CITY LIMITS

COMMUNITY HOUSING NEWS

AUGUST 1978 VOL. 3 NO.6
NEW SELF -HELP LOAN
AIDS POOR IN HOUSING
LEVENTHAL TO AIDES:
'USE IT OR LOSE IT'
City Limits editors Bernard Cohen and Susan Baldwin interviewed HPD
Commissioner Nathan Leventhal on July 24. The subjects included
HPD's plans for the management, rehabilitation and maintenance of the
thousands of buildings the city is acquiring; the productivity of housing
rehabilitation programs and the city's commitment to all of its neighbor-
hoods. Excerptsfrom that interview follow.
Q. You worked in this de-
partment in 1972 and 73 under
former Mayor Lindsay. We'd
like to ask you how has the
city's housing picture changed
in the four or five years since
you were here before?
A. The way the housing
picture changed since the time
I was here is that in 1972-73 we
had, or at least thought we
had, hundreds of millions of
dollars worth of housing
funds. We did not do a very
good job of using those funds
to preserve the housing stock. Nathan Leventhal
Instead what we did is spend a lot of money on new high-rise construction,
which was important but which did very little in the area of rehabilitation. It
is obviously a great challenge now to take the resources we now have and see
what we can accomplish with them. The fact of life has become that even
for new construction you cannot build without a public subsidy. There is
very little purely private housing going on at this time. That wasn' t true four
. or five years ago. And it's not a terribly healthy thing to say. I think that we
would all like to see the time when we can have more purely private involve-
ment i'1 housing.
continued on page 10
by Susan Baldwin
A gentle breeze blows down Man-
hattan's Columbus Avenue from
the high ground around the Cathe-
dral of St. John that looms in the
background. And, as his Manhattan
Valley neighbors enjoy this brief
reprieve from summer's heat,
Nidson ("Nelson") Martinez does
on-the-street repairs for a gypsy cab
driver and talks cautiously about the
bold but untried plan to finance
housing rehabilitation that he will
soon begin to test.
"We've been waiting two-and-a-
half years for this loan from the
city, and I don't think my family
and friends and their families
believe that we will ever move in up
there," he says, looking up the gar-
bage-strewn sidewalk from the
hardware store he owns to the two
abandoned five-story, city-owned
buildings at 991-993 Columbus
Ave., between West 109th and 108th
Streets, which he hopes to call home.
City housing officials have said
repeatedly that Martinez and his
family and friends will be the first
New York City residents to benefit
from the one per cent interest Direct
Loan program to finance a new
form of sweat e ~ i t y rehabilitation
of housing for low income families.
Approval of the Direct Loan
marks a sharp policy shift for the
city, which has refused to consider it
for several years, stressing that the
continued on page 2
DIRECT LOAN continued
program was too costly, did nothing to leverage private
money and, therefore benefited too few buildings.
Proponents of sweat equity have argued that other
loan programs with interest rates of more than one to
three per cent force rents out of the reach of poor
people.
The loan agreement will cover lOOper cent of the
rehabilitation costs and will be repaid over 30 years at
one per cent interest. Dubbed "sweat-contractor-
sweat," it permits tenants to undertake gut rehabilita-
tion, using their own "sweat" labor at the beginning of .
the job and for the finishing touches, while major
construction work is done by professional contractors.
"I have made the decision to issue the letter of
commitment to 991-993 Columbus Ave., and they
should be getting it very, very soon," said Jeffrey
Heintz, the newly-appointed assistant commissioner of
rehabilitation at the Department of Housing
Preservation and Development (HPD).
"I know they are anxious to get on with the project,
and I know it has been taking a bit longer to issue this
letter than we had expected," he explained, noting that
his department is in the process of developing
procedures and guidelines for the Direct Loan program.
The final draft of these regulations will be published in
the City Record in August.
"It seems as if we have been working with these
people for eternity, and I wouldn't blame them one bit
if they started to believe this .[program] would never
come off," said Charyl Edmqnds, the project coordi-
nator at the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (U-
HAB), the advisory organization that developed the
concept for the Direct Loan and has been providing the
technical assistance for thjs pilot project.
"We have other groups from all around the city that
are very anxious for this program to go through," she
added. "But, they are all tired of waiting. After all, this
has dragged on in the neighborhood of two years for
most of them."
According to Edmonds's estimates, there are 15
proposed Direct Loan projects in the pipeline, and 27
others that have completed the work required for
admission to this pipeline.
Heintz confirmed that there are 15 projects planned
for areas such as Manhattan Valley, Central and East
Harlem, the Lower East Side, Brooklyn, and the South
Bronx. The other two Manhattan Valley sites, originally
included in the same package with 991-993 Columbus,
are 987-989 Columbus Ave., and 142 Manhattan Ave.
(at West l06th Street).
"Offhand, I don't know anything about the other
27," he asserted, "but I guess if Charyl says there are 27
more out there, there must be at least that many. She
has been following this since the very beginning."
One of the reasons HPD has moved cautiously on the
2
Direct Loan program, Heintz explained, it that it wants .
the program to avoid running into snags tha! might
relegate it to the pile of other failed city prograI!ls that
once seemed headed for success.
"We see 991-993 as the prototype for the others,"
Heintz said, "and we are hoping-beginning with the
letter of commitment, the development of the
guidelines, our discussions of the tenants' responsibili-
, ties for sweat equity, right up to and including signing
the building over to them- that we will move as
smoothly and quickly as possible."
Under this program, tenants will be responsible for
the demolition work on the site. A seed money loan
from the Consumer-Farmer Foundation of $14,000 to
cover demolition ($9,000) and initial architectural
expenses ($5,000) will be granted with the issuance of
the city's letter of commitment.
Upon completion of the demolition, the city and
tenants will meet with the construction lender and set up
the timetable with the contractors for fundamental
systems work in the building, and Community
Development funds earmarked for the project will be
placed in an interest-bearing escrow account. Tenants
will also place their first month's rent at the proposed
new rate in an operational account.
The small, cramped, gutted apartments on the site,
that once featured bathtubs in the kitchens and toilets in
the hallways, will be modernized into two duplexes and
two five-room apartments for larger families and pairs
of studios, two, three, and four-room apartments, for a
total of 12 units. The rents will range from $125 per
month for the studios to $225 for the duplexes.
According to Heintz, no money will be advanced by
the city for the work until a permanent mortgage is
written after the contractors' work is completed. Up to
this point, the construction lenders will be advancing
their own funds. The two banks that have expressed
their support of the Direct Loan program, the assistant
commissioner confirmed, are Chemical and Citibank.
Only when the building is ready for occupancy and
the tenants have fulfilled their responsibilities to put
the finishing touches on the rehabilitation work will the
CD monies be released.
"The main reason I am calling this [991-993
Columbus] a prototype is because there are so many
new ground rules to set up," said Heintz. "The last
'sweat' part of the arrangement is particularly
important because each tenant group that participates in
the Direct Loan program may have ideas of what they
can do at the end that vary considerably from project to
project. "
The more work the tenants do for themselves, he
added, the lower the final rents will be.
Heintz also pointed out that the Direct Loan program
does not allow for any federal Section 8 subsidy fund-
ing. Unlike recent sweat equity arrangements, there is
no provision for a labor subsidy to provide the workers
with a small income for their phase of construction.
As recently as a year ago, Alexander Garvin, HPD's
former assistant commissioner of rehabilitation and
housing preservation, said of the Direct Loan proposal,
"We're not considering a 100 per cent loan program and
will not consider it, because we just don't have enough
money. "
Although the city has expressed its willingness to
experiment with the Direct Loan program, proponents
have questioned its low funding priority in the CD IV
budget.
"In our most recent meeting, attended by a number
of groups and HPD officials," said Edmonds, "the
mayor even sent a letter requesting the guidelines for the
program ... We think this is fine, but I don't see how
much can be developed in this direction and why he's so
interested if only $1 million is to be spent on Direct
Loans. This certainly won't go very far."
The $1 million allotment in the CD IV budget to
Sweat Equity (Direct Loans) has annoyed numerous
community groups who were led to believe last year and
during the CD meetings earlier this year that the CD IV
budget was to include $5 million for Sweat Equity
projects.
Asked by City Limits to comment on this drastic
budget cut, HPD Commissioner Nathan Leventhal had
this to say in his recent tape-recorded interview with the
editors: "All of our numbers were somewhat reduced as
we went through the budget process, but we have that
money obligated in a lump sum ... 1f sweat equity,
which is a very difficult and complicated process, but if
sweat equity can use more than a million and partici-
pation loans less than we've projected it should use,
then I'll put more money in sweat equity. I'm not bound
in. Those numbers are just for general guidance as to
what makes up the lump sum . .. "
Commenting on Leventhal's remarks, Brian Sullivan,
of the Pratt Center for Community and Environmental
Development, said, "So which program or who is going
to steal from whom? This way of stirring up compe-
tition, and possibly work, at HPD may be good in the
short run to get things going. But, what is going to be
the effect in the long run? I see the threat of a lot of
problems cropping up, and it certainly will be a mad-
house at the end of the year when they're trying to
figure out all sorts of ways to 'commit funds.' "
Sullivan also warned of possible group jealousies with
the allocation of only $1 million and so many projects
ready to begin.
"I see trouble on the horizon," he cautioned. "If
there is just a million, who gets it? There is no doubt in
my mind that each project will be battling for it, and
this just stirs up ugly neighborhood fighting and
politics. "
Meanwhile, Martinez and his friends take a late
Saturday afternoon break on the sidewalk from the
3
day's work, glad to talk about the program despite its
potential pitfalls.
"I want to believe them, the city, when they say they
will come down here with the letter," says Martinez, as
he does last-minute, delicate splicing and reassembling
of some fine wiring with his big, coarse hands and agile
fingers. He looks up the street again and reiterates, "All
they have to do is come here with the letter, and we're
ready to start . .. All the poor people here in the
community want nice housing and this will be good for
the neighborhood."
An older man, Reyes Medina, who came here 22 years
ago from the town of Aguadilla in Puerto Rico and has
spent all his time between West 108th and 109th Streets
on Columbus Avenue, comments on the past and
future.
"It's been 22 years for me on the block and 20 for my
son. This is my New York and it is the same thing for
my son and the family . .. New York. It's right here for
us." 0
City Limits learned on deadline that the letter of com-
mitment for the city's first Direct Loan has been issued
to Martinez.
Reyes Medina, ri ght, and his son, Jose, center, around the corner from 991 -993
Columbus Ave. , the site designated for the city's first Direct Loan. Nelson
Martinez, background, works on some elect ri cal repairs.
/
SHIP STEERS UNCERTAIN COURSE
by Bernard Cohen
Twenty-two families have been living in newly rehab-
ilitated homes for free-some for as long as nine months
-because of government's failure to complete the final
step in an innovative housing program.
The prolonged delay poses no immediate problem for
the home-owners-to-be. They are living in virtually
brand-new housing without having to make mortgage or
tax payments.
Nevertheless, critics say the inability to finish off the
Small Home Improvement Program (SHIP) is troub-
ling, particularly when the city says it recognizes how
crucial it is to have much more productive programs to
meet its growing volume of sub-standard housing.
Coupled with the delay is a vagueness about the city's
intentions to continue SHIP. "We have not made any
decisions about the future of SHIP at this point,"
Assistant Housing Commissioner Jeffrey Heintz said.
Arnold Tucker of the East New York Development
Corp., a non-profit housing organization that has
played a substantial role in SHIP, said the program
seems to be in limbo. "I don't see them pushing for
additional buildings," he said.
SHIP was launched last year when the city purchased
26 HUD-owned homes in a 16-block area in the East
New York section of Brooklyn. Contractors employed
by the city have finished the gut rehabilitation of most
of the two- and three-family homes. East New York
Savings Bank is providing the mortgage loans, which
are federally insured.
The subsidy in the program is that the city pays the
difference between the actual cost of rehabilitation
(approximately $50,000 per building) and the selling
price ($25,000 to $37,(00). A family must earn at least
$ 12,000-a-year to qualify for the SHIP program.
The result of the program will be that working
families of low and moderate income, who otherwise
would have little or no chance of becoming owners,
can buy good quality homes. That in turn, it is hoped,
will have a positive ripple effect on the surrounding
neighborhood.
"The neighborhood is not one of the best, but with
more people coming in we hope it will be up to par,"
said Rose Young of 521 New Jersey Ave. Her cousins,
Minnie Street and her sister Susie Allen, live next door
at 523.
All three women moved into the SHIP buildings from
better blocks elsewhere in Brooklyn, but were enticed to
New Jersey Avenue by the idea of becoming home
owners. "I like the fact that I was able to get something
for myself instead of paying rent all the time," Mrs.
Young, whose husband works for a surgical supply
firm, said.
Grass and flowers planted by the women grace the
small lawns in front of their buildings. Across the street,
4
) ... ) ,
Left to right: I Rose Young, owner of 521 New Jersey Ave.;
Susie Allen (in doorway) and Minnie Street, co-owners of 523.
half a dozen buildings not in the SHIP program are
sporting new coats of bright paint, another sign that the
block is heading up.
These women are among the more recent arrivals to
SHIP buildings. Hazel Coward and her children move.d
into a home at 585 Wyona Boulevard in East New York
last November. She has been waiting to become a
genuine home owner ever since.
Most SHIP home owners intend to rent out the
second apartment in their buildings but cannot until
that last step in the program is taken-the final closings
under which titles to the properties are transferred from
the city to the families. So there are vacant apartments
in 21 of the 22 occupied SHIP buildings.
City housing officials acknowledge that SHIP is on
the low end of the productivity scale among rehabilita-
tion and loan programs but assert they are not to blame
for the delay in the title closings.
"It is a problem," Heintz said. "We would like to
close on the mortgages. We would have wanted to close
the mortgages considerably earlier."
Mimi Ellis, director of the SHIP program at the
Department of Housing Preservation and Development,
said the closings cannot take place until Federal
Housing Administration inspectors approve the con-
struction work.
Asked why the FHA signoffs have taken so long, she
said, "it is a major coordination problem" with FHA
inspectors and the contractor that the city can do very
little about.
One consequence of the delay is that the original FHA
loan insurance commitment, without which the bank
would not provide the mortgage loans, has expired.
FHA has renewed the commitment once and was
recently asked for a second extension.
Tom Giles, HPD's chief architect for housing
production, said 11 of the buildings received final FHA
approval in July. Ellis said she hoped closings on these
buildings would take place in August.
The delay has been particularly frustrating for Tucker
and ENYDC, which marketed the SHIP buildings.
Tucker, a housing specialist, says that while the current
tenants have a good deal for the moment, the program
needs to go forward if the sharp decline of East New
York is to be reversed.
"It is frustrating to me as a black man that I have sold
these homes to black and Hispanic people under the
SHIP program that, unless it continues, will have built
up their hopes using their limited monies with the 30-
year debt on a dream that cannot be totally fulfilled,"
Tucker said.
Still in the wings is the East New York Savings Bank,
which has committed $1.6 million for mortgages. "We
are concerned that here is a program for our area that
just hasn't happened, " said Paul B. Murray, president
of the savings bank. He stressed the bank's continued
commitment to SHIP, but added, "We feel we're not
the ones who ought to push this. It ought to be pushed
from the other end. "
The city is committed to rehabilitate 21 buildings in
Brooklyn's Sunset Park section under a somewhat
different version of SHIP. Work began in May on the
first two. The city may do 14 more buildings in East
New York, and there have been some reported discus-
sions about trying out the program in Bedford Stuy-
vesant and in Jamaica, Queens.
Heintz said that if the program is continued, it will
more likely adopt the Sunset Park model under which
the city sold the buildings to a nonprofit community-
based housing organization, the Sunset Park Redevel-
opment Committee, rather than retain ownership
during construction as in East New York. The advan-
tage is the reduced role played by the city.
Cost is the major factor in considering an expansion,
Heintz said. The city had expected the buildings would
come in at about $48,000 each, but the actual costs
turned out to be 10 to 20 per cent higher, he added.
He and Ellis blamed the overruns on the difficulty of
predicting expenses with rehabilitation, citing staircase.s
and shot water and sewer connections as being more
costly than anticipated. Tucker asserted that the price
was also driven up by the city's admitted slow pace of
paying contractors for completed work.
Despite the uncertainty over the future of the SHIP
program, there is general agreement that it is potentially
a very useful weapon in the city's arsenal of housing
programs.
"From a housing strategy standpoint, SHIP is very
important," said Heintz, because it is not limited to
privately owned housing and because the loan covers
acquisition costs (unlike the federal 312 low interest
loan program, for instance).
"We are in the process of evaluating SHIP, its impact
on the neighborhood and its role in our overall housing
strategy," he said. 0
Three adjacent SHIP buildings give this part of the block on New Jersey Avenue an almost elegant look that is spoiled by abandoned
buildings on both sides.
GAITHER ASSUMES HELM OF ANHD
David Gaither
David L. Gaither, an administrator with years of
experience in delivering social services to
underprivileged communities, is the new executive
director of the Association of Neighborhood Housing
Developers.
His appointment to the post was effective June 7.
Gaither also serves as project director of the
Association's $5 million CETA VI (Comprehensive
Employment Training Act) program.
Commenting on his plans for strengthening the
Association's relationship with New York City's diverse
low and moderate income neighborhoods, Gaither said,
"In its infancy the Association was there fighting for all
the housing policies and social services that can turn a
community around, that can revitalize it. .. This
organization still stands for that kind of housing
advocacy, and I intend to renew that thrust.
"I see the Association with its broad-based
membership as a very valuable vehicle for positive
housing strategies in the City of New York," he added.
Alluding to his former duties as executive director of
the Department of Community Resources (Community
Action Agency) in Oakland, Calif., he stressed the
importance of having faith in being able to turn
neighborhoods around.
"I served in an area where we had dilapidated
housing, where there was a great deal of housing aban-
donment, and where people couldn't get loans from the
banks," he asserted, "and we fought it, and 1 think we
won that one."
6
Gaither served in this capacity in Oakland
from April, 1912, until July, 1975. During that period
he was instrumental in directing a seed money grant to
Oakland Rehab Inc., a non-profit community-based
organization that specialized in the rehabilitation of
vacant properties in East Oakland and the restoration of
one and two family homes in West Oakland which,
upon completion of the renovation, were sold to area
residents at modest prices.
"I would like to see the same thing happen here in
some of our communities," he said, noting that Oak-
land residents were able to buy rehabilitated homes in
the western section of the citY' with high ceilings and
large, modernized kitchens for between $30,000 and
$35,000 that look like they're worth $65,000."
Funding for the rehabilitation of the homes came
from HUD channeled through the local development
agency and had FHA mortgage backing.
Under Gaither's direction, the Community Resources
office also set up a pilot urban outreach program in East
Oakland, a neighborhood that many feared would
become the" first abandoned area on the West Coast."
This program offered such social services as legal aid
assistance, health care, daycare for working mothers,
and housing consultation.
In his estimation, this depressed neighborhood was
successful in its struggle for better social services
because it learned to influence public officials, private
investors, homeowners, and tenants to work hard for
community revitalization. While in Oakland, he fol-
lowed an open (anti-executive session) policy and
permitted the local television station to cover his board
meetings.
In additIon to serving as an administrator in a
number of Manpower-related programs around the
country, Gaither was vice president of the United States
Research and Development Corp., based in New York
City, from 1969 until 1972 where he was responsible for
a number of national and international projects funded
under grants from OEO, HEW, the Ford Foundation,
and the U.S. Department of Labor.
During the summers of 1963 through 1967 he worked
for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), super-
vising voter registration drives in Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia. Louisiana, and North Carolina. He spent a
number of hot summer nights in jail for his democratic
activities but was hurt seriously only once during a
demonstration in Alabama.
A graduate of the New York Institute of
Criminology, Gaither received his bachelor of science
degree from Morehouse College and his master of social
work degree from the University of California at
Berkeley. 0
CITY WILL ISSUE 'SIMPLE' LEASE
Housing officials predict that by September 1 a
handful of city-owned buildings will have tenants
installed as managers under a newly-developed, simple
interim management lease.
"I know of 25 buildings that are ready to go right
away and of 50 or 60 buildings that are waiting to get
into the [management] lease program," said Charles
Raymond, deputy commissioner for property manage-
ment at the Department of Housing Preservation and
Development [HPD]. "After the beginning of Septem-
ber, we are hoping to take in at least 20 new buildings a
month ... We are shooting for 200 buildings in the pro-
gram next year."
September 1 is the deadline for the transferof all city-
owned multiple dwellings from the Department of
General Services (GSD) to HPD.
To qualify for the interim lease agreement, tenants or
community groups acting on their own behalf would
have to submit a resolution signed by 60 per cent of the
tenants supporting the idea of the interim management
lease and a list of the tenants' names and apartment
numbers; a certificate of liability insurance coverage,
with the city as the co-insured, of at least $100,000 each
person, $300,000 maximum and $50,000 property
damage; and bylaws or articles of association listing
group officers or meeting schedules of the organization.
Acknowledging that 200 buildings is a small number,
when estimates for the year of tax-foreclosed, In Rem
properties range up to 25,000, Raymond asserted, "I
know this is a drop in the bucket, but it is a start.
"When I first started work here [HPD], I was aware
that there were groups out there managing their own
buildings, but I didn't realize how much of a radical
policy this [interim management lease] was and what a
. departure it was from the past," he added. "Really,
what we are doing now is sett(ng the tone for the direc-
tion housing is going in the city for the future."
This first group of buildings, most of which are
already in the pipeline of thecity's direct sales program
or were operating under 7-A administrators until taken
by ,the city in June, were ready for interim lease agree-
ments in mid-July.
"We were hoping that this signing could have taken
plaoe sooner," said Raymond. "Corp Counsel [Corpor-
ation Counsel Alan Schwartz] has approved the lease,
but before it can go into effect, it must have the
approval of the other city agencies."
One such agency is the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB).
The main questions being raised about the lease
proposal, Raymond explained, relate to the qirect use of
the rent roll by tenant management for maintenance and
7
repair of the buildings.
At the present time, rents collected in city-owned
buildings are paid directly to GSD's Division of Real
Property (DRP), which turns this revenue over to the
city's General Fund.
Observers associated with the Task Force on City-
Owned Property believe that OMB wants the city to
continue to receive all rents, and remit them periodically
to tenant management groups. Such a system would
make difficult if not prevent orderly administration of
the buildings' budgets by tenant managers and could
lead to problems with their creditors, these observers
maintain.
"As you can see," Raymond said of the plan to let
tenant groups collect rents, "this is going to create a
very large revenue problem even if you are only talking
about 200 buildings using their rent monies to run their
own buildings."
According to Raymond's estimates, if 200 buildings
with an average of 20 units per building with rents of
$100 each were to use the rent rolls to run the buildings
for one year, the loss to the city's General Fund would
be $4.8 million.
"The city naturally has a problem with this [proposal]
as it is loss of revenue and also because we have been
talking to them about allocating some $23 million in city
tax levy money to cover fuel and utilities for the
buildings," Raymond said.
The Community Development IV budget for In Rem
properties, approved May 23 by the Board of Estimate,
totals' $41 million. The breakdown of the budget is' as
follows: staff, $10 million; handymen and superin-
tendents' contracts, $17 million; operations, $3.5 mil-
lion; management lease program, $1 million; major
repairs, $7 million; and other, $25 million. The pro-
posed additional $23 million for fuel and utilities are
optional expenses not covered by CD funding.
Meanwhile, one area office to deal with In Rem
properties in the South Bronx opened recently, and
housing officials are looking at four other sites in
Manhattan in their effort to set up a decentralized net-
work to handle their new housing burden.
Several hundred real estate managers have been hired,
mainly from the civil service list, according to DRP's
Assistant Commissioner Perry Soskin. He did confirm,
however, that r ~ s u m e s from bilingual, non-civil service
community residents are being given special priority for
the $11,000 managerial position.
The city's Housing Authority is sponsonng special
courses in management, maintenance, repairs, and rent
collection for these new managers. 0
7-A LAW GIVES TENANTS A WAY
TO SEIZE A BUILDING-LEGALLY
by Margaret Gillerman
Part I of a two-part series
Around the corner from the Canaan Baptist Church
in Central Harlem is a massive granite, brick and marble
apartment building called the Warwick. Its chiseled
cornices and scrolled pillars belong to an age when
Harlem was a home for the prosperous and a choice site
for land speculators.
Upstairs on the second floor of the Warwick lives a
70-year-old, soft-spoken Southern woman named Laura
Batey. She has lived here, across the street from the
Hope and Love Florist, for nearly half a century.
Mrs. Batey remembers when the nearby corner of
116th Street and Eighth Avenue was not a marketplace
for young heroin junkies, before Harlem was tagged a
slum, before the apartment building across the street
was abandoned and boarded up.
She also remembers when her own home at 92 St.
Nicholas Ave.' began its steady decline, in about 1965.
First the frills-the dumbwaiters and fancy gas lamps-
disappeared. Then, non-essential services such as
painting, plastering and maintenance stopped. Finally,
the landlord neglected to make emergency repairs.
Tenants still talk about the day a young boy fell to his
death in the elevator shaft because the landlord forgot
to replace the safety gates.
"Every year the building got more and more run-
down, and nothing changed, and no one helped us,"
Mrs. Batey remembers. "But we stuck together, because
we're kind of a family at 92. We kept hoping all along
things would get better. "
But in the cold autumn of 1976, Mrs. Batey had no
heat or hot water. When she moved about her apart-
ment, she had to dodge plaster. Her ceiling was collaps-
ing. Her kitchen cabinets fell because the wall was
cracked and eroding.
Icy water flooded down through the building from
the torn roof, and there were gaping holes in the floors
of ten apartments. Naked electric wires hung in the
hallways. And in the basement, raw sewage spilled from
broken pipes, and rats crawled in;the filth.
That autumn, the superintendent quit and the lana-
lord threatened to abandon the building unless all back
rents were paid.
Desperate, Mrs. Batey took matters 'into her own
hands. She urged the other elderly tenants of the
building to join her protest and seize control from the
Adapted from a research article written by Margaret
Gillerman while s.he was a student at the Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism in 1977-78.
8
landlord.
This takeover by a band of elderly black tenants-
most living on Social Security-was legal.
Today, two years after the takeover, the tenants say
their home is again a decent and relatively safe place to
live. It is more: 92 St. Nicholas Ave. is proof that a
rarely-invoked New York housing statute-Article 7-A
of the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law-
can work. And throughout the city, a growing number
of tenants and attorneys, housing workers and com-
munity organizers agree that the little-known law merits
more attention.
Article 7-A gives tenants of apartment buildings the
right to take their landlord to court and to demand a
remedy for intolerable and dangerous living conditions.
The statute, enacted by the New York State Legislature
in 1965, protects tenants on rent strike and then goes a
step further.
If tenants in a building can show that their landlord
has neglected to repair conditions that imperil "life,
health or safety," an organized tenant group can ask the
Housing Court to replace the landlord with an adminis-
trator approved by the tenants. The court then ap-
points an administrator to collect rents and use the
funds for repairs, fuel, utilities and maintenance.
The administrator can also rent vacant apartments,
bring dispossess proceedings against non-paying tenants
and delay payment of taxes until after all repairs are
made.
"In practice, the administrator is usually accountable
to a tenants committee and should have the support of
the tenants," said Bruce Kramer, who brings 7-A suits
for the city's Housing Litigation Bureau. "In a growing
number of cases, the court appoints a tenant adminis-
trator who is familiar with the tenants' needs."
The administrator may take a fee of five or six per
cent of the rent roll, but only with the court's approval.
The statute specifies that the administrator should not
take the fee until after the building is fully rehabilitated.
Most 7-A buildings are past the point of turping out a
profit and few landlords contest the proceedings.
"The beauty of 7-A is that all money goes into
improving the building," Kramer said. The tenants have
a better chance to save the building than a landlord
because they are not concerned with making a profit.
Unlike most rent-withholding statutes, which force
the landlord to make repairs, Article 7-A gives tenants
responsibility for saving the building. The landlord,
meanwhile, retains the responsibilities of ownership. If
he or she sells the building, the court-ordered rent strike
and 7-A administration continue.
The statute says the building must revert to landlord
management after all repairs are completed. But this
never happens, said Joseph Shuldiner, former director
of the Housing Litigation Bureau. "No building is ever
restored to code compliance. Repairs are never com-
pleted and the owner never comes back."
The number of 7-A buildings in New York is un-
known. What statistics there are suggest that, until this
year, the city did not promote the statute as a serious
housing remedy. Nor have the courts enforced the law
as vigorously as the legislature intended, advocates of
the statute charge.
Harry Joslin, chief clerk of the Landlord-Tenant
Court, estimated that only 212 Article 7-A proceedings
were initiated between October,1973 and June,1977. Of
these, only 50 were initiated by the city. The rest were
brought by tenants. The city has never compiled records
on how many cases tenants won 'or how many petitions
reached trial. An independent survey of 135 Civil Court
judges in 1972 showed that 75 to 80 per cent of petitions
filed never reached trial.
Bernard Hanft, who has brought more 7-A actions
than any other individual attorney, charges that those
who have power to promote use of 7-A "deliberately
won't."
"Look at the-8outh Bronx and the Lower East Side,"
he said. "Why aren't there more 7-A's? Because of
government funded housing groups and legal services,
who won't advise tenants to file a 7-A petition, and
because of judges who won't appoint an administrator
once a case comes to triaL"
[Asst. Housing Commissioner CarlO. Callender said
the city will be taking a more active role in seeking to
oust irresponsible landlords through 7-A and other
programs. Since March, four city attorneys have been
working full-time on 7-A's. Callender, who is teaching
a course required of all prospective 7-A administrators,
predicted the city will bring at least 100 7-A suits during
1978. In addition, he said, the city intends to allow 7-A
administered buildings that are well maintained to
continue in that status even if they are foreclosed on by
the city for non-payment of real estate taxes by the land-
lord (In Rem).]
In 1965, when Article 7-A was enacted, it seemed to
promise a new era for the poor renters of New York.
"There was a general feeling back in the mid-sixties
that New York housing was already going down the
tubes and that tenants needed a means of intervention if
landlords stubbornly refused to do anything about
deterioriating buildings," said Robert Schur, a former
city housing official. "Tenants needed a quicker way of
intervention than government code violation authori-
ties, who used every excuse they could for not acting."
Article 7-A gave tenants a statutory mechanism with
which to redress grievances-something more than
previous piecemeal legal approaches through the courts.
9
For the first time, tenants could take action to ' oust
deliquent landlords.
Tenants on strike and tenants in buildings the land-
lord had abandoned had learned to pool their rents to
obtain essential services. "But tenants needed someone
who could run things and contract for repairs without
getting ripped off," Schuldiner said. "What they
needed was an administrator-and a law to protect
them from landlord reprisals."
The law aroused controversy from the beginning.
"The statute, originally, was typical of middle-class
legislative nonsense, with built-in restraints on its use,"
according to Schur. For instance, a tenant could not be
appointed administrator, but a lawyer, accountant, real
estate manager or even the landlord could.
Amendments in 1974 drastically reformed the law,
including a prohibition against appointing a landlord or
lienor as administrator. The law now permitted tenants
to be appointed.
Initial hostility remained, however. Many legal
services attorneys-those who would seem to be logical
advocates of the law-refused to touch it. They said the
statute put an unfair financial burden on tenants-and
got landlords who caused the problems and the govern-
ment, which should take over responsibility, off the
hook.
Mary Zulack, director of Bedford Stuyvesant Legal
Services, explained: "7-A holds out a promise to tenants
that cannot be met. Anytime a building is so bad that a
judge will appoint a 7-A administrator, the tenants' rent
probably won't cover the major repairs that need to be
done. If 7-A fails, the blame is put on the tenants, who
didn't cause the problem to begin with."
In addition, she said, a 7-A administrator can evict
tenants as easily as a landlord.
Another critic, Civil Court Judge Lester Evens, said
that 7-A allows the city to avoid taking responsibility
for housing the poor, and co-opts tenant activism.
[Last month, the city announced a loan program of
up to $10,000 per building to make repairs or restore
vacant apartments in 7-A buildings. An initial $135,000
has been authorized for loans, according to Callender.]
Some Housing Court hearing officers and judges are
reluctant to appoint administrators if there is any
opposition from the landlords, attorneys and housing
activists, they say.
Barbara Ziony, an attorney for South Side Legal
Services, said her organization has won only five 7-A
suits in the past five years. David Wechsler, another
legal services lawyer, said" Judges and hearing officers
feel 7-A is tainted with the idea of taking something
away from landlords." Barbara Schliff, a Brooklyn
housing organizer, said, "The economics of 7-A go
against all capitalist ideas of real estate."
But the statute has many followers: Martin Needel-
man, who brings 7-A proceedings in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn, said the law at least gives tenants a chance for
continued on page 14
LEVENTHAL continued
Q. This agency has changed its name from a develop-
ment agency to a development and preservation agency.
Is there a policy to follow a change in the name?
A. Yes. We have brought together most of our re-
habilitation programs in a new office called the office of
rehabilitation. We have a new assistant commissioner in
charge of that. And we have a separate office now for
neighborhood preservation and they work together. In
terms of what is going on in the department of develop-
ment now, most of the resources, if not all, are being
devoted to rehabilitation and preservation of housing
rather than new construction. So I think the organiza-
tion of the agency reflects that plus we have a new office
of property management which reflects the fact that on
Sept. 1 we're going to take over the jurisdiction of all
the In Rem properties. And that is also in my judgment
a housing preservation program. Putting that in a
housing agency makes a great deal of sense rather than
in keeping it in the Division of Real Property, which is
not primarily geared to be a housing agency.
Q. You mentioned the In Rem situation. We're
wondering, do you think the program will go into place
smoothly on Sept. I?
A. Well, I think there's no question things are
already going into place but that on Sept. 1 undoubtedly
there will be a certain amount of confusion and certain
amount of things not fully in place. That is one of the
major reasons I was hoping that we could get it until
April first, an extension of the date, because that would
be after the heating season. The thing I am most
concerned about frankly for the first six months of the
program, since it is coming on Sept. 1, is that tenants
who are living in these city-owned buildings-regardless
of what their rent status is, whether they are on welfare
or not-are being provided heat and hot water. Those
are the two most important things we've got to do. And
to do that at the same time you're having a major
transition from one agency to another may not be the
best possible way to do it. But the City Council was
concerned that the transfer take place as soon as
possible because they thought it would be beneficial to
the program.
Q. We have heard a variety of figures given as to how
many buildings and how many occupied apartments the
city will be taking over.
A. Right now we have 8,000 buildings containing
approximately 20,000 occupied units. The Manhattan
vesting which has recently been completed we estimate
accounted for an additional 14,000 occupied units. The
estimate that I generally use-I'm pointing to the black-
board now and you see a lot of blanks there; based on
the figures you see on the blackboard and what our
discussions have been, we are roughly projecting 50,000
occupied units by the end of the Queens vesting. Then
there will be another Manhattan vesting and then we
10
start the process all over again. But that is such an
educated guess-it's not even terribly educated because
we found that the Man,hattan vesting was not as large
as we had originally anticipated because of the rate of
redemptions. We do not expect the same high level of
redemptions in the Bronx and no one really knows
about Brooklyn.
Q. When will the Queens vesting be finished?
A. I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if it was well
into the winter time. We are not in control of that. My
interest is that it be either as rapid as possible so that we
can get them into the city system before the winter time
or that maybe it be after the winter. But that's probably
not going to happen. It will probably be in the middle of
winter. Weare taking steps, however, to try to head that
off in the sense of boiler inspections. GS [General
Services Department] has a program called Opera-
tion Heat which is designed to look at as many
buildings as possible which appear to be going In Rem
and check the boilers and repair boilers, get ready for
the winter. I think I sense from both talking to elected
officials and by the community representatives that
come to talk to me that they feel that the people we've
hired here, the people who are going to be running the
program, care a great deal about the people who are
going to be living in those buildings. And that while
there are going to be mistakes and while there is going to
be inevitable confusion, that basically there is going to
be an administration that wants to see that the mainten-
ance of these buildings is done in such a way that keeps
the tenants as comfortable as possible.
Q. There hits been a perception as long as the build-
ings were under DRP that that was not the case and I
wonder what you are doing to instill in the people you
hire a different kind of attitude?
A. Well, I think that within a very short time you will
see the final list of people who are going to be running
various sections of the program, and I don't think that
will leave any doubt in anybody's mind as to where our
concern is. They will be names you will find familiar.
But the people who are there already, people like
[Deputy Commissioner Charles] Chip Raymond,
Charlie Poidomani, who had a major effort in our
making the ERP [Emergency Repair Program) much
more responsive over the past couple of years is going to
be in charge of the management. We're going to have an
office of management alternatives which is going to be
headed by somebody with a great deal of community
background and commitment to this kind of housing. I
think that alone will set the tone. That has to filter
down. The idea is not to think of four bureaucratic
reasons why we can't do something.
Q. We understand that the In Rem management
units are going to be around the city. Have
you decided where these units are going to be and what
their function is to be?
A. We have decided definitely for a decentralized
structure. We have locations for at least four
Manhattan offices that we're negotiating for. I can't say
where exactly, probably because we haven't negotiated
the leases yet. I think Chip is working on locations of
some Bronx offices now. The idea is to have people out
there, who know the community, who know the areas
involved, who know the problems, who aren't perceived
as being downtown Manhattan bureaucrats when you' re
talking about housing in the South Bronx.
Q. Are the managers being trained to inform the
tenants of all their options-that they can go into com-
munity management, that they could possibly sign a
lease?
A. That is going to be largely the responsibility of
our management alternatives unit. They are going to be
developing a program to see that not only do we have
programs as opposed to just city management of the
property and limited involvement of the tenants. Right
now the 'Rems' are going through a process of training
with the Housing Authority, which is essentially train-
ing in the nitty-gritty program of what it takes to
manage this type of property. We will have a whole
program to sensitize the real estate managers to these
alternatives once we're a little clearer on what the
alternatives are. Right now I don't have to tell you
about the limited scope of our community management
and direct sales programs. One of the reasons we trans-
ferred that over into property management is to insure
that those programs really become an arm of the In Rem
program and that we channel tenants who are interested
into those programs rather than have it in some other
part of the agency.
Q. I understand that there may be about 150 or 200
buildings that are in situations maybe throughout the
year that could sign the lease but then there are a great
deal of other buildings that cannot make a go of it
because of their rent rolls. Is there going to be some
provision, I understand there was a thought to try to use
CD money and that is not possible?
A. No, it is permitted. We have $41 million allo-
cated. What they are talking about, I think, is probably
things like fuel and a few other standard expenses which
are taken out of the expense budget. But the bulk of the
funding for the management of In Rem properties
comes out of CD funds and is eligible for CD funding.
Q. I think Mr. Raymond has been quoted as saying
that it is going to end up being something in the neigh-
borhood of $200 a unit for maintenance. I know $40
million sounds like a lot of money. although some of
that is going for staff.
A. Well, some of it is going for staff, but that figure
is somewhat misleading because it implies that all build-
ings get treated the same. The point is that some
buildings, no one knows how many yet, but some
buildings are going to receive the special kind of treat-
ment we've been talking about. Some buildings are
11
obviously too far gone for that and we' re going to
encourage that tenancies be consolidated and that when
we have a program going in the building down the block
that's 50 per cent empty and we have another building
that is really very far gone with three tenants in it we're
going to try and encourage those tenants who want to
relocate into the building that we think we can mount a
successful program in.
Q. You're going to try and encourage or you're going
to move?
A. WeB, we're going to try and encourage first.
Q. Then?
A. I believe that if our programs are successful we
should have minimal problems in convincing tenants.
It's not like we are going to take a tenant in Brooklyn
and say, 'You're living in the South Bronx from now
on' or vice versa. But we are not going to be maintaining
a building with 30 units and only two are occupied
which needs a new boiler. We are not going to be buying
a new boiler for that building. I mean that is an insane
program. We don't have the money to do that and we
are not going to do that. I would hope we have a suc-
cessful program that would mean the tenants want to
do that because it would be moving into better housing.
Q. I think that the issue of how you are going to
determine the viability of a building is a crucial one and
one that the people we're in touch with are very
concerned with.
A. We are going to be working with the same
community groups we have been working with from the
first day we took over to work out those issues. The
thing that has changed is that we do not come down on
high and say 'here is how we are going to do it.' The
very questions you're asking about are going to be
developed in conjunction with all the community groups
that are interested in these subjects. That does not mean
that we will always agree.
Q. Do you have any idea of how this is going to
break down, how many buildings going into community
management, how many will be farmed out to private
management, how many will go to the Housing Auth-
ority?
A. No. I think that is premature. We have some
estimates from the Housing Authority as to what they
are prepared to do in the short run. Most of the other
programs are considerably less certain than that. And I
wouldn't want to engage in funny numbers. What I said
before is we're going to be trying all sorts of manage-
ment alternatives. We're going to have some in the
Housing Authority, some we're going to do ourselves,
some community management, some citywide non-
profit groups, some private sector management com-
panies for a fee. The mayor is very clear that we are
going to explore every alternative. No one knows the
answer as to what the best way to manage these
buildings is and there are enough buildings for all of us
to try every way.
Q. I'd like to bring up the productivity of the city's
rehabilitation programs. In general the perception is
that both the housing rehab and loan programs for low
income neighborhoods have pretty low productivity.
This is an area we were led to believe you were not as
familiar with as some of the other city housing pro-
grams when you were here before. My question is, what
have you done to familiarize yourself with these pro-
grams and do you see it the same way we do, which is
that they have too low productivity?
A. Well, there is no question that we are dissatisfied
with those programs. Let me answer your question first
by saying that every 10 days or so we have a meeting in
this room. I call it a CD 3 meeting, but it's really a
program meeting. A major criticism of this agency is
that we do not obligate our CD money. Last year we
had $22 million left over, unobligated, just lying there.
Now that is unacceptable to me. It is unacceptable to the
mayor. And so I have a meeting which I get all the
commissioners in and the program directors and I say,
'What have you done with your CD money? Okay, you
haven't spent it? It's gone.' I'll give it to somebody who
can spend it. And that has a remarkable effect. It turns
out that we start using our CD money a lot faster. And
we now project that by the end of this program year,
which is Aug. 31, virtually all the CD money will be
obligated. And interestingly enough, for the first time
the only major unobligated funds will be in staff. That's
the general view. I am intimately familiar with the
rehabilitation program. It is fair to say the Article 8A
program is moving along at a very good pace. The
participation loan program by the end of CD 3, I
believe, you will see a major increase in the scope of the
program and the number of units and dollars being put
out there. We have spent months working with the
banks on the particpation loan program because that is
a very complicated program.
Q. There is a lot of interest in the 312 program and
from what I have been told there is currently a mora-
torium on the 312 program, or at least a reevaluation?
A. Wrong. What there is is we're waiting for the next
allocation of federal funding for the 312 program. We
have spent all our New York 312 money. It is the only
major housing component of the President' s urban
strategy. We have authprized the hiring of 20 additional
people to prepare for a major 312 effort. We will be
designating new 312 areas throughout the city to get this
program moving.
Q. Can you say where?
A. We have not decided that yet. We are working
with local elected officials, communities, borough presi-
dents, ' etc. I've had many communities come in and
plead for 312 designation. We're really mounting a 312
program for the first time. We never took advantage of
that program. I mean Portland, Oregon, 1 think, uses
more 312 money than the City of New York has
historically. And that's outrageous.
12
Q. Why do you say we don't have a community
management program?
A. Because I don't consider a program with under
100 buildings a program yet. We've got to have
programs of quantity considering the housing problems
we have in New York. I'm not really interested in
programs of 100 buildings.
Q. How many programs-I mean participation loans
you don't have 100; 312 program you don't have 100;
direct sales you don't have 100; direct loan you don't
have 100. You don't have too many housing programs.
A. Well that's right. That's the idea. That's the
difference between what we're going to do in this
administration and what was done in the past. We're
going to have programs of volume consistent with the
money we have.
Q. Are you taking a more active role in monitoring
your own programs?
A. I am taking a very active role in the management
of every program in this agency.
Q. Are you doing that personally?
A. Bob Davis [deputy commissioner for operations]
and I are personally going over every audit, reviewing
every draft response, meeting with every commissioner.
I just finished a marathon series of meetings on setting
goals for the next year with every commissioner in the
department. I know every number. I go over every
number of what their targets are for the entire year and
we're going to have monthly meetings and they are
going to have to explain their discrepancies between
what their goals were, what problems they're having
and what they were supposed to achieve. I think it is fair
to say that my philosophy of management is a very
intimate relationship with the programs.
Q. What effort are you making to hire minorities, to
do affirmative action?
A. A major effort. We advertise in all the minority
press. I know I've had two Hispanic groups come in and
recommend people to me. We've hired at least three at
managerial levels in the agency. I think if you look at
our overall structure now in terms of commissioners,
assistant commissioners and program directors, I think
in terms of blacks and women I think we're probably as
advanced and as satisfactory as any agency in the city. I
think we have some way to go in the area of Hispanics.
Q. I want to ask you whether the city feels an equal
commitment to all of its neighborhoods or whether
there is any sort of 'planned shrinkage' or triage
mentality that operates at any level that you are aware
of?
A. No. The city feels an equal commitment to all of
its neighborhoods. The housing progrTim of choice for
West Tremont may be different from Chelsea or from
Crown Heights. And you have to tailor a program for
each neighborhood. But I spend a great deal of time
meeting with community groups. I certainly personally
feel and this administration feels a commitment to all
neighborhoods in this city. The ones that are strong we
want to keep strong; the ones that need help we want to
help. And we're going to continue to do that.
Q. There is the feeling because of the mayor's tough
stand for example on rent collection in city-owned
properties without any sort of balance on the other side
recognizing how bad conditions are in some of these
buildings, there is a feeling the mayor does not care
equally about all neighborhoods.
A. That is not, first of all, his position. The mayor's
position is as follows: where the city is providing
essential services rent should be paid; where the city is
not providing essential services, it should agree with a
court if necessary on a schedule for providing those
services in order to get rent payments. The mayor'
position has never been and is not now that tenants who
are not receiving heat or hot water should be evicted if
they don't pay their rent. 0
HPD GRANTS WAIVER
FOR 590 PARKSIDE
HPD has cleared the way for acceptance of 590
Parkside Ave. in Brooklyn into the community manage-
ment program.
HPD Deputy Commissioner Charles Raymond
approved the building in mid-July, despite the fact that
the rehabilitation cost is expected to be somewhat over
the limits normally set by the community management
program.
Raymond granted a waiver after one of his assistants,
Bob Moncrief, met with the tenants of 590 Parks ide and
was impressed. "They are well organized, proud of
what they have done to save their building and will
cooperate with the community management program to
help restore their building to its former condition,"
Moncrief said. He said the tenants had acknowledged
that rents were likely to go up as a result of the program.
The 4O-unit brick building on the border of Crown
Heights and Flatbush has been declining rapidly for
years. Nevertheless, as City Limits reported last month,
the tenants and a number of community housing organ-
izations saw great promise for the building because it is
structurally sound and is the only blight on an otherwise
well-maintained block.
The Crown Heights Management Corp. is expected to
manage the building. Moncrief said he hoped it would
be in the program by the end of August.
In the event of a longer delay, Moncrief said, arrange-
ments will be made to make sure that the building has
adequate heat when the weather turns cold. He called
this a "super fallback position." 0
13
NEW TENANTS RIGHTS MANUAL
A recently revised manual on tenants rights, written
jointly by the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood
Association in Brooklyn and the city's Commission on
Human Rights, is available at no cost.
The 58-page booklet explains tenants' rights and
landlords' responsibilities under the law and describes
how to research vital information about a building.
It also covers protection of tenants rights including
how to form a tenants association and determine strate-
gies. An appendix lists organizations that assist tenants
and shows samples of important forms.
The manual is available from the New York City
Human Rights Commission Neighborhood Stabiliza-
tion Program at 52 Duane St. in Manhattan. The tele-
phone number is 566-5569. 0
CO-OP BANK PASSES
The U.S. Senate has given its approval to creation of
an independent national bank for consumer coopera-
tives, and President Carter is expected to follow suit.
Supporters of the legislation say that the National
Consumer Cooperative Bank, which will provide
substantial financial and technical assistance to all kinds
of cooperatives, could be operational by next spring.
The Senate approved the legislation 60 to 33 on July
13. The bill must go back to the House of Repre-
sentatives, which passed a somewhat different version
last year.
The legislation authorizes $300 million over five years
for loans to stimulate the creation and growth of
housing, consumer goods, health, energy, food, credit
and other types of cooperatives. The bank would be
able to borrow up to $3 billion.
Also created would be a $75 million Self-Help Devel-
opment Fund to make low-interest loans and provide
technical assistance to low income cooperatives.
Unlike the House bill, the Senate version does not
require housing co-ops to seek HUD financing before
qualifying for a bank loan.
Passage of the legislation is a major victory for
consumer advocates, who successfully fought off
attempts to scrap the bill in favor of a much more
modest pilot study of cooperative financing. President
Carter initially opposed the bank but reversed himself
last January and is expected to sign the bill.
An estimated 40 to 50 million Americans belong to
cooperatives. 0
SEMINAR
ANHO's seminar series on neighborhood planning
will begin September 20. For further information con-
tact Anne Hartwell at 674-7610.
_CITY LIMITS.
published monthly by the Association of Neighborhood Housing
Developers, Inc., 115 East 23rd Street, New York, New York 10010
(212) 674-7610
Editor ..... . ..... . .. ......... . .... . ............ Bernard Cohen
Assistant Editor .... ....... ... . .................. Susan Baldwin
Design and Layout ................................ Louis Fulgoni
Copyright 1978. All rights reserved. No portion or portions of this News-
letter may be reprinted without the express wrillen permission of the
Association of Neighborhood Housing Developers. Inc.
HPD APPOINTS
IN REM CHIEFS
With an eye to strengthening its newly formed office
of property management, HPD has created two new
administrative positions to oversee the influx of city-
owned buildings, City Limits has learned.
"We were under the gun to set up a department that
could handle this new critical workload," said Deputy
Commissioner Charles Raymond, "and for this reason I
decided to set up my department this way, with three
assistant commissioners."
Charles Poidomani, formerly of HPD's seal-up and
demolition unit, will serve as assistant commissioner of
In Rem housing, and head up an administrative staff of
about 20.
Philip St. Georges, the 27-year-old director of the
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, and a former
HDA employe dealing with low income cooperative
conversion and sweat equity, will ' become assistant
commissioner of property management alternatives and
special projects.
Aramis Gomez remains as assistant commissioner of
relocation.
Under St. Georges's direction, Sandra Moore, a 33-
year-old architect now completing Ph.D. studies in
Boston, and the first woman to receive a bachelor's
degree in architecture from Tuskegee Institute, has been
tentatively offered the position of director of the com-
munity management unit.
Robert Moncrief leaves the position of executive
director of community management, a position that no
longer exists, to become a special assistant to Commis-
sioner Raymond. In this advisory capacity, he will be
studying and researching new and existing management
programs for handling the In Rem properties.
Bruce Sykes moves up to deputy director of commun-
ity management, while Dominick Catania, former
director of community management, leaves that post to
become director of operations for maintenance of the In
Rem properties.
Milton Masters moves from the Division of Real
14
Property at the Department of General Services to
become director of In Rem operations for Manhattan
and the Bronx, under Poidomani. An In Rem director
for Queens and Brooklyn remains: to be chosen. 0
ARTICLE 7 A continued
decent housing they wouldn't otherwise have. "What's
decent housing? Ask any tenant. It's heat, hot water
and electricity on a regular basis. It's seeing repairs
made when they have to be made. Fair rents and control
over how you live your life."
It is an effective approach to coping with decay and
abandonment, other advocates say. "Article 7-A is the
cheapest, most efficient housing remedy the city could
hope for," said Schur, who has also directed non-profit
neighborhood development agencies. "It not only
protects tenants from landlords who refuse to take
responsibility for buildings. And it not only saves the
city's buildings. It saves the city money."
For some tenants, like those of 92 St. Nicholas Ave.,
self-management is a way of life. The story of Mrs.
Batey's struggle for decent housing began when the
elevator man told her the landlord was giving up the
building. 0
Continued next month
COMMUNITY MGT. AUDIT
The city comptroller's office is wrapping up an audit
that will attempt to weigh the effect of the community
management program on housing conditions and neigh-
borhood stabilization.
The audit, different from an earlier study of fiscal
procedures in the community management program, is
expected to be completed in August and released in
September after HPD has an opportunity to comment
on it.
"We are looking at whether the program is working
or not," said a source familiar with the audit. He said
auditors were studying the condition of ' community
managed buildings, their operating costs, whether the
rents are collected, how tenants feel about the program
and whether it has generated tenant organizations, its
impact on the surrounding neighborhood and HPD's
supervision of it.
There are currently 17 community-based housihg
organizations managing about 100 city-owned buildings
under the program. However, about half are new to the
program.
The audit was undertaken last January, reportedly
after HPD was unable to answer questions about ' the
program raised by the Board of Estimate at the time it
was considering new community management contracts.
One HPD official said he hoped that if the audit is
negative it will blame a shortage of departmental staff
rather than the community management program itself.
o
Grand Opening-Allan Thaler, right, the architect for 927 Columbus Avenue, Manhattan, points out apartment detail to neighbor Lillian
Finn and to Joe Cruz, project coordinator for the Manhattan Valley Development Corp. (MVDC), which recently completed the 12-unit gut
rehabilitation to house low a nd moderate income tenants. Rents range from $125 for studios to $225 for two-bedroom units. A crew of 10
trainee-laborers and their supervisiors were paid throughout the one-year project by a $150,000 grant from the city's Criminal Justice
Coordinating Council, in a joint program devised with the Association of Neighborhood Housing Developers to train ex-offenders in the
construction trades. MVDC invited the neighborhood to celebrate the opening of 927 Columbus with a dinner party on July 13 and guided
tours of the building.
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