the approximately 5,(XX) Sri Lankans in the tri-state
CITVLlMITS
area. "Staten Island is a name that's known in
big Sri Lankan cities;' says Bante Kondanna,
the chief priest at the temple. ''People know
that if they run into trouble while visiting New
York, they can come to Staten Island and find
a Sri Lankan who will help them."
The newcomers are most visible in the
knot of businesses at the crossroads of Victo-
ry Boulevard and Cebra Avenue in northern
Tomkinsville. Parkland Grocery is piled high
with cans of fried jakseed and soya curry, as
well as newspapers and videotapes from
home. At Good Spicy Taste Restaurant and
Bake Shop, Sri Lankans stop by for meals of
such staples as kottu and rotti, topped off
with creamy vatilappam, a flan-like dessert
garnished with coconut and raisins. Often,
the lilt of "bail a" pop music-which fuses
Portuguese colonial influences with rhythms
from South India-floats out from a boom
box on the counter. Images of the Buddha,
Mary, the Hindu god Shiva and an Islamic
inscription decorate the eatery, testimony to
the religious diversity of these immigrants.
Like every immigrant group in the city,
these Sri Lankans have devised their own
distinct ways of becoming New Yorkers. Yet
their path to becoming part of the fabric of
the city tells a universal story of how immi-
grant settlements coalesce, grow. d thrive.
Often, edging in has meant g to exploit
. n . e that 0 r groups have
r rejected. r y Sri Lankans,
led to workiri . the sex shops of
, a marginal ' b t became even
Ie when e city assed anti-
pornograp laws years ago. another
familiar phe enon, groups that warring
in their homeland-in this case, the 11 . s and
the Sinbalas-here live side by side.
In fact, the biggest tensions in New
City's Sri Lankan enclave don't stem fro
old ethnic animosity. Instead, the conflicts
are about how best to get by-and get
ahead- in the new world. Some profession-
al Sri Lankans worry their community's rep-
utation will be sullied by the sex-store work-
ers. Ultimately, the particular patterns of this
Sri Lankan enclave are a reminder that the
city's ethnic neighborhoods aren't end-
points. Instead, they are way-stations,
defined largely by accidents of personal
preference and history, where immigrants
are transformed into Americans.
F
ew people with work papers would
willingly choose jobs in the porn
industry, where dreary tasks
include selling tokens and mop-
ping effluvia off the floors of the peep show
APRIL 2000
Many
Tamils
fleeing Sri
Lanka's
bloody civil
war settled
doum right
next door to
Sinhalas.
"We're in
America to
make
money,"
says one
Tamil man.
"Who has

tIme to
relive the
problems at
home?"
~ o i n t s
o Entry
parlors. The hours are long, often for less
than the minimum wage. And the shops are
now a precarious way to make a living, ever
since the Giuliani administration pushed
through zoning regulations in 1997 that
imperiled the future of this industry.
But that may also be what opened the
door to this business for the new Sri
Lankans: Simply put, dirty jobs are easier to
get. As their island-nation's economy crum-
bled under the strain of a long civil war, a
new wave of Sri Lankans wound up in New
York in the early 199Os. Many were here
illegally, tourists who overstayed their visas
or sailors who skipped ship. When they
arrived, the city was recovering from a
recession and still suffering from double-
digit unemployment. Porn shops, unlike
more dignified industries, were hiring.
The city doesn't track the ethnicity of
the store owners, but Sri Lankans estimate
that their countrymen own between 10 and
15 stores-almost 10 percent of the 140 to
150 stores still operating. They are a visible
presence in Times Square, if you know
where to look. Among the owners is a man
known to some as Lucky N because he has
decided that the letter "n" is auspicious for
him. He has given his establishments
names like Neptune, Nimble and Nectar.
Each wave of Sri Lankan immigration
to New York has roughly coincided with
rising political tensions at home, but each
has different characteristics. Gunaratne and
many other professionals who moved here
in the late 1960s are members of Sri
Lanka's Sinhala ethnic majority, who were
afraid that the government's socialist-ori-
ented policies would stifle initiative. They
also were concerned that the chauvinistic
ambitions of an extremist Sinhala group
was robbing the country of its cosmopoli-
tan flair. Many of the early immigrants
were doctors, in part because the Sri
Lankan capital was one of only two Asian
cities where foreigners aspiring to work in
U.S. hospitals could take the test permitting
them to practice medicine in this country.
In the mid-1980s, though, immigration
patterns shifted. Members of Sri Lanka's
Tamil minority were increasingly seeking
refuge in the U.S. as ethnic struggles inten-
sified into a bloody civil war. Many settled
on Staten Island, alongside the Sinhala
"adversaries" they were fleeing. On Victory
Boulevard, three of the four Sri Lankan
stores are owned by Tamils but patronized
both by Tamils and Sinhalas. ''We're in
America to make money. Who's got time to
relive the problems at home?" a Tamil man
-
Ifoints
o Entry
Sunday School
at a Staten
Island
Buddhist
temple
catering mostly
to working.
class Sri
Lankans.
A rival temple
in Queens
attracts
professionals.
named Mohan says, tucking into a steaming helping of chicken
curry and string hoppers at the Good Spicy Taste Restaurant.
By the mid 1990s, the civil war had shattered the Sri Lankan
economy, prompting another rush of migration. Of the 488 Sri
Lankans who migrated legally to the city between 1990 and 1994,
almost a quarter chose to move to Staten Island, according to the
City Planning Department's Newest New Yorkers survey. (By
contrast, a mere 1.5 percent of all immigrants to New York during
that period said that they intended to live in the borough.) Staten
Island proved attractive as much for the familiar presence of other
people from home as for the low rents (the average household in
the borough pays $497 a month, by one account) and the relative-
ly easy access to Manhattan afforded by the free ferry.
M
any of the Sri Lankans who came during the last
decade came illegally. It was these men who wound
up working in the porn shops, and they are now the
source of the friction in this supposedly conservative
community. Few employees and owners, for instance, even admit
to what they do; in conversation, they say they work "in video
stores" or, more euphemistically, "in the film business."
''They're too embarrassed to even tell their families what
they're doing," says Bante Kondanna, the priest at the Buddhist
temple. With a master's in social work from Fordham University,
the reverend is well trained to observe and help remedy the pres-
sures in the community. He says the sex store workers and own-
ers are afraid of mixing with the rest of the community because
"they think people will look down on them."
Bante Kondanna's congregation found its home only five
months ago, in a large white house in the shadow of the Bayonne
Bridge. The temple runs daily services in a large hall dominated
by a golden fiberglass statue of the Buddha. On Sundays, there are
Dharma classes for children and the Reverend even hosts a web
page (www.sibv.org). The congregation is solidly working class,
and several worshippers are porn store employees.
The more affluent Sri Lankans of Staten Island have dealt with
this smutty secret by avoiding it. Many professionals prefer to
attend services in a temple in the Queens neighborhood of Kew
Gardens. (Another temple is being constructed in Hollis Hills.)
But for people without cars-the bulk of the Staten Island com-
munity-that's a journey of more than two hours. In effect, the
commute forms a cordon sanitaire between the two groups.
''The community doesn't like what [the sex store workers] are
doing," admits Hector Gunaratne, who followed his brother Leslie to
Staten Island in 1973 and helped raise funds for the Staten Island
temple. ''They give the community a bad name."
Their distaste, however, stays well within the confines of the
community. In fact, the Sri Lankans have remained low profile.
Like their Albanian Muslim neighbors in Tomkinsville, no Sri
Lankans have yet made a play for seats on local civic bodies. "It's
a community that still has to find its direction in the borough,"
says Joseph Carroll of Staten Island's Community Board 1, who
first became aware of the Sri Lankans in his area four years ago
when he saw someone walk through the office building with an
unusual implement that turned out to be a cricket bat. Sri Lankans
and other immigrants from former British colonies compete for
the Staten Island Cup in a tournament held in Walker Park.
Instead, community organizations focus on culture, arranging
concerts by visiting troupes of singers and dancers on the
Toronto-New York-Los Angeles circuit, where most North
America-based Sri Lankans live. The community is too new and
too small to count for much yet, says Buddhi Abeyasekara, a former
president of the Sri Lanka Association. Efforts at political organiz-
ing may also be impeded by the dy flow of people who, like
Leslie Gunara e away to s e in other parts of the country.
But churning is ly e way ethnic enclaves launch
ts into mainstream . can life, says Phil Kasnitz, pro-
sociology at the C raduate Center. "Part of the
ey into assumin an rican identity involves leav-
ing the e . c neighborh 0," he s s. ''The services that are
available in e ethnic Ighborhood, e they maintain an eth-
nic identity, . tate the transition rnto the American main-
stream." The very shops and institutions that make new immigrant
neighborhoods so noticeable are also stepping stones to assimila-
tion, how the trappings of home get translated into a new idiom.
Leslie Gunaratne decided to move on to Florida in 1979, and
he now lives in Houston. He jokes that he'd had enough bitter
New York winters. But he also thought he'd find more opportuni-
ties away from Staten Island. "When I return to visit my family on
the island, it feels like home," he says. "But there's a whole coun-
try beyond New York."
Of course, not everyone believes they have to leave Staten Island
to become a real American. Hector Gunaratne, for one, gets a daily
glimpse of the American dream when he looks across the water
from his office window at the Statue of Liberty. "I'm reminded that
this is a country of immigrants; ' he says. "It makes me feel that this
is my home."
N.FP Fernandes is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer.
CITY LIMITS
For New York's Garifuna,
203 years of exile is
cause for a party
and cultural pride.
by Laura Ciechanowski
The Riverdale/Osborn Towers in East New York, four brick
buildings arrayed around two concrete walkways, are as drab and
unwelcoming as any high-rise housing project. Inside, however,
hides an unexpected treasure: cozy, low-ceilinged offices fes-
tooned with colorful posters and banners. This is the home of
MUGAMA, an organization founded to stitch together and support
the scattered members of one small and obscure Caribbean ethnic
group, the Garifuna.
"To tell my people that nothing is impossible, that the Ameri-
can dream is attainable-that has been my goal," says Dionisia
Amaya, one of MUGAMA's founders.
Amaya's people are the Garifuna-a marginalized ethnic
group in Honduras and Belize that has quietly settled in New York
City over the last 60 years. MUGAMA, which stands for Mujeres
Garinagu en Marcha, or Garinagu Women on the March, aims to
A.PRIL2000
help Garifuna New Yorkers succeed in their new country. (Gari-
nagu is plural for Garifuna.) In borrowed classrooms at schools in
Brooklyn and the Bronx, MUGAMA offers GED and English
instruction, and provides small college scholarships.
The organization offers something else, too: A means for a
speck of 50,000 people among New York's welter of imntigrant .
groups to find a balance between the need to assimilate and the
desire to preserve a distinct cultural heritage.
On April 12, MUGAMA is holding its annual celebration of
that heritage and the unlikely events that ultimately brought the
Garifuna to New York. More than two centuries ago, their ances-
tors waged a 40-year war with the British, who tried and failed to
enslave a group of Africans on the Caribbean island of St. Villcent.
The British, unable to subdue these feisty people, drove them off
the island instead, giving rise to the Garifuna's proudest moment.
They celebrate Garifuna Survival Day with music, dance and
commemoration.
These festivities bring Garifuna from different countries
Dionisia
Amaya
(right)
fundraises
with flai r
for her
organization
-and a
Garifuna
community
50 ,000
strong.
...
Being part
of a tiny
together, says Felix Miranda, an expert on
Gariflma history who works as an admin-
istrator for the New York City Transit
Authority. That way, this minute ethnic
grouplet prevents its identity from being
"watered down," he says.

group In a
''They couldn't stand that this group of
people refused to be controlled," says Amaya
proudly. "So they decided to deport us."
New York's Garifuna are well aware
that most New Yorkers don' t know any-
thing about their culture or even that they
exist. Being part of a tiny group in a big
city isn't easy. "The United States believes
in numbers," Miranda observes. "The
greater your voice is in the city, the greater
the chance is of getting things done:'
big city isn't
easy.
After a long sea journey, most ended up in
Honduras, while others settled in Belize and
Nicaragua. There, they faced marginalization,
discrimination and worse. In 1937, a govern-
ment-backed massacre tore through Hon-
duran villages. More recently, officials have
used Hurricane Mitch as an excuse to dis-
place Garifuna from beachfront areas with
lucrative tourism potential.
"The U.S.
believes in
Isidora Benedith of the Bronx agrees
that invisibility is difficult. "I see many
very large groups of people who can move
the city with parades and all that stuff," she
says. Benedith volunteers teaching aGED
preparation class for MUGAMA, with the
idea of helping her people take some of
their first steps toward visibility and
power. "I think we are almost anonymous
people doing small things. But it's worth
it," she laughs.
numbers,"
says a
Garifuna
historian.
''We need to get a better understanding of
what these people suffefed," Miranda says.
''When you think about the little things we take
for granted, you begin to realize how important
that is."
M
UGAMA's attempts to reach out
to Garifuna New Yorkers are
essential to maintaining the com-
munity's cohesiveness, says J.A.
George Irish, director of the Caribbean
Research Center at Medgar Evers College.
"[MUGAMA] are very well organized, and
they are community-based," Irish says. ''They
G
arifuna first came to New York in the 1930s. A seafar-
ing people, they arrived as merchant marines during
World War II. Today, they live in the South Bronx, eas
em Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Most first-generation Garinagu have footholds on the first
rungs of the economy, working in long-hour, low-pay jobs like
home health care, housekeeping and construction. The children of
earlier waves work as school teachers, police officers and other
professionals.
But until three teachers founded MUGAMA in 1989, New
York's Garifuna did not have an institution to tie them together.
They have no restaurants, shops or community centers of their own
where people can gather.
''This is our acculturation," Amaya shouts over blasts of furi-
ous percussion at a February benefit for MUGAMA's scholarship
fund, held at a Jamaica, Queens, banquet hall. She motions toward
the women gathered around her, all wearing formal dresses as
they dance to a live band playing traditional Garifuna music.
Nearly 150 guests danced until 3 a.m., with couples young and
old taking the floor, laughing. The women were invited to model
their dresses for the ~ r o w d , forming a conga line fashion show.
Over the loud music IJSe shouts in Spanish and Garifuna-a mix
of African Bantu, English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
Like any immigrant group, the Garifuna have to make hard
choices between preserving their heritage and embracing assimi-
lation. In their history, they have a particularly compelling reason
to look both ways, into both the past and the future.
Garifuna ancestors include Bantu tribespeople brought to St.
Vincent by British slave-traders. There, the Bantu surprised their
captors by taking refuge with the island's indigenous residents,
with whom they soon intermarried. Though the British spent
decades trying to enslave the Garifuna, their attempts failed
bloodily. In 1797, the British threw them off the island.
have a strong s se of connection with the average working-class
e not one of those paper-based groups."
ir perseverance, New York's Garifuna still face dif-
ficulties co on to immigrant groups, including financial strug-
gles, langua e . ers and jobs with little room for advancement.
G was fo ded to offer them a better chance.
Amay a retired . ance counselor with a master's degree from
Bf College, wan ect to see other Garifuna succeed in the U.S.
The most important step toward that, she says, is education.
With this organization, "we are opening up to any woman who
wants to excel;' Amaya says, "and help our community, especial-
ly our youth. I wanted to tell [other Garinagu] that if! was able to
achieve all of these goals, everybody else can."
MUGAMA began with next to no resources or experience.
When it was first starting up, the group met in Amaya's Brooklyn
basement and used her home answering machine to take the orga-
nization's phone calls. Its English as a Second Language and GED
classes, offered mainly on weekends, are still taught by teachers
working pro bono, help Amaya says is becoming harder to find.
The organization's small budget, she says, prevents MUGAMA
from offering as many classes as they had hoped.
The group hopes to expand to offer social services like
employment aid and health information. It has grown slowly,
however, not unusual for a grassroots organization serving lower-
income people. Since 1996, MUGAMA has been largely funded
by a grant from the New York Foundation, which provides
$35,000 of the group's roughly $40,000-a-year budget.
Maria Mottola, a program director for the foundation, says she
was impressed with MUGAMA's ability to remain close to its
base. While the organization used the bulk of its funding to hire a
staff coordinator, it continues to be led and run almost entirely by
volunteers.
Mottola says that Garifuna were much more comfortable getting
CITY LIMITS
....
J
ing it as a student in his late teens.
~ o i n t s
o Entry
services from organizations staffed by people from their own com-
munity. "MUGAMA is filling a need that larger groups don't," she
says. "It is their own organization: They are the leaders of the orga-
nization, the founders of the organization and the staffers of the
organization. They are serving members of their own community-
that's where their strength is."
As they become more integrated into city
Garifuna are increasingly aware that they have
their culture and language alive.
But with a spike in immigration in the 1990s, young Gari-
funa are increasingly embracing their identity, says Irish.
"When you' re small in numbers, the easiest thing to do is to
blend in. The increase in immigration to the U.S. has been
helpful [for the Garifunal to see themselves as a distinct
group." One sign of that revival is the formation of Libaiia
Baba-a group of Hunter College students who work to pro-
mote Garifuna awareness.
"Assimilation is always there," says Jose Avil
company that provides financial and immigration ces. '"The
younger generation tends to assimilate; the youth tends to identi-
fy more with being black." Avila says that he became aware of the
significance of his Garifuna heritage only after he began research-
Felix Miranda agrees that the rebound of Garifuna pride is
extremely important. But he also points out that it's just a starting
place. "Certain situations bring people together and make us cohe-
sive," he says. "What we need now is to galvanize the cohesive-
ness in order to make a mark."
In INS
dete
,
eve
~ e Bible

ItS.

IS 0
By Lisa Tozzi
I
t breaks John Vanier's heart to read the letters he receives from his students,
asking when English classes will start again. "I miss you and our classes,"
writes one. "I pray for you. Please continue to pray for us here." The writer of
the letter is a 21-year-old woman from Cameroon, and "here," for her, is the
Immigration and Naturalization Service detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey,
where she has been held since last summer.
For nearly a year, Vanier journeyed once a week from his job as a Spanish teacher
at Brooklyn's I.S. 383 to the Elizabeth center, where nearly 300 people are confined
while waiting for their applications for political asylum to clear. He is one of 10 or
so volunteers organized by Jesuit Refugee ServiceJUSA to teach weekly English
classes to Elizabeth's anxious and bored detainees.
Then suddenly, this past November, the INS canceled the classes, along with a week-
ly Bible study. The INS cited reasons that would seem unreal-except that they were
agency policy. First, in an English class, students wrote about their experiences as
detainees. Then during a Bible study session, detainees talked about a scripture passage
that mentions the word "prisoner." The INS considers merely talking about the concept
of imprisonment in a detention center a security risk, and it maintains that these seem-
ingly innocuous incidents were dangerous-so dangerous that the meetings had to end.
The English and Bible classes were the first programs of their kind at the center-
baby steps in the ongoing effort across the nation to provide social services to asylum-
seekers in INS custody. That this groundbreaking program was blossoming in the
Elizabeth facility-{fubbed the "worst immigration detention center in the nation" by
APRIL 2000
Officials at this
New Jersey
immigTation
detention
center have
shut down
classes that
prooided relief
from fear and
monotony.
~ o i n t s
o Entry
-
a New Jersey congressman after a 1995 riot shut it down-was par-
ticularly noteworthy. The program was actually doing so well that
Jesuit Refugee Services was hoping to start a similar initiative at
the INS detention center near Kennedy Airport.
But now the Queens program has been put on indefinite hold,
and Vanier and other JRS volunteers have not been able to teach
in Elizabeth since the INS's decision. Will Coley, Jesuit Refugee
Services project director for New Jersey, says the agency over-
reacted, quashing a promising and popular program because of a
misunderstanding. He recalls that when the classes began, INS
officials did ask his volunteers to refrain from initiating discus-
sions about detention. Coley says while he and his volunteers
respect INS conditions, the gag rule is tricky to uphold, since
detainees are naturally inclined to talk about their experiences.
"We never set out to talk about detention, but when someone
comes up to you and asks you questions, it's hard to ignore them,"
explains Coley. "Detainees are people. They have questions about
their situations."
The collapse of the program has been devastating to JRS, the
detainees in Elizabeth, and to the volunteers-some of them for-
mer detainees themselves-who taught classes and continue to
visit regularly. The men and women at this detention center have
no known criminal records; most ended up there after arriving at
Kennedy or Newark airports requesting asylum because of fear of
persecution in their homelands, countries
like Sri Lanka, China, Albania and Nigeria.
Volunteers say the classes were a much-
needed break from the monotony of deten-
tion, where asylum-seekers spend days star-
released in December by INS Newark district director Andrea 1.
Quarantillo. "Jesuit Refugee Services broke the covenant that had
been reached with INS," it read. "The program of English classes,
pastoral visits and Bible study was initiated to provide detainees
with a positive outlet for their energies that would not deal with
detention issues. It was understood by all parties that detention
issues would not be topics for discussion."
Quarantillo added that the INS "has no objection to Matthew
25 or any other Bible passage and does not seek to censor them.
We only request that detention issues not be included in the lesson
plans."
To immigration advocates, the INS decision appears to be a
disheartening step backward. In 1995, an escape attempt escalat-
ed into a riot over inhumane conditions at Elizabeth-an INS
report later found that guards wer .. ating and h assing
detainees already agitated over long ai or hearings. . g the
uprising, asylum-seekers seized con 01 of e center, . ch at the
time was run by a private operator, mor rrecti Services.
The disturbance led the INS to cl e the fa " t and it prompt-
ed the agency to examine its use of p 'vate corr 'ons companies.
After kicking out Esmor, imrnigratio official pened the Eliza-
beth center in 1997 under new manag . Nashville-based Cor-
rections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private prison
operator. The INS and CCA promised to transform Elizabeth into a
national model.
By agreeing to JRS' proposal to hold
English classes and Bible study, the INS
hoped to stave off asylum-seekers' frequent-
ly reported feelings of helplessness and frus-
ing at a blaring television or sitting alone in
windowless dorms, lost in thought, trying to
comprehend how they ended up behind bars
when all they were seeking was freedom.
It's a dim and confusing world, where "out-
door" recreation takes place in a big room
with an open-air skylight.
T
he trouble all started with an inno-
cent mistake, says Jesuit Refugee
Services. A JRS volunteer asked
her English students to write up
evaluations of the English program, which
were to be shared with participants at a con-
ference of immigrants' rights organizations.
But the volunteer didn't realize she was
crossing the line when she invited her stu-
dents to describe their experiences of deten-
tion as part of their evaluations.
A day after
detainees
heard a
passage from
Matthew's
Gospel,
tration. The idea was to give detainees
something to do besides sleep, eat and wait.
But since the center reopened, problems
have resurfaced, including two hunger
strikes and several suicide attempts by pris-
oners frustrated with their confinement.
Fleeing war-tom lands and life-threaten-
ing situations, many asylum-seekers arrive
in the United States without documenta-
tion-and without papers, they must be
detained, under the 1996 Immigration
Reform Act. Proponents of those reform
measures say the rule deters immigrants
from making false claims in order to gain
asylum. But immigration advocates say the
law is unduly harsh, forcing asylum-seekers
to live in prison settings for unspecified peri-
ods of time.
Then at Bible study the next day, anoth-
er volunteer was discussing that week's
scripture readings. In the selection, from
Matthew's Gospel, Jesus instructs his fol-
lowers to comfort those in prison: "For I
was .. . a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared
for me, in prison and you visited me." A day
later, INS halted the JRS program.
The agency's only public comment on
the matter has been a brief statement
INS officials
halted the
classes.
Since the law was passed, the INS has
nearly doubled its total detention capacity. The
agency does not keep statistics on how many
asylum-seekers are currently in custody, but
corrections and ilrurllgnrtion experts believe
ilrurllgnrtion detainees are the fastest growing
segment of the U.S. prison population.
The INS eschews the term "prison" or
"jail" to describe its detention facilities, but
volunteers like Vanier who regularly visit
the Elizabeth Detention Center say there is
no other way to describe the setting. There
CITY LIMITS
are clanging doors and metal detectors; handc s and shackles;
wardens and guards. On the rare oc a . on a etainee receives a
visitor, the two are required to sit on p s' sides of a Plexiglas
window and talk through a phone.
"It blew my mind the first time 1 vi d," says Janet Wise, a
social worker and volunteer with e . ers e Church Sojourners
Ministry, which works with JRS. H e is a erson who is nonvi-
olent and she is treated like a har re, conv! ted criminal."
Carol Fouke, Sojourners Ministry co-ch says the painful
reality of the detainees is hard to comprehend. e folks on the
inside are real heroes. They fled really brutal circumstances and
are seeking a better life for themselves. They are really survivors.
They are noncriminals who find themselves locked up and they
don't understand why."
JRS' Coley says he is hopeful that immigration officials will
allow his organization to resume classes at the Elizabeth Deten-
tion Center, and he has submitted a proposal to do so. Agency
spokeswoman Lynn Durko says the INS is "examining proposals"
from various organizations interested in reinstating English and
Bible study. Asked if the Jesuit group might be allowed to resume
classes, Durko says only, "If they sent a proposal, they are being
considered." .
So for now, Vanier has only his students' letters, which relate
how much they miss the intellectual and spiritual nourishment the
classes provided. "It was so important to the students;' he says. "It
was a rare chance for them to really socialize with one another."
Lisa Tozzi is a Manhattan-based freelnnce writer.
They've been through
hell. N ow they're alone
in N e Vork City.
By Karen Kamins y
Sitting in a pastry shop in As oria,
jab recalls the first adjustment h had t
ed asylum in April 1997 . ''When 1 e outside," h sa s, ''1 had
a problem with my vision for three days. 1 had to go
he rubs his eyes hard. "I couldn' t see clearly."
Hadjab had been held in an Immigration and Naturalization
Service detention center since he left Algeria for the United States
three months earlier. The vision problems he encountered are not
uncommon. Patrice*, who was granted asylum in September, also
remembers that when he first left detention, "I had a bit of vertigo,
and everything was blurry." Months of confinement without access
to natural daylight takes its toll in unforeseen ways.
It's not just light deprivation that proves disorienting-the very
* Not his real name. He fears offending the INS, which he is still count-
ing on for his green card, and for approval to bring over his family.
APRIL 2000
experience of seeking asylum in the United States is profoundly
unsettling. Propelled by forces outside their control, asylum-
seekers come escaping persecution, seeking safety. But unlike
refugees-who arrive in the U.S. under the auspices of resettle-
ment agencies that link them up with housing, social services,
English classes and employment-the asylum-seeker makes a
solitary and uncertain journey.
If, like Hadjab and Patrice, they arrive without proper travel doc-
uments, their first impressions of the U.S. are grim. At Kennedy Air-
port, asylum-seekers are routinely shackled to a bench until they are
transferred to the nearby detention facility in Jamaica, Queens;
another center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, houses those who arrive at
Newark. There, they are strip-searched and given prison uniforms,
incarcerated while their asylum claims are pending. Though federal
guidelines allow asylum-seekers to be released while their cases are
pending, New York-area INS offices generally ignore them.
Once granted asylum, they are left on their own to adjust to a
new language and culture, find work, deal with the traumas they
have experienced, and build a new life. Some three years after hav-
Unwilling
immigrant
Abdelmalek
Hadjab arrived
in America
twice: first to
INS detention,
and then to an
alienating
new city.
--
ing been granted asylum, Hadjab, now 29, is still trying to find his
way. He has lived in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania with
a variety of roommates: an Egyptian, a Vietnamese family, and,
currently, with three fellow Algerians. He has held a dozen or
more jobs, and among other places has worked at a print shop, a
tool factory, two 7-Elevens, a restaurant, a clothing store, and a
sausage shop-this last job lasting only one day. "I couldn't sup-
port it-the smell was so bad in there," he says.
For the past several months, he has worked as a driver for a car
service, seven days a week, 12 hours a day, from 6 p.m. until 6 in
the morning, sometimes longer. He eats in the car, and when he
isn't working, he tries to get some sleep. "I don't know how this
happened, how I came to live here," he says, still trying to sort
everything out.
He says it makes him too sad to speak of what happened in
Algeria, but then reconsiders generously, "I will tell you if you like.
We had a hundred thousand people killed in six years in Algeria."
Among them were Hadjab's two sisters and brother. Now, only he
and his mother are left; she has found safety in France. The losses
hang over him like a cloud.
He had intended to seek asylum in Canada, but on a layover
in New York, immigration officials stopped him. They gave him
a choice: return to Algeria, or enter detention to pursue an asy-
lum claim. "I figure, OK, I go to see a judge, maybe spend two
or three days in prison," Hadjab recalls. He spent the night
shackled to a chair at the airport, then was transported to Eliza-
beth at 10 the next morning. He remained there not three days,
but three months.
Patrice, too, was en route to Canada when he was stopped at
Kennedy, shackled, and brought to detention. He had fled his
African country, where he'd been imprisoned for political activi-
ties, and had left behind four children and his pregnant wife. "I
was in prison in my country," he says. "And then I was in prison
in the U.S. I would watch the news in detention, especially New
York 1, and they would say this one was shot, this one was robbed.
And I would think, there, on the outside, there are criminals; and
we, who are not criminals, are on the inside, in prison."
Imprisoned asylum-seekers still try to hang onto the idea of
America as a land of opportunity. The hope sustains them while
they wait; explains Patrice, "Everyone talks how when you get out
you [will] have money, you have home, you have job."
But though he has landed work as a security guard and his
attorney helped him find temporary housing, Patrice is still trying
tofind his place. "When you get out, it's another struggle. Once I
arrived here, I was safe, but everything I came to know was vast-
ly different from what I had imagined." He has now been out of
detention for months, and the transi . n as been lonely and
difficult. The four months to issu . s work permit. Red
tape delayed his ~ i l i t y et food starnp, and other transitional
assistance. He even had to e sever visits to a health clinic
before getting the tu rculosis ill cati n he was prescribed after
being exposed to the sease while etention.
For detainees lucky nough to h e resentation (and not all
are), their attorneys prov e virt y their link to the outside
world. "On the day I was re eased, Mary carne get me," reca\1s
Hadjab. Mary McClenahan, his attorney from th atholic Legal
Immigration Network, found him a room at the . "Everything
good that happens here is because of Mary," he says. "She's nice.
She's one of the good things in this country."
Hadjab has found other saving graces, too, including a
Spanish-speaking cleaning woman at the detention facility who
bought him a celebratory Pepsi when she saw him in the waiting
room, preparing to leave; the openness and diversity of America;
his opportunity to join with advocates in Washington last Novem-
ber to talk to members of Congress about detention; even the INS
office in Nebraska, where his green card application is pending
and where, unique among INS offices, a human being answers the
phone and responds to questions. ''There are nice people in
Nebraska," Hadjab says. "Maybe 1'\1 go live there."
But his green card is still a couple of years away; his sense of
dislocation is constant, particularly as he drives people around
New York. Hadjab tells of a passenger he drove from Sutton Place
to the airport; she got into his car, commanding him to make the
trip fast and safe. He joked with her: "I can get you there safe, but
not fast; or fast, but not safe. Fast and safe? It doesn't happen."
Hadjab knows that he has found safety, but at an extraordinary
cost. "With no family, I don't feel great," he says. "Sometimes I
feel guilty for what happened to my family. I keep to myself at
those times." He adds, smiling, "You are lucky I was OK to come
talk with you today. I'm not searching to be famous for this
stuff-just for people to know what's going on."
Karen Kaminsky is a Manhattan-based freelance writer and foun-
dation consultant on immigrant issues.
CITY LIMITS
New York's red
~ o i n t s
o Entry
carpet for refugees: red tape.
By Jill Grossman
Last summer, a military base in New Jersey welcomed 4,000
refugees from Kosovo. Most decided to go back to the Balkans in
the end, to piece their lives and country back together. For some
of those who decided to settle in New York, though, another har-
rowing tour awaited-this time through city's welfare s stem.
Katya (not her real name) arrived . w Jersey w her
teenage twin daughters and son after fie ing osovo w en her
husband was taken prisoner by the Serb . Sh was a igned a
case worker at Catholic Charities, a resettl ment en that pro-
vides federally funded support and service during ugees' first
few months in the U.S. A $1,080 grant r hous' ,food and
other expenses took the family through i fir mo th in the
Bronx. But medical problems, diagnosed by doctor Jacobi
Medical Center as psychological trauma and hypertension, made
it difficult for Katya to find work.
So, armed with a referral letter from Catholic Charities and
accompanied by a relative already living in New York, Katya went
to a Bronx job center to apply for refugee resettlement cash assis-
tance. Under federal law, that entitled her to eight months of finan-
cial support at the same level as a city welfare check.
The confusion that followed is familiar to many poor New Yorkers
who rely on the city's welfare offices to help them through rough times.
In broken English, Katya's relative explained to
a job center caseworker that Katya was sick and
needed food.
I
t was never supposed to be like this. The 1996 federal wel-
fare refonn law was particularly harsh on immigrants, bar-
ring most of them from benefits. But the feds made an
exception for those facing persecution, maintaining the safe-
ty net of cash and medical benefits that had been helping refugees
for decades.
But in some cases, say resettlement workers, their clients aren't
getting the support they need to make a new life. "Cases are closed
and not explained in their language," says Doris Hohman, acting
director of migration services at Catholic Charities. Too often, she
says, bureaucratic delays, miscommunications between federal and
city agencies and misunderstood resettlement policies leave
refugees without the funds they need.
Refugees represent 2 percent of HRA's family caseload and 7
percent of the single adults on public assistance. Yet according to
refugee advocates, city welfare workers have little to no information
about how to handle refugees. Complains Hohman, ''There's no ori-
entation, and there is no consistent set of policies."
Snags abound. INS information can take a long time to reach
HRA's computers, making it difficult for some refugees to prove
their eligibility for welfare. And confusion reigns regarding work
requirements; some welfare offices incorrectly tell refugees that
they will not have time to take English classes in addition to their
workload, while others tell them, just as misleadingly, that they do
not have to work at all. In fact, refugees are held to the same
requirements as all welfare recipients.
Misunderstanding the standard resettlement
agency letter, which explained Katya's eligibility
for public assistance, the caseworker sent Katya
around the comer to apply for one month's worth
of emergency food stamps. There, a Human
Resources Administration worker told Katya to
return with a phone bill and other papers so that
the food stamps could begin-instructions
Katya did not understand.
''They did not say the magic word: Wel-
fare," says Sokhear Tan, one of two case-
workers at Catholic Charities who help reset-
tle refugees. ''The [HRA] caseworkers don't
explain what is available. They expect the
client to say what they need, but they don't
know the vocabulary." Tan says that short
staffing prevented him from going with
Katya to the center that day.
Katya never got the food stamps, and by
the time she told Catholic Charities about
the situation, her case had been closed. The
volunteer group is picking up the tab for
four months rent and other costs while the
family goes through the application
City
welfare
workers
have little
information
about how
to handle
refugees.
Of course, refugees also face the same
obstacle course as every other applicant They
may wait for a caseworker for hours, only to
be told that they must come back a week later
because paperwork is missing from their file.
They also share other welfare applicants'
frustrations with a dearth of translation ser-
vices. Last spring, four immigration advoca-
cy groups, with the endorsement of 23 others,
filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services citing the city's
failure to provide qualified interpreter ser-
vices for Spanish-speaking welfare clients.
Following an investigation, the HHS's
Office of Civil Rights found that HRA's job
and welfare centers violate federal anti-dis-
crimination laws. In its ruling, the federal
agency noted that New York's public assis-
tance offices often lacked interpreters and
failed to translate documents or signs-steps
the law requires. The ruling also clarified that
under the federal Civil Rights Act, all partici-
pants in HHS programs must receive the
same treatment and opportunities, meaning
that every client who walks into a welfare
center must receive explanations of the ser-
process again. vices available to them in a language they can
APRIL 2000
Ifoints
o Entry
clearly understand. HHS has rejected state and city proposals for
adding translation services and is now in the process of drafting its
own plan.
T
he confusion denies essential resources to a vulnerable
group of people. While private refugee resettlement
agencies say that their first goal is to help refugees find
jobs, the reality is that almost half of New York's
refugees rely on some form of public assistance. Though numbers
vary widely among immigrant groups-66 percent of Southeast
Asian refugees, compared with 13 percent of Eastern Euro-
peans-42 percent of all refugees statewide collected welfare in
the mid 1990s.
Providing resettlement services to 2,900 refugees last year
alone, the New York Association for New Americans is well aware
of how inadequately the welfare bureaucracy serves its clients.
Even before the Giuliani administration set out to discourage
applicants for public assistance, the 50-year-old agency helped
draft a proposal to take the refugee business out of the city's
hands. The agency wanted to handle case management itself,
without having its clients deal with HRA at all. The idea, says
NYANA Executive Vice President Mark Handleman, was to
"offer better results to move people to employment."
The plan was never implemented. But NYANA has pressed on,
and it looks like it might finally prevail. HRA confirms that it has
been talking about opening a welfare office at 17 Battery Place,
NYANA's headquarters. The agency is hardly out of favor at the
welfare agency: This winter, it was awarded a $12.4 million job-
training contract.
And the picture may soon get brighter for all refugees with the
February debut of HRA's new refugee resettlement office. Its
director, Toyo Biddle, is no newcomer to these issues; as director
of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement for 19 years, she
was one of the authors of the regulations guaranteeing public
assistance for refugees. An agency spokesperson describes the
creation of the office as an extension of HRA's specialized ser-
vices for people with special needs, including those dealing with
AIDS, disabilities and domestic violence.
Welfare rights watchdog Liz Krueger of the Community Food
Resource Center commends HRA for realizing that "one size
usually fits none" and providing such specialized oversight.
However, she observes, the city's welfare clients are "a universe
any, many specialized populations," all of whom need more
omp ensive ceo "I want to raise the standard for evelY:- ____
ody," sh ays.
Catholic ari es' Doris Hohman recently learned of the new
making a call to HRA to find out what was
on with and state efforts to provide public assistance to
" .... Biddle as a positive addition, she says, "At
least there's an avenue now for these discussions."
Hohman believes Biddle has a colossal task ahead of her. Until
some real coordination takes place among resettlement agencies
and government offices, she contends, refugees will continue to
suffer lapses in support. "It's one of these falling between the
cracks Catch-22 situations," Hohman maintains. "I mean, it's a
challenge to most Americans."
Housing brings Richmond
Hill's Indo--Caribbea s into
the new world of itics.
-
By J yoti Thottam
T
revor Rupnarain remembers his first encounter with the
Democratic machine as a rude political awakening.
Rupnarain, a lawyer originally from Guyana, was chair-
ing a Democratic club meeting last year in Richmond
Hill, Queens. The meeting was intended as a forum on police bru-
tality. But to his dismay, says Rupnarain, a local politician instead
tried to tum it into a meet-and-greet session for one of her proteges.
"It took me all the way back home," he says now. "I saw this
as a Guyana situation again. I thought that we should stand up."
Rupnarain, 38, came of age during a tumultuous period in
Guyana, when blacks and Indians were competing for political
control of the COlJIltry. Like thousands of other Indo-Caribbeans-
people descended from Indian immigrants who grew up in
Guyana and Trinidad-he left a society where he felt shut out for
the promise of life in the United ,ates.
Now, after 14 years in New York'city, Rupnarain felt that same
sense of exclusion. Politically, his district is dominated by
African-Americans. The newly established Indo-Caribbean com-
munity does not yet have a political voice.
Spurred by that old feeling, Rupnarain has decided to run for
City Council. The specific issue that propelled him into public life
is a racially tinged struggle over housing, hinging on a new City
Council bill designed to crack down on Queens residents who ille-
gally rent out apartments in their homes. Up until recently, says
Rupnarain, "politics had never entered my mind. But being in a
leadership position changes your vision of things."
Rupnarain, along with State Assembly hopeful Taj Rajkumar, is
one of the first viable political candidates from New York's burgeon-
ing Indo-Caribbean community. This ethnic enclave may be one of
New York's newest, but-thanks to the fight over apartment conver-
sions-it is also becoming one of the most organized. As a result,
CITVLlHITS
Rupnarain, the accidental politician, may become one of the first
immigrants to breach the established power structures of Queens.
T
he gregarious youngest child in a family of nine, Rup-
narain went to law school in neighboring Trinidad at the
urging of his professors, who pegged the future of
Guyana's Indian community on its involvement in pol-
itics. Rather than remaining an isolated business class, they
thought, Guyanese Indians needed to have a political voice.
But as a young lawyer in Georgetown, Guyana, Rupnarain
grew bored with the endless stream of small cases. "It was like,
this guy stole my chicken, and I want to sue him," he said from his
office on Liberty Avenue, in the heart of the Indo-Caribbean
enclave of Richmond Hill. "I wasn' t thrilled."
Most of his family had already emigrated to New York, so at 24,
Rupnarain joined them. At first, 10 of them lived together in a small
apartment in the Bronx. Within four years, Rupnarain had saved
enough money working as a paralegal to buy his parents a house in
Rorida. By 34, he had set up a private practice in Richmond Hill.
Initially, Rupnarain had little contact with other Guyanese.
Although he shared their ethnic and regional background, he was
disconnected from the large community of Indo-Caribbeans in
Queens. His family had come from the Berbice region of Guyana,
near the capital, while most Guyanese in New York immigrated
from the more rural Demerara region. "They were a different set
of people to me," he said. "I wouldn' t know them back home."
But then Rupnarain opened an office on Liberty Avenue,
where the bakeries sell hot roti and stores blare soca music. Indo-
Caribbean immigrants, the descendants of Indian laborers in the
18th-century British colonies of Guyana and Trinidad, have trans-
formed the formerly Irish and Italian neighborhoods of Richmond
Hill and Ozone Park into the heart of Indo-Caribbean New York.
Between 1990 and 1996, more than 30 percent of the immigrants
to these neighborhoods came from Guyana.
Their business, especially real estate transactions, quickly
became Rupnarain's bread and butter. By 1997, he was president
of the Queens Caribbean Bar Association, and he was frequently
asked to speak on behalf of Indo-Caribbeans to the media and
elected officials. He testified before the City Council about
amnesty for undocumented immigrants and pe organize the
community's response to the 998 bea ' g, allegedly racially
motivated, of an Indo-Caribbe ena .
Rupnarain found himself ttin
He and Ed Ahmad, a pro . ent
New Concept Democratic lub bo
Rupnarain, local politicians
donations. Finally, after t frustrating police brutality forum,
Rupnarain began to consider running for City Council himself,
setting his sights on the seat Thomas White will vacate in 200 l.
In some ways, Indo-Caribbeans are an unlikely immigrant
group to emerge as leaders in New York's new ethnic politics.
Most are relatively new immigrants, and many are not yet regis-
tered to vote. Yet Indo-Caribbeans have two important factors in
their favor. For one thing, they are geographically concentrated:
More than half of all the immigrants from Guyana and Trinidad
who came to Queens in the early 1990s settled in a small cluster
of neighborhoods in Richmond Hill, Ozone Park and Woodhaven.
The Indo-Caribbean community has also been more united than
some other immigrant groups trying to get a political foothold in
the city. Immigrants from India, for example, are atomized along
APRIL 2000
language, religious and regional lines. By contrast, Indo-
Caribbeans may be Christian, Muslim or Hindu, but they all speak
English and share a common path of migration, from northern
India to the Caribbean and then to New York. Most of Richmond
Hill's Indo-Caribbeans come from Guyana, with about a third from
Trinidad. Intermarriage between the two groups is common,
according to Dolly Hassan, director of the Liberty Center for
Immigration, a nonprofit advocacy group for immigrants based in
Richmond Hill. 'They see themselves as allies now that they've
made this second journey," says Hassan, a native of Guyana.
The Indo-Caribbean society "has that latent level of organiza-
tion and mobilization," says Roger Sanjek, a professor of anthro-
pology at Queens College who has written extensively about eth-
nic politics in New York City. Many Queens neighborhoods are a
patchwork of different immigrant groups, explains Sanjek. But in
Richmond Hill , Indo-Caribbeans predominate, giving them a nat-
ural political advantage.
T
he primary galvanizing force for Indo-Caribbeans has
been the fight over illegal apartment conversions.
Immigrants flock to neighborhoods with affordable
housing, and in Richmond Hill, affordable often means
illegal. Many of the residential buildings in Western Queens are
one- and two-family houses, but with a tight housing market and
a growing population, landlords have been surreptitiously con-
In his City
Council bid,
accidental
politician Trevor
Rupnarain
focuses on
hot-button
housing issues.
--
In
Richmond
Hill,
affordable
housing is
often illegal
housing.
But for
Rupnarain,
focusing on
illegal

conversIons
could prove
a double ..
edged
sword.
verting these homes into multifamily apartment buildings,
usually with basement apartments.
Queens civic groups have complained for years that
these illegal apartments overload municipal services and
create dangerous firetraps, and Borough President Claire
Shulman has been listening. Last year, she set up a task
force of borough civic leaders who worked with her legal
staff and the staff of Jackson Heights Councilman John
Sabini to devise a tougher enforcement plan. The fruit of
their work is Intro 363, a bill currently before the City
Council that would give the city new tools against illegal
apartments, such as requiring buyer, seller and real estate
agent to certify that a home has no illegal units.
The bill enjoys the strong support of Council Democ-
rats-including powerful Housing Committee Chairman
Archie Spigner-who depend on the proven political
weight of the civic groups that helped draft it. While the
borough's politicians may be loath to cross landlords on
other issues, illegal conversions are the number-one com-
plaint for the borough's longtime, middle-class residents,
the ones most likely to vote.
But Indo-Caribbeans have mounted a serious chal-
lenge to this bill. They want city lawmakers to recognize
that illegal apartments fill a real need for affordable hous-
ing, both for the tenants who need cheap rents and for the
homeowners who use rental income from basement apart-
ments to meet their mortgages. So when members of the
Queens Civic Congress gathered on the steps of City Hall
last November to call on the Council to "preserve their
quality of life," five busloads of protesters thronged near-
by sidewalks, condemning the bill as racist and unfairly
targeted at immigrants.
"It was the first time that I actually saw people coming
together and going downtown to City Hall to protest,"
Hassan says. "The basement issue is a magnet that pulled
people together."
lllegal conversions have emerged as the central politi-
cal issue for Rupnarain, who testified against the new bill
in front of the City Council. "As a lawyer I can't help
those who are going in the basement or the landlords who
are renting the basements," he says. "The laws are there to
be observed. The only way that I could help them is
through the political process." Rupnarain advocates more
affordable housing and better education on fire safety. At
the very least, he wants a prohibition on the invasive
evening and weekend inspections that local homeowners
particularly resent.
Rupnarain has criticized Shulman for not having
included Indo-Caribbean leaders in the initial planning and
drafting of the bill. He shies away from the more extreme
arguments against Intro 363--one of his colleagues
likened it to "Gestapo tactics"-but says the feeling of
being targeted and excluded is very real. "I don't feel the
bill itself is racist," he says. "I think they mean well. But
they've acted without dialogue in the community."
The issue offers Rupnarain recognition. His campaign,
which has raised more than $34,000 in the last six months,
gets its strongest momentum from opponents of the bill, like
real estate brokers worried that the proposition may scare off
potential homebuyers. ''The city of New York and its representa-
tives have more to gain economically by introducing some con-
cessions," says real estate broker Ahmad, one of Rupnarain's clos-
est allies. Ahmad advocates making a distinction in the law
between absentee landlords and owner-occupied buildings.
Single-issue campaigns have thrust immigrants into politics in
the past: The 1996 restrictions on government benefits to legal
immigrants, for example, spurred a slow but steady increase in
voter registration among Asian Americans, according to Margaret
Fung, executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and
Education Fund.
But for Rupnarain, focusing his campaign on Intro 363 and
apartment conversions could prove to be a dangerous double-
edged sword. If he crusades against the bill, he risks alienating
established power interests in the district. "People say it's racial.
No-it's safety," insists Sirncha Weisman, president of the Rich-
mond Hill Block Association. "You come to the United States of
America, you live by the laws of the United States of America.
This is somebody who wants to run for City Council? He's
exploiting it. He took this as a platform for his campaign."
Councilman Sabini levels a similar criticism at Rupnarain. "I
don't know how you include people who are breaking the law on
the face of it," he says.
The other Indo-Caribbean candidate from the area, Taj Rajku-
mar, is already distancing himself from illegal housing. Rajkumar is
running this year in the 31st Assembly District against Assembly-
woman Pauline Rhodd-Cummings, a native of Jamaica who is the
first woman of Caribbean descen lected to the statehouse.
Rajkumar, a professor at the orough of Manhattan Commu-
nity College and former high sc 1 teacher from Guyana, says he
realizes he cannot rely just on ne issue or votes from one com-
munity. And i . largely 'can-American district, it makes
sense that Raj mar npl s race. (About 60 percent of the dis-
trict's voters liv in the R aways.)
In fact, Raj ar de in to discuss Intro 363 altogether,
emphasizing job tra" and ed ation instead. "My campaign is
about helping the poor, the needy,' e says. "I hope it's not taken
as an Indian versus black kind of c aign."
Both candidates face a tough race if don't engage with vot-
ers outside the Guyanese community. Rli d-Cummings, who is
black, has the support of the Rev. Floyd Flake, one of the most
powerful black leaders in New York City. Flake is putting up anoth-
er protege, York College administrator Anthony Andrews, to run
for the City Council seat Rupnarain is targeting.
A compelling issue like Intro 363 may be "one way to rally
them and to get people organized," Hassan says, "but I don't know
that that's going to be enough to swing the whole thing. They've
got to be the candidate for everyone."
Rupnarain admits that he may well lose this race. But even if
Intro 363 doesn't win him the election, it seems to be stimulating
the political birth of a community. Rupnarain says he's more con-
cerned with coming back to fight in the future with an army of
registered Indo-Caribbean voters behind him.
"[Intro 363] happened at a very appropriate time," he says. "It
created that consciousness that there is a need for political repre-
sentation. They're paying some attention to us now."
Jyoti Thottam is a reporter for the Times-Ledger newspaper in
Queens.
CITY LIMITS
Immobile Homes
A
s the push to move welfare recipients to work acceler-
ates, a recent study shows that accessibility to afford-
able housing is critical to job success. In an analysis of
studies in several states that grant housing subsidies to families
on welfare, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds
residents of subsidized housing have higher employment rates
and wages than welfare families living in private homes. In
Minnesota, the earnings of public housing and Section 8 ten-
ants exceeded those of families in free-market homes by more
than 40 percent.
The reasons: Families living in subsidized homes, suggests
CBPP, are less likely to have financial problems that force them
to move, and they have more disposable income for work-relat-
ed costs like child care, transportation and clothing. By promot-
ing stability, the center finds, housing subsidies can also lead
children to do better in school d allow adults to sti with
years, six states
and two counties have used welfare fUnds to prove families'
housing situations as a way of helping them m e from welfare
to work. This report tracks the success rates of programs, in
Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, N Carolina,
New Jersey, and California's Los Angeles and San ateo coun-
ties, and the strategies they use to make housing m e afford-
able, including tenant-based rental assistance and homeowner-
ship grants for anywhere from one to five years.
"The Increasing Use ofTANF and State Matching Funds to
Provide Housing Assistance to Families Moving From Welfare
to Work," $8, free at www.cbpp.org, Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities, 202-408-1080.
Children of the Reform
AMMO
W
elfare reform has put about a million more .
children into day care. But even that doesn't take care of
all of those who nee<! it, according to a study from the
Citizens' Committee for Children. Surveying 47 New York fami-
lies who had left welfare, they found 68 percent had no care for at
least one child and only 30 percent succeeded in finding child care
for all of their children. Twenty-five of the families had not
worked at all since leaving welfare; inability to find child care
topped the list of reasons, accounting for more than half of cases.
Of the 18 who did find work, most were making above the min-
imum wage-although one, who made $2.50 an hour, was pay-
ing more per hour for child care than she was earning at her job.
"Opportunities for Change: Lessons Leamedfrom Families
Who Leave Welfare," Citizens' Committee for Children, 212-
673-1800, www.kjny.org, $15.
Getting Organized
T
he dramatic decline in union membership over the last 20
years has had much to do with a drop in wage earnings in
that same period, a new report concludes. Assessing the
state of organized labor, the Century Foundation points out that
wages in the U.S. account for their lowest share of the national
income since 1968, while union membership is smaller than that
of almost every industrialized nation. While union members earn
one-third more than nonmembers on average, unions don't just
protect wages. The report asserts that dwindling unionization has
contributed to income and wealth inequality, inadequate pensions
and health insurance, and the growing public alienation from
American politics. Ideas on how to fix labor include revising laws
that allow companies to derail organizing campaigns. The authors
also propose organizing outside traditional union models through
devices like worker-owned companies, labor-led civil rights suits
and regional economic strategies.
"What 's Next for Organized Laborl" Century Foundation
Task Force on the Future of Unions, $11.95, 1-800-552-5450.
Union
Label
The Connection Between Unionization and Wages
As union membership has dropped
over the last few decades, so too
have wages. Union workers earn
significantly more than nonunion
laborers, on average. And some
experts say that without a new
labor movement, inadequate
health care and apathy toward
American politics will continue.
APRIL 2000
30 Union members as a percent of total nonfarm employment
25
20
15
1 0 - - ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .....<fo'i> .....<!*>
wy
REVIEW
Jus Renew It
By Gordon
I
t happened to movies, magazines, and fashion. It w only a
matter of time before someone got nostalgic for 1970s
social policy. "It was rare to see people sleeping in door-
ways. Sweatshops were read about only in history books,"
writes Randy Shaw. "President Nixon signed into law the
National Environmental Policy Act. This .. .is America in the
1970s, when social and economic injustices were still wide-
spread but the nation was moving toward the equitable society
envisioned in the ideals of its founders."
The 1970s, Golden Age, doesn't sound right somehow. Yet
these lines are accurate. In the 1970s, strengthening neighbor-
hoods was a front-burner issue. The New York Times and the
newsweeklies routinely ran articles with headlines like "Here
Come the Ethnics" and "Activist Neighborhood Groups are
Becoming a New Political Force." The lecture circuit buzzed
with theories on the "death of the cities" and how to keep them
alive. President Jimmy Carter even appointed a commission to
investigate the state of neighborhoods. (Its recommendations,
released toward the end of his term, were never acted upon.)
But urban America's problems fell off the national agenda as
the climate for activism changed. Community development
organizations focused on local issues and learned to influence
national policy by relying on lobbyists and playing by the rules.
Fewer and fewer people stood up for neighborhoods-and roll-
backs of social policies and cutbacks in funding hit cities hard.
Shaw says-and he's right-that neighborhood issues can
top the national agenda again. As the head of San Francisco's
Tenderloin Housing Coalition, he's in a good position to see
both the need and the potential for a movement revival. Starting
with anti-sweatshop work, Shaw looks at the activist move-
ments that rippled through the U.S. in recent years. He outlines
how organized people took on organized money-i .e., the Nike
corporation-transforming the company's image from sneaker
king to demon taskmaster of starving Asian children.
In another case study, the
Asian Immigrant Women
Advocates (AIWA) takes on
bridal gown maker Jessica
McClintock for running
domestic sweatshops. Shaw
also looks at campaigns
against the Pentagon and
the successful push by
membership-based envi-
ronmental organiza-
tions, particularly the
Public Interest Re-
search Groups (PIRGs)
and the Sierra Club, to get Congress
to pass tougher Clean Air Act standards in 1997.
Housing, jobs and education don' t get the national
play these campaigns did. Disarmament, ecology and Third
World issues are the "sexy" topics in the media and on col-
lege campuses for now. But Shaw is right that community-
based organizations still need to coordinate advocacy on a
national level; that could mean marches on Washington to
roll back the worst provisions of welfare reform, pressing
Congress to restore funding for tenant buyouts of HUD-sub-
sidized housing or pushing the new national mega-banks to
pay attention to urban neighborhoods.
The anti-Nike folks, the PIRGs and other recent success sto-
ries share certain essential elements that Shaw would like to see
community organizations adopt. One is a sense of shared objec-
tives no matter where you live-a member of MassPIRG in
Massachusetts works off the same agenda as a member of
OSPIRG in Oregon when it comes to enhancing the Clean Air
Act. Other key elements include media savvy and focus on a
single, galvanizing national issue. Don't just aggressively mar-
ket local successes, Shaw advises; keep the focus national by
providing regular analyses of what's going on with housing and
other community development issues in Washington.
Shaw's idea is like globalism for good guys. If corpora-
tions can draw the world closer together, then groups working
on social justice ought to be able to work together at the
national level, too.
Many groups capable of advocacy work don't do it, Shaw
finds, out of fear or misunderstanding. When he surveyed exec-
utive directors of San Francisco community organizations,
Shaw found that respondents wanted, at least in theory, to do
more advocacy but either didn't know what to do or believed
that being a nonprofit barred them from doing it. Lack of famil-
iarity with IRS rules was common, but Shaw sets them straight:
Depending on the budget and size of their agencies, each
respondent could easily devote up to $25,000 a year to advocate
nationally. Multiplied over thousands of groups nationwide, that
could create a significant budget to fund social-change projects.
More effective organizing on bank mergers, housing policy,
and other national issues would transform the climate for local
organizing. That would mean more victories-and make it a
whole lot easier for community-based advocates to achieve the
high-minded goals of their mission statements .
Gordon Mayer works at National Training and Information Center;
a Chicago-based resource center for grassroots organizing.
CITY LIMITS
Tomorrovv starts today
Commitment is
leading to results TM
ENTJT1..EMNTS ADIIOC.4OIt'ORGIZER- The Rfth Ave. Committee, a Brooklyn com-
munity organization, is seeking an ENTJT1..EMNTS AlMJCATI,QIGANIZER to assist
community members with govt. benefits problems, such as with Public
Assistance, Food Stamps, Medicaid, etc., and to work on organizing campaigns
for affordable housing and welfare rights. Qualifications: high school degree or
equivalent, familiar with govt. benefits program, well organized and motivated
vidual, bilingual (English-Spanish). Salary based on experience. Good benefits.
Send/fax resume cover letter to Director of Organizing, Rfth Avenue Committee,
141 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217 718- 857-2990 FAX (718)8574322.
ECONOMIC JUS11CE/WORKFARE WORKER ORGANIZER- The Rfth Avenue Committee,
a Brooklyn community organization, is seeking an ECONOMIC JlISTICEIWORKFARE
WORKER ORGANIZER to work on an innovative membership campaign of workfare
workers organizing for economic opportunity and justice. Qualifications: profes-
sional labor or community organizing experience, passion for social justice and
grassroots actions, bilingual (Spanish-English) a plus. Salary based on
ence. Good benefits. Send/ fax resume and cover letter to Director of Organizing,
Rfth Avenue Committee, 1415th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217 718- 8574322.
NAPlL FB.LOWSHIP JUTORNEY. The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
seeks applicants for a two-year NAPIL Fellowship Attomey position, to start in
September 2000. The NAPIL Fellow will work on a campaign to safeguard access to
civil legal services for the poor. A description of the position, salary, qualifications,
and how to apply are available at www.brennancenter.orgjemploymentjindex.html
or by calling 212-998-6730.
DIRECTOR. The Children's Aid Society seeks an experienced manager to direct an
active multi-service community center on W. l04th Street. Program areas include
Head Start, Afterschool, Youth Development, Health and Mental Health. Director will
assess and enhance services based upon changing community needs and building
community partnerships. MSW or similar degree plus five to ten years increasing
management experience required. Suocessful candidates will have excellent admin-
istrative, supervisory, program development, analytic, problem soMng and strong
communication skills. Competitive salary and benefits. Fax resume and cover to: H.
Bagley, 212-529-6762 or email to: billw@childrensaidsociety.org.
COMMUNnY ORGANIZERICOMMUNnY LIAISON UNIT. Community-based organiza-
tion in Central Harlem is seeking an experienced community organizer.
Responsibilities: Provide technical assistance and guidance to tenants in the tar-
get area of CBO; organize residents in the formation of block and tenant asso-
APRIL 2000
Deutsche Bank's commitment to
global corporate citizenship recognizes a
responsibility to improve and enrich the com-
munities throughout the world in
which we conduct business.
With a focused strategy of support for com-
munity development, the arts and the envi-
ronment, Deutsche Bank partners with local
organizations to build a brighter future.
Our commitment to a better tomorrow
starts today.
Deutsche Bank ILl
ciations and the development of open spaces; interface with community
zations. Requirements: High school diploma plus some years of college. At least
three years community organizing experience; strong verbal and written skills;
computer skills a must. Salary: to $26,000; commensurate with experience.
Excellent health benefits. Send resume to: B. Smith, ADC, 131 W. 138th Street,
New York, NY 10030.
ORGANIZER. Alliance for a Working Economy, a new NYC labor/community
tion, seeks an experienced organizer to advance campaigns that promote eco-
nomic justice and progressive economic policy. The Alliance includes major NYC
unions (including AFSCME, Carpenters, CWA and Unite!), community-based and
low-wage/workfare worker organizations and policy advocacy groups. Solid expe-
rience in labor or community organizing, excellent communications skillS essen-
tial. Spanish, media work, fundraising a plus. Women and people of color encour-
aged to apply. Full description at www.fiscalpolicy.org. Fax resume and cover let-
ter to AWE Organizer, 718-8574322.
The Center for Urban Community Services, Inc., a leading social service agency in
providing services to low-income individuals, many of whom are mentally ill, have
histories of homelessness, HIV /AIDS and substance abuse, has the following
tions available at our supportive housing programs (SROs) located in Upper
Manhattan: ASSIS1lINTTEAM LEADER. This position is responsible for individual and
group services, case management, crisis intervention, and assisting the clinical
coordinator in directing the activities of on-site core services team and program
development. Requirements: MSW and direct service experience in mental health
and/or homelessness. Additionally, this individual should have good written and
verbal communications skills. Bilingual Spanish/English required. Salary:
$34K+comp bnfts. Send cover letter and resume to Michelle de la Uz, CUCS-The
Rio, 10 Fort Washington Avenue, NY, NY 10032. aJNICAl. COORIIIIIATOR.
Responsibilities include daily supervision and management of a clinical team com-
prised of and para-professional staff; assist with program evaluation
and development; ensure that all clinical services and documentation meet regu-
latoryand agency standards and implement all site protocols, policies, and pro-
cedures. This position must provide 2Mlour beeper coverage for three SROs serv-
ing more than 100 tenants. Requirements: CSW, minimum of 4 years of applica-
ble experience in social work with population served, including supervisory, admin-
istrative and management experience. Salary: $45K comp bnfts including $65 in
monthly transit checks. Bilingual Spanish/English encouraged to apply. Send cover
letter and resume to Michelle de la Uz, CUCS-The Rio, 10 Fort Washington Avenue,
NY, NY 10032. CUCS is committed to workforce diversity. EEO.
(continued on page 32)
-
(continued from page 32)
OFFJC MANAGER: Energetic, take-charge person to manage office of growing
children's service agency. Handle payroll, light bookkeeping, personnel records,
oversee computer systems, supervise receptionist, maintain and purchase
office. supplies, work with Board of Directors and public. Send cover letter and
resume to Partnership with Children, Inc. 220 E. 23rd Street, Suite 500, NY, NY
10010 or FAX 212-689-9568. No phone calls please. EOE.
DEVELOPMENT POSI11ON: a small nonprofit organization that provides services for
children of incarcerated mothers and their families. Responsibilities include
grant writing, donor stewardship, record keeping and public relations. Min. 3
years experience. Salary commensurate with experience. Must have strong
interpersonal skills, computer proficiency. EOE. Send resume to: Hour Children,
36-11 A 12th Street, Long Island City, NY 11106.
CUCS' West Harlem Transitional Services, a highly successful program that
helps mentally ill homeless people prepare for and access housing through its
services, drop-in center, and transitional residence has the following
positions available: ASSISTANT TEAM LEADER (two positions). Responsibilities:
Provide clinical services to individuals and groups, crisis intervention, case man-
agement, and assisting the Clinical supervisor in directing the activities of on-
site core services team. This position will also participate in program develop-
ment initiatives. Requirements: MSW and direct service experience in mental
health and/ or homelessness. Good written and verbal communications skills.
Bilingual Spanish/ English preferred. The salary for this position is $34K +
comp bnfts. Send cover letter and resume to Carleen School , CUCS-WHTS West
127th Street, NY, NY 10027. CUCS is committed to workforce diversity. EEO
PROPERTY MANAGER. Bronx nonprofit agency seeks an experienced Property
Manager. Responsibilities: Oversee property management, supervise mainte-
nance workers, monitor repairs, supervise contractors and vendors, prepare var-
ious reports, leasing compliance, rent up and collection. Qual ifications: BA with
two or more years experience in housing management with supervisory experi-
ence or High School Diploma plus five years experience in the field required.
Experience in leasing guidelines (SIP, NOW/HOME) preferred. Excellent verbal ,
written and computer skills; bilingual Spanish a plus. Salary: Mid 30's. Send
resume with cover letter to: Executive Director, Bronx Heights NCC, 99
Featherbed Lane, Bronx, NY 10452. Fax: 718-294-1019.
Post Graduate Center for Mental Health, Housing Opportunities for Persons with
AIDS (HOPWA) Project, seeks a CONTRACT MANAGER. The Contract Manager will
assist in the project administration of 30+ citywide contracts with HIV/ AIDS
housing and supportive service organizations, technical assistance providers,
adolescent service providers and other not-for-profit agencies. Duties include
review and tracking of qualitative and quantitative data on subcontractor perfor-
mance, site visits, programmatic aUdits, and writing of monitoring reports.
Requires bachelor's (master's preferred) in Health, Education, Human Services
or Non-Profit Administration. Minimum three years experience in contract man-
agement of mental health, substance abuse, housing, and/ or HIV/ AIDS hous-
ing, and/ or social service agencies. Position requires excellent writing, comput-
er (Word and Excel) and communication skills and familiarity with fiscal over-
Sight, budgets and bookkeeping. Salary commensurate with experience.
Excellent benefits package. Send resume and cover letter indicating salary
requirements to Harry Munson, Director of Human Resources, PCMH, 138 E.
26th Street, NY, NY 10010 or fax 212-576-4194.
DIRECTOR OF QUALITY ASSURANCE. Inwood House, a small child welfare and
social services agency focused on adolescent pregnancy, parenting and pre-
vention is seeing a Director of Quality Assurance. Responsibilities include over-
seeing QA activities for all agency programs; maintaining and tracking databas-
es to ensure standards and mandates are met; conducts case record reviews.
Applicants must have MSW/ MPA or equivalent education with at least 2-yr expe-
rience; strong verbal and written communication, reporting and analytical skills.
Competitive salary and benefits. Resume and salary reqUirements to: Cecilia
Gaston, fax 212-353-3775.
The AFL-CIO is looking for experienced CAMPAIGN RESEARCHERS with a strong
commitment to social justice to fill exciting positions on union organizing cam-
paigns in Washington DC, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan and other locations.
Salaries range from the $30s to $60s depending on experience; benefits are
excellent. We want: people with solid backgrounds in organizing, community
activism, or political campaigns and professionals trained in economic analysis,
corporate and Industry research, employment law, investigative journalism, or
with other applicable experience. People of color and women are encouraged to
apply. Email cover letter, resume, and brief writing sample to: JobSearch@afi-
cio.org or mail same to: Job Search, Corporate Affairs, AFL-CIO, 815 16th
Street, NW. Washington DC 20006.
EXECUT1VE ASSISTANTIPRQJECT MANAGER. Innovative consulting firm serving non-
-
profits seeks assistant. You: detail oriented, good writer, analytical, skilled at
MSOffice. Master' s preferred. Duties: grant writing, assisting President, clerical.
Check out www.lp-associates.com. 3-days or FIT. Great pay, bonuses, health ben-
efits, advancement. Two-year commitment. Cover letter, resume, writing samples,
three references: Laurence Pagnoni, 549 W. 123rd St., #18H, NY, NY 10027.
IIOOKKEEPERIBUSNESS MANAGER. The Educational Video Center (EVC), a nonprofit
media arts center seeks: highly organized bookkeeper, proficient in Quickbooks,
experienced in office/ business management. Duties include: A/ P, A/ R, bank rec-
onciliations, payroll, benefits management, grants/ fund accounting, financial
reporting, projections, budget/audit preparation, and insurance/ contracts over-
sight. Experience in nonprofit sector preferred. Good communication, managerial
skills required. Salary range is 30k-34k, excellent benefits. Mail or fax cover letter,
resume, three references to: Associate Director, EVC, 55 E. 25th Street, 5th Roor,
NY, NY 10010 or fax 212-725-6501. EOE.
Project Hospitality, an innovative and growing community based organization locat-
ed on Staten Island, with most sites near the ferry, has job opportunities available
in social services. We have various positions such as VOCImONAl. COUNSELOR
CSW w/ Substance Abuse or MICA experience, HIV HEALTH
SPECIAUST, CASE MANAGERSIIIAM LEADERS WITH HIV EXPERIENCE, HOMELESS
INIIRVENTION PROGRAM DIRECTOR to work with families, BlUNGUAl. OUJ'REIICH SPE-
CIAl..IS1S to work with various populations, CONTRACT COMPlIANCE ASSOCIATE to
work with our Qual ity Assurance Department, and other positions. We offer an
excellent benefits package; salary is based on experience and degree. Send
resume and salary requirements to: Project Hospitality, Human Resource Director,
100 Park Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10302. EOE M/ FjV/ H.
The 14th Street-Union Square Business Improvement District and Local
Development Corporation is seeking a DIRECTOR OF DEVElOPMENT and SPECW.
EVENTS. The BID/ LDC is a not-for-profit, community based organization that has
been the catalyst for the revitalization of New York's most exciting and dynamic
neighborhoods. We serve as the private sector's liaison with government, pro-
mote the neighborhood, serve as a network for the area's new media companies,
host community events in Union Square Park and coordinate a model public/ pri-
vate partnership with Washington Irving High School. Responsibilities include:
Producing special events in Union Square Park, including Summer in the Square
(weekly performance series), Manhattan Short Rim Festival, and Harvest in the
Square, one of New York's leading food events that raises funds for Union Square
Park; managing fund raising events for the education program and other initia-
tives; coordinating fundraising campaigns and corporate sponsorships; and writ-
ing grant proposals for foundation support. Experience in events planning,
fundraising or marketing is preferred. Please send resume to: Executive Director,
14th Street-Union Square BID & LOC, 4 Iriving Place, Room 1148-S, New York,
NY 10003 or Fax: 212- 4208670. Email: gmachd@coned.com.
Bilingual Welfare-to-Work PROJECT DIRECTOR needed with administrative and
supervisory experience. Job development, social work background, and experi-
ence advocating with HRA helpful. Fax resume to 212- 9284180, attn: Julie
Levine, NMIC.
ASSISTANT PROJECT DIRECTOR for eviction prevention program. Research into PA
& housing law, editing & updating manuals on HR & Housing Court rules, over-
sight of staffs work on Jiggetts cases, some staff training & supervision.
Bilingual Spanish/ English preferred; three years experience in case manage-
ment and broad-based social services knowledge. Great writing & organization-
al skills required. Mid-$30s, medical , dental , family coverage. People of color
and women encouraged; AA/ EOE. Resume to: Assistant CHAT Director, CFRC,
39 Broadway, 10th Roor, NY NY 10006; fax 212- 616-4988.
The HIV Law Project, a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to
low-income, HIV-positive individuals, seeks a part-time GRANT WRITER to research
and write private foundation (including corporate foundation) grant proposals and
reports, as well as government grant proposals. The grant writer will work on-site,
20 hours per week, at our offices, and report to the Development Officer. Please
mail, fax, or email resumes and writing samples to: Rebecca Davis, Development
Officer, HIV Law Project, 841 Broadway, Suite 608, New York, NY 10003. Fax: 212-
674-7450. Email: hlpdeV@aol.com. No phone calls please.
Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has several positions in three job placement/ train-
ing programs. JOB DEVEl.OPERICASE MANAGERS require BA and/ or significant expe-
rience in job readiness, training or related field. COORDINATORS must have BA
(Masters preferred) and at least 2 years experience in supervision. DIRECTOR OF
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT requires Masters (or BA and 5+ years of experience)
and experience with HRA. Knowledge of welfare, BEGIN, and job readiness/ train-
ing a strong plus for all positions. Some positions require bilingual (Spanish).
Competitive salaries. Fax K. Courtney at 718-993-8089.
Bronx CDC specializing in housing, employment services, and asset-building pro-
grams is seeking a COMMUNnY DEVELOPMENT ASSOCum:. Responsibilities:
CITY LIMITS
Coordinate NYC's first Individual Development Account Program and assist with
a range of additional programs. Build skills in program management, grantwrit-
ing, asset-building initiatives and comprehensive development models.
Qualifications: a BA or equivalent, strong oral and written skills; prior experience
with homeownership, business development and/or money management; knowl-
edge of and/or interest in economic development and refined interpersonal
skills. Knowledge of Spanish a plus. Send cover letter and resume to Rita
Bowen, Mount Hope Housing Company, 2003-05 Walton Avenue, Bronx, NY
10453. Fax: 718-299-5623.
ACADEMIC ASSISTANCE TUTOR. We are seeking an experienced tutor to work in a
group setting with participants in our team program. Tutors must have a strong
background in math, science, history and writing. GED preparation skills and for-
eign language(s) are a must; person will work with teens in need of remedial
assistance. Duties include setting up group lesson plans, completing daily
assessments and updating the participants' Individual Education Plans (IEP's).
Applicants should have some experience working with inner-city teens and be
available during after-school hours. (3 p.m.-9 p.m.). We are looking for someone
who is also willing to make a one-year commitment. Salary is commensurate
with experience. Send resumes to: Keith Mitchell, Jacob Riis Neighborhood
Settlement, c/o Operation P.E.E.R., 1()'25 41st Avenue, Long Island City, NY
11101. Fax resumes to 718-784-3055.
Youth Build program, combining GED prep with training in the construction
trades, seeks COUNSELORICASE MANAGER for 10 month position to develop
vidual vocational and education plans with students, conduct vocational and
psychoeducational workshops, provide individual counseling, and job develojr
ment. Familiarity with issues affecting youth and resources in NYC required.
Must be team player. Ruency in Spanish preferred. BA required. People of color
strongly encouraged to apply. Salary $35K/year. Full benefits. Fax resume
ASAP to 212-255-8021.
VOCA11ONAl. SPECIALIST. The American Red Cross in Greater New York is seeking
a dedicated professional to provide vocational assistance to previously home-
less women by assessing employment and educational history and developing
customized service plans. You'll ensure clients meet criteria for their programs;
monitor/document progress; maintain positive relationship with training and
employment programs; implement new programs; as well as create a resource
library. You'll also facilitate workshops; coordinate a employment
and training fair for clients; and generate reports. Requirements: BA degree in
Social Work; 4+ years vocational counseling or job placement experience; strong
communication/interpersonal skills; a background running educational groups
for adults preferred. We offer a salary of $31-$34 K along with a comprehensive
benefits package. Please mail or fax your resume to: The American Red Cross
in Greater New York, Employee Resources Dept.-DM, 150 Amsterdam Avenue,
NY NY 10023; fax: (212) 875-2357. An EOE M/F/DjV. Email:
Careers@arcny.org
CONTRACTS COORDINATOR. The American Red Cross in Greater New York is seeking
a qualified professional to work in the administrative office of its Homeless
Services Dept., which manages residential facilities and supportive services for
homeless and formerly homeless families. You will assist contract and office man-
agement with financial and programmatic reporting, information management,
administrative support, and monitoring compliance. Requires BA, excellent com-
puter profiCiency (including advanced Excel), as well as experience with non-proflt
contracts and bookkeeping. We offer a salary of $31,200 and a comprehensive
benefits package. Please mail or fax your resume to: The American Red Cross in
Greater New York, Employee Resources Dept.-DM 150 Amsterdam Avenue, NY NY
10023; fax: (212) 875-2357. An EOE M/F/DjV. Email: Careers@arcny.org
ASSOCW"E. The Program for Student Achievement of the Edna McConnell Clark
Foundation seeks candidates for the position of Associate, one of the
Program's three-person team. The Associate plays an important role in helping the
Program achieve its goal of enabling students in middle schools to meet academ-
ic standards in mathematics, science, language arts and social studies by the end
of the eighth grade. The Associate supports the Director in working with a variety
of issues such as planning for the Trustees' annual review of the Program, draft-
ing grant recommendations for action by the Board of Trustees, and developing
and maintaining relationships with the grantees. The Associate is also responsible
for a number of administrative duties that include managing the Program's budget
and organizing two Program conferences each year. Candidates should have com-
pleted their undergraduate and preferably their post.graduate education, and
worked for at least three to five years in fields related to the Program's interests,
such as urban public education or youth development. Candidates must have
superior analytical, writing and oral communication skills. Some knowledge of
major issues of public education reform is necessary, and knowledge of middle
schools will be useful. Candidates must be willing to reside in the New York met-
ropolitan area and travel approximately 20 days each year. Applicants should be
aware that this position does not include opportunities to provide technical assis-
tance in instruction or curriculum to schools systems or schools. Salary range-
APRIL 2000
mid- to upper forties. Please send cover letter, resume and six references to
Student Achievement Associate Search, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation,
250 Park Avenue Suite 900, New York, NY 10177 or fax to 212-9864558.
PUIII.Ia01ONS COORDINImJR. Newly.created position for large non-proflt child wel-
fare organization. Individual must have excellent language ability, written & oral,
including BA (English, PR or Communications). Computer knowledge, Excel,
Microsoft Word, Desktop publishing. Detail oriented. Min 1-2 years in publications
print coordination. Competitive salary and excellent benefits. Please send resume
to: S. Malkin, JCCA, 120 Wall St., NYC 10005; FAX: (212)425-9397. EOE M/F
The Environmental Grantrnakers Association (EGA) seeks a highly organized, friend-
ly and articulate person to serve as ADMINISJMI1VE COORDINIO"OR. This position
will provide general administrative support to EGA staff and be responsible for
managing the EGA office. Qualifications needed: excellent attention to detail; good
phone communication skills and writing skills; ability to follow through on directions
and ask questions; ability to work with frequent interruptions; profiCiency in e-mail,
listservs, Windows 97, Microsoft Word, Excel and Access Database; sense of
humor. Salary: $35,000. Send resume, cover letter and brief writing sample by
March 15, 2000 (no phone inquiries please): Sarah Hansen, Executive Director,
Environmental Grantrnakers Association, 437 Madison Avenue, 37th Roor, New
York, NY 10022-7001 email: shansen@rffund.org, website: www.ega.org. People
of color strongly encouraged to apply.
Make a career out of helping others! The American Red Cross in Greater New
York has (2) immediate openings for professionals to work within our Homeless
Services Department in programs for homeless and formerly homeless families
(women and children) in the following positions: CASE WORKER SUPERVISOR:
Family Respite Center. Work within a temporary housing facility for 90 homeless
families with young children. Responsible for the coordination and supervision
of our comprehensive social services programs, including: supervising case-
workers and their work related to family intake; assessment and service plan
development, overseeing crisis intervention, advocacy and referral activities;
overseeing housing relocation assistance; and coordinating on and off-site ancil-
lary services. CASEWORK SUPERVISOR: RELOCAT1ON SUPPORT CENTER. Work with-
in a program of comprehensive services to relocate homeless families.
Responsible for the coordination and supervision of home-based case manage-
ment services, including: supervising caseworkers and their work related to fam-
ily intake; assessment and service plan development; overseeing crisis inter-
vention, advocacy and referral activities; coordinating inter-agency service provi-
sion with neighborhood-based social service providers to ensure successful relo-
cation of homeless families recently placed in permanent housing. BOTH posi-
tions require an MSW and 2 years experience in social services with high-risk
families, including minimum of 1 year supervisory experience and knowledge of
family dynamics, substance abuse and housing issues. We offer salaries in the
high $30s and a comprehensive benefits package. Please mail or fax your
resume indicating position of interest to: The American Red Cross in Greater
New York, Employee Resources Dept-DM, 150 Amsterdam Avenue, New York,
NY 10023: FAX: 212-875-2357. EOE M/F/DjV. Email: careers@arcgny.org.
CUENT SERVICES SUPERVISOR. The American Red Cross of Greater New York has
an immediate opening for a professional to work in our transitional facility for 90
homeless families (women and children).You will work with and supervise a team
of Client Service Workers, including human resource management, performance
assessment, effective communication and the transfer of information. You'll
also supervise the crisis management functions of staff. Some weekend work
required. Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Social Work or related field required.
Experience in a client services setting with supervisory responsibility as well as
direct service is desirable. We offer a salary of $31,200 and a comprehensive
benefits package. Please mail or fax your resume to: The American Red Cross
in Greater New York, Employee Resources Dept-DM, 150 Amsterdam Avenue,
New York, NY 10023: Fax: (212)857-2357. An EOE M/F/DjV.
SENIOR LENDER, The Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFf) is seeking a Senior Lender for
its New York Program. The Lender will provide financial analysis for NFF's lend-
ing and asset building products, provide financial advisory services for clients
and assist in developing and implementing marketing strategies. Duties include:
performing credit analysis, making written and oral presentations, closing loans,
monitoring the portfolio, and staffing special projects. While being dedicated to
and located in New York, the Lender is also part of a six-person financial ser-
vices team that provides financial services nationwide and is expected to work
on projects trom other areas as needed. Candidates must have a desire to work
with non profits, knowledge of community development and/or banking industry.
At least 4 years experience (two years in this or a related field), Masters Degree
preferred, and profiCiency in Excel and Microsoft Word. Salary: mid-50s to mid-
60s, generous benefits. EOE. Send resume and cover letter via email to:
norah.mcveigh@nffny.org; fax to: 212-268-8653 or write Norah McVeigh,
Nonprofit Finance Fund, 70 West 36th Street, 11th Roor, New York, NY 10018.
No calls please.
(continued on page 34)
-
(continued from page 33)
SPECIAL EVENTS ASSISTANT: Cause Effective is a nonprofit that helps other non-
profits fundraise and friendraise. Seeking a junior-level staff member to work
closely with Senior Consultants to plan and implement special events and pro-
vide events training. Acute attention to detail, strong oral and written communi-
cations skills, and proficiency in Windows, Word, and Excel a must. Knowledge
of Access a plus. Competitive salary; good benefits. People of color strongly
encouraged to apply. Send resume (in confidence) to Cause Effective, 39 W.
14th Street, Suite 408, NYC 10011, by fax: 212-691-5049, or email to zanet-
ta@causeeffective.org.
Brooklyn-based CDC seeks PUBlIC RElA110NS DIRECTOR to plan and imple-
ment public relations policies and procedures. Overall responsibilities
includes original writing for speeches, sCripts for deSign, and media presen-
tations. Has responsibility to coordinate presentation of merchandising prod-
ucts, displays and exhibits; coordinates the advertising and sales promotion
materials; assists to build sponsorship campaign, prepare digital presenta-
tions; develop and administer visitor surveys, conduct community outreach
and maintain residential demographics. BA/BS Marketing Communication
Arts with three to five years experience in public relations, media or related
field. Superior supervisory, leadership, public speaking and interpersonal
skills a must. Fax resume to J. Anglin, c/o BSRC, 1368 Fulton Street,
Brooklyn, NY 11216.
EXECUT1VE DIRECTOR. Nationally known, community based preventive services
agency seeks Executive Director with proven record of program results &
fund raising. Qualified candidates must have graduate degree in social work & a
minimum of 7 years administrative and management experience, preferably
related to child welfare. Demonstrated knowledge of policy setting, program
planning & management, budgeting & financial management. Ability to develop
working relationships and strategic alliances with government agencies, corn-
munity and professional groups and funding entities. We offer a competitive
salary & benefits package. Please send resume to: Box JA-171/CL, 180 Varick
St., 2nd R, NY, NY 10014. EOE.
The East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corp (EWVIDCO) seeks
an ECONOMIC DVB.OPMENT GENERALIST (full time or part time) to manage
and expand EWVIDCO's group buying service, coordinate business seminars
and organize events and other projects. Strong organizational, researching,
marketing and oral communication skills needed. Send cover letter and
resume to N. Lasher, EWVIDCO, 11 Catherine Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211.
Fax 718-963-1905.
The Pratt Area Community Council (PACC) is a not-for-profit organization
improving the Brooklyn communities of Ft. Greene, Clinton Hill, and Bedford-
Stuyvesant. PACC seeks an ADMIINIS11tATlVE ASSISTANT to provide high-level
administrative support in drafting reports, proposals, and correspondence.
Responsible for coordinating outreach to Board of Directors. Must have knowl-
edge of office procedures and eqUipment, superior verbal and written com-
munication skills, proficiency in PC word processing and database mainte-
nance. Fax letter, resume, and salary requirements to: PACC, 718-522-2604.
OPERATIONSIDEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR. Community Voices Heard, a grassroots
membership organization working on welfare, workfare and other anti-poverty
issues, is seeking a dynamic, well organized and experienced administrator
and fundraiser to assist the Executive Director in administrative management
and fundraising. The Operations Director will work to develop and manage
administrative systems for the organization and to develop a diverse fundrais-
ing program including house parties, special events, an individual donor cam-
paign and a fee-for-service speakers bureau. The salary for this position is
$33,000 to $38,000 DOE, including benefits. People of color, women, les-
bians and gays are strongly encouraged to apply for this position. Please send
resume and cover letter to Community Voices Heard, PO Box 1230, New York,
NY 10029.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. Community Voices Heard, a grass-roots membership
organization is seeking an experienced organizer to build membership, develop
leaders, staff organizing committees, and to work on local and citywide campaigns
on job creation, workfare and welfare reform. Spanish-speaking bilingual is strong.
Iy desired but not required. The salary for this poSition is $24,000 to 30,000 DOE,
including benefits. People of color, women, lesbians and gays are strongly encour-
aged to apply for this position. Please send resume and cover letter to Community
Voices Heard, PO Box 1230, New York, NY 10029.
Citizens Advice Bureau has two positions in homeless programs: PROGRAM
DIRECTOR for boro-wide homeless outreach team requires CSW. Experience
with population; familiarity with resources; strong supervisory and organiza-
tional skills required. Mid-high $40s. CASE MANAGER requires BA, good com-
munication, organizational skills High $20s. Spanish/ English a plus. Fax
resume and cover letter to TM at 718-893-3680.
Nonprofit seeks RESEARCH ASSISTANT for clerical/technical work including, con-
ducting interviews and follow-up, working with research scientists and helping
with implementation and maintenance for research protocol. Experience in
research practices including interviewing skills, data collection and manage-
ment, computer applications, and knowledge of the field of mental illness,
HIV/AIDS or other disabilities a must. Bilingual/bicultural a plus. Competitive
salary and excellent benefits. Cover letter and resume to: HR, CSH, 50
Broadway, 17th Roor, NY, NY 10004.
Long Island ORGANIZER. NYS Tenants & Neighbors seeks fuHime staff person
to organize Nassau' s rent-regulated tenants and residents in Section 8 devel-
opments throughout Long Island. Must be self-starter w/ strong skills and abili-
tyto work independently. Long Island resident preferred; car a must. Salary corn-
mensurate with experience. Full benefits. Send or fax resume/ cover letter to:
Joe Heaphy, Tenants and Neighbors, 505 8th Avenue, 18th Roor, NYC 10018.
Fax: 212-6954314.
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR: Children's social services agency poised for expansion
seeks pro-active development profeSSional with 5+years NYC experience. Work
closely with Executive Director, Board, key staff. Foundation/ corporate solicita-
tions, major gifts, direct mail , some special events. Strong writing, strategic
thinking, people skills. EOE. Partnership with Children, Inc. , 220 East 23rd
Street, Suite 500, New York, NY 10010. Fax 212-689-9568.
CORPORm AND FOUNOOION SPCIAI..IST: Children's social services agency
poised for expansion seeks energetiC self-starter with minimum two years NYC
experience. Research, write foundation/corporate/government solicitations,
proposals; supervise development intem. Oversee direct mail campaign; work
with Junior Committee. Strong writing, organizational and people skills. EOE.
Partnership with Children, Inc., 220 East 23rd Street, Suite 500, New York, NY
10010. Fax 212-689-9568.
Fundraising. ASSISTANT DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR needed for Lower East Side
Settlement House. Experience with grant writing, annual appeals, and special
events. Col. Deg and/or 1 year experience preferred. Good writing skills
required. Knowledge of Chinese community a plus. Sal. Com W/ exp. Send
resume, salary reqUirement, and writing sample to L. Lawton, HMH, 50 Madison
Street, NY, NY 10038 or fax to (212)791-7540.
Working Today, a national nonprofit, is seeking a CONTROlLER with MIS respon-
sibilities. Candidates should have 3 to 5 years of relevant experience.
Experience with nonprofit organizations and CPA a plus. Compensation corn-
mensurate with experience. Excellent benefits included. Forward resume to
attention of Lisa Beneventano, Special Assistant, PO Box 1261 Old Chelsea Box
Station, NYC, 10113 or fax: 212-366-6971.
Hamilton-Madison House is seeking a YOUTH DIRECTOR to supervise the
Afterschool, Teen EveningjWeekend Summer and Day Camp Programs. The
position will be available March 2000. Duties include: supervision of all
staff employed within the Youth Program; administrative duties related to
programs such as, but not limited to reports, statistics, permit applica-
tions; development of activities and curriculum commensurate with all
aspects of program; interfacing with other Hamilton-Madison House pro-
grams; scheduling of in-service training for staff; scheduling monthly par-
ent meetings. Qualifications: B.A. with 5 years experience, M.S.W. with
inner city youth experience; supervisory experience; ability to be flexible
and creative. Salary: Mid $30,000 experience considered. Hours: Monday-
Friday 2-10pm (there is some flexibility with hours after probationary peri-
od of 3 months). Submit or fax resume to: Thea Goodman, Assistant
Executive Director at 50 Madison Street, New York, NY 10038 or fax 212-
791-7450.
NEIGHBORHOOD EMPLOYMENT SERVICES PROGRAM COORDINATOR. Innovative
Brooklyn CDC seeks coordinator for neighborhood employment services pro-
gram. Responsibilities: assist program partiCipants in developing career goals;
job search strategies; resumes and interviewing skills; develop jobs for program
participants; conduct job readiness workshops; oversee participant database;
and supervise full time VISTA. Qualifications: job development experience; well
organized, motivated with excellent communications skills; computer literate;
supervisory skills; bilingual (English/Spanish). Some evening hours required.
Send cover letter, resume and salary requirements to NESPC Search, Rfth
Avenue Committee, 141 Rfth Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11217 or fax 718-857-4322.
www.fifthave.org. M/EOE.
(continued on page 36)
CITY LIMITS
CoNSUl TANI $ERylCES
Proposals/Grant Writing
HUD G ... nts/Govt. RFP.
Hous"''rogr.un Development
Real Estate Sales/Rentals
Technical Assi.stance
Employment Programs
Capacity Building
Community Relations
PROFES
MI(HA(L 6. BU((I
CONSULTANT
HOUSING, DEVELOPMENT & FUNDRAISING
212-765-7123
212-397-6238
mgbuccl@aol.com
451 WEST 48th STREET, SUITE 2E
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10036-1298
OFFICE SPACE PROBLEMS?
lI.WI.I
CS1
CSI CON.sULTANT.s INC.
(914) 677-6941
Expert Real Estate Services - once
available only to major corporations and
institutions -
Now offered to NY non-profits ...
at no out.of-pocket cost,
or at specially reduced rates.
Visit our web site: www.npspace.com
Call for a free, no-obligation consultation.
www.npspace.com
SPECIALIZING IN REAL ESTATE
J-51 Tax Abatement/Exemption. 421A and 421B
Applications 501 (c) (3) Federal Tax Exemptions All forms
of government-assisted hOUSing, including LISC/Enterprise,
Section 202, State Turnkey and NYC Partnership Homes
KOURAKOS & KOURAKOS
Bronx, N.Y.
(718) 585-3187
Attorneys at Law
New York, N.Y.
(212) 551-7809
THE ANALYSIS AND SOLUTIONS COMPANY
Daniel Convissor, President
Website & Database Design. Public Policy Research.
Management & Transportation Consulting.
40157 Av #4WA, Brooklyn NY 11232
v: 718-854-0335 f: 718-854-0409
danielc@AnalysisAndSolutions.com
www.AnalysisAndSolutions.com
Excellent rate for nonprofit organizations.
Committed to the development of affordable housing
GEORGE C. DELLAPA, ATTORNEY AT LAW
15 Maiden Lane, Suite 1800
New York, NY 10038
212-732-2700 FAX: 212-732-2773
Low-income housing tax credit syndication. Public and private
financing. HDFCs and not-for-profit corporations. Condos and co-ops.
J-51 Tax abatement/exemptions. Lending for historic properties.
APRIL 2000
ECTORV
DEBRA BECHTEL - Attorney
Concentrating in Real Estate & Non-profit Law
Title and loan closings 0 All city housing programs
Mutual housing associations 0 Cooperative conversions
Advice to low income co-op boards of directors
313 Hicks Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201,
(718) 780-7994 (718) 624-6850
GET A BREAK ON POSTAGE
WHILE GIVING SOMEONE A BREAK
Let us Zip+4 and Bar Code Your Mailings for Maximum Postal
Discounts and Faster Delivery
We also offer hand inserting, live stamp affixing, bulk mail,
folding, collating, labeling, wafer sealing and more.
Henry Street Set/lement Mailing Services is a work readiness program
offering participants on-the-job and life-skills training
For information contact Bob Modica
(212) 505-7307 Fax: (212) 5334004
NesoH Associates
management solutions for non-profits
Providing a full range of management support services for
non.profit organizations
management development & strategic planning
board and staff development & training
program design, implementation & evaluation
proposal and report writing
Box 130 75A Lake Road Congers, NY 109200 teVfax (914) 268-6315
COMPUTER SERVICES
Hardware Sales:
IBM Compatible Computers
Okidata Printers
Lantastic Networks
Software Sales:
NetworkslDatabase
Accounting
Suites! Applications
Services: NetworklHardware/Software Installation,
Training, Custom Software, Hand Holding
Morris Kornbluth 718-857-9157
LAWRENCE H. McGAUGHEY
Attorney at Law
Meeting the challenges of affordable housing for 20 years.
Providing legal services in the areas of General Real Estate,
Business, Trust & Estates, and Elder Law.
217 Broadway, Suite 610
New York, NY 10007
(212) 513-0981
-
(continued from page 34)
DIRECTOR. The Training Institute for Careers in Organizing seeks Director to run
training and technical assistance program in community organizing, oversee
apprenticeship program, classroom trainings and recruitment weekend. Based
on experience, computer and administrative skills, grant-writing and SOrT)e
Spanish. Salary $27-$34K based on experience, good benefits. Send resume
to tico@igc.org or 103 E. 196 Street, Bronx, NY 10468 or fax (718) 733-6922-
call Monami at (718) 584-29954.
ORGANIZE! Join activists and academics for a weekend conference, April 8-9 2000
at Columbia University. The conference will cover key issues in organizing for
social change in workshops, roundtable discussions and paper presentations.
For more information about participation, program and registration, visit the web
page: http:// www.sociology.columbia.edu/ home/ lesley/organize_reg.htm or
write to the program committee at: organize_1999@yahoo.com.
Forest Hills Community House, a member of a Queens health-focused coalition
contracted to enroll children into Child Health Plus (CHP) and or Medicaid, is
seeking two individuals to provide outreach, education and enrollment in central
Queens: PROJECT COORDINATORIlEAD ENROl.LER: Responsible for developing an
outreach plan, coordinating schedules, providing enrollment, and supervising
enrollers. BHingual preferred (English/Spanish or Russian). Must have two
years experience in community work or work with low-income families and pos-
sess strong organizational skills. 35 hrs/week, some evenings and Saturdays.
$15.40 per hour, benefits. ENROl.LER: Have good interpersonal, organizational
and computer skills and willingness to travel across central Queens. Bi-lingual
preferred (English/Spanish or Russian). $25 hrs/week @ $9.00/hour. Some
evenings and Saturdays. Mail resume to Dennis Redmond, FHCH, 108-25 62nd
Drive, Forest Hills NY 11375. EEO
The Rfth Avenue Committee, Inc., a not for profit CDC, seeks an experienced
PROPERTY MANAGER to supervise nine maintenance workers and assist in imple-
menting a comprehensive asset management plan. Responsible for tracking
repairs, building inspections, registrations, inventory, field supervision of con-
tractors and vendors. Qualifications: Rve years experience in combined housing
related work. Two years of college and/or training institute. Computer literate
and good knowledge of building systems. Compensation: Mid $30's.Send
resume to: FAC, 141 5th Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11217. Re: Property Manager.
DIRECTOR FOR PROPERTY MANAGEMENT. The Rfth Avenue Committee, Inc. a not
for profit CDC, seeks a highly motivated individual to lead a growing property man-
agement department. Responsible for staff supervision and implementation of a
comprehensive asset management plan, including budget development, fiscal
monitoring, compliance, reporting, capital improvements, post construction, bid-
ding, purchasing and legal. Qualifications: Rve years experience as a property
manager. Two years of college and/or training institute. Good knowledge of build-
ing systems and Microsoft Windows, Excel and Word. Compensations: $4Q.
45K.Send resume to: FAC. 141 Rfth Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11217
Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, a not-for-profit multi service orga-
nization in East Brooklyn seeks a PROGRAM DIRECTOR to launch its Employment
Services and Placement Program. The program will provide job readiness train-
ing, individual counseling, job placement and retention services to residents pri-
marily on public assistance. 120 placements are mandated per year.
Requirements-MS Social Work. Public Administration or related field preferred.
Supervisory experience, two years experience in high volume performance
based employment services organization with proven job placement experience.
Bilingual (Spanish) a plus. Salary Range: $35k-$38K + health benefits. To apply.
fax resume to: M. Williams at (718)647-2104.
Jennie A. Clark Residence, Hope Community's Tier II shelter for homeless
families, combines transitional housing with onsite social services to pre-
pare its 73 resident families for productive, independent lives. CASE MANAG-
ER SUPERVISOR: Duties: Supervise case management staff. Responsible for
quality assurance as well as preparing agency staff for City/ state site visits.
Works under the direct supervision of the Deputy Director. Master degree in
Social Work preferred or BA with minimum of 5 years experience working with
homeless population/ families. Must have excellent organizational skills.
RESIDENT AIDE (Security Guards): Duties: ensure security of residents, staff
and building by monitoring everyone entering and leaving the buildings. High
school diploma or equivalent, GED with one year experiences. Must have
excellent interpersonal skills. CHILD CARE WORKER: Work in the facility's Drop
In/Daycare unit under the supervision of the Daycare Administrator. High
School diploma required with several years of experience working with small
children. Must have excellent communications skills. RECREATION COORDINA-
TOR: Responsible for the supervision of the Youth Staff. The Recreation
Coordinator is responsible for planning and program development in recre-
ational, cultural and educational activities. Must have knowledge of commu-
nity resources and serve as a community liaison with community organiza-
t ions in order to access additional activities off site. Send cover letter and
resume to: L. Lorenzo Williams, Deputy Director, Jennie A. Clark, 183 A East
100th Street, New York, NY 10029 or fax: 212-36Q.5494. No Phone Calls.
The Faith in Action Program, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, has an opening for an EXECIIIlVE ASSISTANT to the National Program
Director. Faith in Action is a seven-year program providing $10 million each year
in grants to local coalitions of faith-based organizations that mobilize volunteers
helping people with chronic health conditions. The Executive Assistant will main-
tain the CEO's calendar and travel ; carry out research assignments; organize
and prepare minutes for meetings. Must have high level writing-skills and sub-
stantial experience in dealing with executives of national leadership groups.
Salary is $40,000. National Program office is located in Pearl River, NY (half
hour north of NYC). Send resume and letter to: Harry R. Moody, Faith in Action,
PO Box 575, Palisades NY 10964.
DIRECTOR Of TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE [DTA) The NYC Coalition Against Hunger
seeks a senior staff member for a new initiative to build the capacity of emer-
gency food programs to help the hungry in ways that go beyond food. The DTA
will help a faith-based, voluntary service sector develop management skills and
implement new programs through a comprehensive program of training, infor-
mation and TA. Qualifications: Extensive community based experience, both
social services and management, including fundraising, program development,
training and writing, EOE. Salary: Mid-$30s. Four-day work week, benefits, four
weeks vacation. Resumes to 212-3854330, nyccah@netzero.com. For ques-
tions, job description: 212-227-8480.
Government Funded Program Seeks Experienced, Energetic JOB DEVEI.OPER.
Responsibilities include the counseling and placement of individuals into jobs as
assistant computer network systems administrators and assistant database
administrators. Applicant must have excellent knowledge of the IT job market.
Salary range 3Q.35k, commensurate with experience. Health benefits. Fax and
email resume to the attention of "Alexandra" at: 718-643-3365, The United
Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, 32 Penn Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211.
The Organizing/Housing and Homelessness Prevention Department now has a
fulHime HOUSING SPECIALIST POSITION available in our Eviction Prevention Program
in Jamaica (located near E train line). Responsibilities: Provide Eviction Prevention
Assistance to tenants in Job Center 54. Must have knowledge of Housing Law and
Public Assistance; good advocacy skills. Bilingual Spanish/ English Preferred:
Salary: mid 20s plus full benefits package. Submit resume to: FHCH, 108-25
62nd Avenue, Forest Hills, NY 11375 Attn: Housing. EEO
SENIOR TRAlNER/TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE. Full time position available at Center for
Urban Community Services (CUCS) Housing Resource Center for an individual to
provide training and technical assistance to supportive housing providers and their
staff. Eligible applicants are required to have at least five years experience in the
following areas: overseeing a supportive housing or other human service program
and supervising or training professional staff. Experience working directly with pe0-
ple with special needs and in employment services preferred. Applicants must have
excellent verbal , written and interpersonal skills. Master degree required. Send
cover letter and resume to: Peggy Shor, CUCS 120 Wall Street, 25th Roor, New York
NY 10005. FAX: 212.{l35-2191.
PROGRAM OfFICER. The Veatch Program is the grantmaking division of the
Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, on Long Island. The pro-
gram supports a broad range of denominational and non-denominational
activities which reflect the values and philosophy of Unitarian Univeralism.
Non-denominational organizations supported by Program funds are those
engaged in social justice activities which further community organizing and
democratic partiCipation in policy making. Responsibilities: Assess current
program areas and analyze opportunities for new program development.
Identify national , regional and analyze opportunities for new program devel-
opment. Identify national , regional and local grassroots organizations that
work for progressive social change, evaluate proposals and make grant rec-
ommendationis; monitor the progress of ongoing grants; collaborate with
other grantmakers. Some travel required. Qualifications: Prior experience
working with grassroots and advocacy organizations; excellent writing and
analytical skills; ability to work with individuals and organizations of different
ethnic, religious and socio-economic backgrounds; preferably prior grant-
making experience, and an understanding of the philosophy and values of
Unitarian Universalism. The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter
Rock is committed to affirmative action. Send resume, cover letter and at
least three references. MUST BE RECEIVED ASAP. Reply to: Program Officer
Search, Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, 48 Shelter
Rock Road, Manhasset, NY 11030.
PROJECT MANAGER, Tenant and Community Services. NYC office of the Enterprise
Foundation seeks experienced manager to provide technical assistance to com-
munity.based organizations and other community developers on tenant and
CITY LIMITS
social services and neighborhood resource development. Qualifications: Degree
in social work, urban planning or related field; 2 years experience in community
development/planning; knowledge of social services. Visit enterprisefounda-
tion.org for all details. Fax resume and salary requirements to 410-772-2702.
DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR for Latino CBO. Requirements: College Degree, good
writing, research, and communication skills; computer literate. Tasks include cor-
porate solicitation; some event management tasks; public and community rela-
tions. Bilingual (Spanish) and fund raiSing experience preferred. Competitive
salary, excellent benefits. Send resume: Maria Elena Girone, Executive Director,
PRR, 145 West 15th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011 or FAX 212-B91-5635.
JOB DEVELOPER. Bronx-based company seeks an individual experienced in
employment/job development with own job data bank to create employment
opportunities for clientele. BA in related field and a minimum of 3 years experi-
ence in job development and placement required. Strong presentation/PC skills
needed. Bilingual a plus. Starting salary $30K. Fax or mall resume with cover
letter to: Director of Employment Service, The New Bronx Employment Service,
54 East 179th Street, Bronx, New York 10453. FAX 718-29%646.
EXECIIT1VE DIRECTOR. Seeking experienced, creative and dynamic director
with strong political , administrative and fundraising skills. Management of
NYC and Albany offices. A strong candidate should possess: knowledge of
welfare, workfare, hunger and poverty issues; experience with grant writing,
not-for-profit administration, and fiscal oversight; and an understanding of,
and a commitment to, the range of issues affecting low-income New Yorkers.
Ability to work with a diverse staff, board and constituency a must. Resume,
CL to Hunger Action Network, 305 Seventh Avenue, Suite 2001, NYC 10001.
DEVElOPMENT DIRECTOR. economic justice organization seeks ener-
getic and experienced individual to take a leadership role in building dynamic
organization. Fundraising, grant writing and special events. Three years
ence. $35-40,000 DOE. Health benefits and vacation. Resume, CL to Hunger
Action Network, 305 Seventh Avenue, Suite 2001, NYC 10001.
DIRECTOR, NEIGHBORHOOD AN11.a11ME. Citywide nonprofit seeks individual to
manage program mobilizing neighborhood residents for safety. MA + 2 years
experience community organizing required. Knowledge of MS Word, Bilingual,
knowledge of diverse communities and drug or crime prevention preferred.
Salary commensurate with experience. Resume, salary requirements & short
writing sample ASAP to: MC, CCNYC, 305 7th Ave., 15th R., NYC 10001 or
jobs@citizensnyc.org. Include NACC In subject line. TRAINING COORDINIUOR.
Citywide nonprofit seeks Training Coordinator. BA + 3 years experience with
grassroots community organizing training design & delivery required. Bilingual &
knowledge of diverse communities; strong writing & presentation skills pre-
ferred. Salary commensurate with experience. Some evenings & weekends
required. Resume & short writing sample ASAP to: JM, CCNYC, 305 7th Ave.,
15th R., NYC 10001 or jobs@citizensnyc.org. Please include TRAIN in subject
line. PIT OFFICE MANAGEMENT ASSISllWT. 15 hours/week (M-F 1-4 p.m.).
$8/ hour. Dynamic not-for-profit seeks energetic & enthusiastic self starter to
assist w/reception, Office maintenance & inventories. Experience with painting,
carpentry a +. Bilingual a +. Re.sumes by 2/ 4/00 to KZ, CCNYC, 305 7th Ave. ,
15th R., NYC 10001 or jobs@citizensnyc.org. Please include OA in subject line.
HOUSING DIRECTOR. Somerset County-based nonprofit social services agency
that serves people with special needs throughout the greater Central New
Jersey area seeks a Director of Housing to provide administrative oversight to a
Housing Development/Facilities Management component of its operations. The
desirable candidate will have strong administrative/organizational/supervisory
skills and experience in grant writing. Experience with a computerized mainte-
nance and facilities management tracking system and with the management of
HUD properties a plus. BA plus 5 years experience in housing
development/facilities management required. Master's Degree in related field
preferred. Send resume with salary requirements/history to: Altematives, Inc.,
600 First Ave., Raritan, NJ 08869. FAX: (908) 685-2660. E-mail:
aniemiec@altemativesinc.org. www.alternativesinc.org. EOE.
BILINGUAL WRITIRIRSEARCHERIPOLICY ANALYST needed to prepare reports
over six months on the education of Latino children in Bronx public schools.
The ideal candidate has extensive report writing/editing experience and
extensive research experience in education policy. Research experience
should include gathering and interpreting extant data and conducting inter-
viewsand focus groups with diverse populations including senior policy offi-
cials. Excellent writing, policy analysis, and general analytiC skills required.
Work either as PT staff or as a consultant with the possibil ity of subsequent
FT work. Salary dependent on experience. Please send resume and a writ-
ing sample to Eileen Foley, National Center for Schools and Communities,
33 West 60th Street, 8th Floor, New York, New York 10023.
The Corporation for Supportive Housing seeks two PROGRAM OFFICERS for the
APRIL 2000
NYC Program. The PO FOR SERVICE POUCY AND PROGRAM DESIGN will be respon-
sible for program evaluation and funding of housing-based services for single
adults and families with disabilities. Masters in social policy and planning or relat-
ed field preferred. Knowledge of child welfare and/ or substance abuse programs
a plus. The PO FOR EMPlOYMENT will support and bring to scale supportive hous-
ing-based employment services for people with multiple barriers to work,
ing single adults with disabilities and heads of households.
Position will involve systems change, work with government agencies and capac-
ity building assistance to local supportive housing providers. Mail resume and
cover letter to C. Temple, CSH, 50 Broadway, 17th Roor, New York, NY 10004 or
fax, 212-98EXl552. EOE M/F/H/V.
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR for The Brecht Forum, an independent left educational
and cultural center. Responsibilities include administering and overseeing
fundraising programs, sustainer program, direct mail appeals, major donor pro-
gram and occasional events. Writing, organizing, and computer skills as well as
willingness to work in a collaborative environment are required. Experience in
grassroots social-change organizations or cultural/educational institutions a
plus. Starting salary: $26,000 with benefits. People of color and women encour-
aged to apply. Send resume to: The Brecht Forum, 122 West 27th Street, 10th
Roor, New York, NY 10001.
PART-11ME ADMINIS1RA11VE ASSISllWTIOUTRfACH COORDINIUOR for The Brecht
Forum, an independent left educational and cultural center. Writing, organizing,
and computer skills as well as willingness to work in a collaborative environment
are required. Experience in grassroots social-change organizations or cultur-
al/educational institutions a plus. 2O-hour work week. Starting salary: $13,000
with benefits. People of color and women encouraged to apply. Send resume to:
The Brecht Forum, 122 West 27th Street, 10th Roor, New York, NY 10001.
PROJECT DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY COMPUTER CENTIRS. The Greater Williamsburg
Collaborative, an economic development, employment and community build-
ing initiative seeks Director to lead multi-agency collaborative. Major respon-
sibility will be to develop and implement fundraising strategy for Williamsburg
Web, a network of community computer centers. Provide technical assistance,
support and oversight of centers. Research curricula and best practices.
Supervise other projects and staff. Strong development and communication
skills needed. Ability to handle multiple projects. Interest in technology and
computer education required but computer expertise is not. Mail
resume/ cover letter to N. Lasher, St. Nicholas NPC, 11Catherine Street,
Brooklyn, 11211 or fax to 718-486-5982.
IIOUSINGIENTTTlENTS PARALGAL. The HIV Law Project, a nonprofit legal ser-
vices office which represents low-income clients with HIV, seeks paralegal to
work with housing attomeys and carry caseload of entitlement clients.
Responsibilities will include representing clients at Fair Hearings and Social
Security hearings and extensive advocacy with the Division of AIDS Services.
College degree or related experience required. Spanish speaking a plus. Salary
$27,000. Fax resume and cover letterto 212-B74-7450.
Agency providing residential services to mentally ill adults is seeking a JOB DEVEL-
OPER. New position involves coordinating agency wide vocational activities and exist-
ing employment services, recruiting potential business contacts, job coaching, and
enhancing agency-based supported employment program. Must be willing to travel
citywide. BA degree plus 1 year experience in voc/ rehab. Progressive environment.
Full benefits and an opportunity for growth. Please send or fax your resume with
cover letter indicating salary requirements to: Attn.: Director of Personnel , Beacon
of Hope House, 116 East 16th Street, 5th Roor, New York, NY 10003. Fax: 212-
982-2869. Equal Opportunity Employer.
CASES, a major nonprofit dedicated to assuring better futures for court-
involved defendants, seeks a COURT REPRESENTA11VE to identify and select
defendants who meet eligibility criteria and to advocate on their behalf to
judges and ADAs. College degree; knowledge of the not-for-profit and/ or crim-
inal justice system preferred; knowledge of word processing and computers;
and excellent written and verbal communication skills. Salary $26K. Send
resume and cover letter to Director of Personnel, CASES, 346 Broadway, 3rd
Roor, New York, NY 10013.
Dynamic youth service organization in East Hartem seeks YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Responsibilities for new position include implementation, enhance-
ment and expansion of RBI's educational/enrichment curriculum. Position will
involve assisting in initial design, construction and evaluation of some programs.
Programs include mentoring, after school tutorials, newsletter project, and sum-
mer enrichment academy. College degree required. Experience in not for profit or
educational setting helpful. Salary commensurate with experience. Full benefits.
Send cover letter and resume to: Har1em RBI/Attn: YDD, P.O. Box 87, Hell Gate
Station, NY, NY 10029. Email: rbertin@hartemrbi.org Women and minorities
strongly encouraged to apply. EOE.
(continued on page 38)
-
HEAR IT FIRST
,\).\(ity Limits
Indispfnsihlf nfWS on thf politio of housinq, wflfal'f, aimf, jobs, smools.
bam what (ity Hall dOfSn't want you to bow about NfW York's nfiqhborhoods.
And kffp' up with fVfrY0nf who's workinq to mOf thfm hfttfr.
Y[S! Start my subscription to (ity Limits maqalinf.
Individuals/Nonprofits:
o $ZS/onf Yfar'(IO issufS)
o U9/two yurs (lO isUfS)
BusinfSsl6ovfmmfntlLihrary:
o $U/onf Yfar or Yfars
Namf
-----------------------------------------

(ity Statf _ Zip ___ _
(continued from page 37)
Youth service organization seeks DVELOPMENTIFUNDRAISING ASSOCIATE.
Community based not-for-profrt in East Harlem seeks energetic, detail oriented, ded-
icated and dynamic individual to help create and implement comprehensive
Development and Communications Strategy. Responsibilities include grant research
and writing, corporate solicitation, event management, direct mail development, and
public/ community relations campaign. College degree required. Experience in
fundraising and/or youth development world strongly preferred. Salary commensu-
rate with experience. Full benefits. Send cover letter and resume to: Executive
Director/Harlem RBI/P.O. Box 871/Hell Gate Station/NY, NY 10029. Email : rber-
lin@harlemrbi.org) Women and minorities strongly encouraged to apply. EOE.
PROJECT DIRECTOR. Newly formed LDC seeks qualified director to manage
comm'l revitalization activities on Myrtle Avenue in Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill,
Bklyn. Responsibilities incl: project development & implementation, fundrais-
ing, community outreach, promotion. Candidate should be highly motivated,
independent, w/3-5 years experience in downtown revitalization. Marketing
background A+. Must possess excellent communication skills & ability to
work w/wide variety of people. Pis. state salary requirements, Fax cover let-
ter & resume to: 718-242-0737, Attn: MARC Search Committee. EOE.
PlACEMENT SPECIAUST. B.A. required, with knowledge of and business contacts
regarding employment for the mentally ill, formerly homeless population. Strong
marketing skillS a must as well as a reasonable understanding of the mentally ill
population. Email: michelef@projectrenewal.org, FAX: 212-620-6118.
HIV SERVICES DIttTOR.Project Hospitality, a growing community based
zation on SI near ferry seeks a full time Director of HIV Services to administer
a broad continuum of services to HIV infected Staten Islanders including those
living with mental illness, substance use, and homelessness. Excellent admirr-
istrative and clerical skills needed. A sense of perspective in working with a dif-
ficult to serve population and a commitment to compassionate care a must.
CSW is preferred. We offer a competitive salary and benefits package. Send
resume and salary requirements to: Project Hospitality, Inc. Director Human
Resources, 100 Park Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10302. EOE M/F/V/H.
Y[S! P1faSf sfnd mf thf flIT (ity Limits Wffkly
[-mail and fax Bullftin.
(-Mail Addms:
---------------------------
or fax Numhfr:
------------------------
S[ND YOUR ORDut TO: (ity Limits
IlO Wall Strfft, lOth l100r
NfW York, NY
PhODf: (lll) t.19-114l. - fax (lll)
HOUSING CONSULTMlON COORDINATOR AND TRAINER. position available
at the Housing Resource Consultation Unit of the Housing Resource Center.
This unit is responsible for providing placement assistance for homeless per-
sons with mental illness, producing the Supportive Housing Vacancy Report
and Jobs Journal, maintaining the housing providers and coordinating systerrr-
wide advocacy efforts. In addition to supervising the above services, this indi-
vidual will provide training to staff of supportive housing programs.
Requirements: Master's Degree required (MSW preferred). Rve years human
services experience required; two years in supportive housing and two years
direct supervisory experience preferred. Computer literacy in word-processing
required; use of databases, spreadsheets, networks and on-line information
systems preferred. Excellent writing and communication skills required; expe-
rience in training preferred. Salary: mid-$40's + compo benefits. Send cover let-
ter and resume to: Peggy Shorr, CUCS, 120 Wall Street, 25th Roor New York,
NY 10005. Fax: 212-635-2191. .
SENIOR TRAlNERlTICHNICAI.. ASSISTANT. FUll-time position available at the
Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS) Housing Resource Center for
an individual to provide training and technical assistance to supportive hous-
ing providers and their staff. Eligible applicants are required to have at least
five years experience in the following areas: overseeing a supportive hous-
ing or other human service program and supervising or training professional
staff. Experience working directly with people with special needs and in
employment services preferred. Applicants must have excellent verbal , writ-
ten and interpersonal skills. Master' s degree required. Send cover letter and
resume to: Peggy Shorr, CUCS, 120 Wall Street, 25th Roor, New York, NY
10005. Fax: 212-635-2191.
Prime Office Space: Bronx "HUB" 148th Streetj3rd Avenue. Join F.E.G.S.,
Inwood House, Dept. of Mental Health. Two modem buildings-newly built. Space
ranging from: 2,500 Square Feet to 18,000 Square Feet. Owner negotiable:
718-625-4403 or 718-624-0390. Fax: 718-522-3518.
CITVLlMITS
The Discipleship Outreach Ministries has the following positions available:
PROGRAM DIRECTOR at Site 5220 4th Avenue for Sunset Park Outreach
Center. This poSition is: Full Time/ 35 hours per week. Salary: Negotiable.
Qualifications: M.S.w. or Masters Degree in Health or Human Services, one
year of supervisory experience and/or B.A. in Health or Human Services, two
years of supervisory experience and three years qualifying experience.
Excellent leadership, management, and program development skill needed.
Knowledge of and experience. working with HIV/AIDS population. Spanish bilin-
gual preferred. Position: HIV PEER EDUCATOR at Site 5220 4th Ave. for
Sunset Park Outreach Center. This position is: Part-Time/10-20 Hrs. per week.
Rex. sched.-may include occasional evenings and Saturdays. Temp.non-
exempt for 8-12 mos. Qualifications: Basic knowledge of HIV. Ability to relate
to targeted communities. Six months continuous sobriety. Able to communi-
cate well both verbally and in writing; public speaking ability a plus. Reading
and writing skills-minimum of seventh grade level. Completion of DOMI Basic
Peer training course or a satisfactory equivalent (DOMI will provide this training
to interested persons prior to employment). Typing and computer knowledge a
plus. Position: SUBSTANCE ABUSE COUNSELOR at Site 5220 4th Ave. for
Sunset Park Outreach Center. This position is Full Time/35 hrs per week.
Salary: Mid-$20's. Qualifications: CASAC and or BA Degree in Counseling,
Human Services, or related field. Bilingual preferred. Must have good facilita-
tion and interpersonal skills and be willing to leam. Must be a team player.
Basic computer skills needed. Good writing and documentation skills required.
Position: MENTAL HEALTH PRACTITIONER at Site 5220 4th Ave. for Scattered
Site Housing Program. This position is: Full Time/35 hrs. per wk/ Salary: $28-
30K. Qualifications: M.S.W. or Masters Degree in counseling, Human Services
or related field and one year qualifying experience. Or BA Degree and three
years qualifying experience. Bilingual in Spanish with the ability to conduct
group sessions in Spanish. Excellent oral and written communication skills,
knowledge of HIV/AI DS, substance abuse, and homelessness. Experience
working with families and children a plus. Position: ADMINISTRATIVE ASSIS-
TANT at Site 968 3rd Ave for Tuming Point DFC. This poSition is: Full Time/35
hrs. per wk/Salary low/high $20's depending on skills and experience.
Qualifications: Assoc. Degree with a minimum of 3-5 years experience. Type 40
WPM with accuracy. A team player. Must be well organized, able to work inde-
pendently, take initiative, flexible. Excellent verbal and written communication
skills. Strong proofreading skills, follow-up, proficient knowledge in use of Word
Perfect, Microsoft, and PrintShop Programs. Position: FILL IN CLIENT WORK-
ER at Site 968 3rd Ave. for Turning Point DFC. This position is: Part-Time,
Rexible hours/ Rate: $8 per hour. Qualifications: Assoc. Degree with minimum
of 2 years experience working with young adults or satisfactory equivalent.
Position: INTAKE COORDINATOR at Site 5013 7th Ave. for Ed.Ctr/Career
Development. This poSition is: Full Time/35 hrs per wk/Salary: high $20's.
Qualifications: Assoc. Degree in Human Services or related field, and/or 2-4
years experience in human services. HIV/AIDS-related service experience
required. Knowledgeable in Substance Abuse related issues. Experience in
employment related services a must. Position: ABEjPRE-GEDjGED INSTRUC-
TORS at Site 5013 7th Ave for Education Center. This position is: Full and Part
Time Positions. Qualifications: BA Degree and 2 years experience in adult edu-
cation. Strong background in teaching adults reading & writing at basic literacy
and Pre-GED levels based on learner-<:entered philosophy. Knowledge of whole
language, authentic assessment and writing process instruction. Able to work
in a team. Position: CAREER COUNSELOR at Site 5013 7th Ave for Career
Development. This position is: Full Time/35 hrs per wk. Salary: $30K.
Qualifications: BSW or Human Services with a minimum of 4 years experience
in human services specifically dealing with education, vocational rehabilitation
and/ore guidance counseling, testing, post-secondary options. Experience in
employment training and placement a must. HIV/AIDs-related services experi-
ence required. Knowledgeable in Substance Abuse related issues and home-
less or formerly homeless persons. Position: HIV PEER EDUCATOR at Site 373
Columbia Street for Red Hook Outreach Center. This position is: Part Time/
10-20 hours per week. Rex. Sched-may include occasional evenings or
Saturdays. Temp. non-exempt for 8-12 mos. Qualifications: Basic knowledge
of HIV. Ability to relate to targeted communities. Six months continuous s o b r ~
ety. Able to communicate well both verbally and in writing; public speaking a
plus. Reading and writing skills-minimum seventh grade level. Completion of
DOMI Basic Peer training course or a satisfactory equivalent (DOMI will provide
this training to interested persons prior to employment). Typing and computer
knowledge a plus. Position: CLIENT WORKER at Site 968 3rd Ave for Turning
Point DHS. This position is: Part time/ Fri.Sat and Sun. Hrs: 3:30pm-12:30
am/$8.00 per hour. Qualifications: Assoc. Degree with a minimum of 2 years
experience working with young adults or satisfactory equivalent. Position:
CLIENT WORKER at Site 968 3rd Ave for Turning Point DHS. This position is:
Part time/Fri., Sat and Sun. Hrs: 12pm-8:30 am/$8.00 per hour.
Qualifications: Assoc. Degree with a minimum of 2 years experience working
with young adults or satisfactory equivalent. Position: CLIENT WORKER at Site
968 3rd Ave for Turning Point DHS. This position is: Part time/Fri. , Sat and
Sun. Hrs: 7:30 am-4:30 pm/$8.00 per hour. Qualifications: Assoc. Degree with
a minimum of 2 years experience working with young adults or satisfactory
equivalent. Position: SUPPORTIVE SERVICES EVENTS COORDINATOR at Site
5220 4th Avenue for Supportive Services. This position is: Full time/35 hrs per
week-including 1-2 nights as needed. Evening & weekend special events
required as scheduled. Salary: dependent on experience. Qualifications: BA
degree and 1-2 years experience or satisfactory equivalent. HIV overview and/ or
experience with HIV/AIDS population and/or homeless populations.
Organizational and leadership skills necessary. Computer skills a must. Clean NYS
Drivers license required. Position: SUPPORTIVE SERVICES INTAKE AND FOLLOW-
UP COORDINATOR for Site 5220 4th Avenue for Supportive Services program. This
position is: 35 hrs per week/including 1 evening as needed/ Evening and weekend
special events required as scheduled. Salary: Dependent on experience.
Qualifications: BA degree and 1-2 years related experience or satisfactory equiva-
lent. Bilingual in Spanish preferred. Must have excellent inter-personal skills, orga-
nizational and leadership skills. Computer skills a must. Rexibility in work environ-
ment. HIV overview and/or experience with HIV / AIDS population. Clean NYS drivers
license a plus. For all positions please mail or fax resume to: Uz Rivera, Human
Resources 5220 4th Avenue, Administrative Office, Brooklyn, NY 11220 Tel : 718-
439-0077. Fax: 718-439-3963. No phone calls please.
LET US DO A FREE EVALUATION
OF YOUR INSURANCE NEEDS
APRIL 2000
We have been providing low-cost insurance programs and
quality service for HDFCs, TENANTS, COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
and other NONPROFIT organizations for over 15 years.
We Offer:
SPECIAL BUILDING PACKAGES
FIRE LIABILITY BONDS
DIRECTOR'S & OFFICERS' LlABILTY
GROUP LIFE & HEALTH
"Tailored Payment Plans"
ASHKAR CORPORATION
146 West 29th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10001
(212) 279-8300 FAX 714-2161 Ask for: Bola Ramanathan
W4
Chase announces 1%-2%
down payment mortgage program
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT GROUP
1 % Down payment from borrower's own funds
2% Gift, unsecured loan or seller concessions
can be used for down payment
Owner occupied properties
30 Year fixed rate
1-2 Family house, Condo, PUD
No minimum loan amount
FNMA maximum loan amounts apply
Expanded ratios 33/38
Purchase transactions only
Also available is Chase's "C.A.S.H." program
C.A.S.H. is an unsecured installment loan that
may be used to cover your down payment
and/or closing costs associated with your first
mortgage with Chase
One payment coupon each month covers both
mortgage payment and installment loan
o CHASE
THE RIG H T R E LA T ION S HIP I S EVE R Y T H I N G ~
1-800-636-6395
All loans are originated by The Chase Manhattan Bank. All loans are subject to credit and property approval . Program terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.
Other restrictions and limitations apply. 'For down payments of less than 20%. mortgage insurance (MI) is required and MI charges apply. Not all products are available with 3%
down. Results 01 mortgage alfordability estimates are guidelines. The estimate is not an appl ication for credit and results do not guarantee loan approval or denial. Mortgage loans
are offered through The Chase Manhattan Bank. Community Development Group. Residential Lending. 2 Chase Manhattan Plaza. NY. NY 10081 .
C 2000 The Chase Manhattan Bank. All rights reserved. Equal Housing Lender @'