March 1990 New York's Community Affairs News Magazine

H E L L R A I S E R I N C I T Y H A L L D S T I L L H U N G R Y I N N E W Y O R K
C A N T H E C I T Y L E A R N T O M A N A G E I T S B U I L D I N G S ?
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2 CITY UMITS
Ciq Limirs
Volume XV Number 3
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Robert Hayes, Coalition for the Homeless
Rebecca Reich
Andrew Reicher, UHAB
Richard Rivera, Puerto Rican Legal
Defense and Education Fund
Tom Robbins
Ron Shiffman, Pratt Center
Esmerelda Simmons, Center for Law and
Social Justice
Jay Small, ANHD
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Editor: Doug Turetsky
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EDITORIAL
Words and Deeds
A few weeks ago, Mayor David Dinkins addressed a City Hall conference
presented by the Committee for New York, an informal organization com-
prised of New York developers, planners and community activists. The
mayor offered a blueprint for the process his administration will undertake
to assess private development proposals.
The mayor' s words are worth repeating here, not only because they echo
the sentiments of many community leaders, but because they can serve as
a yardstick for measuring the administration's future actions. Mayor Dink-
ins told those assembled at City Hall: "Throughout our city's neighbor-
hoods, there are New Yorkers willing to love, protect, defend and work to
improve their communities. And I believe the best government can do is
listen to them. Some like to say, ' That means you're against development.'
But we know that's not the case. We' re for development-for development
that makes New York City a more affordable, more livable place."
Mayor Dinkins continued, "In my administration, planning and implem-
entation will be done jointly by communities and government."
We welcome this new era of cooperation between communities and gov-
ernment , but remain aware that Dinkins is not always true to his stated
concern for balanced development. He was in favor of the now defeated
Brighton Beach megadevelopment and last year he cast the deciding vote
in favor of Jeffrey Glick' s East Side luxury project.
Still, the mayor' s comments to the Committee for New York remain very
encouraging. We hope his deeds follow suit.
* * *
Shame of the City: Here's some follow-up from our story on the new
generation of New York' s bad landlords. As a result of our article, tenants in
two buildings owned by Barry Glasser-2028 Grand Concourse and 1975
LaFontaine-have joined forces in the fight against the landlord. Another
Glasser building, 508 West 136th Street, was recently handed over to a court-
appointed administrator. Last month, Alex and George Varveris lost control
of their Jackson Heights building at 89-07-11 34th Avenue to a court
appointed administrator. And over at Mohammad Malik's building at 84-11
Elmhurst Avenue, tenant leader Roberto Montoya received a notice that his
lease won't be renewed because the landlord wants the apartment for
personal use.
* * *
Harriet Cohen, a long-time supporter of City Limits, has resigned from our
board of directors because she' s joined the staff of Manhattan Borough
President Ruth Messinger. Harriet was an enthusiastic and diligent board
member, always ready to offer support and advice. She'll definitely be
missed. 0
",X' 523
,.
J
,
INSIDE
FEATURES
No Place Like Home 10
Run by private operators and licensed by the state,
adult homes have been under scrutiny for years.
They provide rooms for the elderly, the mentally
disabled-and some of the homeless.
Still Hungry After All These Years 14.
Poverty levels increased in the last two decades, but
federal support for hunger programs declined. It's no
wonder that countless numbers of young New York-
ers are still going to bed hungry.
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial
Words and Deeds .................................................. 2
Short Term Notes
Lofts In the Lurch ................................................. 4
"Dracula" Landlord Sells to Tenants ................. .4
Judge Rules On lO-Year Plan ............................... 5
Neighborhood Notes ................................................. 6
Profile
Anne Emerman: Hell Raiser in City Hall ............ 8
Pipeline
Resource Recovery? .............. .......... ........ ............ 17
Letters ....................................................................... 21
March 1990 3
Home/Page 10
Still Hungry/Page 14
Resource Recovery? /Page 17
4 CITY UMITS
SHORT TERM NOTES
LOFTS IN THE
LURCH
The tenants still suffering
from damages caused by
recent fires in two residential
loft buildings are just a few of
the thousands of Manhattan
and Brooklyn residents living
in loft buildings that fall short
of housing standards set by
the state's 1982 Loft Law.
Tenants and landlords, in a
rare show of agreement, place
the blame for the failure to
meet housing standards on the
Loft Board, a mayoral agency
formed in 1982 to implement
the Loft Law.
The state law applies to an
estimated 750 to 1,000
"Interim Multiple Dwellings
(IMD)-Ioft buildings that had
three or more residential units
in 1980-1. (A 1987 amend-
ment, which brought addi-
tionallofts in Brooklyn and
Manhattan under the law, is
being challenged in court by
the city.) The law requires the
Loft Board to have landlords
bring the buildings up to
code. When renovation is
complete, landlords can apply
to the board for rent increases
that will make tenants pay for
"reasonable and necessary
costs" of construction over 10
to 15 years. After the rent
hikes are approved and the
building receives a Certificate
of Occuponcy, it becomes part
of the city's rent stabilized
housing stock.
With 30 staff members and
a yearly budget of $1 million,
the Loft Board has succeeded
in seeing only 125 buildings
complete this process.
Deadlines for bringing most of
the buildings up to code have
long since passed.
Lee Fawkes, director of the
Loft Board, sars, ''We've had
seven years 0 experience with
the law and it's very difficult to
successfully implement. We're
looking for amendments to
bring to Albany this spring."
Fawkes says that specifically
the board is looking for more
effective enforcement powers.
But Kathy Arlt, who runs a
weekly housing clinic for
Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants,
representing 1,000 tenants,
Dennis Rivera, presiden, of Local J J 99:
He told aftend .. s a' a recen' conference held by 'he Housing Jus,ice
Campaign tho' 'he hospitol workers union plans to make aHordable
housing part of their organizing agenda.
claims the board doesn't even
use its current enforcement
powers-fines of up to
$1,000 per violation or taking
landlords to court to force
compliance. For example,
says Arlt, at 109 Spring
Street, the site of a recent fire,
the Loft Boord had been
aware of a nonfunctioning
sprinkler system since 1986,
but failed to make the
landlord fix it. At 450
Greenwich Street, which
caught fire last December, the
Loft Board failed to follow up
its 1988 order to the landlord
to register his building as an
IMD.
Thomas Berger, who
represents more than 500 loft
building owners as president
of the Association ot Commer-
cial Property Owners, says the
Loft Board has taken a largely
"unworkable" law "and made
it much worse than it was to
begin with. The staff is
running in neutraL"
Berger says banks often
refuse to provide construction
loans for the legalization work
because rents are not in-
creased until after renovations
are complete and current rents
are too low to cover a new
loan. (Following a seven
percent increase in 1982, loft
rents were frozen, with rents
avel"aging $500 according to
Fawkes.) Berger adds that the
board is so slow to approve
the construction-related rent
hikes that some landlords
have forgone the increases
just so their buildings will
quickly fall under rent
stabilization, where annual
increases are almost guaran-
teed.
The Loft Law expires in
either 1992 or 1994, depend-
ing on the size of the building.
If the state legislature doesn' t
renew the law, the buildings
that haven' t been brought up
to code won' t be legal
residences and the tenants will
be subiect to eviction. 0
Jennifer Stern
"DRACULA"
LANDLORD SELLS
TO TENANTS
A decade ago, the
"Dracula" landlord, Leonard
Spodek, was draining the
lifeblood out of 1149 Putnam
Avenue in Brooklyn. Heat and
hot water were sporadic,
numerous apartments were
occupied by drug dealers,
and tires were a frequent
occurrence.
Now the 36-unit brick
building in Bushwick is owned
and controlled by the tenants.
Rosie Goggans, who lives in
the building and manages it,
says, "It's a beautiful,
wonderful feeling to know we
have affordable housing.
We're going to work to make
it decent."
The tenant takeaver was .
achieved with the help of the
Ownership Transfer Project of
the Community Service Society
(CSS) . housing
conditions for New
Yorkers is one of CSS's main
goals, " says David Jones,
general director. "It can only
be achieved by combining
relentless advocacy with direct
action such as the purchase of
this building. "
Spodek's grip on the
Bushwick building was
loosened back in 1981, when
conditions were so bad that a
housing court judge decided
to appoint an independent ad-
ministrator to run the building.
For the past five years, Gog-
gans has been serving as the
administrator.
Looking back on how the
tenants decided to assume
control, she says, "I think at
some point an attorney said
the tenants could purchase the
building, but I said, ' Forget it,
it could never happen.' Then
about a year ago the brain-
storm came back into my head
because we were working so
hard on the upkeep. I thought
to myself: Why not give it a
try? So I called Linda Cohen
[the director of the Ownership
Transfer Project] and from
there we got the ball rolling."
The purchase price for the
building was $460,000. The
tenants received a $60,000
loan from the Community
Service Society to help cover
the costs of acquiring their
apartments, provided
(J loan of $440,000 and the
city gave a loan of $480,000
for rehabilitation costs. The
Ownership Transfer Project of
CSS formally purchased the
building, then the tenants
bought the building from CSS.
The tenants acquired their
apartments for $2,500 each
and the average monthlr
maintenance charge wil be
less than $500. As a limited
equity cooperative, there are
income guidelines concerning
who can buy into the building,
and limitations on the profit
that can be reaped from the
sale of apartments.
These guidelines are
important to the tenants, who
often feared that Spodek
would get the building back
from the administrator, empty
it, then turn it into a upmarket
cooperative they couldn't
afford.
"The apartments in here
are a pretty nice size," notes
Goggans' husband, Robert
McNeil. "We figured Spodek
would get the building back
from the admi.nistrator and the
majority of us wouldn't be
able to live here."
Now, he says, "It feels
good to know you don' t have
to worry about a place to live
for the next long while."
Thomas Kearns, a lawyer
for Olshan, Grundman,
Frome, Rosenzweig and
Orens, who worked pro bono
for the tenants, says that
Spodek controlled the building
for at least a decade. Al -
though the title was held in the
name of leanard Spodek's
wife, Rosalind Tyras, as well
as his brother, Irving Spodek,
Kearns says that the two
brothers controlled the
building jointly until a few
years ago, when leonard
assumed control.
According to Kearns,
Spodek took a while to come
around to the idea of selling
to the tenants.
Spodek's lawyer, Morris
FI),er, tells a somewhat
different story. "He [Spodek]
was very happy to see the
tenants taking over. When he
came to me and said he was
selling to the tenants, he said
he thought it was a good
move. After all , the tenants
live there. Why not?" 0 Lisa
Glazer
March 1990 5
8uying their building Irom "Dracula":
Rosie Goggans, Ulysses Maze and Sylvester Dye in lront 01 J J49 Putnam Avenue in 8roolclyn.
JUDGE RULES ON
10-YEAR PLAN
A state Supreme Court
judge has ruled that the city's
10-year, $5. 1 billion housing
program is subject to public
review under the terms of the
City Charter. The city plans to
appeal the decision.
The ruling by Judge leonard
Cohen is in response to a
lawsuit filed by the Housing
Justice Campaign (HJC) charg-
ing that the projects under the
1 O-year plan do not provide
low and moderate income
housing in proportion to the
number of poorer families in
the city. HJC asked the court to
issue an injunction against any
1 O-year plan projects that fail
to provide low income hous-
ing-an action Judge Cohen
denied.
Roz Post, a spokesperson
for the Department of Housing
Preservation and Development
(HPD), says the city's law de-
partment will appeal Judge
Cohen's decision. HPD and
the Koch administration had
argued that the whole plan did
not require public review since
each component is subject to
public scrutiny.
In his decision, Judge
Cohen wrote, "This court finds
that it [the 1 O-year plan] was
subject to the public review
process as provided for under
[section] 197-a and its
subdivisions of the City
Charter .... To hold otherwise,
as the defendants urge, is to
stretch logic and reason
reminiscent of Orwellian
' Newspeak.'"
Arthur Baer, an attorner
with the Puerto Rican lega
Defense and Education Fund
(PRLDEF), which represented
HJC in the suit, says the
decision that the plan is
subject to public review "gives
HJC and others who feel the
1 O-year plan is inadequate
the ability to go forward and
challenge it politically."
The Housing Justice
Campaign is calling for the
city to provide housing for low
and moderate income New
Yorkers on a proportional
basis. Richard Rivera,
another lawyer from PRLDEF,
says that if 75 percent of New
Yorkers earn less than
$25,000, then 75 percent of
the housing the city creates
should meet their needs.
A report recently released
by the city's housing deport-
ment tracks the characteristics
of the 677 households who
have already rented apart-
ments in projects within the
1 O-year plan.
According to the report,
"New Affordable Housing for
New Yorkers," the median
income of the tenants is
$18,500 and 90 percent of
the units rented thus far have
rented to non-whites. The'
report also states that more
than 36 percent of the renters
lived in the same community
district as their new apart-
ments. The report is bosed on
rentals done by lottery for
apartments within the Vacant
Buildings Program and the
Local Initiatives Support
Corporation Program.The
report does not include
families in apartments
designated for the homeless.
o Doug Turetsky
6 CITY UMITS
Bronx
Step by step, the Bronx River
Trailway is heading toward comple-
tion. Conceived as a greenbelt that
will extend more than 20 miles along
the Bronx River, the plan recently
received a boost from the Trust for
Public Land, which provided fund-
ing to purchase three-quarters of an
acre of privately owned shoreline
near Soundview Park. Nancy Wal-
lace, executive director of Bronx
River Restoration, says, "Once this is
fully completed, we expect to see
fishing, picnicking and biking along
the river. It's going to be a great
public resource for the Bronx .. . "
After community outcry and a
government investigation, Lincoln
Hospital is getting a dose of harsh
medicine from the state's Department
of Health. The South Bronx hospital
was recently fined $41,000 for prob-
lems in several areas, including se-
vere overcrowding in the emergency
room and a lack of adequate over-
sight by supervisory staff. If the
hospital implements an extensive
correction plan, the state may return
$27,000 of the fine.
Brooklyn
Following an outpouring of me-
dia attention and charitable dona-
tions, the Bedford Stuyvesant Vol-
unteer Ambulance Corps is back on
its feet-but still struggling for fi-
nancial stability. James Robinson,
the president and founder of the year-
old ambulance corps, says, "We're
still insecure but the future has bright-
ened up considerably. I don't think
people are going to let us die."
Founded a year ago, the ambulance
corps did not have adequate funds to
pay the insurance for t h e ~ r ambu-
lance. Recent donations covered the
cost of that insurance-but two other
recently-acquired ambulances are
still out of service because of high
insurance costs ...
A unique construction effort took
place recently on Sharon Street in
Williamsburg. Sixteen two-story
homes, known as the Parkview Ter-
race Projects, were constructed by
stacking large , shoebox-shaped
modules of housing that are manu-
factured in Pennsylvania. The de-
velopment is being sponsored by the
St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preser-
vation Corporation, which is work-
ing with the city and the New York
City Partnership. The homes are
available to families earning between
$36,000 and $53,000. According to
Greenline, almost half of the homes
were purchased by community resi-
dents.
Manhattan
The newly renovated American
Youth Hostel on Amsterdam A ve-
nue recently received a restoration
award from the New York Landmarks
Conservancy. Originally used as a
residence for "respectable aged indi-
gent females, " the building is in-
cluded on the National Register of
Historic Places. The youth hostel
organization restored and converted
the structure-which was vacant for
two decades-at a cost of $15.5 mil-
lion under the sponsorshi p of Valley
Restoration Local Development
Corporation, a nonprofit community
group.
Queens
The city's planning agency has
certified the Arverne plan to build
10,000 units of upmarket housing of
300 acres of land on the Rockaway
oceanfront. Does that mean the feisty
Queens Citizens Organization is
going to give up it's fight to build
Nehemiah homes for working-class
families on the site? Hardly. The
community group and its South
Bronx and Brooklyn affiliates re-
cently filed a lawsuit accusing the
city of discrimination against work-
ing-class residents by refusing to
allow affordable housing in Arverne,
Spring Creek in Brooklyn and in the
South Bronx.
Staten Island
Shortly after he assumed office,
Mayor David Dinkins went to bat for
the Staten Island Advance. Staten
Island's borough president, Guy
Molinari, threatened to evict the
paper from its press office in the
basement of Borough Hall. Advance
officials questioned whether Moli-
nari was hitting back at the paper
because they endorsed his opponent
in the recent borough president race.
The newspaper contacted Dinkins
and now the Advance has a press
office on the first floor-right down
the hall from Molinari's office. 0
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At East New York Savings,
we're helpin you build a
better ew York.
One neighborhood at a time.
We are now accepting applications for our
Community Action Assistance (CAAP) Grants Program.
We believe that the continued
success of East New York Savings is
tied directly to the quality of life
in our neighborhoods. That's why,
for the second year in a row, we're
renewing our commitment to
community organizations that are
striving to make our neighborhoods
better places to live and do business.
We're offering grants of$250 to
$5,000 to eligible organizations which
support essential neighborhood
services. Those services include
housing, youth activities, senior
citizens, anti-crime, substance abuse,
neighborhood organizing, arts and
Brooklyn:
Central (Atlantic & Pennsylvani a Avenues)
Park Slope (Flatbush at 8th Avenue)
Bay Ridge (5th Avenue & 78th Street)
Greenpoint (814 Manhattan Avenue)
Queens:
Forest Hills (101-25 Queens Blvd. & 67th Drive)
Austin Street (70-34 Austin Street at 70th Road)
Nassau County:
Great Neck (23-25 North Station Plaza)
culture and commercial revitalization.
Last year, 88 community
organizations throughout our service
area were recipients of CAAP Grants.
The East New York Savings Bank's
CAAP Grants Program for 1990 is
open to community based, not-for-
profit tax exempt organizations
located in Brooklyn, Manhattan,
Queens and Nassau Counties.
To obtain an application or for
further information, stop by anyone
of our branches or mail your request to
the address below.
Applications must be submitted by
April 13 , 1990 for consideration.
Manhattan:
Sutton Place (East 57th Street & 1st Avenue)
Lenox Hill (East 75th Street & 2nd Avenue)
Forty-Second Street (41 West 42nd Street)
Murray Hill (East 29th Street & 3rd Avenue)
Peter Cooper (East 20th Street & 1st Avenue)
Kips Bay (East 31st Street & 2nd Avenue)
Fifth Avenue (West 32nd Street & 5th Avenue)
Oceanside (12 Atlantic Avenue at Long Beach Road)
EAsTfiEwYoRK
Member FDIC
THE EAST NEW YORK SAVINGS BANK Community Action Assistance Grants Program
41 West 42nd Street New York, New York 10036 8th Floor
8 CITY LIMITS
PROFILE
Anne Emerman: Hell Raiser in City Hall
BY JUDITH SHULEVITZ
ANNE EMERMAN HAS BEEN IN
office nine days and so far one thing
is clear: she doesn't beat around the
bush. Telling stories from the old
days-that is, a little more than a
week ago-the fine-boned, soft-spo-
ken, white-haired womanina wheel-
chair, newly appointed head of Mayor
David Dinkins' Office for People with
Disabilities, chuckles as she recalls
how fellow disabled rights' activists
would act up during meetings with
government lawyers. One man, an
aphasic, who comprehended tones
rather than words, understood that
when lawyers asked him to be rea-
sonable they meant he should shut
up. So he would get up, Emerman
recounts , and announce, "Come on,
baby, let's get out of here. Time to
sue the motherfuckers!"
"He understood," Emerman ex-
plains, "that the way to get things
done was through a class action
lawsuit."
Maybe it's too soon for Emerman
to get government-official smooth.
Throughout the interview she keeps
catching herself to recall that she's
not here to fight City Hall-she is
City Hall. At 52, this daughter of an
Irish-Catholic New York City cop
hasn't been on the inside of anything
but institutions for the disabled since
she got polio as a child during World
War II. It was at an institution,
Goldwater Memorial Hospital on
what was then known as Welfare
Island (now Roosevelt Island), that
Emerman figured out that not only
wasn't she helpless, she was quite
capable, and became one of the first
women of her generation to quit a
hospital ward for the world. A gradu-
ate degree in social work, several
jobs and a husband and daughter
later, she began organizing and found
herself a relentless opponent of the
Koch administration: first fighting
co-op conversion of her Kips Bay
subsidized housing project, then
plotting take-overs of the Metropoli-
tan Transportation Authority offices
to get the agency to operate lifts on
buses, zipping her wheelchair from
meeting to meeting and from New
York to Albany to push for acces-
Anne Emerman:
Aiming to turn a mayoral agency into a center for advocacy, research and policy formation.
sible housing, and finally heading a
committee on people with disabili-
ties for then-Manhattan Borough
President Dinkins. Now, suddenly,
she's on the inside-a high-ceilin-
ged office on the second floor of 52
Chambers Street with a $1 million
budget and 20 full-time staffers.
'Straightshooter'
"I hope Anne can survive all this,"
says James Weisman, a lawyer for
the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans As-
sociation (EPVA) who has worked
with Emerman on several campaigns.
"The mayor is a politician. Anne is
not. Anne is an honest, forthright
person. She's a straightshooter. In
politics, politicians are always sacri-
ficing something for the 'greater
good.' Anne won't allow people to
be sacrificed for the 'greater good.'
She would be the first to circulate a
petition calling for her resignation if
she felt she wasn't effective."
Many people in the movement for
rights for people with disabilities,
however, hope that won't be neces-
sary. They say Emerman is the first
activist appointed to the post since
Eunice Fiorito was named the office's
first director in 1973 by John Lind-
say. Fiorito later resigned in disgust
at Koch in 1978.
People who have worked with
Emerman say that she, with her res-
ume listing her on four disability
rights organizations, 22 advisory
committees and 10 coalitions, is a
natural leader able to rally diverse
groups behind a cause. The mayor
who appointed her is someone people
with disabilities want to trust-a man
who even after his election sports an
"Access" button on his lapel. Nina
Herzog, an advocate at EPV A, cites
such Dinkins accomplishments as
the $1 million he appropriated from
his borough presidency discretion-
ary funds for sidewalk pedestrian
ramps, a move that prompted Koch
to chime in with $7.5 million more.
"In terms of [people with] disabili-
ties," she states, "Dinkins is a hero."
Civil Rights
Emerman's vision for the Office
for People with Disabilities (Dinkins
changed the name from the Office for
the Handicapped) is broad, a reflec-
tion, she says, of the belief that ac-
cess to an equal living standard is a
civil right. Emerman wants to push
the office beyond its current role as a
place where people go with com-
plaints to a center for advocacy, re-
search and policy formation.
Just what she can afford to do
remains unclear. Dinkins' recent
budget proposal calls for many cuts,
which Emerman says means less
money for her office, although she
doesn't yet know how much less.
"It's distressing," she admits. "The
A City Limits' Panel
"Homelessness and the Right
to Housing in NYC"
with
Chris Quinn, Housing Justice Campaign
Richard Rivera, Puerto Rican Legal
Defense & Education fund
Jean Chappell, Parents on the Move
Doug Turetsky, City Limits. moderator
April 7, 1 DAM
Socialist Scholars Conference
Borough of Manhattan
Community College
199 Chambers Street
(Conference registration fee reqUired.)
budget situation is pretty desperate."
Money or no money, a speech
Emerman made on January 25th to
the City Council's general welfare
committee shows her activist agenda.
Top on her policy list was making
city agencies accessible to people
with disabilities as required by fed-
eral law. (The city's own Commis-
sion on Human Rights and Medicaid
office, for example, are both in build-
ings inaccessible to those with dis-
abilities.) Next was housing: getting
the disabled homeless out of shelters
and keeping them out with rent in-
crease exemptions and better hous-
March 1990 9
ing court representation. A third item
asked for more funding for the city's
"Access-A-Ride" van system. A
fourth recommended awarding city
contracts to businesses that employ
people with disabilities.
The sum total adds up to an
unmistakable figure: an official who
is also an activist, unafraid to de-
mand from the city the remedies she
believes are required. 0
Judith Shulevitz is a freelance jour-
nalist whose work has appeared in
The New York Times and Village
Voice.
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NEW YORK. N.Y. 10025
(212) 222-9946
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call or write the HEAT office.
10 CITY LIMITS
FEATURE
No Place Like Home
Scandal-plagued residences known as adult homes
are a growing repository for the homeless.
BY MARGUERITE HOLLOWAY
T
he hallways of Queens Manor are dimly lit, dank
and eerily silent on the upper floors. In the lounge
on the first floor, cigarette smoke filters the light
from the television set. Residents doze in plastic chairs
riddled with burn marks. Others wander the halls. A
steep, narrow staircase provides the only access to the
basement, where recreation rooms and the psychiatric
care team are located. Many residents, frail elderly
people with mental or physical disabilities, cannot hazard
the treacherous stairs.
In New Whitman Home for Adults in Jamaica, Queens,
a woman in a ski cap, short skirt and knee socks sits
screaming in front of the elevator bank a few feet from
the psychiatric team's office. She rocks back and forth
yelling. No one comes to check on her. On the wall
behind her are the black streaks of a recent fire. The
carpet is burned. A garbage bag lays uncollected in the
hallway.
Queens Manor and New Whitman are two of the 58
residences in New York City commonly known as adult
homes. Originally developed to provide room, board
and basic care for the elderly who did not need nursing
homes, adult homes have developed into a prime source
of housing for the mentally ill who were released from
institutions in the 1960s. Now they're also providing
rooms for some of the homeless from the city's shelter
system.
Run by private operators and licensed by the state's
Division of Social Services, adult homes currently house
more mentally ill than the state's mental health resi-
dences: 9,000 individuals in 447 homes statewide. Join-
ing these residents last year were 646 homeless people
from the city's shelter system. The year before, the city
placed 403 people from the shelter system into the
homes.
While some of these residences provide pleasant
surroundings and decent care, repeated investigations
in the last decade have charged that a number of homes
are little more than squalid holding pens where resi-
dents receive minimal assistance and attention.
New Leben
Continuing questions about the quality of life in adult
homes recently brought the industry under scrutiny for
the fourth time since 1977. At the New Leben Home for
Adults in Elmhurst, Queens, investigators for the state's
Commission on Quality of Care for the Mentally Dis-
abled reported" ... housekeeping and maintenance defi-
"
..
ciencies in common areas and, especially, in resident
bedrooms and bathrooms. The majority of areas re-
viewed had a foul odor, and some resident bedrooms
and bathrooms smelled of urine."
The commission's investigators expressed greatest
concern for the personal condition of many of the New
Leben residents. "The majority of residents were inap-
propriately groomed, with greasy hair and foul body
odors, and many were inappropriately dressed in poorly
fitting, stained and worn clothing. Many residents also
did not appear to have an adequate supply of clothing,
and most had no personal hygiene supplies." Alex Edel-
man, who owns New Leben as well as three other adult
homes, refused to be in-
terviewed for this article.
Whether they are tak-
ing in the deinstitutional-
ized mentally ill or resi-
dents from the shelter sys-
tem, adult homes offer
room and board for people
the city and state would
prefer not to have respon-
sibility for. Attorney
Martha Jones of MFY Le-
gal Services, which pro-
vides legal counsel and
advocacy for adult home
residents, charges that be-
cause the owners of the
homes are providing a
much-needed service,
state officials act slowly
to enforce the more than
1,000 regulations covering
these residences. While
state administrators
counter that oversight is
tightening, owners con-
tend that their ability to
improve conditions is
hampered by inadequate
reimbursement rates.
Clout
Funding for residents
usually comes through
state and federal sources
such as Home Relief or
Supplemental Security In-
come, of which residents
turn over $736 to the
owner each month and keep $85 for themselves. The
state shells out about $72 million annually for adult
homes.
Adult home owners are well aware of their clout. "We
go out of business and 9,000 people go into a state
psychiatric center at $200 a day, " says Susan Peerless,
director of the Empire State Association of Adult Homes,
an industry lobbying group.
There is often not enough money to allow upkeep
maintenance, says Peerless, who adds that few operators
make a profit. "The people who were in this for the
March 1990 11
money are out. With 1,200 regulations on the books, it
is not an easy job. The state has been giving us just
enough money to survive." She adds that the mentally
ill destroy property and notes that the operators, bereft
of capital, must "maintain the physical plant in a patch-
work kind of way."
George Gitlitz, an advocate from the Coalition ofInsti-
tutionalized Aged and Disabled (ClAD), disagrees, say-
ing that home owners would not stay in business unless
they made a profit. Although a thorough financial inves-
tigation is still underway as City Limits goes to press,
Clarence Sundram, chairman of the state's Commission
on Quality of Care for the Menta.lly Disabled, says finan-
CIal woes cannot account
for all the homes' short-
comings. "When you see
people for the same
amount of money deliv-
ering a substantially bet-
ter outcome itis obviously
more than money alone
that is involved in deter-
mining whether these
homes perform well or
badly."
Regulations
The thicket of DSS
regulations also seems to
have little control over
disparate conditions in
the homes. But Judy
Berek, director of DSS's
Division of Adult Serv-
ices, says enforcement of
the regulations has im-
proved recently because
a new law allows DSS to
fine operators even if they
eventually correct the vio-
lation. Berek says that
previously the home
owner could avoid a fine
simply by making a re-
pair the day before a court
appearance.
Still, Berek notes,
~ "There is no question that
"' faced with a choice of
~ summarily shutting a
place down or getting the
current operator to im-
prove conditions through fines and pressure ... my last
choice would be to close the place. But I will not be held
hostage by operators."
Sundram concurs that enforcement has been up re-
cently. Berek's department responded to 495 of 551
complaints in 1989, and had 110 homes in "enforce-
ment," meaning that they violated certain regulations,
ranging from poor fire safety devices to roaches to im-
properly filled out paperwork.
Nonetheless, if enforcement is up, many residents say
they have not noticed. They say they're living in run-
12 CITY LIMITS
down buildings,
plagued by crime
and incidents of
overmedication.
And advocates
from MFY Legal
Services and ClAD
say they con-
stantly battle adult
home owners over
random evictions,
withheld personal
allowances and
poor heating and
ventilation.
In addition,
some residents do
not receive the
psychiatric atten-
tion they need
from the Office of
Mental Health (OMH) "after-care" teams-or teams as-
signed to homes where more than 25 percent of the
residents are mentally ill.
Adult homes initially were intended to provide room
and board for the frail elderly; only later, following dein-
stitutionalization in the late 1960s, did they became a
place for the mentally ill to live or re-enter the commu-
nity. "If the idea was to put people back in the commu-
nity, then it was a failure ," says Jeanette Zelhof from
MFY Legal Services. Many of New York City's homes are
located in isolated neighborhoods with high crime, so
"essentially, they just have been warehoused in differ-
ent quarters. "
Originally they were "not supposed to be places
where there [was] therapy and treatment available," says
Sundram. But as the population changed the OMH was
required to provide more extensive "after-care" or psy-
chiatric follow-up treatment.
Called Community Support Services (CSS), these OMH
after-care teams serve 21 city homes, according to Dr.
Robert Myers , director of OMH' s Bureau of Residential
Services. Some home owners choose to refer residents to
psychiatric centers rather than requesting in-house CSS
teams.
After-care teams receive mixed reviews from resi-
dents and advocates. In some homes, the teams fight for
residents' rights , provide activities, case management,
and act as a liaison with psychiatric hospitals. In other
homes, CSS workers are intimidated by the owners even
though they are not paid by them, says Zelhof, and do
little for the residents.
"They don't try to move more residents on ... They
teach them music and basket-making, but not budgeting
or things that would really help them," says Gitlitz of
ClAD, who has helped residents form advocacy councils
and fight for their rights since 1983. Indeed, one CSS
worker confirmed that a team manager had been sus-
pended for moving someone out of the home to the next
level of housing-a community residence. "Most after-
care teams feel pressure from management not to help
people move out of the homes, " says the worker.
Philip Borosque is one adult home resident slated to
George Gitlin (left)
says residents of
adult homes are
often discouraged
from forming resi-
dent councils. Philip
80rosque (below) a
former shelter resi-
dent, is a leader of
the residents council
at Seaport Manor.
Dead End
move on. Borosque, who was in a
Manhattan shelter before being
placed in Seaport Manor, says the
adult-home staff offered little en-
couragement or help in his effort
to live more independently.
While some residents suffer
from not enough care, others are
afflicted by too much attention.
Donald Dunst , 41, has no history
of mental illness. He came to
Queens Manor four years ago from
a Manhattan shel-
ter. Dunst suffers
from mild cerebral
palsy, for which he
needs medication.
To get this medi-
cation he is forced
to see a psychia-
trist once a month.
" [The doctor] asks
'Do you hear
voices? Do you
feel like killing
yourself? Do you
have anything else
you want to talk to
me about?'" says
Dunst, dressed in
army fatigues and
a bright blue
sweater. "I have a
~ physical not a
~ mental disability."
For people like Dunst, life in an adult home can be a
dead end. If residents are "well behaved" and don't
cause trouble, owners want to hang on to them because
they're a steady source of revenue, says ClAD's Gitlitz.
For these residents , "once you get in, you don't get out.
It's like being in kindergarten unable to get into first
grade. "
For all the concerns and worries, few residents follow
through with legal action. The reason is that most resi-
dents have no other housing option and are afraid ofre-
taliation from the owners. This fear, according to advo-
cates such as Zelhof, may be well placed.
"There are illegal evictions happening all over the
place," says Zelhof. "They [the home owners] don' t let
people come back from the hospital or they use the
screening teams [which have the right to reject a resi-
dent] to say someone is inappropriate," she adds.
Although evictions legally cannot occur without a
court appearance, many residents are apparently un-
aware of this , or are scared of taking action against the
home owners. Some owners also use the criminal courts
to have disruptive residents removed from the homes-
a tactic that is effective but illegal , according to MFY
Legal Services attorney James Barton. "The adult homes
have regulations that clearly say that if a resident be-
comes disruptive or dangerous or has to be removed, you
call the police and they come
and they take you to the psych
ward . . There is no provision
for throwing people in jail,"
says Barton.
In addition, Gitlitz of ClAD
charges that residents are of-
ten discouraged from forming
resident councils by domineer-
ing management. Only some
15 homes have these councils
although they are specified as
a right in DSS regulations and
can often help the residents
gain improved conditions
from the operators.
March 1990 13
Talking it aver:
The road towards reform-
ing the adult homes has been
long and often unrewarding.
Given that a scathing investi-
gation by then-deputy attor-
ney general Charles Hynes in
1977, a similar report by Coun-
cil Member Antonio Olivieri
just after, and revealing 1988
heari ngs by Assemblyman
Paul Harenberg read as true
today as they did then, reform
may still be a while in coming.
A residents' council meeting at Seaport Manor in Srooklyn.
On a chilly day last December, Seaport Manor resi-
dents invited state Senator Howard Babbush to a meet-
ing. The leaders of the resident council-Edwin Meyers
and Philip Borosque-expressed concern about crime
near the home, as well as crack dealing, prostitution and
theft inside. Although the home was warm and toasty,
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for groups
likevours.
some 100 residents dressed in hats and heavy coats at-
tended the meeting. Why coats and hats in this heat?
"Politicians," said a resident. "That's the only reason the
heat's up." 0
Marguerite Holloway is a freelance writer who special-
izes in public health and environmental issues.
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14 CITY LIMITS
FEATURE
Still Hungry After All These Years
Hunger was once on the wane-now a growing number
of New Yorkers face a hungry future.
BY CORY JOHNSON
T
onight in Manhattan, Susan
Lyons, age nine, will probably
go to bed hungry. She doesn't
look particularly malnourished-her
stomach isn't bloated and she doesn't
have the gaunt, haunted face of starv-
ing children in the third world. In
fact, Susan is cheerful, proudly boast-
ing of being in the second grade. Her
mom works and receives some pub-
lic assistance to hel p make ends meet.
But tonight won't be the first time
Susan tries to sleep with a gnawing
feeling in her stomach. She suffers
many of the insidious side effects of
hunger. She's likely to miss more
school than her classmates and have
a tougher time staying alert and awake
in school, which, in turn, affects her
chance of making sure that when she
grows up she'll earn enough money
to feed herself.
Susan' s plight is typical of the ap-
proximately 700,000 children grow-
ing up in poverty in New York-
more than 37 percent of all the city's
children. Hunger and poverty go hand
in hand. "People don't eat because
they don't have money to buy food,"
says Ed Abrahams, executive direc-
tor of the Food & Hunger Hotline, a
referral and training center for food
pantries and soup kitchens. "It's a
rather simple equation."
Over the last 15 years, prices have
gone up faster than the incomes of
many New Yorkers. Since 1975 the
Consumer Price Index has risen 127
percent, far outpacing the buying
power of the minimum wage. Be-
tween the years 1979 and 1987, the
median fami! y income for white New
Yorkers has risen steadily, from
$20,200 to $29,500. The median
family income for both blacks and
Hispanics in 1987 was still lower
than that of white families eight years
earlier. Half of the city's single-par-
ent hQuseholds and two-thirds of the
single, elderly households have in-
comes of less than $8,000. In New
York, where the cost of housing uses
up a particularly large share of a poor
household's income, there's not

One month's worth
of food in NYC
Moximum monthly
food stamp benefit
Source: New York Deportment of
Con.umer AHolr. ond Interogency Task
Farce on Food and Hunger
much money left for food. Yet ac-
cording to a recent study by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, New York
City had the highest food costs of 28
cities studied. But the most alarming
fact of all may be that just 20 years
ago, New York-and the nation-
was on the verge of solving the prob-
lem of hunger.
In the 1960s, national leaders made
the fight against hunger and poverty
a centerpiece of U. S. domestic pol-
icy. By 1969, the federal government
was spending $1.1 billion on food
and nutrition programs. By 1980, that
figure had reached $13.4 billion. Food
stamps were available in every com-
munity. School lunch programs, be-
gun in 1946, were redirected towards
the poor. School breakfast became a
permanent program. Special plans
were developed to educate the pub-
lic on the essential relationship be-
tween nutrition and health.
The success of these programs
exceeded the expectations of many.
It seemed as if the United States,
like most other developed nations,
was on the verge of eliminating hun-
ger. Then in the early 1980s a reces-
sion hit and the number of the
nation's poor began to swell. More
than 40 million people, one out of
every five Americans, saw their stan-
dard of living drop.
But the federal government didn't
respond with expanded poverty pro-
grams. Under the leadership of the
Reagan administration, the federal
government cut programs for the
poor by $57 billion dollars between
1982 and 1985. Food stamps were
cut by $6.8 billion. President Reagan
sponsored a law that restricted food
stamp eligibility, increased verifi-
cation requirements and cut funds
for outreach programs. Child nutri-
tion programs were slashed by $5.2
billion. As poverty grew, the help
disappeared.
In New York City, the effect was
devastating. By 1987, the city's
poverty rate ballooned to 55 percent
over the 1975 level. Seemingly over-
night, privately run emergency food
programs sprung up to fill the gap
that the government assistance pro-
grams had left behind. The 30 soup
kitchens and food pantries dotting
the city in 1981 grew to a network of
603 in just eight years.
Food for the Poor
To many New Yorkers
the most obvious sign of
the city's hunger crisis
may be the lines outside
of soup kitchens. "Soup
kitchens are the visible
face of hunger in New
York," says Cathryn Bern,
executive director of the
New York City Coalition
Against Hunger. "Usu-
ally the tell tale sign is a
long line next to a church,
but you don't necessarily
know where the food pan-
tries are."
But it may be the 414
food pantries located
throughout the city that
reveal how hunger has
again become an en-
trenched problem for the
poor. These food pantries
typically provide a three-
day supply of non perish-
able and canned food to a
family to be cooked at
home. A recent study by
Syracuse University and
Hunter College found that
most food pantry users
came to the facilities
simply because they had
run out of food stamps.
The same study found
that the users of soup
kitchens are more likely
to be homeless or living
alone, transient, not receiving wel-
fare (which is not to be confused
with being ineligible for welfare) and
male. While soup kitchens tend to
serve this more traditional segment
ofthe city's poor, the proliferation of
food pantries corresponds to the ris-
ing number of poor and working poor
families who can't squeeze by on
their limited incomes.
But this emergency food network,
run by New York's churches, syna-
gogues, and community groups, still
cannot meet the need. "We are a little
embarrassed about giving technical
assistance to soup kitchens and food
pantries," says Abrahams of the Food
& Hunger Hotline. "This is not a solu-
tion. Because the government is
asleep at the wheel, other people are
going to help."
Stamped Out
The federal government's main
weapon against hunger is the food
stamp program. It is still the only
program that is guaranteed to all who
are eligible, regardless of family size
or age. Today, an estimated 19 mil-
lion people per month receive food
stamps nationwide. Yet, while pov-
erty has risen by more than 3.2 mil-
lion people since 1980, almost one
million fewer people are participat-
ing in the food stamp program. "The
Reagan administration cut back food
stamps dramatically," says Abra-
hams. "If you want to solve hunger,
money is the way to solve it. Whether
it's through a job or through
welfare ... hunger is one of the few so-
cial problems that can be solved by
throwing money at it. People spend
March 1990 15
money on food."
The 1981 federal
budget cuts eliminated
most funds for outreach,
so that many eligible re-
ci pients don't even know
where or how to find the
help to which they are
entitled. The result is that
many people who de-
serve food stamps are not
getting them. The city's
Interagency Task Force
on Food and Hunger re-
cently estimated that 1.1
million New Yorkers are
not receiving the food
stamp benefits for which
they are eligible.
But perhaps the big-
gest problem with the
food stamp program is
the insufficient level of
the benefits. According
to the Department of Con-
sumer Affairs, the aver-
age New York City fam-
ily of four spends $536 a
month on food, yet the
maximum food stamp
benefit is $331. "The first
few days of the month,
our phones are quiet,"
says Abrahams. "'To-
wards the end of the
month, if we had 10more
lines and 10 more opera-
tors, our phones would
still be busy, but the food
pantries would start to turn people
away."
A recent report from the Task Force
on Food and Hunger blames the in-
sufficient level of benefits on the
manner in which the federal govern-
ment figures them; a formula based
on the agriculture department's
Thrifty Food Plan. According to the
task force's report, "the Thrifty Food
Plan ... has consistently been found
to provide inadequate nutrition for
families," and goes on to say that
"clearly, current food stamp benefit
levels do not cover the cost of feed-
ing a family."
The basic assumption of the
Thrifty Food Plan is that a family has
one-third of its income available for
purchasing food. But the basic real-
ity in cities like New York is that the
16 CITY UMITS
poorest residents pay the largest per-
centage of their income for rent. In
1987, the poorest tenth of the city's
renters spent 85 percent of their in-
come on rent-leaving little for food,
or anything else.
Food Stamp Use in the U.S.
~ ~ - - - - ~ - - - - ~ - - - - ~ - - - - r - - - - - . - - - - - . - - - - - r - - - - .
Under-funded
and Over-regulated
The rest of the government aid
programs are stories 'of limited suc-
cess. Special programs aimed at hun-
gry women, children and senior citi-
zens are chronically under-funded
arid over-regulated.
Hailed by many as an example of
how government assistance can hel p
people out of poverty, WIC (short for
the 'Special Supplemental Food Pro-
gram for Women, Infants and Chil-
dren) is aimed at preventing malnu-
trition and hunger by educating its
recipients about nutrition and health
care to young children. It specifi-
cally targets low income pregnant
women and mothers with histories
of high-risk pregnancies. It has been
resoundingly successful and over-
whelmingly cost-effective. A 1988
study by the
Campaign to
on
c:
50+---::
40
~ 30
~
20
10
o
1979 1980 1981 1982
Source: United Stare. Department 01 Aflriculture,
Food & Nutrition Service Stoti.tlcs .. nd United St .. re.
8urecru 0' Census, Current Population Report, J 989
administration reduced the number
of people receiving help from these
programs by turning the screws on
the local bureaucracies administer-
ing the federal funds: penalties were
threatened for providing assistance
to families that
didn't strictly
meet federal End Hunger
and Homeless-
ness found that
every dollar
spent on WIC
benefits can
save seven dol-
lars in reduced
hospital and
medical costs.
But the fed-
eral govern-
ment refuses to
provide WIC
funding as an
entitlement
"When you are talk-
ing about starving to
death ... you conjure
up images of Ethio-
pia. We shouldn't be
comparing ourselves
to that. "
guidelines.
"But they [the
federal govern-
ment] didn't
penalize for not
giving out to
people who
were entitled,"
says Abra-
hams.
Local admin-
istrators re-
acted by slash-
ing their case
program. It has
a limited allo-
cation of federal funds and is ad-
ministered on a first come, first served
basis. In New York City the inter-
!lgency task force says that means
that 424,000 residents who are eli-
gible for WIC can't get it.
School breakfast and lunch pro-
grams and senior citizen nutrition
programs are also under-funded,
leaving many potential beneficiaries
unfed . . Additionally, the Reagan
loads . In the
rush, many in-
dividuals and
families were erroneously cut from
the food programs. Seven percent of
all the families cut from assistance
in 1988 by the city's Human Re-
sources Administration (HRA) were
later found to have still been eligible
for assistance. Last year, HRA' s erro-
neous case closings were down to
two percent. While acknowledging
the improvement, Abrahams com-
ments, "I don't know how hard I
1983 1984 1985 1986 1987
would pat someone on the back for
correcting problems they caused."
There is now some discussion on
Capitol Hill about increasing federal
funding for WIC and school lunch
programs. Rep . Nita Lowey of
Westchester says there is hope of get-
ting a bill before Congress during the
current session. But any request for
additional funding must come belly
up against the savings and loan bail-
out, the nuclear waste dean up, the
federal housing scandal and other
crises already draining public funds.
Bern of the New York City Coali-
tion Against Hunger argues that
Congress must act before hunger
reaches crisis proportions. "When
you are talking about starving to
death ... you conjure up images of
Ethiopia. We shouldn't be compar-
ing ourselves to that."
While New York City residents
may not be dying from starvation,
hunger is one part of the poverty
equation that denies children like
Susan Lyons the chance of a fulfilled
existence. Unless legislators can be
convinced of the immediate need to
expand food and nutrition programs,
it is likely that Susan Lyons and
thousands of other children will go
to bed hungry again and again. 0
Cory Johnson is a freelance journal-
ist living in New York City.
March 1990 17
PIPELINE
Resource Recovery?
New York City is spending millions of dollars renovating occupied,
city-owned buildings-but their long-term future remains unresolved.
BY LISA GLAZER
GLADYS FORTUNE, A GRAY-
resident of 80 St. Nicholas Avenue
in Harlem, treads gently inside her
tidy apartment, down the hallway
and into her bedroom, where
a six-foot hole in the ceiling
is covered with heavy plas-
tic. "It was three in the
morning when it happened,"
says the 74-year-old, recall-
ing the event that took place
a year and a half ago. "I was
in bed and the ceiling fell on
top of me. I got hurt on my
side and I reported it, but so
far no one's come to fix it.
Now I'm afraid to sleep in
there and I stay in the living
room on a cot."
Marie Ellis, a 44-year-old
who lives at 1105 Tinton Ave-
nue in the Bronx, moves di-
rectly towards the bathroom
of her ground floor apart-
ment: "Look at this," she says,
pointing above her bathtub
to the cascade of water rush-
ing down from a crack in the
ceiling. She swivels and ges-
tures at her sink, which has
fallen to the ground, then
nods her head back and forth
in dismay.
runs most residential, city-owned
buildings, now say that some of the
most dire problems are being re-
solved. It may be a long time before
every leak and hole is fixed, but senior
administrators say there is now a
Problems from above:
"There's an evolution of policy
and funds here," says William Spiller,
deputy commissioner of the the Of-
fice of Property Management, which
oversees DPM, commonly known as
central management. In the past, he
says, "The policy was very
clearly for the city to sell as
many of the buildings as pos-
sible. In recent years, the
city recognized it would con-
tinue to own them. " He adds,
"The former mayor made a
commitment to do whatever
it took to make these build-
ings a permanent resource
and he promised that every
occupied building would get
repaired."
So far , city tenants and
their advocates remain skep-
tical. "For the average tenant
in the average central man-
agement situation, improve-
ments are still hard to see,"
says Thomas Gogan, coordi-
nator of the Union of City
Tenants.
Francisco Diaz, executive
director of the East Harlem
Tenement Task Force, adds,
"I think they are proposing
some major changes. But
while that's being worked
out, the housing stock is de-
z teriorating very rapidly.
~ There are electrical fires and
~ some of the buildings are
~ being burned. Squatters and
~ drug dealers are taking over
~ and not allowing contractors
~ to come in. I think they're
~ working on it but another side
Ever since the City of New
York accelerated its takeover
of buildings from tax-delin-
quent landlords, dismay has
been the primary response
from tenants, their advocates
and even city officials. Ten-
ants complained of contin-
ued decline, advocates
pointed to a management sys-
tem in chronic disarray, and
the city acted as little more
Marie Ellis and her grandson Steven inside their bathroom. Ellis
says water runs "every day, every night" through the cracks.
of me says I know there are
tenants living in conditions
not fit for a dog to live in.
That's the harsh reality."
than a holding station, eventually at-
tempting to funnel the buildings back
to the private sector: to tenant asso-
ciations, private landlords and non-
profit community organizations.
Yet officials from the Division of
Property Management (DPM) , which
reliable inventory of buildings, a
management information system in
development, and. most importantly.
a sizeable capital budget for major
repairs. (Plus. they add. repairs are
in the pipeline for 80 St. Nicholas
and 1105 Tinton avenues. )
Adding to these concerns are
crucial policy questions that go be-
yond the issue of effective manage-
ment and into the more subjective
realm of the role of government as a
housing provider. Will the city
embrace its ownership of all these
18 CITY LIMITS
buildings or will it continue to
manage some buildings, while chan-
neling others to developers, commu-
nity groups and tenant associations?
What about a fresh approach, per-
haps a miniature version of the
housing authority or cooperatives of
locally controlled buildings, known
as mutual housing associations?
What does the future hold, especially
since most vacancies are now re-
served for the homeless-even
though cl ustering im poverished resi-
dents in one building or neighbor-
hood is generally acknowledged as
poor planning?
Spiller is unable to provide a de-
finitive answer to these queries .
Despite prodding, he resists further
comment , noting that this level of
decision-making is the responsibil-
ity of the new housing commissioner
and, ultimatel y, Mayor David Dink-
ins.
Management Nightmare
From a distance, an inventory of
more than 3,000 partially occupied
buildings is a dreamfor a city in the
midst of a housing crisis. Close up,
it's a property management night-
mare. The 33,675 occupied units of
housing run by central management
are scattered throughout the city, a
mixture of small , mid-sized and large
buildings in the city' s most dilapi-
dated neighborhoods. Many build-
ings are little more than burnt-out
hulks. Others have major problems
with heating, wiring and plumbing.
The presence of drug dealers is often
a concern. And the tenants are among
the poorest in the city, with a median
household income below $7,000, ac-
cording to the most recent Housing
and Vacancy Survey.
These occupied buildings com-
prise one of the largest public hous-
ing operations in the nation. They
are run by 10 area offices, each with
a director, supervisors and a pha-
lanx of managers. In recent years , the
city established crisis management
and narcotics control units to take
the most problematic buildings off
the backs of managers and the
number of handymen and supervi-
sors has been increased. Still, prop-
erty managers-the staff with the
most direct impact on buildings-
are responsible for an average of 26
troubled buildings each.
With managers overwhelmed by
their day-to-day responsibilities,
comprehensive planning for build-
ing repairs was mostly overlooked
within central management-until
1986, when the Koch administration
decided that city-owned buildings
are a part of the infrastructure, and,
like bridges, water tunnels and sew-
ers, eligible for capital budget funds
raised from the sale of bonds. Start-
ing with a'n allocation of $9 million
in 1986, the Capital Improvement
Program was promoted as the long-
term answer to the serious ailments
of city property.
Four years later, the response to
the program is not overly positive.
Between 1986 and 1989, the city
spent more than $50 million in capi-
tal budget money for major improve-
ments. Yet questions have been
raised about 6e quality of the work
as well as the policy decision to put
capital funds into buildings that
could be moved out of the Division
of Property Management and back
into the hands of private landlords
or other management groups.
"Tenants can 't get
basic repairs and
then they see
homeless families
moving into a .
newly renovated
apartment. "
"Capital Improvement Program
buildings received plumbing, roofs ,
pipework, but the work was shoddy
and it was not coordinated," says
Greg Watson, executive director of
the Tenant Takeover Team, an advo-
cacy group that works with residents
in city-owned buildings.
Diaz from the East Harlem Tene-
ment Task Force, says, "That pro-
gram was a disaster. There was no
coordination. We've seen instances
where the carpenter came before the
plumber, then both said they did
their part and asked for payment but
the tenants were left with a job that
was inadequate." (In the city's de-
fense, Diaz notes that the housing
department is hamstrung by its obli-
gation to go through a lengthy bid-
ding process for each separate con-
tractor, and required to accept the
lowest bid, a system that encourages
contractors to underbid and then cut
corners on their work.)
Beyond questions of coordination
and quality ofrepairs, advocates were
also dismayed that buildings receiv-
ing these funds were npt staying
within central management. "It's
always been our understanding that
a building put into capital projects
goes into the Division of Alternative
Management Programs [DAMPj .... or
the Private Ownership and Manage-
ment Program [POMP], but mostly
to POMP," says Bernard Alston, an
organizer for the Union of City Ten-
ants.
Out of Funds
Spiller explains the origins of the
capital program like this: "We tried
to identify buildings where you could
put in a modest amount of work-
about $5,000 per unit-and it could
be moved to an outside program. The
program was in existence for three
years. It was successful in the begin-
ning but then we tried to take it to
buildings that really needed more
money, then they needed extra work,
the work was unfinished and we
would run out of money."
Acknowledging the criticisms of
many advocates, Spiller says, "It's
stupid and not honest to deny there
are problems in occupied buildings.
Did some things slip? I think some
things did. I believe we attempted to
do too much with $5,000." He adds
that while systems repairs are vital,
they are very disruptive and leave
tenants with few visible improve-
ments. (At 1105 Tinton, for example,
many apartments remain ravaged
despite systems repairs.)
The Ca pital Improvement Program
was reformulated last year and re-
named the Capital Projects Bureau.
Now, Spiller says, "We have reversed
course. We targeted capital funds to
buildings with the least chance of
getting to DAMP. We saw that $5,000
per unit was inadequate, we in-
creased it to an estimated $15,000
per unit and now we find it's really
like $25,000 per unit."
Richard Heitler, as-
sistant commissioner
of DPM, adds that
capital project repairs
in some buildings are
now being coordi-
nated by a construc-
tion manager to avoid
the pitfalls ofthe origi-
nal program. In other
buildings, he says
greater efforts are
being made to coordi-
nate contractors and
let tenants know about
the scope of repairs.
He adds that an ambi-
tious effort to do com-
prehensive repair
planning is now un-
derway.
Because of this re-
organization, major
repair work on city
buildings was way
under schedule last
year-in 1989 the Di-
vision of Property
Capital Projects:
Division of Property Management
(in millions)
Amount of money allocated to Capital Improvement
Program, renamed Capital Projects Bureau in 1989
r2J Amount of money actually spent
$18.9
$16.5
$9
1986 1987 1988
March 1990 19
$43
$42
1990
.. . Management only
spent $20.3 million of
its $43 million capital
Source: NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
budget allocation.
The Poor Fighting the Poor
Even before former mayor Koch
decided to put capital funds into the
repair of occupied city buildings,
another, equally significant policy
decision was made with regard to
centrally managed property. In 1983,
the administration decided every
vacant apartment in occupied, city-
owned property should be reserved
for homeless families and individu-
als from the shelter system.
A separate division, the Bureau of
Vacant Apartment Repair and Rental
(BV ARR), was established to reno-
vate empty apartments in occupied
buildings for the homeless and so far
thousands of apartments have been
completed. The work of BV ARR is
easing the ' city's attempts to close
down the welfare hotels, but new
difficulties are emerging.
In 80 St. Nicholas Avenue, the
home of Gladys Fortune, long-time
residents are dismayed because they
have to wait months for simple re-
pairs while vacant apartments in the
building are being fully renovated
for homeless families. "The tenants
are totally demoralized," says Wat-
son from the Tenant Takeover Team.
"They resent very strongly the fact
that money is being funnelled into
vacant apartments and nothing is
being done for them. You end up
with one set of poor people fighting
another set."
As well as questions about tenant
relations, advocates also say that
capital project work, renovations
through BV ARR as well as emergency
repair jobs can often take place in
one building, leading to a tactical
tangle.
Once again, they say, the mammoth
bureaucracy can act in spite of itself,
with three different crews potentially
working on the same buildings at the
same time.
Spiller concedes that these prob-
lems exist and he describes them as
unavoidable. "But I don't think we
have instances-or many instances-
where [work crews] are undercut-
ting each other's work," he contends.
What's Ahead?
Despite all the money being spent
on city property, the future of these
buildings remains unclear. Vacant
apartments are being used to solve a
political problem-the need to empty
the welfare hotels-but some advo-
cates say this will create a new set of
problems in the future. Many believe
that clustering extremely poor resi-
del1ts amounts to little more than
ghettoization.
"If you think about it logically, it
isn't helpful to put all these people
into one building or neighborhood-
it just doesn't help create a cohesive
community," says Chris Quinn, an
organizer for the Housing Justice
Campaign, which promotes eco-
nomic and raCial integration in sub-
sidized housing. "In the short term it
might be fine, but in five or 10 years
you'll have the same problems all
over again that made the area dete-
riorate in the first place."
Community groups convinced the
city to change one housing effort , the
Special Initiatives Program (SIP), so
that it now includes a mix of home-
less, low and moderate income fami-
lies, not just the homeless. Similar
efforts surrounding central manage-
ment buildings have not yet occurred.
"There hasn't been that much of
an outcry (about the placement of
homeless families in central man-
20 CITY UMITS
agement buildings) because it's not
as extraordinary or as striking as SIP,
and the change is slower, but over
the long range it has the same im-
pact," says Getz Obstfeld, executive
director of the Banana Kelly Com-
munity Improvement Association.
"We have reservations about every
single vacant unit being reserved for
homeless families. We think they
should adopt a policy of 10 percent
formerly homeless per building-no
more."
Spiller says economic integration
is not currently feasible because of
the need to empty the welfare hotels.
Still, he adds, "I know the new
administration is looking at this
question and they may decide to
change things. We're open to that
possibili ty."
Looking to <;;ity Hall for Help
Spiller and his deputies at the
housing department aren't the only
ones waiting for direction from City
Hall. In neighborhoods like Morri-
sania and Central Harlem, where
there is a high concentration of city-
owned property, Dinkins for Mayor
stickers still abound on car bumpers
and storefronts and expectations for
change remain high.
Maria Crooks, a 42-year-old resi-
dent of 1105 Tinton Avenue, makes
no bones about her voting record.
Pointing to the cracking plaster in
her front hallway, she says, "This is
why I voted for Dinkins. I'm hoping
for some improvement."
While borough president, Dink-
ins established himself as an advo-
cate for the tenants of city-owned
property, holding hearings and press
conferences about their plight. While
running for office, he released a policy
paper calling for the creation of
mutual housing associations-coop-
eratives of buildings run by tenants
and local community leaders-to ac-
quire control of occupied, city-owned
buildings. He is clearly aware ofthe
need for long-term, comprehensive
planning in central management.
Despite these promising signs,
there's an enormous gap between
campaign pledges and expensive
policy implementation, especially in
an era of fiscal restraint. How far
Dinkins will cQntinue his tradition
of advocating for tenants in city-
owned buildings remains to be
seen. 0
Wear Your Convictions
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LETTERS
Healthy Story
To the Editor,
In my mail today came my issue of
City Limits with the very fine piece
on Medicaid mills. This was a very
well-written story on a subject near
and dear to me. No one need have
second-class health care in this day
and age.
Here in the Bronx good health
care is only a short bus ride from
one's door. I would venture to say
this is true of any part of the city. It
just takes a bit of education and ef-
fort on the patients' part. A small
price to pay for excellent care.
An example of such is the Com-
prehensive Family Care Center al-
lied with the Albert Einstein College
of Medicine of Yeshiva University,
which provides free medical care to
the homeless. Anyone can reach the
center, at 1175 Morris Park Avenue,
as the Bronx 21 bus passes right by
its door. .
The cost is small if you can pay,
free if you cannot. Persons with
Medicaid can also have their bus fare
refunded. There can be no reason to
put up with third-class care from a
Medicaid mill any longer.
Henry Muller Jr.
Bronx
Middle Income Advocacy
To the Editor:
I have been a subscriber to your
periodical for several years because I
generall y believe in the thrust of your
articles and the scope of coverage.
However, I am concerned with what
seems to be a bias against the provi-
sion of help in middle income hous-
ing. Your in the. Feb.ruary
1990 issue decnes the dIsumty of
various community activists fight-
ing over a smaller piece of the
ing pie. Yet y<;,ur same
takes a dig at assIstance for
middle income people, statmg
they" can still fend for themsel ves m
the private housing market... "
Perhaps because City Limits
been fighting so much for housmg
for the least of our citizens, I feel that
there has been a tendency in the
housing movement to ignore moder-
ate/middle income people. The truth
of the matter is that, as your article
on counterfeit co-ops pointed out,
there is a shrinking amount of rent
stabilized units available due to the
huge number of cooperative conver-
sions.
Middle income people are often
only a paycheck or three away from
joining the poor. While lower in-
come people are in a definite hous-
ing crisis, the middle income are not
far behind. Their options are de-
creasing. They simply just can't
"fend" for themselves so easily.
So how do we divide the housing
assistance pie to meet all these needs?
I do not have any immediate answers
beyond getting rid of the Republi-
cans in the state Senate. All too often
the middle income people vote Re-
publican and against their interests
because they see the poor as the
enemy and do not look at the wealthy,
who spend their time dividing the
two. Housing advocates should be
working to incorporate the needs of
the poor with the needs of middle
income people.
Carlton Gordon
Manhattan
City Limits replies: We agree that
there's a growing shortage of middle
income housing and middle income
. and low income people should join
forces in the housing fight. But facts
from the city's own Housing and
Vacancy Survey prove that the prob-
lem is vastly more acute for low and
moderate income New Yorkers.
Given the limited resources avail-
able, the city should not be pumping
March 1990 21
$84,000 a unit into project like Tib-
bett Gardens, which will only be af-
fordable to famiJie<; for whom there
is no housing emergency. Middle
income people deserve assistance,
but not this kind. .
Outragel
To the Editor:
The article in the February 1990
issue titled "Mixed Blessings: Life
After the Welfare Hotels" made the
hackles of my neck rise. It wasn't the
quality of the story (well put together
and informative) that raised my ire,
but its content-particularly that
portion covering six families who
have been "through the bureaucracy."
In each case, the stories were about
(apparently) unwed mothers with
multiple children, and some moth-
ers whose teenaged children had
children. What an outrage on the tax-
paying public!
The problem is one ofresponsibil-
ity on the part of the indigent to keep
the current problem at the current
rate, and the various helping organi-
zations to chip away at the problem
with all due speed.
As a nation, we faced the Great
Depression and came out of it stronger
than we had ever been. With respon-
sible people trying to solve our cur-
rent problems, we, too, should come
out of our current difficulties even
stronger.
Richard D. Hochwald
Queens
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56 Thomas Street
New York, N.Y. 10013
Telephone 212/619-6800
DEBRA BECHTEL - Attorney
Concentrating in Real Estate & Non-Profit Law
Title and loan closings 0 All city housing programs
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LAWRENCE H. McGAUGHEY
Attorney at Law
Real Estate, Subsidized Housing,Wills,
Trust & Estates,Business and Not-for-Profit
Corporations, Ecclesiastical Law
217 Broadway, Suite 610
New York, NY 10007
212/513-0981
ARCHITECTURAL & PLANNING DIVISION
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FULL ARCHITECTURAL. SERVICES
Zoning Analyses' Design Through Construction Documents
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Contact Betsy Calhoun or Paul Castrucci, A.A. 2121226-4119
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Abeles Phillips Preiss & Shapiro, Inc.
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Himmelstein & McConnell
Attorneys at Law
Residential and commercial tenant representation
in individual and group cases; cooperative and condo-
minium conversions and cooperative board represen-
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WORKSHOP
COMMUNITY ASSISTANT.(State Senator Franz Leichter, SO 28,
Manh.) Constituent services provider for Washington Heights/
Inwood. Good oppty for entry level applicant to gain exp in
organizing & advocacy, tenant/landlord relations, entitlements,
etc. Excellent for advancement/career mobility. Full bnfts. Must
be fluent in Spanish. Computer exp helpful but not necessary.
Resume: Senator Franz S. Leichter, 656 W. 181 st St., NYC
10033. 212/781 -6593.
LEGAl/ORGANIZING ASSISTANT. Community-based housing organi-
zation in Hell 's Kitchen seeks highly motivated ind to work w/staff
of 4 attorneys & 3 organizers. Responsibilities as part of a
collectively run component include research & investigation,
client interviewing & clerical. Bilingual prefd. Salary as per collec-
tive bargaining agreement. Resume: Miriam Nieves, Housing
Conservation Coordinators, Inc., 777 Tenth Avenue, NYC 10019.
Minorities/women encouraged to apply.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. Prominent & well established community
development corp seeks dynamic professional to lead multifac-
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mod income multi-ethnic cmmty. Qualifications: Min of 7yrs exp
as executive or high level manager within a nonprofit org; exper-
tise in nghbrd revitalization strategies; exc communication abili-
ties; graduate degree desirable in public administration or city
planning; vision & resourcefulness. Exc salary & bnfts. Resume:
Search Committee, St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation
Corp .. 11-29 Catherine St. , Brooklyn, NY 11211, attn: C. Bianco.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. Work in small, social justice, women of
color run organization w/homeless women & tenants. Exc oppty
for committed organizer to participate in building a mass-based
org. Ability to work w/diverse group of women across race, class
& sexual orientation lines. Salary $19,000 + bnfts. Starts April 1.
Resume/letter: Hotel Tenants' Rights Project (Action for Commu-
nity Empowerment) , 126 W. 119th St., NYC 10026.
March 1990 23
RECEPTIONIST/TYPIST. Convenient midtown office seeks individ-
ual w/good typing/phone skills. Excellent benefits/salary. Call
718/835-3020 eves between 6:00pm to 8:00pm.
MULTIFAMILY WEATHERIZATION SUPERVISOR. Leading citywide
housing & weatherization nonprofit agency seeks expd ind to
supervise energy conservation improvements in private bldgs.
Responsibilities incld building intake, supervision of income
documentation, audit review, negotiation w/owners, working w/
state monitors, close coordination w/construction management
dept for inspections/bids. Requires knowledge of weatherization
regulations, exc communication & negotiation skills, familiarity
with bldg systems, computer literacy. Salary $32,000+. 5yrs exp
in program mgmt ; 1 yr supervisory exp; advanced degree substi-
tutes for 2yrs expo Resume: David Rouge, NY Urban Coalition
Housing Group, 99 Hudson St. , NYC 10013.
STAFF ATTORNEY. Activist community organization in Hell's Kitchen
seeks FIT attorney w/landlord & tenant exp prefd but not reqd &
commitment to affordable housing. Represent low income ten-
ants & tenant associations, conduct impact & affirmative litiga-
tion, community education & organizing. Start A.S.A.P. Resume:
Miriam Nieves, Housing Conservation Coordinators, Inc., 777
Tenth Ave., NYC 10019. Minorities/women encouraged to apply.
Lower East Side Tenant Advocacy Organization
seeks applicant for the following positions:
STAFF ATTORNEY. Knowledge of housing law reqd. Exp w/
rent strikes desirable. Potential for community impact liti-
gation. Salary to mid $30s dependent on expo Benefits.
HOUSING ORGANIZER. Organize tenant associations, counsel
tenants on legal rights & negotiate wllandlords , agents &
attorneys. Some court work. Paralegal training provided.
Good communication skills, both oral/written reqd. Span-
ish desirable. Salary $18,000 + bnfts. Resumes: Ed Delgado,
Director, 525 E. 6th Street, NYC 10009.
,
Competitively Priced Insurance
LET us DO A FREE EVAWATION OF
YOUR INSURANCE NEEDS
have been providing low-cost insurance programs and quality service
for HDFC's, TENANTS, COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT and other NONPROFIT
organizations for the past 10 years.
Our Coverages Include:
LIABILITY BONDS DIRECTORS'. OFFICERS' UABIUTY
SPECIAL BUILDING PACKAGES
"Liberal Payment Terms"

306 FIFTH AVE.
NEW YORK, N.V. 10001
(212) 279-8300
Ask for: Bala Ramanathan
r
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EARTH DAY 1990-APRIL 22,1990 THE GREEN PLEDG~, ~ ,
I pledge to do my share in saving the planet by letting my concern for the . ~.",
I
environment shape how I: ACT: Recycle, conserve energy. save water. ~~,' I
use efficient transportation. and adopt a lifestyle a" If every day were Earth 1 1 \ , . . ' / '
I
Day. PURCHASE: Buy and usc product> lea" harmful [0[he environment. ,."-' I
and do business with corporations that promote global environmental respon- ,:}"
~lbiliIY. VO TE: Support those candidates who demonstrate an abiding concern for
I
the environment. SUPPO RT: The passage of local. state. and federal laws and international I
treaties thai protect the environment.
ISignalure I
INoonlC [plc",e prinll I
ISilcel A~~re" CII) S,"le ZiP I
IPh"n,' I
IIul-,~""I~ like In make" donuuon ,,[ I
I SUI S2~ S50 SIOO Other I
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RETURN TO: Earth Day 1990-NYC -10 We,12Oth Street. 10th FII~lfNew 'rink. NY 10010 ..I
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