City Limits Magazine, February 1988 Issue

February 1988 52.
00
H O M E S F O R T H E H O M R E S S D E A S T S I D E F A V O R ?
M E S S I N G E R O N L A N D U S E D B A N K C H A L L E N G E
2 CITY LIMITS February 1988
EDITORIAL
eitJ/ Li"tits
Volume XIII Number 2
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Another Chance for Leadership
As AIDS rages through New York City, creating a horrifying new layer
of homelessness among an especially vulnerable population, city agen-
cies have taken on a kind of NIMBY attitude: They agree that housing
people with AIDS (PWAs) is essential , but they don't want the respon-
sibility in their back yards.
The results are inhumane and financially absurd as people in remis-
sion are kept in hospitals inappropriately because there is no where
else for them to go - at a cost averaging $600 per day. It is a lunacy
that is not unlike the city's policy of paying Waldorf prices to house
homeless families in squalid hotels.
Thus, the Health and Hospitals Corporation is shouldering the bulk
of the responsibility for housing homeless PWAs at an outrageous cost
to society. The Human Resources Administration points with pride to
some meager housing programs that were undertaken with much reluc-
tance and to a promising rent subsidy program much in need of expan-
sion. The Health Department seems more concerned about AIDS educa-
tion than housing (its commissioner, Dr. Stephen Joseph, would not
even respond to requests for interviews from City Limits). And the
Department of Housing Preservation and Development has slunk off
into the shadows. Each points to the other when the subject of AIDS
and housing arises.
As we well know, there simply isn't enough affordable housing to
meet the needs of New York City's current low income population. It
certainly isn't going to be there for the staggering number of people
who will develop AIDS over the next few years and who will lose their
jobs and homes.
The lack of leadership and action on this issue - on all levels of
government - has been appalling. But New York City now has an oppor-
tunity to redeem itself and to begin to turn this crisis around as it
develops a much-overdue five-year plan on AIDS, part of which will
address housing needs. We hope this will be a concrete plan that focuses
on the creation of many units of low income housing - the only real
solution to the impending flood of homeless individuals and families
with AIDS. .
HPD, the city agency charged with producing such housing, has been
noticeably absent from this planning process. But former Finance Com-
missioner Abraham Biderman, who has just taken the helm at HPD, is
in a position to redeem the agency by ordering it to take responsibility
for developing permanent affordable housing to meet the needs of the
expanding AIDS population.
His reputation as a champion of private development gives little
reason for hope, and city agencies' past ineffectiveness in the face of
the AIDS crisis is not encouraging. But the time for a turnaround is
here, and we urge Commissioner Biderman and the architects of the
five-year AIDS plan to meet this challenge.oB.C.
Corrections
Last month's article on personnel changes
at DHCR incorrectly reported that Hector Del
Toro had recently been offered William
Emicke's job and that Del Toro had lobbied
for Commissioner Emicke's job three-and-a-
half years ago. Del Toro had wanted the de-
puty commissioner slot that went to Manuel
Mirabel, who recently resigned.
Also in the January issue, an article on a
project to repair city-owned buildings mis-
stated that HPD consolidated tenants in 2,443
occupied bUildings in one year. It was over
ten years.
.. ....
..
INSIDE
FEATURES
Double Jeopardy: Facing AIDS and
Homelessness 12
The city has failed to respond to the twin problems
of homeless people with AIDS. Many languish in
hospital beds costing $600 a day.
DEPARTMENTS
From the Editor
Another Chance for Leadership .... .. .. . .. 2
Short Term Notes
Bank Merger Challenge .. . .............. 4
Housing at Risk ........................ 4
Hotel Harassment ...................... 4
Lawsuit for Housing Justice . .. . .. .. .. .... 5
Housing Classes ....................... 5
Upzoning for Aarons? ..... ........... . . . 6
Neighborhood Notes ....................... 7
People
Biderman Takes Helm at HPD .. .. . .. . .. .. 8
Program Focus
Temporary Solutions, Permanent Problems 9
City Views
Land: They're Not Making Any More ..... 16
Pipeline
Taking Control ....................... 18
Reviews
Documenting the Victims of Reaganomics 20
Letters ................................. 21
Building Blocks .......................... 22
Workshop ............................... 23
February 1988 CITY LIMITS 3
No Solution/Page 9
Double JeopardylPage 12
Parent Power/Page 18
SHORT TERM NOTES
BANK MERGER
CHALLENGE
ACORN, the Association of
Community Organizations for
Reform Now, has filed a petition
with the Federal Reserve Board
to block the takeover of Irving
Trust Company by the Bank of
New York. It claims both banks
hove a poor Community
Reinvestment Ad record. In an
unusual twist Irving Trust, which
is fighting the takeover bid,
alerted ACORN to Bank of New
York's CRA performance record.
According to Peter Wood,
executive diredor of the Mutual
Housing Association of New
York, who assisted in ACORNs
research, this challenge is
particularly important because
it involves a hostile takeover.
"The kind of conditions set by
the Fed will set precedents for
the future," says Wood. If the
takeover is approved, other
bonks may try to proted
themselves from hostile bids by
focusing on high
profits - which would reduce
bonk involvement in low and
moderate income communities,
says the ACORN petition.
The CRA challenge also
contends that both the Bank of
New York and Irving Trust hove,
in violation of the 1977 law,
defined their service area to
exclude low income
neighborhoods. In addition,
ACORN's challenge says the
bonks hove failed to meet the
CRA requirement for
"affirmative" investment in poor
communities. According to
ACORN, only 1.8 percent (in
dollars) of Bank of New York's
1986 mortgages originated in
Manhattans five poorest
community districts. Brooklyns
seven poorest districts received
just 13 percent of Bank of New
York's mortgage and home
improvement loans.
ACORN says Irving Trusts
record is little better. In 1986 just
6.9 percent of Irving's home
loans went to Manhattan's five
poorest community districts.
Irving invested just one percent
of its mortgage loans in
Brooldyns seven poorest
districts.
Despite continued profits
over the past three years, Bank
of New York has reduced its
charitable contributions by 20
percent over the same period,
ACORN charges. Of 10 bonks
studied by the New York
Clearinghouse Association,
Bank of New York's contribution
record was the worst. Wood
says this underscores ACORN's
contention that Bank of New
York has "no sense of
responsibility to the community
at large."
As City Limits goes to press,
Bank of New York has not yet
filed a respanse to the ACORN
challenge. But Owen Brady, a
Bank of New York spokesman,
says bank officials hove
attempted to meet with ACORN
"to find whattheir concerns are."
Wood says ACORN
representatives will meet with
both banks soon. 'We're willing
to block the takeover as long as
necessary to get Bank of New
York and Irving to make a strong
contribution to low income
communities," says Wood.
ACORN has negotiated
community contributions bosed
on CRA challenges to mergers
across the country. This is the first
time a CRA challenge has been
levied in a hostile takeover. The
Federal Reserve Board is
expeded to make its decision
on Bank of New York's
application to buy Irving Trust
this month. OD.T.
HOUSING AT RISK
By the year 2000 the city may
lose more than 76,600
federally subsidized, privately
owned apartments because of
the expiration of government
support programs. The majority
of these units could be lost within
the next five years.
At a January conference
called Housing at Risk: Expiring
Federal Subsidies, spansored by
the Community Service Society,
CSS general diredor David R.
Jones warned that housing
activists must "ring this alarm bell
fast." The locations of many of
these federally subsidized
projects, Jones pointed out, are
Houling at Rilk conference:
larry Zigas, Emily AchtenberQ, Philip Clay, David Jones and Victor lach
discuss the potential loIS 01 federal housing subsidies.
like a "whos who of
neighborhoods already in
trouble."
According to Vidor Bach,
CSS's director of housing policy
and research, these at-risk
federally subsidized projects
are concentrated in such
neighborhoods as East and
Central Harlem, the West and
South Bronx, Bedford-
Stuyvesant, East Tremont, Hunts
Point, Coney Island, Brownsville
and Roosevelt Island. Nearly
500 low income projects
city-wide are threatened, and
Bach estimates it would cost
dose to $5 billion to replace
these units.
The projects facing expiration
of their federal subsidies were
built under several different
programs: Section
221 (d)(3}BMIR (below-market
interest rate), Section 236 and
Section 8 new construction and
substantial rehabilitation. Many
projects built by the state's Urban
Development Corporation,
which used federal Section 236
subsidies, are also threatened.
Barry Zigas of the Notional
low Income Housing Coalition
told conference attendees that
several provisions in the recently
approved federal housing bill
were designed to stem the loss
of some of these units.
Mortgage prepayment
provisions under Sections 236
and 221 (d)(3) hove been
tightened to keep units
affordable to low and moderate
income tenants. But Zigas noted
that the prepayment limitations
expire in two years.
More than 60 percent of the
projects at risk in the city were
built under the Section 8 new
construction/substantial
rehabilitation program (see City
Limits, November 1987). The
Section 8 rental assistance
subsidies will expire between
1991 and 2000, depending on
the year the projed was
completed.
Phillip Clay of the
Massachusetts InstiMe of
Technology commented that
housing activists need to tum
their attention to developing a
pal icy to preserve existing
resources of low income
apartments. He also noted that
public housing faces many
pressures, with cities like
Newark, New Jersey,
demolishing nearly half of its
stock and federal initiatives to
sell public housing units
underway. The city also faces
the imminent loss of thousands
of apartments built under the
state Mitchell-lama
program. OD. T.
HOTEL
HARASSMENT
An SRO hotel for homeless
families agreed to pay almost
$25,000 in damages after
employees were charged with
sexually harassing five women
tenants.
The Bryant Hotel, a rundown
shelter hotel at 230 West 54th
Street, agreed in a settlement to
pay almost $1,000 to each
victim, the maximum allowed
them as welfare recipients, and
to pay $10,000 to both the
Mid-Manhattan Sanctuary For
Families and the Sisterhood of
Block Single Mothers.
In addition, the hotel agreed
to fire the offending employees
and to allow the New York City
Human Rights Commission to
train future SRO staff members.
The complaint, filed last
November, charged that five
mole hotel employees sexually
harassed the women over a
period of five months.
According to one victim,
Providence Rodriguez, she
endured a month of harassment
before taking action. The final
straw come when she requested
a bed for her daughter, who
hod outgrown her crib. "When
I sow the front desk clerk moving
a bed out of on empty room, I
asked him if I could have it for
my daughter. He then come into
my room, turned off my light,
closed my curtain, and told me
if I wonted the bed for my
daughter, I would have to use it
with him first," she said.
Rodriguez, who learned
aboutthe HRC while listening to
a radio talk show on sexual
harassment, immediately
telephoned the commission. The
complaint was brought to the
attention of Harvey Fisher,
deputy director of fair housing,
who found after further
investigation that other women
hod been sexually harassed at
the hotel.
The hotel, managed by the
230 West 54th Street
Corporation, settled the
complaint out of court. After
several calls to the manager of
the Bryant by City Limits, on
assistant manager of the hotel
said neither he nor the manager
knew anything about the
harassment complaint.
In the woke of this incident,
posters will be sent to all SRO
hotels informing tenants of their
rights in sexual harassment
cases.
"I was so terrified of what
could have happened, says
Rodriguez, "I used to sleep with
a butcher knife under my pillow."
Fisher says women should
know there is an alternative.
"Sexual harassment is a practice
which plays on the unequal
power relationship between
landlords and tenants. Women
should know their strongest
weapon is the law. They should
file complaints and bring the
guilty parties to justice," he says.
DPatricia Stephens
LAWSUIT FOR
HOUSING
JUSTICE
The Housing Justice
Campaign and six homeless
families filed a lawsuit in State
Supreme Court on January 12,
challenging Mayor Kochs
10-year, $4.2 billion "affordable
housing plan" on grounds that it
was never submitted to public or
environmental review. The suit
also charges that the plan
misallocates scarce public
funds - intended for low
income housing - for the
creation of mostly upper and
middle income units.
Housing Justice Campaign
leaders claim that the
overwhelming majority of units
to be created under the mayor's
plan will be too expensive for
the two-thirds of New Yorks
renters whose incomes fall
below $25,000. They also
argue that the plan is racially
and economically
discriminatory, in violation of
state and city staMes.
The plan "pretends to provide
housing for everyone, when in
fact it benefits upper income
housing," says Bonnie Brower of
the Housing Justice Campaign.
'We have an obligation to take
our limited resources and use
them to house the homeless."
"I feel very funny saying in
1988 that we have to go to
court in order to get low income
housing," adds Abdur Farrakhan
of the Ocean hill-Brownsville
Tenants Association. "They think
of the homeless as being just
derelicts on the street. But we
have city government workers
knocking on our doors" seeking
affordable housing.
Council members Miriam
Friedlander, Rafael Castaneira
Colon, Sal Albanese, Stephen
DiBrienza and Carolyn
Maloney and United Auto
Workers president Sam Meyers
also spoke in support of the
lawsuit.
community to evaluate it," says
Scherer.
No information has been
released on the 10-year plans
financing, year-by-year
timetable or the location of the
land to be developed, say
opponents. "No one has hod a
chance to respond to the overall
plan," odds Richard Cherry of
the New York Urban Coalition.
But Catie Marshall, a
spokeswoman for the
Department of Housing
Preservation and Development,
says the plan does not require
Announcing law.uit at City Hall :
The Housing Justice Campaig" charges the city with economic and racial
discrimination in its housing policies.
The Housing Justice
Campoign lawsuit argues that
the Koch plan to use public
funds and city-owned property
for what it defines as
predominately middle and
upper income developments
will create displacement and
homeless ness. "It will plop
middle income housing into low
income neighborhoods," says
Andrew Scherer, on attorney
with Community Action for
legal Services who helped
prepare the suit. "It can actually
spark gentrification in
neighborhoods and will result in
the displacement of low income
people," he says.
Scherer says the mayor's plan
unlawfully failed to issue an
Environmental Impact
Statement or undergo a public
reveiw process. "Whatever the
substance of the plan, you've
got to run the plan by the
communtiy review. "The plan
itself is a commitment to spend
money for housing. The
programs are the specifics, and
each of them goes through
public review," ~ h e says.
, Brower challenges that
assessment. "By dealing with
them on a program-by-
program, site-by-site' bosis,
we're fighting bushfires over and
over again," she says. DEve
Heyn
HOUSING
CLASSES
People concerned about
affordable housing issues will
look forward to the learning
Alliances upcoming season,
beginning in mid-March.
Among tentative course
offerings will be a how-to
program on squatting and
another on tenants rights.
"Borrowing for Community
Improvements" will be a
worlcshop co-sponsored by
several Harlem and Bronx.
groups that will examine how to
get loans and work with banks
on neighborhood revitalization
projects.
Demonstration for homeless:
How the mass media covers
housing issues will be the focus
of a ponel discussion co-
sponsored with City Limits,
which will be moderated by
Robert Hayes of the Coalition
for the Homeless. Another
worlcshop will look at strategies
for challenging aver-
development. Additionally, a
major "popular assembly" is
planned to bring advocates
together to discuss projects,
tactics and strategies for change.
Thousands joined the W8AI Listener's Action march to press for permanent housing for the homeless.
The Learning Alliance, which
held its first classes in 1985, is
the brainchild of David levine,
who saw a need for "more
~ r e s s i v e education that is
really accessible." At the same
time, he says the program as a
"coalition-builder" that brings
advocates together.
levine believes in
_ encouraging "personal
empowerment," and some of
the successes he cites include a
worlcshop on the politics of
homelessness that helped get
homeless people involved in
advocacy. Another project
resulted in an on-going job
training and placement
pragram for homeless people.
Catalogues for the upcoming
classes will be available this
month and may be obtained by
calling the Learning Alliance at
473-3689.0B.C.
UPZONING FOR
AARONS?
Former Public Development
Corporation president Philip
Aarons appears to be one of the
primary beneficiaries of a plan
to upzone fifth Avenue from
59th to llOth streets.
There are only two
developable sites along Fifth
Avenue, both atthe East Harlem
tip of Central Park. Aarons, now
a developer and president of
General Atlantic Realty, already
owns one of the sites, a parking
lot on fifth Avenue and East
108th Street that serves his
luxury condominium next door.
He is negotiating to buy the
other site, a one-story building
on East llOth Street.
Under present zoning
restrictions, Aarons would be
limited to a 19-story building on
his parking lot. But if the
proposed zoning passes - and
with a 20 percent bonus - he
could build up to 25 or 26
stories without seeking
community board approval. In
exchange for the inclusionary
zoning bonus, he would have to
provide 13 low income units
within the community board
area.
When the City Planning
Department proposed the Fifth'
Avenue upzoning, it said the
wide thoroughfare bordered by
840 acres of open park land
would minimize any adverse
impacts that tall buildings might
have on density and light. Its
rezoning package, which also
includes upzoning on Park
Avenue between 61 st and 91 st
streets, is scheduled for a vote
at the Planning Commission as
City Limits goes to press.
Community groups, however,
are not enthusiastic. The East
Harlem and Upper East Side
community boards, along with
the Manhattan Borough Board,
oppose the rezoning plan, citing
adverse density and
gentrification.
"This is the last frontier for
Manhattan," says Cora Shelton,
chair of Community Boord 11 's
housing committee. "It's
valuable land." She adds, "They
will soon try to rezone the rest
of East Harlem. These two sites
are just the beginning - we've
seen a lot of beginnings."
Another rezoning opponent
is Genie Rice, president of
CIVITAS. "It's breaking Fifth
Avenue from the rest of East
Harlem, and it's starting a trend
to upzone. It's hastening
gentrification in East Harlem,"
she charges.
Philip Schneider of City
Planning denies that upzoning
will spur gentrification.
Regardless of whether it passes,
"anything on Fifth Avenue will
be market rate," he says,
emphasizing that inclusionary
zoning's low income units will
benefit the community.
But opponents point out that
Aarons would only have to
provide 13 low income units for
a 25-story building with about
180 units, and they don't think
thats a fair ratio. ''When you
factor in the low income units,
it's negligible," says John St.
Croix of Council Member
Carolyn Maloneys office.
Questions also have been
raised about Aarons' influence
on the proposed rezoning.
':.\arons is behind it," charges
Rice, and Shelton echoes that
suspicion. "He has acquired
quite a bit of property in East
Harlem," she says. "He is the
number one developer who
knows a lot about East Harlem
property."
In addition to the site affected
by the rezoning plan, Aarons
has received Municipal
Assistance Corporation funding
to build 150 condominium units
on Fifth Avenue and 11lth
Street. His company also is
redeveloping the five La
Marqueta buildings just a few
blocks away on Park Avenue.
According to Maloney,
Aarons' East Harlem buying
spree also includes one building
tenented by rent-controlled
elderly people who have
complained of harassment by
General Atlantic.
The City Planning Department
refused to comment on Aarons'
role in the the zoning proposal,
and the developer did not
return phone calls from City
Limits. DEve Hey"
..
Brooklyn
Community Board 6 has recom-
mended delaying the public auction
of city-owned vacant lots in the area,
primarily Gowanus and Red Hook.
The board proposed a two-year delay
to give non-profit housing organiza-
tions a chance to develop proposals
for affordable housing on the proper-
ties. But several board members , in-
cluding district manager Robert
Acito, said few groups would be in-
terested. Acito reportedly com-
mented that only the New York City
Partnership builds housing ...
Louise Stanley, who helped or-
ganize the takeover of 58 vacant city-
owned buildings in East New York,
was one of 10 people named in the
second annual Mother Jones' Heroes
for Hard Times. Stanley took part in
the illegal break-ins and placement
of squatter families in the buildings.
The city, which initially responded
by arresting the squatters, eventually
turned the buildings over to the
Mutual Housing Association of New
York and provided $2.7 million in
financial aid (see City Limits, Oct.
1985 and Nov. 1987). Stanley, who is
a postal supervisor, told Mother Jones
"We have to get the politicians to
work for our issues - we have to
make them see what we see .. . "
The Bronx
The Board of Estimate approved a
two-year extension of the Sanitation
Department's contract with the South
Bronx-based Recoverable Resources/
Boro Bronx 2000 (R2B2) . R2B2 recy-
cles glass, paper, aluminum and plas-
tic, paying an average of $13,000 per
month to local residents who bring
in the waste. Currently employing 21
people, R2B2 plans to expand to a
40-person workforce in the next year
and expects its sales of recycled mat-
erial to approach $1.6 million. The
city contract covers the difference be-
tween the cost of purchasing the re-
fuse and income from reselling the
recycled matter - a revenue gap of
about $50 per ton, which is cheaper
than landfill, burning or municipal
collection ...
Manhattan
Covenant House played Scrooge
during the past holiday with a pre-
Christmas attempt to evict eight
homeless families from the Times
Square Hotel, an SRO that the charity
bought for speculation. Most of the
families were spared when police or-
dered the hotel to readmit them. Ac-
cording to an internal memo, hotel
managers were told to limit all home-
less families to a two-week stay. "The
hotel doesn't want them to obtain any
tenancy rights, " Steven Banks, a
lawyer with the Legal Aid Society's
Homeless Family Rights Project,
charged at the time. He said some of
the families illegally locked out had
been in the hotel for about five
months, but had been moved from
room to room. "Landlords can't seek
to evade the law by treating tenants
as if they are peas in a shell game,"
Banks added. Covenant House re-
cently sold the hotel but current man-
ager Larry Wenger will remain in his
post. ..
An eight-year ordeal to get a home-
steading project underway at seven
buildings on 105th Street between
Broadway and Amsterdam avenues
appears to be over. The homesteaders
had begun demolition work when the
former owner redeemed the in rem
buildings. A two-year legal battle en-
sued over control of the buildings,
which the homesteaders eventually
won. But by then, they had lost their
Section 8 financing package. The
homesteaders, with the help of the
Urban Homesteading Assistance
Board, persevered, finally securing a
$1.2 million commitment from the
state Housing Trust Fund last Oc-
tober. Construction will resume
shortly ...
Queens
A power struggle in Community
Board 2 may be developing between
City Council Member Walter McCaf-
frey and Peg Sweezey, rresident of
the Queens Chamber a Commerce
and Citicorp vice president for com-
munity relations. McCaffrey pro-
moted the election of his chief aide
Kevin Kerrigan as chairman of the
local board. Sweezey charged that the
board was being turned into a rubber
stamp for McCaffrey. Borough Presi-
dent Claire Shulman also expressed
reservations concerning the election
of Kerrigan as board chairman. Com-
munity Board 2 is one of the hottest
development areas in the city.
Citicorp is building its massive tower
there and a number of other projects
are planned, including the Port Au-
thority's waterfront development (see
City Limits, January 1987). As part of
Citicorp's amenity package for zoning
variances, it is to distribute $250,000
in neighborhood preservation money.
Disbursement has been delayed be-
cause Sweezey challenged McCaf-
frey's role on the committee awarding
the money. Citicorp also owns two
sites adjacent to its project but has
not yet indicated development
plans ...
Council Member Abe Gerges held
a press conference outside the Mets
Motel in Woodside to blast the city's
plan to increase the number of rooms
rented from hotels like the Mets (see
City Limits, March 1987). The Mets
limits family stays to under 28
days - preventing tenancy rights-
and rooms are often in poor condi-
tion. A recent audit by Comptroller
Harrison Goldin charged the Mets
with cashing 24 checks from the
Human Resources Administration for
non-existent hotel stays. Two other
checks sent to the Mets were depo-
sited in non-hotel accounts. Mets
owner Sam Goldstein called the
police to try to prevent Gerges's con-
ference.D
PEOPLE
8iderman Takes Helin at HPD
BY DOUG TURETSKY
ABRAHAM BIDERMAN'S METEO-
ric rise as a key advisor to Mayor Ed
Koch has landed him in one of the
city's most- controversial posts-
commissioner of the Department of
Housing Preservation and Develop-
ment. Greeting Biderman in his new
role is a lawsuit, which includes him
as a defendant, charging the city with
racial and economic discrimination
in its $4.2 billion housing program
(see Short Term Notes) . So begins the
tenure of the mayor's fourth housing
commissioner.
Biderman refused to comment on
his immediate plans at HPD. But an
interview with City Limits during his
brief term as Koch's special advisor
for housing coordination and de-
velopment in the spring of 1986
clearly establishes Biderman's gen-
eral philosophy on the city's role in
producing and maintaining afforda-
ble housing.
One of his last roles as finance com-
missioner was to renegotiate the Col-
umbus Center deal with Mortimer
Zuckerman. Biderman's insistence
on making that project fly, despite a
wealth of community opposition,
may be a first glimpse of what to ex-
pect at HPD under his leadership.
Essentially a numbers man -
Biderman moves over to HPD after
serving as commissioner of the De-
partment of Finance since May
1986 - he sees the city's housing role
in terms of the bottom line. With li-
mited city funds available, he looks
to the private sector to make it hap-
pen. That means making the numbers
work for private developers. "There
has to be a natural inducement; you
can't force people to build housing, "
Biderman said in 1986. "You have to
make it something they think makes
sense for them in many respects. Not
necessarily because it maximizes
their profits but because it protects
their investments in other parts of the
city."
Carol Kellermann, who was a de-
puty commissioner under Biderman
at the finance department before be-
coming director of the Stern Founda-
tion, said Biderman's appointment to
H P ~ will be very good for housing
production. Because Koch has so
much confidence in Biderman, he is
"not as likely to get bogged down in
interagehcy squabbles," she said.
Limited Experience
But the new commissioner admits
to limited experience in housing. He
came to City Hall in 1983, specializ-
ing in economic development. He de-
scribes his first housing role as one
of the "key crafters" of the legislation
that earmarked profits from Battery
Park City to affordable housing con-
struction. As his influence in City
Hall grew, Biderman's next housing
activity came as the mayor's special
advisor for housing coordination and
development. His job was to put to-
gether the fiscal plans to spark pro-
duction.
Biderman worked with the Real Es-
tate Board of New York on the plans
that eventually became the Tibbet
Gardens project. In April, 1986,
Biderman said, "The only thing we
are giving them is land." But as that
project unfolded, the city agreed to
stake the Real Estate Board to at least
a $25,000 per unit subsidy. The pro-
ject, which is geared to show what
the private sector can do to help pro-
vide "affordable" housing, will re-
quire a family income of approxi-
mately $40,000 to purchase one of
the condominium units.
Biderman saw community-based
nonprofit developers playing a very
limited role in housing development.
"The bottom line in housing, particu-
larly in middle income housing, is
that you have to make it work finan-
cially, and there's a limited amount
you can do on a not-for-profit basis,"
he said.
"Bottom Line Orientation"
Bonnie Brower, executive director
of the Association for Neighborhood
Housing and Development, is not en-
thusiaistic about Biderman's appoint-
ment as commissioner of HPD, espe-
cially in light of his fiscal restraint.
"Given his bottom line orientation,
there will be a built-in antipathy to-
wards low income housing," she
said. Housing affordable to the two-
thirds of New York's population that
earns less than $25,000 per year is
the most expensive for the city to
build and maintain.
Biderman is keeping the wraps on
his plans for HPD, and he remains
something of an unkown as he takes
the reigns at HPD. "I have no idea
what to expect," said Andy Reicher,
executive director of the Urban
Homesteading Assistance Board,
which works closely with the hous-
ing department on the Tenant Interim
Lease program.
Brower is also concerned by Bider-
man's close relationship to the mayor.
"There is no independent voice in
leadership at HPD with both the
knowledge and desire to advocate for
low income housing."
But Kellermann said if low income
housing advocates "can get his ear
and persuade him that what they
want makes sense, " Biderman will
respond and use his influence with
the mayor.o
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PROGRAM FOCUS
Temporary Solutions, Permanent Problems
BY DOUG TURmKY
HOMES FOR THE HOMELESS WAS
born with something few other non-
profit organizations can claim--a
bankroll. With Leonard Stem, pet
food baron, developer, owner of the
Village Voice and philanthropist, pro-
viding much of the upfront operating
cash and security for mortgages,
Homes for the Homeless has, in the
15 months since the opening of its
first facility, expanded into the largest
nonprofit shelter provider for
families in the city. But an increasing
number of homeless and housing ac-
tivists are worried that Homes for the
Homeless is representative of a grow-
ing nonprofit shelter industry that
will take the heat off the city to sup-
ply permanent housing for the poor.
Stern's commitment and concern
for the New York homeless is well-
documented. His first efforts in-
cluded the funding of the Legal Aid
Society's Homeless Family Rights
Project. But Stem felt he had not done
enough. Angered by the conditions
in welfare hotels, he wanted to put
them out of business.
"My perspective was a practical
one," says Stern. "I saw the advocates
on one side yelling and screaming
with total conviction and the city on
the other side beating them off."
Stem stepped into the fray in late
1985 and in a matter of months had
Homes for the Homeless underway.
Its primary goal was to get people out
of the hotels fast. That meant using
dormitory-style facilities. A second
goal, called Phase II, was to prepare
families for independent living and
permanent housing. Stem has al-
ready put up $15 million of his own
money to see these goals become real-
ity - and he won't shy away from
spending more. But even with Stem's
generosity, the Human Resources Ad-
ministration shells out approxi-
mately $85 daily for each family in
these shelters.
So far it has proven easier to open
the transitional facilities than to
move the families into permanent
housing. Since the October 1986
opening of the first facility, the Pro-
spect Interfaith Family Inn in the
Bronx, Homes for the Homeless has
opened "inns" in Queens and Staten
Island. Altogether, Homes for the
Homeless typically shelters some 410
families daily, roughly 1,600 people.
As of December 31, 1987, 110 families
have moved into permanent hous-
ing - a - small percentage of the
families that have passed through its
facilities. Homes for the Homeless
does not keep statistics on the fate of
families that come to its shelters but
aren't placed in permanent housing.
Many of them probably return to the
citywide system or find family or
friends who take them in temporarily,
explains Homes for the Homeless offi-
cials.
Substandard Housing
"I just feel like we're creating too
many transitional facilities and creat-
ing a whole other layer of problems
and a whole other layer of substan-
dard housing for the poor," says Har-
riet Cohen of the Community Service
Society. Adds Rose Anello, staff as-
sociate for the Citizens Committee for
Children of New York, "I have a fear
that all of this shelter development
is institutionalizing shelters for the
poor."
Anello and others have called for
the end of single-room facilities, argu-
ing that any transitional units created
for the homeless should be apart-
ment-style so they can eventually be
converted to permanent housing.
Stern looses patience with such
criticisms, pointing to the time and
money it takes to create apartment
units. "Enough speeches, enough
complaining about what shouldn't be
done. We should each be doing what
little we can do," says Stern. He li-
kens critics of his shelters to 1960s
nutritionists who argued over the
type of foods that should be sent to
the Third World while people
starved.
But it's more than just the type of
units being created by Homes for the
Homeless that troubles some ac-
tivists. The organization's rapid
growth - it now employs close to
300 people - has also meant an in-
creasing bureaucracy. In the begin-
ning, many viewed Homes for the
Homeless as an advocacy group for
the homeless as well as a shelter pro-
Emphasis on management:
Ralplt Nunez in tlte newly renovated leaming
center.
vider. This view is changing. Accord-
ing to Agnes Zellin of the Queens Co-
alition for Homeless Families,
families and independent workers in-
side the Saratoga - the Queens
inn - describe the facility as if "it's
being taken over by a city mentality."
Major staff changes in recent
months have fueled that perception.
Ralph Nunez left the Mayor's Office
of SRO Housing last September to be-
come executive director of Homes for
the Homeless. Nunez previously
worked for the city's Youth Bureau
and Human Resources Administra-
tion's Crisis Intervention Services.
Nunez reacts angrily to charges that
he's turned Homes for the Homeless
into an extension of the city's shelter
system. "I didn't have to come here
to create something like the city. I
came here because there should be
something better and different than
the city," he says. "And I'm not just
SRO or whatever. I'm trained very
well in management and the provis-
ion of social services."
But one city official, who asked not
to be identified, says he was "baffled"
by the decision to hire Nunez. The
source recalls Nunez as being an-
tagonistic towards nonprofit initia-
tives. One of Nunez's first moves as
director was to fire a number of key
employees, including assistant direc-
tor Louise Altman and project man-
ager Paul Galano. Sister Joan Kirby,
the first director of Homes for the
Homeless, was "kicked upstairs" to
president of the organization to make
way for N u n e z ~
"Doing Our Job"
Stern defends these changes, say-
ing simply, "We're doing our job
when we dismiss people who aren't
competent." Kirby comments on the
shake-up, "It seems to me that in the
process of growth, tighter manage-
ment was recognized as needed. And
people with tight management skills
and experience for this size operation
were needed."
But some say the changes had as
much to do with removing those per-
ceived as activists - including
Kirby - as getting management-
oriented people into the organiza-
tion. Ed Abrahams, who was pro-
moted to director of permanent hous-
ing, then quit about two months after
Nunez became director, recalls the
changes. Under Kirby, he says, "the
central office was like a team" and
each inn had autonomy. "When he
(Nunez) came, he set the agenda and
we carried out the tasks." Abrahams
adds, "The priority was running a
tight ship."
Running a tight ship - with strong
centralized control - is supposed to
translate into better services for the
shelter residents. The true test for
Nunez' administrative skills will be
the Saratoga, Homes for the Home-
-less' largest inn with some 220
families in residence and children
ranging from infants to. teenagers.
Even Stern says the Saratoga is too
big. It also needs a huge renovation.
Although it was operating as a hotel
when Stern bought it, Nunez is en-
gineering a rehab of the Saratoga
while families remain in residence.
A learning center, with carpeting,
study cubicles, bright and cheerful
posters and good lighting, has al-
ready been completed.
Dependent
But coordinating construction and
maintaining bureaucratic efficiency
is different than working effectively
with the homeless. Some see a shift,
not in the programs offered, but in
the way Homes for the Homeless ap-
proaches the problem of homeless-
ness . The residents are seen as depen-
dent upon the organization, they al-
lege.
"There's definitely an attitude that
this is a population that needs to be
cared for," says Abrahams. Irma Rod-
riguez, associate director of the Forest
Hills Community House and a social
worker, sees this as a growing pro-
blem among the nonprofit shelter pro-
viders. "The homeless are being seen
as a captive audience for social ser-
vices. "
In casting the homeless as depen-
dents, Homes for the Homeless sets
itself up as big brother. Security is
tight at the Saratoga, partly to deal
with drug and related problems. But
residents cannot have visitors in their
rooms , a precaution that seemingly
runs counter to the notion that
Homes for the Homeless is preparing
residents to live on their own. Li-
mited attempts have been made to in-
volve residents in the management of
the inns. Stern says these efforts have
met with little success because many
residents simply don't want to take
part , a situation blamed on crack ad-
diction. (Other shelter organizations
like The Heights and st. Francis ac-
tively involve residents in manage-
ment.)
Louise Altman, the former assis-
tant director, remains generally posi-
tive about Homes for the Homeless.
But she comments, "The simple part
is that there are a lot of people out
there who have no place to go. The
difficult part is how you deliver ser-
vices to people who need them in
earnest."
Terry Hamilton, the former ad-
ministrator of the Saratoga, will not
comment on Homes for the Homeless
because she has filed a lawsuit over
her dismissal. In discussing non-
profit shelters in general, though, she
says it's important "not to start with
a sense that these are people we must
do for." Rather than viewing the
homeless as dependent, Hamilton
notes, "these are families that have
survived."
Involuntary Discharge
Probably no single issue divides
the shelter providers and the activists
as sharply as eviction from the
inns - what Homes for the Homeless
and other nonprofit shelter groups
euphemistically call involuntary dis-
charge. A task force of activists and
shelter providers was formed after
one shelter operator, the Metropoli-
tan Council on Jewish Poverty, moved
to have transitional housing exemp-
ted from state housing laws.
Homes for the Homeless says it re-
sorts to eviction only in extreme in-
stances - when a family member is
involved in drug sales or fighting, for
example. Activists remain uncon-
vinced. Families residing in transi-
tional facilities may be subject to evic-
January 6 meeting with Queens homeless activists:
Jim Courtney, David Corter and Sister Joan Kirby of Homes for tlte Homeless
answer questions about the Saratoga.
8
c
Cl
C!
;
Growing up at the Saratoga:
tter than a w./far. hot.I, but it's not a hom .
tions because managers perceive
them as uncooperative, preventing
the operation of a "tight ship."
Nunez says his organization fol-
lows all rules established by the state
and city for Tier II shelters and brings
in outside mediators whenever possi-
ble. He also notes that families sign
a contract when they move in and
receive a book that includes the tele-
phone number of Legal Aid.
But Steven Banks of the Homeless
Family Rights Project sees a potential
for families in transitional housing to
have less rights than other tenants.
"It's fine to have contracts, but that
begs the question of what happens
when allegations are brought against
a client who is told to leave." Banks
adds, "You can't let the landlord de-
cide when it's time for the tenant to
leave."
Ultimately, the eviction issue re-
flects a broader concern: Even the
best transitional shelters, and no one
would argue that the inns run by
Homes for the Homeless are not much
better than welfare hotels, are really
becoming permanent housing for the
poor. While everybody connected
with Homes for the Homeless says
that Phase II - moving families into
permanent housing - is the driving
force, the number of families who get
this housing is small.
Ed Abrahams says, "We weren't
being realistic. We were in the shelter
business, not the housing business."
The primary source of permanent
housing, the renovation of apart-
ments by the Urban Homesteading
Assistance Board through the city's
Emergency Assistance Rehousing
Program (see City Limits Oct. 1986)
proved less fruitful than originally
hoped. Homes for the Homeless ex-
panded its transitional facilities with-
out securing additional sources of
permanent housing.
UHAB's initial production goal
was 1,000 units over three years. In
the first 15 months, it has been able
to produce just 35 units, and the new
goal is 425 units over the next two
years. A number of EARP's bureaucra-
tic hurdles slowed the program, as
well as a $10,000 per unit cap on re-
novation costs, which is set by the
city. Homes for the Homeless also re-
ceives some units for its families reno-
vated under the Department of Hous-
ing Preservation and Development's
alternative management programs
and through scouting out rentals on
the open market. Still, families are
remaining in the facilities for far
longer than the six-month transi-
tional period originally planned and
the majority of families never gain
permanent housing at all .
For most families, Homes for the
Homeless -like other nonprofit
transitional facilities - has become
just another stop along the city's shel-
ter treadmill. To activists like Irma
Rodriguez, the net result is complic-
ity with the Koch administration's
homeless policies. By helping the
city keep the lid on the spill of home-
less into the streets, pressure is les-
sened for the immediate production
of permanent housing.
Despite its rapid growth, Homes for
the Homele!is has not even succeeded
in its goal of closing down the welfare
hotels. In fact, the city's five-year plan
for dealing with homelessness calls
for increasing the number of rooms
it rents from hotels.
Many believe that just providing
shelter is not enough. "We also have
to change the way the system deals
with the need, to eliminate the need,"
says Zellin. In its rapid growth and
institutionalization as a shelter pro-
vider, Homes for the Homeless has
dismissed that activist role. 0
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FEATURE
Double Jeopardy:
Facing A II )S and
Homelessness
BY BEVERLY CHEUVRONT
T
WO of the city's most critical
social problems intersect when
people with AIDS face home-
lessness, yet advocates charge city
officials with fiddling while the
flames of AIDS sweep across the met-
ropolitan area.
In a far-too-common example, one
man hospitalized with AIDS was
slapped with an eviction. Since hos-
pitals are not allowed to discharge
AIDS patients who have no home, the
did the person with AIDS have to
cope with a swift decline in health
but also had to face the possibility of
having nowhere to live during the
crisis period.
"Add to these situations the likeli-
hood that the individual has proba-
bly suffered a loss in income, take
into account the tight rental market,
and one gets some idea of the almost
insurmountable difficulty someone
with AIDS faces in his or her effort
to secure housing," the commission
reports.
W
hen people with AIDS fall victim to
the housing shortage , New York City
faces a huge toll in human suffering and
in medical costs. Yet officials seem to be
dragging their feet in the search for sol u-
tions.
tenant faced a quandry: Too ill to fight
his landlord in court, yet well enough
to leave the hospital, he was forced
to remain - at an average cost of
$600 daily - until he could enter
one of the scarce residential programs
available to people with AIDS
(PWAs).
A two-year-old child with AIDS
died prematurely from pneumonia
caused in part by unhealthy condi-
tions in a welfare hotel where the fam-
ily moved after the ceiling collapsed
in their Bronx apartment.
The New York City Commission on
Human Rights AIDS Unit, which re-
ceived the reports above, ranks such
cases as ' among "the most devastat-
ing" it receives, because" ... not only
As this double crisis explodes, the
city is moving at a snail's pace to
search out alternatives, advocates say.
"Housing is one of the biggest pro-
blems (facing PWAs) that isn't being
addressed," according to Barbara Van
Buren, former director of the AIDS
Services Delivery Consortium, a coal-
ition of 29 public and private agen-
cies that work with PWAs.
Homophobia's Role
Homophobia and AIDS phobia are
intertwined with a tangle of red tape,
while city agencies take a "not my
job" stance on housing PWAs. In fact,
a defensive line of public affairs
people ran interference for officials
apparently unwilling to provide in-
formation for this article.
Advocates are urging that Koch ap-
point a commissioner who is respon-
sible for AIDS services, and. they rec-
ommend that more permanent hous-
ing be established, including more
scattered site apartments, congregate
residences like Bailey House and re-
novation of in-rem or other small
apartment buildings. Some are call-
ing for homeless shelters for PWAs,
but most advocates oppose that op-
tion, fearing that the impetus for per-
manent housing would be lost.
Van Buren pins the city's sluggish-
ness on bureaucratic inefficiency.
"There are a lot of concerned people
out there," she says, "but I don't think
there is the urgency in doing some-
thing. Action has to be taken a lot
more quickly, and there is not the
time for committees and research and
business as usual."
Others, like Douglas Dornan,
On.
D pit. th. rapid sp,.od 01 AIDS, 80il., Hou is on. 01 th. lew olt.,noti"
10, hom.I ... p.opl. with AIDS in New Yo,k City.
executive director of the AIDS Re-
source Center, believe the Koch ad-
ministration is simply overwhelmed
by the magnitude of this crisis. "The
city is afraid to acknowledge the
scope of the problem. The start of the
problem is the federal government,
where there is no leadership and very
few resources," he explains. "The city
has a mobilization to frevent contag-
ion - an educationa campaign. It
has not mobilized to provide re-
sources for housing and support ser-
vices."
City commissioners have treated
AIDS like a hot potato, tossing it from
agency to agency, Dornan continues.
The Health Department wants to deal
only with medical aspect of the dis-
ease, and the conflict becomes espe-
cially acute when AIDS and housing
overlap. "HRA (Human Resources
Administration) has said it's not their
responsibility; HPD (Housing Preser-
vation and Development department)
says it's not their responsibility. Both
say it should be HHC's (Health and
Hospitals Corporation). No agency
wants the responsibility on its own."
Still others see a more sinister side
to this slow response. As one advo-
cate put it: "Everyone is scared to
death - it's the phobia of AIDS."
There is bigotry, too, according to
Mark Senak, legal services director at
the Gay Men's Health Crisis. He
points out that Bronx City Council-
member Jerry Crispino responded to
requests for support to open a resi-
dence for homeless PWAs with the
retort: "What makes your minority so
special that you deserve special treat-
ment?"
Moreover, no one knows the mag-
nitude of the problem.
In 1985, the state funded a study
to determine how many PWAs
needed housing. It revealed that 644
people ready for discharge were being
kept in hospitals because there was
no housing available for them, accord-
ing to Paul Van Souder of the People
With AIDS Coalition, who worked on
the study. "The problem at that time
was confined to the hospitals," Van
Souder says. "I suspect that that's no
longer true, and that more people are
on the streets and in the shelters.
Many more are in SROs and other in-
appropriate settings and are near-
homeless. "
No other attempts have been taken
to quantify the problem, and Dornan
states flatly, "No one knows the di-
mension of the problem - there is no
estimate of how many homeless
people with AIDS there are in New
York City."
Skyrocketing Numbers
The statistics that are available
don't bode well. About 400,000 to
500,000 New Yorkers are believed to
carry the antibody for the AIDS virus,
according to Senak. Of those, an esti-
mated 20 to 50 percent are expected
to develop AIDS over the next five
years. In New York City, 54 percent
of the AIDs cases are gay or bisexual
and about the same percentage are
black or Hispanic. The number of
women who are antibody postive is
estimated at 50,000, he says. Cur-
rently, there are about 3,000 PWAs in
the city - but about 10 times that
number have AIDS Related Complex
(ARC). Those with ARC can develop
infections that can be even more dis-
abling than AIDS.
What these figures translate to is a
looming catastrophe that will affect
thousands of people across economic
lines. M ~ n y are minorities who are
currently marginally housed - and a
growing number will include
families and children.
"There are currently about 206 chil-
dren in the city with AIDS, and 94
percent are minorities," says Barbara
Van Buren. "Most of the families with
AIDS are poor to begin with, with at
least one parent who is a drug user.
None of the facilities (existing or
planned) are geared for them."
Nevertheless, there have been ef-
forts to pull together reluctant agen-
M CITY LIMITS February 1988
A 1985 state study revealed 644 people with AIDS were forced
to stay in hospitals because they had no home.
cies, a number of good housing and
rent subsidy programs are available,
and albeit late, the city has begun to
devise a "five-year plan" to combat
AIDS. According to Gordon S.
Campbell, director of HRXs recently
organized Division of AIDS Services,
housing will be a major component
of the plan. But "our position is that
it is more than housing - housing for
PWAs is just the beginning,"
Campbell says.
Five-Year Plan
The five-year plan is still in draft
form, and no one is talking about the
details. "It is not at present a public
document - we are not commenting
on the plan," says Sam Friedman, a
spokesman for the Health Depart-
ment. Campbell says the draft would
be opened to community review and
input when it is completed. HPD is
not represented on the planning com-
mittee, Mitchell Karp says.
Dornan is critical of a preliminary
draft he obtained last April. "It did
not include a specific plan for hous-
ing. The plan said there is a problem
(in housing PWAs) , but it said we will
need more federal and state support
to solve it, and it did not address the
problem of homeless people with
ARC." Dornan did acknowledge that
the draft five-year plan could have
been revised significantly since that
early document.
Campbell takes issues with charges
that the city is responding slowly.
"The city recognizes that this is a real
issue ... we recognize its urgency, and
we are trying to do all that we can to
meet the needs of people with AIDS."
The state government has been
more responsive, with efforts to re-
vamp licensing and reimbursement
legislation that will encourage more
projects like Bailey House, advocates
say. It also will provide funding for
four similar projects across the state.
landlords are motivated by money,"
Karp says of the cases he handles for
the Human Rights Commission. "Thrn-
over is a source of income. The land-
lord is not anti-AIDS, but he sees that
this is one more way to get people
out of apartments. Where you have
vulnerable tenants, you ~ a v e a greater
chance for harassment."
Others may lose their apartments
when they become too ill to work and
cannot pay rent. In many of the cases
involving families, employees of the
Housing Authority have refused to
give them apartments, while gay men
in the upper economic strata may
have trouble renting an apartment or
getting approval from a coop board,
according to Human Rights Commis-
sion records. The Commission treats
AIDS cases as a disability, and the
city's human rights laws prohibit dis-
crimination against people with dis-
abilities.
Living in Hospitals
Since PWAs without homes cannot
be released from city hospitals, many
people are staying in hospitals inap-
propriately - at a cost of $600 or
more daily. "The hospitals being used
as residences is very uneconomic,
this regulation (to not release un-
domiciled people) because there is a
reluctance to diagnose people with
AIDS because of the cost of hospitali-
zation," adds another advocate, who
believes that people in shelters may
not be screened for AIDS because
they would have to be sent to the more
costly hospital setting.
PWAs who live in city shelters pre-
sent some of the most troubling pro-
blems. Campbell says that his office
usually learns of PWAs in shelters
through community referrals and
moves them to SRO rooms that HRA
rents. HRA public affairs spokeswo-
man Suzanne Trazoff says simply that
"our policy in relation to people with
known cases of AIDS is that they are
not housed in shelters - they are
placed in apartments or SRO rooms."
Peter Smith of the Partnership for
the Homeless is especially concerned
with this issue. He says repeated re-
quests for information on how the
city handles PWAs in shelters ini-
tially met with silence. In September,
1987, he received a letter from HRA
administrator Gale Gordon outlining
city policy. It states that there is no
AIDS testing in shelters, but the in-
take screening does include health is-
There is one fact that advocates and
officials alike agree on: The problem
of housing and AIDS is complex, and
it is made doubly difficult by the vari-
ety of people affected by AIDS and
by the health issues that must be
taken into consideration in planning
housing for them.
Wrong ,ide of the tracks:
Homeless people with AIDS must bear the double stigma of class and
homophobIC prejudice.
Those who have apartments fre-
quently find eviction notices on their
doors - or repairs may go begging be-
cause service people refuse to enter
their apartments. "My sense is that
and the government is the one who
has to pay. These funds could be bet-
ter spent in developing or renovating
housing," says Van Buren.
"There is a very insidious side to
sues; PWAs who come forward are re-
ferred to HRXs Medical Assistance
Program, and housing referrals are
made, depending on availablit)l. ~ I
The housing alternatives "are all
/
Demonstration at Gracie Mansion:
Advocates set up tents to locus on the prob'ems that ,.WAs ha"e in finding
oHordob'e housing.
filled up and have waiting lists as
long as Manhattan," Smith charges.
Mitchell Karp believes that the
shelters house far more PWAs than
the city would like to admit. "There
is a high percentage of gay men, pre-
dominately of color, in the shelters
and IV drug users. And there are
many people in an economic situa-
tion who are not able to pick their
partners - people who will go home
with men just for a bed," he says.
"Shelters are the worst places to
put PWAs because they are often ex-
tremely dibilitated, and there have
been a substantial number of tuber-
culosis cases in the shelters," Smith
points out.
While Health Department spokes-
man Barry Adkins acknowledges the
problem, he says the TB Bureau is
being revamped. "We have all kinds
of things (in the shelters), and we
need to do more." The lack of medical
services within shelters is the subject
of a recent lawsuit filed against the
HRA by the Legal Action Center for
the Homeless and the Legal Aid Soci-
ety.
Still, very few housing alternatives
exist for PWAs.
Advocates applaude the city's rent
subsidy program as a step in the right
direction. Campbell says more than
400 people currently receive sub-
sidies, which can go up to about $400
per month. In addition, HRA will also
assist PWAs in locating and renting
apartments. The program, however,
extends only to those diagnosed with
AIDS, eliminating the many with
ARC from assistance. Campbell
points out that the Centers for Disease
Control recently expanded the defini-
tion of AIDS, and "that has captured
a large percentage of people. We are
expanding the program by 30 or 40
percent. " Advocates say the defini-
tion still is not broad enough.
Campbell says the agency also con-
tracts with the AIDS Resource Center
to provide 15 scattered site apart-
ments and will soon increase that
number to 20. In addition, HRA re-
cently received foundation funding
to acquire 20 more apartments in
Brooklyn and the Bronx. These are
all rental apartments in private build-
ings, as a r ~ the SRO units for former
shelter residents.
While there are some small residen-
tial programs planned, the only cur-
rent facilities are Mother Theresa's
Gift of Love and the AIDS Resource
Center's Bailey House, which is often .
cited as a model for other projects.
While the city helps fund Bailey
House and acquired it for that pur-
pose, Dornan says the partnership
was a reluctant one.
Getting the city's commitment was
a two-year process. "The initial reac-
tion was: 'Of course this is needed,
and it's a logical location.' But it died.
It died in City Hall. Letters were un-
answered, and officials were unwil-
ling to meet," Dornan charges. He
says agreement came only after a
media blitz that compared the ap-
proximate $600 cost per day of inap-
propriate hospitalization with Bailey
House's almost $99 per day cost.
The facility, which provides pri-
vate rooms and support services in a
former hotel , houses 44 people. The
AIDS Resource Center's attempts to
obtain a small and vacant city-owned
building next door has met with frus-
tation, even though the center now
has funding available to expand
Bailey House, Dornan says. Since
their first atteinpt to open Bailey
House, "there has not been a change
in attitude, or in city policy, or in
capacity to respond to the problem
(of housing PWAs)," he says of the
Koch administration.
According to HPD spokeswoman
Catie Marshall, an earlier application
made to the city's capital budget for
homeless housing for the Bailey
House addition was not funded be-
cause it was "too expensive" and did
not match the budget's special popu-
lation requirement.
Dornan believes that the key to pro-
viding adequate housing for PWAs is
for the mayor to designate one com-
missioner with responsibility for
coordinating all AIDS services. He
also calls for capital funds for the ac-
quisition and renovation of new
facilities for PWAs, noting that scat-
tered site apartments cost only about
$42 daily for singles and $131 for
families (per day) while a small apart-
ment building with social services
would be $93 for singles and $117 for
families.
Rent subsidies should be extended
to people with ARC, says Van Buren,
and families with AIDS should re-
ceive increased housing allowances.
She also pointed to a lack in residen-
tial programs for the rapidly increas-
ing population of substance abusers
with AIDS.
Karp of the Human Rights Commis-
sion charges that "PWAs are pitted
against the homeless" and a coalition
of housing and AIDS advocates
should be formed to work together.
The Partnership for the Homeless
has devised a controversial five-point
plan for housing PWAs. According to
Smith, it recommends establishing at
least four emergency homeless shel-
ters throughout the city, starting an
educational campaign to encourage
people to use these shelters, and mak-
ing referrals to them. Rent subsidies
should be increased and stipends of-
fered to people with extra space to
house PWAs, and the city . should
begin to rehabilitate 5,000 in-rem
apartments for PWAs over the next
three years.
Smith is not optimistic that his
plan or any other will be adopted
soon. "There is a malaise at the policy
level in terms of comprehensive plan-
ning, " he says. Adds Van Buren, "The
city doesn't move until something
forces it to - and I don't know what
will make it move." 0
CITY VIEWS
Land: They're Not Making Any More
BY RUTH MESSINGER
The following article is excerpted
from a speech presented at a confer-
ence on land use and the New York
City Charter.
PITTSBURGH IS A STEEL TOWN.
Houston is an oil town. New York is
a land town. Land is the commodity
that we buy and sell; develop, over-
develop and abandon; use and abuse.
Mark Twain said, "Buy land;
they're not making any more." But
Twain could not have imagined the
reality that is New York, where land
is made in the river, FAR (Floor Area
Ratio) carved out of the sky and the
value of any owned space is regulaI'ly
manipulated by the decisions of
other land owners and the action -or
inaction - of city government.
Land is our central and scarce re-
source. Our debates over its use en-
gender conflict. No one benefits from
these conflicts, and we all suffer from
our land being poorly used.
Pressures for development increase
in a boom time such as the one we
have recently experienced. There is a
strong push for large-scale develop-
ment, especially in the most desira-
ble locations. Conversely, some
neighborhoods suffer from being ig-
nored as potential sites for develop-
ment, from having nothing built.
No Guidelines
No party plays a thoughtful, long-
range, regulatory, mediating role.
There are no guidelines for planning
or for negotiation. Developers are
cautioned to beware the communities
and to seduce them with amenities.
They wave the specter of money in
the face of the city, promising im-
mediate economic health and fiscal
stability, claiming that true prosper-
ity rests with their model. They hold
press conferences about their projects
when they are but a gleam in the de-
veloper's eye, announcing them as if
they were already erected.
The city is no better. In its role as
a facility locator, it attempts to sur-
prise and overwhelm communities.
It waits until the crisis is, quite liter-
ally, in the streets. Then it opens an
ill-conceived and poorly-planned
shelter, names a pier for a new prison
barge, or shuts down a school over
City Council M.mb.r Ruth M.ssing.r:
"In its ro/. a. zoning regulator, the city Ioil. mi rob/y."
night if it can. If it must proceed
through a required consultation pro-
cess, it does so with plugs in its ears.
In its role as a developer, the city
does not consult with or listen to the
affected community. It disposes of
land to the highest bidder for the most
it can get. It does not set requirements
for use, even when the consequence
is to plough up a garden, create
shadow - as at Columbus Circle-
or provide 'a generous subsidy to a
developer whose profit is already se-
cure.
In its role as a zoning regulator, the
city fails miserably. It gives away de-
velopment rights with abandon. It
proceeds in most negotiations as a
quarterback and not a referee, with
dollar signs glued to its eyeballs. It
agrees to, and sometimes even fuels,
developer excess. Then it approaches
the community that will have to ac-
cept the density wondering what it
or the developer will have to trade
away to get what it wants.
Communities Besieged
Communities and community
boards feel besieged, and they re-
spond in kind. They focus all their
energies on what they don't want, be-
cause no one seems the least bit in-
terested in what they do seek. Their
positions escalate and they stake
them out with ferocity.
Disaster reigns. Sometimes there is
no compromise. Then the worst pos-
sible result emerges, often to the de-
veloper's surprise. More and more
this is followed by litigation, time de-
lays, and an increase in hostilities.
This happens, also, when the city
forces through a shelter or barge plan,
and a community group sues. Courts
become the last bastion of a planning
process that should occur long before
any legal action is taken.
Alternatively, there is a comprom-
ise, touted by everyone as "proof the
process works." Unfortunately, the
compromise is usually
crafted - often at 3 a.m. at the
of Estimate - and rarely speaks to
most of the real issues.
Numbers of units are shaved, or an
amenity thrown in, or a new term and
condition added. Rarely are these op-
tions and their actual impact on the
project analyzed. Sometimes they are
good changes, but not sufficient to
justify the project which then sails
through. Sometimes they are not
good and will not do what it was or
hoped or promised that they would
do.
A new definition of the meaning of
the "afffected community" is needed.
There is the local community, those
people who are threatened by exces-
sive density or a large service facility
or the loss of a program or who desp-
erately seek improvements in their
neighborhoods. Their fears of nega-
tive impact are real and ought to be
responded to. There is also, though,
the city as community. In the long
run, our interests hang together. If we
encourage or allow too much invest-
ment in some neighborhoods, we de-
prive others of the growth oppor-
tunities they need. If we dump so-
called negative uses on a few com-
munities or insist on shelters and gar-
bage plants that are too large and lack
reasonable controls, we create pro-
blems that ripple out from the im-
mediate community and impact on
other neighborhoods as well.
Affirmative Steps
We want New York to take specific
affirmative steps to spread out de-
velopment, and, at the same time,
meet essential urban needs. We want
government to use its capital budget
to rebuild and maintain infrastruc-
ture where it wants development to
occur, to make currently neglected
neighborhoods safe, clean and attrac-
tive.
The city should take these steps in
consultation with its communities. It
should plan with them for what cap-
ital investment aud what service en-
hancements they need. It should use
its budget process as the planning
process it in fact is.
The city should work with its com-
munities, too, in siting less desirable
services and faciltiies. It should
develop a citywide projection of need
and a clear analysis of where existing
services and facilities are. This plan
should form the basis for city,
borough and community negotia-
tions about where to put additional
facilities and programs.
The community must be given in-
formation and treated with respect.
An informed community, given data
and technical assistance, becomes an
empowered community better able to
plan effectively for itself. If a commu-
nity does not expect to be had at every
turn, if it knows its deliberations will
be given real weight, and if it has the
tools for those deliberations, it will
easily become a full partner with the
city in mapping its future.
We need, finally, to rethink the role
of the cty in these various proceed-
ings. It must do more than set clear
limits, do longer range planning and
budgeting, and work with and not
against its component parts. It must
assert its authority to determine its
own healthy future.
Whether the city is functioning as
a mediator between competing par-
ties, is regulating zoning, or is dispos-
ing of or developing its own proper-
ties, it can proceed in a way that al- .
lows it to realize goals it has previ-
ously identified. It can negotiate for
affordable housing or new public
spaces as a condition of develop-
ment, not as a bonus for excess. 0
Ruth Messinger is a member of the
New York City Council and co-chair
of Citizens for Charter Change.
Robert J. Spontak, CPA
accounting, audit and tax
services covering
individuals, businesses,
not-for-profits, & co-ops
Reasonable fees
718-622-3780
providing complete architectural and engineering services to non-profit developers
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GROUP HOMES, HPD RFPS, DSS/HHAP RFPS
Call John Harris RA. for an evaluation of your project's needs
CHRISTIANSON/HARRIS ARCHITECTS
458 BERGEN STREET BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11217 (718)398-1440
PIPELINE
Homeless Parents Fight the System
Bill Groth with homele .. mother and child:
The Sing'e Porent Resource Center teaches the politics of empowerment.
BY NICOLE FAUTEUX
WHEN WELFARE AUTHORITIES
mixed up Dora Rodriguez's social sec-
urity number and cut off her assist-
ance, the mother of three could not
make rent payments. By the time the
matter was cleared up, Rodriguez'
landlord had found tenants willing
to pay $300 more a month for her
apartment -and the family was
evicted.
After a stay in city shelters, she and
her family were placed in a room at
the Martinique Hotel. But Rodriguez
has not given up hope. "I have been
so angry, that keeps me hanging on.
Somebody's going to hear me."
On a crisp Thursday morning in Oc-
tober, Rodriguez and eleven other
women from midtown's residential
hotels meet to share their stories.
They are taking part in a workshop
sponsored by the Single Parent Re-
source Center, an advocacy group
that has sought community support
and services for single-parent
families for the past 11 years. Under
a banner proclaiming "Knowledge +
Action = Power," housing activist
Bill Groth challenges parents to find
solutions to the problems they face.
"You have been appointed to a
mayoral commission to research the
housing crisis and develop policy re-
commendations for the mayor," says
Groth. "Let's look at who is homeless.
What are the causes of homelessness
and what are the effects?"
The women talk among them-
selves, then Groth records their
findings on big sheets of white paper
tacked to the walls. They say the
homeless are fire victims, battered
women, people with AIDS, the el-
derly, parents, pregnant women, His-
panics and blacks. "What's the com-
mon denominator?" Groth asks. "All
of these people don't have money or
power."
Groth focuses the discussion in
political terms, constantly reminding
the parents that their problems are
not exceptional but part of a larger
picture with economic, social and,
above all, political components. His
goal is to arm the women with knowl-
edge and convince them of the im por-
tance of taking action on their own
behalf, both individually and collec-
tively.
The center began offering the hous-
ing workshops last year to homeless
single-parent families living in mid-
town hotels. Directed qy Suzanne
Jones, the center ran support groups
in the hotels for nearly five years be-
fore Groth was hired to develop a pro-
gram for empowerment.
The six-week curriculum is de-
signed to transform the students into
housing experts. Parents leave with
an understanding of housing re-
sources, entitlements, landlord-ten-
ant relations and childcare services.
They talk about the roots of the hous-
ing crisis and evaluate what resources
they have to assist them in finding
housing. They also acquire skills for
use once they have found a perma-
nent home. Money management, ten-
ant associations and how to get re-
pairs made are some of the topics in-
cluded to prepare participants to deal
with future problems that might
otherwise render them homeless a
second time.
Collective Action
The course also strives to make the
students aware of the gains they can
make by confronting the system col-
lectively. In August, a group of
graduates who attended Board of Es-
timate hearings was shocked by the
board's decision to fund more shel-
ters when permanent housing is so
desperately needed. As one of them
concluded, "All of us from the hotels
should have gone down together.
Then they would have had to vote for
permanent housing."
Once the workshops are over, Groth
and other center workers assist par-
ents in finding homes and in main-
taining income while they hunt for
quarters. It also works with commu-
nity groups, recommending tenants
when housing becomes available.
The center believes its training will
enable workshop graduates to con-
tribute to the collective life of the
buildings they inhabit. As Dora Rod-
riguez says, "Once we know our
rights, then we keep on fighting."
Leo Rodriguez, no relation to Dora,
attended the workshop in June. He
now lives in an apartment building
in the Bronx and works part-time as
the super's assistant. But Leo Rod-
riguez and his family are still struggl-
ing. Their apartment is not properly
wired, so they have to take electricity
from the hall. And a broken boiler
means the whole building is going
without heat and hot water. "The
landlord said he was going to put in
a new boiler ... which he didn't. So
the tenants' association met and I
gave them more ideas. How can we
fix this problem? We came to this con-
clusion: We had to gather people to-
gether and take him to court because
it's not fair. There's a lot of children
in this building that need hot water
and steam."
Back at the center's offices, Groth
and student intern Jean Myers are
talking with current workshop par-
ticipants. The first session ended well
over an hour ago and still the women
linger, glad to escape the isolation of
the hotel room and relieved to find
answers to questions posed dozens
of times before. Most of them will stay
in the small hotel room they share
with their children for at least the 18
months it takes to qualify for assis-
tance in locating housing through the
Human Resources Administration.
They are excited by the possibility of
moving beyond the nightmarish
world of drug-infested buildings, sex-
ual harassment and bureaucratic red
tape they describe.
Cheryl Backus has been at the
Prince George Hotel for more than 20
months, but unlike some newer arri-
vals who are fighting depression and
frustration, Backus is confident and
determined. She attended the work-
shops last summer but decided to par-
ticipate again when the center offered
them this fall.
"It was nice to get out of the Prince
George and meet other women who
shared the same problems," Backus
says. "I learned not to dwell on my
problems, but to get out and partici-
pate. I joined Women in Need and I
made an appointment with HPD.
When they threw me questions, I
knew what to say."
According to Groth, a number of
other agencies and organizations are
currently offering housing work-
shops that provide official informa-
tion in a traditional classroom set-
ting, but most fail to show the home-
less how they can take charge of their
lives. "To begin with, they don't talk
about what really happens when you
try to deal with HPD, or the hotel
management or your case worker.
They just present the ideal of how the
system's suppposed to work, and
right away they lose credibility be-
cause these women have been there.
They know it doesn't happen that
way." Groth believes that most other
workshops, no matter how well inten-
tioned, are designed to satisfy the
concerns of funders rather than to
give homeless people the knowledge
and the confidence they need to advo-
cate successfully for themselves.
"What makes this program differ-
ent is that we're looking at the hous-
ing crisis as a political event, not an
individual one. We try to confront the
isolation and alienation people feel
and to encourage them to be more
active in their buildings and com-
munities. We want to empower them,
to give them control over their lives
and in doing that, hopefully to lay
the foundation for social change."
It is too early to measure the impact
of the program using statistical
means. Of the 30 people who partici-
pated in the June workshops, seven
have found housing. Perhaps more in-
dicative of success is the post-work-
shop activities of the participatns.
Those who went to the Board of Esti-
mate hearings also attended the Oc-
tober 6th Conference on Homeless-
ness. And on a grassroots level , they
are actively sharing their new knowl-
edge with friends and neighbors who
need it. As Leo Rodriguez put it, "I
learned how to have faith in myself,
that I was going to get out of the Pr-
ince George. How to stop thinking of
myself as homeless."O
Nicole Fauteux works in documen-
tary television and has written for a
number of publications.
CHANGE}OBS
Change
the
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REVIEWS
Documenting
the VictilJ1s of
Reaganomics
Below the Line: Living Poor in
America, by Eugene Richards,
Consumer Report Books, 1987, 218
pages, $20 paperback, $32 hardcover.
BY BEVERLY CHEUVRONT
AMERICA'S ONCE-STRONG DOCU-
mentary photography tradition has
suffered in the Reagan Era, with its
emphasis on commerciality and a
sugarcoated Norman Rockwell vision
of the country.
Eugene Richards, a photographer
who values social conscience above
owning a Volvo, stands in stark con-
trast to his 200 colleagues who
"documented" the U.S. for Day in the
Life of America. In that book, the na-
tion is depicted as a Kodachrome
world of content and prosperous
people. For his recent book, Below
the Line: Living Poor in America,
Richards scoured the country for a
cross-section of the victims of
Reaganomics. His result is damning:
a series of intimate and compassion-
ate portraits of Americans who are
struggling to survive on the under-
belly of the richest country on earth.
Below the Line was commissioned
by the Consumers Union, which in
an ironic twist to its emphasis on
VCRs and food processors, decided
to commemorate its 50th anniversary
with a report on the people who can't
afford to buy appliances. Richards,
' who has a long history of activism,
was an ideal choice for the documen-
tary project. In the late '60s, he was
a VISTA volunteer working for civil
rights in Arkansas - until a run-in
with the Klan forced him to leave. He
then started an alternative paper in
West Memphis, Arkansas. Later,
Richards returned to his native Bos-
ton, where he covered social issues,
especially busing. Now a photo-
grapher with the Magnum agency,
Richards' credits include several
other documentary books and numer-
ous awards.
With only six months allotted to
produce material for the book,
Richards teamed up with social
worker Janine Altongy to develop
A portroit of struggling Americans:
Photogropher Eugene Richards is on activist with a compassionate view of
those living below the poverty line.
concepts and research subjects. "The
point of the book for me was to give
definition to the conditions that a lot
of Americans are in. This country is
in increasing trouble ... and the way
some people are forced to live will
come back to us," Richards says.
He and Altongy vetoed use of the
word "poverty" in the title. "It's a
question of living poor versus being
poor - we wanted to show people
struggling, and living poor could be
having little cash, or losing what you
care about, or having nothing."
Initially, a writer was assigned to
work with Richards, but he opted in-
stead to let people tell their own
stories. "You can't do any better than
that, " he says.
Richards spent long hours getting
to know his subjects, sitting quietly
and photographing as their days un-
folded or taping conversations with
them. The results are revealing and
honest glimpses into thefr lives that
are startlingly close and personal.
Richards' gritty black and white pic-
tures do not portray the poor as heroic
sufferers; they are everyday people ex-
pressing common emotions - joy,
sadness, anger, love, boredom - and
just coping with their adversities. His
haphazard photographic style, with
crazy angles and unusual framing,
brings the viewer right up to the sub-
ject. Their own stories are'as intimate
as the pictures.
Below the Line reveals that poverty
is pervasive in America in the 1980s.
More importantly, the book makes it
clear that those without money are
not freaks - in fact, they're not very
different from the rest of us , from
Ralph Timmerman's losing struggle
to save his snow-sl'.rept South Dakota
farm to Still House Hollow in Tennes-
see, where Letta Casey is being eaten
alive by cancer that she cannot afford
to have treated. Casey hides her pain.
"This morning was horrible, to tell
you the truth ... But if I'm sitting here
and I'm crying and whining and re-
ally a moron about it, think how my
kids are gonna feel. They're not going
to be laughing and playing ... "
In Hughes, Arkansas, sharecropper
Porta Lee Davis talks about growing
up hungry. eating flour dust with
splinters in it when there was no
food, and trying to survive in a rotting
shack with her sick husband and
grandchildren. "Oh. if only I could
find some place. some decent place."
she laments the rooms that have dis-
integrated from exposure to the ele-
ments. "We are here because there is
no where else."
And there is no where else for
Emily Marcellus. a teenage mother
whose Chicago landlord frequently
cuts off the heat, gas and even elec-
tricity, or for Delia Torres in the Lower
East Side's Shantytown.
On the West Coast, a Pacific Island
family of two adults and three chil-
dren live in a single room. while
former Green Beret Vinnie Bono lives
in a Boston shelter for homeless men.
In Douglas, Wyoming, Connie Arthur
supports her family on an annual in-
come of $13.000 earned from holding
three jobs - working in a grocery
store, delivering papers and cleaning
a restaurant.
Consumers Union reports that 33.1
million Americans are living below the
government's official poverty line.
Eugene Richard's camera gives a vivid
portrayal of life below that line.D
VI
o
""
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LETTERS
Maggot Theory
To The Editor:
I just read with interest Doug
Thretsky's article "Seeking Sand Dol-
lars on Brooklyn Shores" (December
1987). The discussion of the pro-
posed Brighton by the Sea develop-
ment almost completely overlooks
the real issues surrounding this pro-
posal while emphasizing an irrelev-
ant and unsupportable argument.
Mr. Thretsky would have us believe
that the construction of 2,200 units
of admittedly luxury housing will
generate its own demand. From thin
air, not only will 2,200 affluent house-
holds descend on Brighton Beach to
fill the proposed development but
even more such households will flock
to the neighborhood, creating signifi-
cant displacement of existing resi-
dents. Were this proposition true,
there would be no low, moderate or
middle income neighborhoods in
New York City, no abandonment. no
in rem housing. Developers would
merely build luxury developments
and rich folk would appear from
nowhere to fill it.
In truth, the 2,200 housholds
needed to fill the proposed develop-
ment must come from someplace
else. If no housing were built here.
all these households would occupy
an apartment or home elsewhere,
most at other locations in New York
City, often in a nearby comparable
neighborhood.
Developing new private market
housing does not create displace-
ment pressures. It reduces them by
providing alternative places for rela-
tively affluent people to live. I would
hope that spontaneous generation as
an explanation of housing demand
would have as little credibility as it
does as an explanation for why mag-
gots appear on decaying food.
While pursuing the spontaneous
generation angle, the article ignores
or gives only cursory treatment to the
many real issues - traffic, air qual-
ity, school capacity. neighborhood
character and so on - that must be
examined. I can assure your readers
that the Planning Commission, after
hearing public comment, will
thoroughly examine the impacts and
appropriateness of this project before
approving, rejecting or modifying it.
Sandy Hornick
Dept. of City Planning
Reassurance
To The Editor:
I would just like to reassure Martin
Gallent ("On the Waterfront: Plan-
ning to Plan," December 1987) that
the city has prepared the first phase
of a comprehensive property inven-
tory of the New York City waterfront.
This phase is a computer listing of
over 600 vacant and occupied proper-
ties, including a physical profile of
RESPONDING TO AN RFP?
PLANNING TO CREATE L.OW.INCOME HOUSING?
each parcel. The list, which com-
prises the complete inventory of the
Department of Ports, International
Trade and Commerce, represents the
great majority of city-owned water-
front properties subject to lease or de-
velopment.
When the list is released early this
year, it will provide the most accessi-
ble source of information available to
planners and developers. Although
some of the information was previ-
9usly available through a number of
separate data resources, PITC has
made it easily accessible through a
new computer system which pro-
vides key information at a single
glance. In addition, we will be adding
new information, such as property
adjacency, which has not been avail-
able to the public without time-con-
suming research. Over the next year,
PITC will undertake the second
phase of the inventory by adding
waterfront properties under the juris-
diction of other government agencies
and the private sector.
The scope and progress of this pro-
ject contradict Mr. Gallent's charges
that "little thought (is) given to the
overall effect of development." The
inventory is tangible evidence of the
city's comprehensive approach to the
waterfront.
Michael P. Huerta
Commissioner
NYC Dept. of Ports, International
node and Commerce
WONDERING WHERE TO FIND GOOD, AFFORDABLE LEGAL HELP?
Since 1980, the Community Development Legal Assistance Center (CDLAC) has specialized in solving the legal
problems of low-income co-ops, homesteading groups, TIL buildings, shelters for the homeless and other non-profit
groups. For more information about using CDLAC's services. send a brief description of your project or group and a
summary of your legal needs to Debra Bechtel at CDLAC.
CDLAC LEGAL GUIDES NOW AVAILABLE!
LEGAL HANDBOOK FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZA nONS Incotporation IIId tax-exemption for Local
Development Cotporations and other non-profit groups. forming subsidiaries. IIIJUl&I reporting requirements. and many more issues. $23.00 (iDol ........... ).
BY -LAWS: A GUIDE FOR NONPROFIT GROUPS AND THEIR LA WYERS A stq>-by-step guide to drafting by-laws; includes
checklist of important provisions and citations to all relevant statutes. $8.25 (iDol ........... ).
GMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT P9
AL
hSISTANCE GNTER
A Project of The Council of New York Law Associates, 99 Hudson Street, New York, NY. 10013 (212) 219-1800
BUILDING BLOCKS
Testing for Radon
IN RECENT YEARS, HIGH LEVELS
of radon gas have been found in
homes around the country, including
the metropolitan area. A colorless,
odorless radioactive gas that occurs
naturally from the decay of uranium
and radium, radon can be found in
low levels world over. But these
higher levels are a serious health
hazard because radon decomposes
into very small radioactive particles
that are inhaled into the lungs. Radon
exposure is considered to be a leading
cause of lung cancer among non-
smokers.
Radon entels a building -through
contact with the soil, seeping in
through cracks in a foundation wall
or basement floor, and by other
sources of contamination such as pri-
vate water supplies, natural gas and
building materials. Once radon gas
gets into a building, air movement
caused by heating systems,
appliances and exhaust fans can dis-
tribute the gas and its decay products
throughout the living space.
Increased awareness of radon gas
has led to controversy as real estate
agents, builders and mortgage len-
ders are developing policies to pro-
tect their interests. But the presence
of radon in rental buildings poses
dangers for tenants, too. How can ten-
ants be assured steps are being taken
to mitigate the problem?
Simple Steps
In many homes, simple steps can
lessen the problem, such as sealing
cracks in basement floors and "found-
ation walls. Special ventilation sys-
tems can also be used. -
The decision to treat a radon pro-
blem should be based on a measure-
ment taken in the home. Radon levels
vary greatly, even within neighbor-
hoods, and a high reading in a neigh-
bor's house does not necessarily indi-
cate high levels in other homes in the
area. The only way to know whether
an individual building is contami-
nated with radon gas is with tests.
The most widely used testing
methods are activated charcoal canis-
ters, which provide a measurement
for a period of three to seven days, or
alpha track detectors, which can be
kept in place for up to a year. These
devices measure amounts of radon
gas, reported as "picocuries per liter"
of air (pCi/l). Although experts disag-
ree over what should be considered
a dangerous level of radon gas in a
home, the U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency (EPA) recommends that
radon mitigation actions be taken
when levels exceed four picocuries
per liter (4 pCill) of air.
The first radon test conducted in a
building is often done with an acti-
vated charcoal canister and is refer-
red to as a screening measurement.
This screening measurement is made
in the area of the house closest to the
soil (usually the basement), to help
decide whether more measurements
should be made.
Changing Levels
Because the amount of radon gas
concentrated in a house changes
throughout the year, a screening mea-
surement does not provide a reliable
e
COOPERATIVE
EXTENSION
estimate of average radon levels to
which a household is exposed. There
can also be 'differences in radon levels
among the different parts of a build-
ing, so results of a screening measure-
ment should only be used as a sign
of a potential radon problem.
Depending on the results of the sc-
reening measurement, follow-up
tests may be needed. These tests,
which estimate the long-term average
concentrations of radon in living
areas of the building, should be made
after a screening measurement has de-
termined that a radon concentration
may be high enough to cause long-
term health effects, or whenever con-
centrations in the living area are to
be measured.
In a study recently conducted by
the New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority, radon
levels in the main living areas of
2,043 single-unit, owner-occupied
houses across the state were tested
over a one-year period. This study in-
cluded 64 houses in New York City
and 273 on Long Island, and these
results were found: 41 houses on Sta-
ten Island, where readings ranged
from 0.1 to 2.3 pCi/l; three houses in
the Bronx with a range of 0.1 to 0.7
pCi/l; 17 houses in Brooklyn.with a
range of 0.2 to 5.1 pCi/l; one house
in Manhattan, with a level of 0.4 pCil
1; and 43 in Queens, with a range of
0.1 to 1.6 pCi/l. The range for the 273
houses tested on Long Island was be-
tween 0.0 and 7.4 pCi/l.
The New York State Health Depart-
ment currently is conducting a radon
screening program in which many
more homes will be tested. This pro-
gram will provide a large base of
radon concentration data to help
make information available in the fu-
ture. Through this current screening
program, activated charcoal canisters
are available to state residents for $8
or for free if the home or dwelling
unit to be tested has been surveyed
through a utility energy analysis pro-
gram. The toll-free number to receive
information about this program is 1-
800-458-1158. The New York State
Energy Office also operates a toll-free
radon hotline: 1- 800-342-3722.
For more information on radon, call
these numbers and ask for the free
booklets, "A Citizen's guide to Radon:
What It Is And What To Do About It,"
and "Radon Reduction Methods: A
Homeowner's Guide." 0
Heat, Hot Water Arrests
The following landlords were recently
arrested for failing to provide heat and/
or hot water, according to the Depart-
ment of Housing Preservation and De-
velopment. Each had been under court
order to provide these services:
IIana Kochen, owner of 795-97 St.
Nicholas Ave., Manhattan.
Franklin J. Mercer, owner of 1810
University Ave., Bronx.
Charles and Linda Sutton, owner of
827 E. 218 St., Bronx_
WORKSHOP
REHAB SPECIALIST. For housing org. Specs, contractor solici-
tations to upgrade low income tenant coops. Smart, able to write,
organize paperwork & coord projects from bldg inspec thru sig-
noff. Familiar with either city agencies & govt construction or
nonprofit housing (you'll learn rest). Salary: low 20s, benefits,
flexible hrs. P possible. Contact: UHAB, 40 Prince, NYC 10012.
212-226-4119. Att: Phyllis Noll.
SOCIAL WORKER/PARALEGAL. To work with project attys &
organizers in hotels & SROs. Responsibilities: evaluate client
problems with govt entitlements; advocacy before social or govt
agencies; rep at admin hearings; client referal for social assess-
ment; attendance at group mtgs; tenant outreach/organizing;
letters & documents for clients' cases. Relevant exp, Spanish
preferred. Salary per collective bargaining agreement. Resume:
Anne R. Teicher, Legal Dir., East Side SRO Legal Services Pro-
ject, MFY Legal Services, Inc., 223 Grand St., NYC 10013. 212-
966-7410.
HOUSING SPECIALIST/PARALEGAL. Community law offices
seeks paralegal for housing unit which reps tenant assocs in
Harlem, East Harlem & Washington Hts. Job includes assistance
to tenant-managed bldgs, accting assistance to tenant assoc,
litigation prep. Night meetings required, Spanish helpful. Salary:
$22,400, union benefits. Send resume immediately to: Douglas
Simmons, Community Law Offices, 230 E. 106th St. , NYC 10029.
No phone calls please.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. Small, Queens Local Dev Corp seeks
an individual with exp in administering NYS DHCR & NYC Youth
Bureau programs. Previous LDC exp strongly desirable. Salary
mid 20s. Opptnty for advancement. Send resume & cover letter
to: Carson Sheidemann, 35-63 83 St., Jackson Hts, NY 11372.
COMMUNITY LIAISON SPECIAUST. The Fifth Avenue Commit-
tee seeks organizer for tenant & housing groups, advise tenants
on housing rights, organize wkshops & seminars, contrib to news-
letter, assist tenants in housing court and to assist manage their
city-owned bldgs. English/Spanish required; exp in organizing,
community relations & housing regs. Some evenings. Call Steve
Flax, 718-965-2777.
REHAB SPECIALIST CONSTRUCTION. For community revitali-
zation program. Supervise home improvement projects, prepare
work specs & estimates, liaison between homeowners & contrac-
tors. Salary: $22,500-27,500, excbenefits. Send resume to Direc-
tor, Neighborhood Housing Services of Kensington-Windsor Ter-
race, 127 Beverly Rd., Brooklyn 11218.
FAMILY WORKER. Forest Hills Community House seeks worker
for its homeless families project. Responsible for case mgmt of
9-15 families, helping families make appointments with income
maintenance centers, locate child care services, and provide
consumer education. Family worker also involved in community
outreach. Salary, $16,500, depending upon expo HS degree re-
quired and familiarity with hotel shelter system. Call Mary Abbate,
718-271-3098. .
HOUSING & SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONALS. New & in-
novative model program wking with homeless families in prep
for independent living seeks project dir, attny, social worker, hous-
ing counselor, entitlement specialist, entitlement specialist asst
& secretary. Spanish/English. Resumes to: Jill Walters, Northern
Manhattan Improvement Corp., 601 W. 181 St., NYC 10033.
Since 1980, the Housing Energy Alliance for Tenants COOperetIve Corp. (H.E.A.T. Coop) 11M provided low
cost home heating oil and energy use reduction services.
The H.E.A.T. Coop has targeted for services the largely minority low and middle income neighborhoods 01 the
Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. H.E.A.T: s general purpose is to provide assistance and seMIjes that lead
to neighbomood stability. ./
As a proponent of economic empowerment :or revitalization 01 the City's communities. H.E.A.T. ~ n s committed
to assisting newly emerging managers and owners of buildings with the reduction 01 energy costs (long recognized as
the single most expensive area of building management). H.E.A. T. has presented tangible opportunities for tenant
associations, housing coops, churches, community organizations. homeowners and small businesses to gamer
substantial savings and lower the costs of building operation.
Through the primary service of providing low cost home MetIng oil, v.noua heIIIIng pIIInt .mc:- and
energy management services, H.E.A.T. members have collectively Mved eMIl' 1.5 million dol ....
Vlbrking collaboratively with other community service organizations with similar goals, and working to establish its
viability as a business entity, H.E.A.T. has committed its revenue generating capacity and potential to providing
services that work for and lead to stable, productive communities.
If you are interested in learning more about H.E.A.T. or if you are interested in becoming a H.E.A.T: member, call
or write the H.E.A.T. office.
Housing Energy Alliance for Tenants Coop Corp.
853 Broadway. Suite 414. New York. NY. 10003. [212] 505-0286
ALTERNATIVE BUDGET
CONFERENCE
A working conference on the development of an Alternative
Budget for New York City that will meet the needs of
New York City's New Majority:
BLACKS, LATINOS and ASIANS
Workshops: ..
Housin /Homelessness
Family
Economic Development Education
.>
Saturday, January 30, 1988 9am to Spm
Medgar Evers College
1150 Carroll St.
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11225
ADMISSION FREE
Sponsors: Center for Law and Social Justice of Medgar Evers College-CUNY
Association of Puerto Rican Executive Directors
Asian Americans For Equality
For further information call (718) 953-8400
Trains-#2 to President St , , #3 to Nostrand Ave.Bus-#44 to Carroll St

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February 1988 52.

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