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EDITORIAL
LET IT BLEED
IT'S COMING. It's going to be ugly, painful, and
heartbreaking. And if we're smart-and the
mayor holds to his word that his door is open-
there's something we all can do about it.
New York City's budget shortfall stands at
around $5 billion, and Mayor Bloomberg and
his deputies have already started making bloody
staff cuts to help close the gap.
City agencies are also looking to reduce the
sizeable cost of their contracts with private agen-
cies and companies that provide public services,
from job training to bridge repair. Officials are
looking not just for programs to eliminate, but
ways to save money on the work they will con-
tinue to pay for. In some cases, this has resulted
in decisions that may be penny-wise and pound-
foolish. This summer, for instance, the city cut
or eliminated contracts to several vocational edu-
cation groups that had been widely praised, and
redirected the funds to new, cheaper programs.
Established and effective groups that do
everything from feed the elderly to counsel fam-
ilies now face the prospect of losing their busi-
ness, in part or entirely. City officials can feel
confident with switching to less costly suppliers
because they have put in place performance sys-
tems that assure them that the private contrac-
tors are doing the work they're supposed to do,
and pay only upon performance of the job.
No doubt some new blood is needed, and.
some longrime service providers ought to get
out of the business. But anyone who works in
human services also knows that clients are not
widgets. Whether your bailiwick is literacy
instruction or job training, it takes careful,
patient attention-work not always fully
reflected in performance numbers-to ensure
the work brings long-term benefits.
There is an alternative. Last month, I
implored developers to push an aggressive agen-
da to build new housing. Now the same goes for
those of you who are leaders in human services.
With the threat of losing millions in business,
the instinct is to protect what your organization
has already got. But in order to survive the
bloodbath to come, you will have to cooper-
ate-with the city and with other contract
agencies-to find places where the ax can fall
while keeping resources available where they are
essential. The Bloomberg administration will
Cover photo by Joshua Farley. Aida Leon, executive director, Amethyst Women's Project.
have to change, too. Though they can't match
Giuliani and Co. for mad arrogance, top offi-
cials are quickly earning a reputation for believ-
ing that they always know best. They don't.
There already signs that collaboration can
work. Earlier this year, medical care providers
for homeless families successfUlly proposed
making fUll-time nurses in shelters part-time,
working only during the hours that their
patients are likely to be there.
We are all accustomed to the quid pro quo:
I give, I get back something in exchange. But
right now, there is nothing to spare. The bud-
get crisis is real, and inaction will be fatal. We
can-and should-talk about new ways to
raise revenue, including increasing and reviv-
ing taxes. In the meantime, have the courage to
plot how to serve the best interests of the peo-
ple you really work for.
-Alyssa Katz
Editor
The Center for an Urban Future
Cente.f for an
F
Utroan
u ure
the sister organization of City Limits
www.nycfuture.org
Combining City Limits' zest for investigative reporting with thorough policy
analysis, the Center for an Urban Future is regularly influencing New York's
decision makers with fact-driven studies about policy issues that are important to
all five boroughs and to New Yorkers of all socio-economic levels.
Go to our website or contact us to obtain any of our recent studies:
Bumpy Skies: JFK, laGuardia Fared Worse Than Most U.S. Airports in the Year After 9/11 and Still Face StruturalThreats to Future
I
Competitiveness (October 2002)
Uninvited Guests: Teens in New York City Foster care (October 2002)
Rebuilding Job training From the Ground Up: Workforce System Reform
After 9/11 (August 2002)
A Prescription for Failure: Albany's $200 Million Biotech Plan Bypases
NYC (August 2002)
City Limits and the Center for an Urban Future rely on the generous support of their readers and advertisers, as well as the following funders: The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, The Child Wei
fare The Unitarian Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, Open Society Institute, The Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, The Scherman Foundaton, JPMorganChase, The Annie E. Casey
FoundatlOh, The Booth Fems Foundation, The New York Community Trust, The Taconic Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Ford Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The Ira W. DeCamp
Foundation, LlSC, Deutsche Bank, M& T Bank, The Citigroup Foundation, New York Foundation.
CONTENTS
15 HOME REMEDIES
The mentally ill can't live in nursing homes. The fragile
elderly can't live in their own filth. There's a city agency that's
supposed to help them all stay healthy and housed-
and it may be New York's most
neglected bureaucratic backwater.
By Matt Pacenza
20 CONEY ISLAND HIGH
The same blend of magnetism and relentlessness that made
Aida Leon a successful drug dealer have made her
Coney Island's messiah of clean living.
Can her small army of former addicts turned activists
save the neighborhood too?
By Annia Ciezadlo
5 FRONTLINES: SCHOOLS FAIL HIV TEST ... WILL COURTS PULL CITY'S
WEB PLUG? .. ADIOS, PADRE ... CHURCHES: QUEENS' GROWING MENACE ...
AN EAST HARLEM KNOCKOUT ... MORTGAGE PREY FIGHTS BACK
11 STACKED CARDS
These are rough times for immigrants seeking working papers-
and it's not John Ashcroft's fault. How the green card bureaucracy
ground to a halt. By Adam Fifield
28 THE BIG IDEA
What if someone held an election without political
parties and no one showed up? By David Jason Fischer
30 CITY LIT
The New White Nationalism in America, by Carol Swain, and Colored
White: Transcending the Racial Past, by David Roediger.
Reviewed by Hakim Hasan
DECEMBER 2002
32 MAKING CHANGE
Hip hop activists are rightly proud of their local victories
fighting prison expansion and school cuts, but there are
more questions than answers about what's next for
the nascent movement. By Hilary Russ
34 NYC INC.
A fiscal crisis is a good time to figure out how the city can
better coordinate the fight against poverty-without
spending an extra penny. By Ben Esner
2 EDITORIAL
39 JOB ADS
43 PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
46 OFFICE OF THE CITY VISIONARY
3
LETTERS
WHERE CREDIT Is DUE
Thanks for your article about community
development credit unions in New York City
"Shaky Credit" [November 2002]. It's very bal-
anced and clearly shows the challenge that we
face in having to comply with two very differ-
ent mandates-providing affordable services in
low income communities (which is an extreme-
ly expensive proposition) while being forced to
build up our capital reserves to comply with
federal regulations.
The bottom line is that to effectively pro-
vide affordable financial services, as well as
development services (such as financial literacy
and member education), CDCUs require assis-
tance. Interestingly enough, and contrary to
most nonprofits, our credit unions can general-
ly cover 80 percent of their operating costs
from within. So the support that we need is not
really to subsidize our operations across the
WANT
ONE
OF THESE?
board, but rather to help us expand and better
serve our communities.
Our mission is extremely expensive and
cannot be done without support from both the
public and private sectors. CDCUs not only
steer low income individuals away from further
poverry by providing them alternatives to
predatory lenders, but we actually provide
wealth-building opportunities with our afford-
able housing loans, micro business loans and
subsidized savings accounts called IDAs.
Furthermore, in a time in which real house-
hold income for families earning below
$55,000 has not only stagnated but even fallen,
the membership base of credit unions like ours
is quickly expanding as increasingly, more indi-
viduals can no longer afford mainstream finan-
cial services.
Pablo OeFilippi
CEO
Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union
-----------,
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t
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CITY LIMITS
Volume XXVII Number 10
City Limits is published ten times per year, monthly except bi -
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Publisher: Kim Nauer
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CITY LIMITS
I
L
FRONT LINES
Don't Know Much about HIV
EDWIN PEGGOTT REMEMBERS with alarm how careless he was with his sex
life during high school. "{ didn't know anything about AIDS," he says.
"{ was doing all kinds of things."
Now, at 19, he's wised up and "calmed down" but worries that too many
other teens are making the same mistakes and may not be as lucky. As an
advocate for Youth Organizers United (YOU), a nonprofit HNIAIDS edu-
cation group, he's part of a new campaign called "Hit the Schools."
The group, whose members are all under 26, plans to lobby public high
schools to follow the city's HNIAIDS Education Mandate. Passed by the
Board of Education in 1991, the regulation requires that all public high
schools offer students six lessons a year on AIDS-from how it's transmit-
ted to how to prevent it, or treat it-and to make condoms available.
Across the five boroughs, however, these lessons are few. According to
a YOU survey of 500 city teens conducted last summer, only two stu-
dents said their schools offered the six classes on AIDS each year.
"My high school has a really good reputation, but { never got any of
the lessons, " says Jaron Cook, 18, a recent graduate of the High School
of Art & Design.
(A guidance counselor at Cook's alma mater, who would not give her
name, says the students learn about AIDS during the one semester of
health class they take in high school. "Maybe that youngster was not
present the day those lessons were given, " she says.)
Recent stats from the state Department of Health worry the young
DECEMBER 2002
activists even more. Black and Hispanic teens account for half of the state's
new HN cases, agency officials have found, and most of those are in New
York City. "When teenagers don't receive the six mandated lessons, they
don't know how to protect themselves," says Jerel Harewood, 17.
Many schools do have a program called SPARK, which circulates
information on HN and provides some short lessons on the virus, as
well as on drugs and violence, during health class.
That, health experts say, is not enough. "You have less than 40 min-
utes to talk to these kids about HN, STDs and sexuality," says Lisserte
Marrero of the Adolescent AIDS Program at Montefiore Medical Center
in the Bronx. "Public high schools have to create a safe space where kids
can go and talk about these things, or at least link them to community-
based organizations that can do it."
The city Department of Education did not return calls seeking comment.
But YOU's volunteers hope they will start to turn some heads soon.
In mid-October, the group began circulating petitions to students at a
dozen high schools around the city stating that they have not had lessons
on AIDS. YOU hopes ro collect at least 300 signatures from each school,
which the young activists will then present to principals as well as to
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and state legislators in Albany.
"They fail to realize that by educating us, they help us educate our fami-
lies and parents and sisters and whoever," says Cook. "If they keep holding
it back, it just means more people are going to get sick." -Lauren Johnston
5
FRONT LINES
How will the
city fill a
sudden tech gap?
By Steve Gnagni
A lITILE OVER a decade ago, the City of New
York realized it was sitting on some pretty hot
property. Telecommunications companies
began flocking to City Hall asking for rhe
right to dig up streets and lay fiber optic cable
beneath them--one of rhe fastest ways to
rhe internet.
The city, realizing that these companies
would be more rhan willing to pay for this
right, drew up franchise agreements wirh each
company, asking for two rhings: a franchise fee
amounting to 5 percent of gross revenues, and
the city's right to use some of the fiber for its
6
Low-Fiber Diet
own use.
New Yorkers got a lot out of rhe agreements.
First, government coffers got an injection of
cash: Last year, the 12 companies rhat laid fiber
underground paid rhe city a total of $25 mil-
lion in franchise fees.
The city has also been able to use rhat fiber to
run a municipal network called I-Net, which has
wired about 60 municipal buildings and provides
videoconferencing for courts and for the Board
of Education's Citywide Training Network.
But all that, and any future plans to
expand public access to broadband fiber, may
be in jeopardy.
In September, rhe United States Court of
Appeals for rhe Second Circuit ruled that White
Plains cannot require one of its telecom
providers, Teleport Communications, to enter a
franchise agreement with the Westchester
County city. That's because rhe Telecommuni-
cations Act of 1996 says municipalities must
treat all telecom companies equally. Until now,
in New York State, one company has always
gotten treated better rhan equally: In one form
or anorher, Verizon has existed since rhe late
19rh century, long before cities demanded com-
munications franchises and fees for rhe use of
city streets. IfVerizon continues to be excused,
argued Teleport Communications in its lawsuit,
why shouldn't we be? The court agreed.
That decision may not bode well for New
York City. While a case like Tee v. City of
White Plains has never been brought against the
Big Apple, some experts close to rhe case say
rhe court ruling may apply when franchise
agreements come up for renewal in a few years.
The Bloomberg administration is not rak-
ing any chances. Attorneys planned to file a
brief in support of White Plains when rhat city
appeals the case to rhe U.S. Supreme Court
sometime rhis fall.
In rhe meantime, at least one member of rhe
New York City Council is trying to figure out
how the city can make up for a possible loss of
revenue and free fast internet access. ''I'd love to
see a lot more educational institutions,
libraries, senior centers, and underserved
neighborhoods get broadband access," says
Councilmember Gale Brewer, chair of rhe
Council's Select Committee on Technology in
Government. "There are tons of possibilities
for public service."
Her first proposal to City Hall: The city
could build a broadband network of its own. A
state- and federally sponsored program called
NYSERNet serves as a model, one rhat has
connected universities and research institutions
to fast networks rhroughout the state. This
option is not cheap; Brewer's staff estimates it
would require a multimillion-dollar capital
investment. Brewer suggests rhe city could save
a little cash by contracting wirh broadband
companies to install fiber, much like Chicago
recently did [see "The Underground Railroad, "
February 2002].
Perhaps an even less expensive, though slow-
er possibility: Going wireless. Brewer's commit-
tee is studying rhe work of Anrhony Townsend,
a researcher at New York University's Taub
Urban Research Center and cofounder of NYC
Wireless. His nonprofit advocacy group recent-
ly enabled free wireless access in Bryant Park
and Bowling Green Park through partnerships
with the public-private groups that run them.
Good wireless installation, says Townsend,
costs about $15,000 an acre to service outdoor
spaces. Townsend also advised the city on its
CITY LIMITS
new wireless initiative for the public libraries, which
Mayor Bloomberg announced in late October.
"I think it's a less expensive technology for creating a
citywide backbone, " Townsend says. He also recom-
mends optical networks, which use a laser beam to broad-
cast at a distance of up to 40 miles.
Brewer's committee plans to hold a series of public
hearings this fall to discuss the options. While she admits
it could take a while for some of these solutions to come
to life, there is one thing that can be done now: the city
could boost its efforts to use the current network at its
fullest capacities.
At the time the original franchise agreements were
drawn up--back when David Dinkins was mayor and
Brewer was working in his Washington office-the
thought was to use the fiber strands for public, educa-
tional and government uses. But these connections have
not reached many of the city's communities. Playing 2
Win, a community technology center in Harlem, spends
about $400 a month for cable modems. While this is
The City Council is
trying to figure out how
government can launch
a broadband network-
and share it with
neighborhood groups.
cheaper than the $900 TIline that the group gave up on
several months ago because of its cost and spotty service,
the expense still puts a dent in the organization's budget.
A cheap and reliable broadband connection "would be
an excellent asset, " says Rahsaan Harris, executive direc-
tor of Playing 2 Win, which each year provides about 700
local kids and adults access to computers and teaches
them how to use them. There are dozens of centers like
Harris' in communities around the city.
In the end, the hope is that even if White Plains loses
the appeal and companies pull the plug on franchise fees,
telecom companies might continue to donate internet
access, if only for one purpose. Says John B. Morris of the
Center for Democracy and Technology, "Companies may
still honor their promise to support public access for pub-
lic relations reasons. "
Steve Gnagni is managing editor of High bridge Horiwn,
a community newspaper in the southwest Bronx.
DECEMBER 2002
FRONTLINES
URBANLEGEND
A Father's Time
MORE THAN 40 YEARS AGO, when Father John Powis was studying to be a priest, he stum-
bled into an opportunity that would define the rest of his life. "I had never had any contact with
a black or Hispanic person before," remembers Powis, who grew up in nearby East New York.
So he spent a few summers, without pay, working with nuns ministering at a housing project
in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. "I got to know every single family who lived there, inside and out," he
says. "That right there was 85 percent of my education."
Today, Powis, 69, heads up St. Barbara's Roman Catholic Church in Bushwick, which draws
1,600 predominantly Hispanic congregants to the regular Sunday mass.
From his first days as a priest, he has embraced community activism: He joined local par-
ents in battling for community control of the public schools in the late 1960s. A decade later,
he helped found East Brooklyn Congregations, a coalition of churches that has built thousands
of inexpensive homes in nearby Brownsville and East New York under the Nehemiah program.
And a few years ago, he rallied hundreds within the community to successfully protest the city's
plan to remove fireboxes from sidewalks across the five boroughs.
Along the way, Powis hasn't been afraid to bump heads with-and even tear intG-local
politicians. Perhaps his most frequent target is powerful Bushwick state Assemblymember Vito
Lopez. "I don't believe in what he's doing," says Powis, who condemns Lopez for often chan-
neling state funds and development projects to a nonprofit group that Lopez founded.
Lopez, 61, an assemblyman for 18 years, touts his own political record of building affordable
housing, and brushes off Powis' critique. ''The community would be better if Father Powis would
work within our organized political structure, but he doesn't, so conflicts exist," he says.
Father John Kelly, the priest at nearby St. Brigid's, says Powis is a major figure in Bushwick
because he has proven his ability to rally the masses. "The establishment has always been afraid
of him," says Kelly. There was a time when, if trouble arose, "You'd call Powis, not the police,
because he's just that much more influential and he knows how the system works. "
The round-the-clock work is draining for Powis, and he says health problems may soon
force him to retire. But, he adds, it will take strict doctor's orders to do that. "If the doctor tells
me I have to, I will ," he says. In the meantime, he plans to continue the work that has kept him
going for 43 years. "I'm so grateful I've been able to give the poor people hope that life can
improve," he says. "They don't know it, but they've done the same for me." -Lindsay Faber
7
FRONT llNES
Do supersized
churches and
schools have to
be a menace?
By Aimee Molloy
TYLER CASSELL HAS WATCHED his hometown of
Flushing change drastically in recent years, and
the results, he says, have been devastating. But
it's not due to drugs, or crime, or rundown
homes, says the president of the North Flush-
ing Civic Association. The problem, he says, is
all the churches.
"They've taken over our community," says
8
Know Your Limits
Cassell. According to surveys he's conducted
over the years, the neighborhood has 44
churches, up from seven a decade ago. The
blocks around his house read like a page from a
religious directory: the Pure Presbyterian
Church, the Islamic Center, St. Paul's Roman
Catholic and the Kung Mern Sern Tao Church.
They occupy lots where 19th- and early 20th-
century single-family homes once stood. And,
say Cassell and some of his neighbors, they
bring a host of problems, including out-of-con-
text architecture, noise and traffic.
For years, neighborhoods around the city
have been powerless to limit the proliferation of
churches and other "community facilities." A 40-
year-old roning law allows community facili-
ties- from churches to day care centers to
schools-to be built "as of right," without any
input from the people who live in the area.
Adopted to encourage the development of insti-
tutions that serve local residents, the law grants
these facilities privileges over the homes they sur-
round, including the right to build bigger.
Cassell insists the rule is outdated, claiming
that many of the congregants come from other
communities.
Several City Council members agree, and they
are working on legislation to change the roning
rules. Aware of Cassell's concerns, Queens Coun-
cilmember Tony Avella, chair of the Council's
roning subcommittee, with the support of Flush-
ing Councilmember John Liu, is trying to tweak
a law requiring religious institutions and doctors'
offices to provide better onsite parking. Right now,
city law says these facilities must provide parking
based on the number of chairs that are fixed to the
floor. Avella contends that many doctors and
churches purposely circumvent this rule by using
folding chairs or not providing seats at all.
"It's a perfect first step," Cassell says of Avel-
la's proposal, which as of late October was
under discussion with officials at the Depart-
ment of City Planning.
The churches, however, fear that the coun-
cilmember's proposal could hamper their abili-
ty to serve their parishioners. Noting that the
150 Korean churches in Flushing serve the
poor and operate with limited resources, Rev-
erend Chung of the Council of Korean
Churches of Greater New York asks, "Are we
expected to take money away from providing
services and use it on parking lots?"
Chung, who asserts that a sizeable majority
of congregants live in and around Flushing,
also wonders what other motives opponents in
the area might have: "I hope this isn't just a
measure to keep a growing number of immi-
grants from moving into the neighborhood."
Avella calls the charge ridiculous.
Meanwhile, in Greenwich Village, Coun-
cilmember Alan Gerson is taking on larger insti-
tutions, including New York University. Noting
the numerous new buildings the school has built
in recent years, some of which have raised the ire
of the neighbors, Gerson plans to introduce legis-
lation early next year requiring institutions that
take advantage of the community facility provi-
sions more than three times in a defined area to
undergo a public review process. The institution
would have to present its proposal to community
boards, the borough president and City Council.
These larger institutional strucrures have sig-
nificantly altered the "feel, function and charac-
ter" of the Village, says Andrew Berman, director
of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic
CITY LIMITS
Preservation, which supports Gerson's efforts.
According to Berman, NYU has used the com-
munity facility bonus to construct 11 high-rise
buildings since the late 1980s, all of which are at
least twice as large as the surrounding buildings.
Some community institutions warn that
delaying or limiting their expansion could
actually hurt neighborhoods. Restrictive meas-
ures, argues NYU spokesperson John Beck-
man, could negatively affect "not only the city's
already distressed economy, but also the rede-
velopment of lower Manhattan." Brian Con-
way of the Greater New York Hospital Associ-
ation adds, "This will certainly make it more
Boxed Out
THESE DAYS, gyms seem to come and go with-
out much notice. But in East Harlem, the
demise of a 30-year-old boxing program has
politicians lining up for and against it, as the
owners' son and grandson try to avoid jail time
for assaulting city Parks workers.
Last January, the city Parks Department
kicked the Gladiators, a boxing club started by
local activists Mickey and Negra Rosario in
1973, out of their headquarters at the Thomas
Jefferson Recreational Center on First Avenue.
The eviction came after more than a decade
of out-of-the-ring altercations between the cen-
ter's employees and the Rosarios-at least 20,
according to records marked "The X Files" kept
by the rec center's manager.
The final straw came on the night of Janu-
ary 4, when Mickey's son Ralph, 35, a former
Golden Gloves boxer, and Mickey's 22-year-old
grandson Miguel allegedly beat up a Parks
worker at Thomas Jefferson. A week earlier, the
city had suspended Mickey from the center for
a month for getting into a shoving match with
a few city employees. The younger Rosarios
spent the night in jail and were charged with
difficult, and more costly, for hospitals to pro-
vide needed services to the community."
At the same time, some city planners believe
the proposals are not strong enough. "This is a
very timid response to a very serious problem,"
says Norman Marcus, a wning expert and for-
mer counsel to the city's Planning Commis-
sion. The as-of-right privilege has been like a
"cancer on residential neighborhoods," and
focusing on parking is like treating a symptom
while allowing the disease to spread, he added.
Clearly, both legislators face an uphill battle.
Historically, the city has been reluctant to make
comprehensive wning changes. In 2000, then-
assault and harassment. They claim that they ~ " _____ IIIIii ________ "
were the ones who were attacked. The case goes
to court on November 2l.
"Over the past 10 years, this group has
demonstrated far and away the worst behavior
by its leadership of any of the many communi-
ty-based organizations which use our facilities, "
says a Parks Department spokesperson.
The Rosarios, however, argue they have
done nothing but good for the neighborhood.
A former gang member and 82nd Airborne
veteran, Mickey began teaching his two sons
DECEMBER 2002
and other kids in the neighborhood to punch
the bags that hung from their living room ceil-
ing in the 1960s. In 1968, with the support of
local police, he started the boxing program,
and five years later, the club moved to Thomas
Jefferson Recreation Center, where the Rosar-
ios trained about 90 kids each day.
"They devoted a lot of time to the young-
sters, getting them off the street, teaching them
a sport," says retired Detective Carmelo Ortiz
FRONT llNES
Planning Commissioner Joseph Rose introduced
a package of wning reforms, most of which
didn't make it out of the Planning Commission.
One of his proposals called for restricting the
height of community facilities in certain neigh-
borhoods, an idea heavily contested by a number
of institutions, including the hospital association.
Still, Gerson is determined to accomplish
reform: "This needs to be understood as an
adoption of good, rational planning and not an
attack on institutions."
Aimee Molloy is a Brooklyn-based freelance
writer.
of the 25th Precinct.
But after some territorial conflicts, the Parks
Department didn't take to them so kindly. "It
was clear that Parks wanted the Gladiators
out," says Ralph Rosario.
To try to keep the club going, the director
of the nearby laGuardia House community
center on East 116th Street has given the
Gladiators its basement. The Rosarios "have
done wonderful work for quite a long while,
not just boxing-wise but human-wise," says
Lew Zuchman, executive director of the Sup-
portive Children's Advocacy Network at
LaGuardia.
But with meager facilities there, some local
elected officials are trying to get the city to
reconsider and bring the Gladiators back to
Thomas Jefferson. Congresswoman Carolyn
Maloney has written letters to the Parks
Department, while state Assemblymember
Adam Clayton Powell IV and state Senator
Olga Mendez have publicly and privately
voiced their displeasure.
Not every elected official is in the Rosarios'
corner, though. City Councilmember Phil
Reed says the family's behavior "can't be toler-
ated. We need to find alternative programs for
kids in this neighborhood. "
For now, the city has filled the old boxing
gym with a new fitness and weightlifting area,
along with expanded aerobics and martial arts
classes that now draw an additional 160 people,
mostly adults, to the center.
Some local boxers are still hoping that the
Rosarios can continue to do what they've been
doing. "What Mickey and Negra have given
me can't be put into words," says Angel Oli-
vares, 41, a stocky, gap-toothed, crew cut
heavyweight who's been boxing with the Glad-
iators since he was 11. "If you believe in tooth
fairies, the Rosarios are them. "
-Michael Kubin
9
FRONTLINES
Stopping the Predators
ON OCTOBER 3, Governor George Pataki
signed into law an anti-predatory lending act,
making New York only the third state in the
nation to put legislation battling high-cost
loans on the books.
"It's just incredible," says Sarah Ludwig,
coordinator of New Yorkers for Responsible
Lending, which has lobbied for the bill for
more than two years. "This will change the way
the industry operates."
Slated to take effect in April, the law is
expected to have far-reaching effects in the
five boroughs. According to the Neighbor-
hood Economic Development Advocacy Pro-
ject, in 2000 high cost (or "sub-prime")
lenders made 36 percent of the refinancing
loans citywide. In Jamaica, Queens, they com-
prised 56 percent of refinancing loans made,
and in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, they
made up 65 percent.
10
While high-cost loans themselves are not
illegal, Ludwig believes the new law will deter
lenders from taking advantage of people who
take out those loans.
The law applies to loans which have an inter-
est rate at least 8 percent higher than the Trea-
sury rate, or have fees that total more than 5
percent of the loan amount. Under the legisla-
tion, the state will penalize any high cost
lender-whether a bank or a mortgage
lender-that accelerates the payback schedule
on the loan, or that increases the interest rate
afrer a homeowner has defaulted on a payment.
A borrower who took out such a loan can
now file a complaint in court, and if the judge
finds in his favor, then the lender might be
required to forfeit all earned and unearned
interest, fees and closing costs charged on the
loan. Depending on the offense, the borrower
might get a full refund on any payments
made, and the lender might also have to pay
at least $5,000 per violation, as well as attor-
ney's fees.
"What is significant about this law is [it cre-
ates] defenses to foreclosure, " says Ludwig. Up
OPENCITY
Joshua Farley
to now, she explains, homeowners facing fore-
closure had great difficulty citing predatory
lending practices as a reason they should be
able to hold onto their homes. "The law gives
them the legal hooks they need," she said.
The fight to protect low-income homeown-
ers from high-cost loans is not over, however.
An even more ambitious bill passed by the City
Council in late September would ptohibit the
city from doing business with any bank or
lender that makes predatory loans. Mayor
Bloomberg vetoed that bill on October 23, but
at press time, sources said the Council had
enough votes to override him.
And its proponents are hopeful the legisla-
tion would make a difference even without the
mayor's support. "It would provide a stronger
incentive for lenders to play by the rules," says
Don Baylor of ACORN. Because the bill
would require that the comptroller investigate
the practices of the banks with which the city
does business, "There will be a public process,"
says Baylor. "The shame will be out in
the open."
-Jamie Katz
Bedford Aven ue
and South 2nd
Street, Brooklyn,
August 2002.
CITY LIMITS
INSIDETRACK
Stacked Cards
For tens of thousands of immigrants, the biggest threat to security
is a work permit process that has ground to a halt. By Adam Fifield
Immigration law offices have been filing record numbers of green card applications.
WEARING AN EXPENSIVE SUIT and toting a Coach
bag, an attractive Indian woman walks into the
fluorescent-lit waiting room of a Lower Manhat-
tan law office on an October afternoon. Some-
where down a long hall, a fax machine whirs and
voices echo. Sitting, she glances tentatively at the
other people encamped along the small bank of
chairs. She picks up a magazine but does not
read it. She waits. This is a skill the 35-year-old
financial consultant with an MBA from Colum-
bia University has perfected over the last four
years, since her quest for a green card began.
Permitted to stay in the country until next
March by a temporary work visa, she is seeking
permanent U.S. residency through the spon-
sorship of her employer. But her employer's
petition, filed in June 1998, has remained
DECEMBER 2002
frozen in the first stage of the process-a tortu-
ous procedure with the appropriately arcane
name "alien labor certification."
Administered by the U.S. Department of
Labor and state labor departments, the program
was designed to make sure that foreigners did
not siphon jobs away from the American work-
force. It has also allowed a significant number of
immigrants, skilled in everything from house-
keeping to computer programming, to get legal
permission to work permanently in the U.S.
But over the last two years, a surge in applica-
tions-spurred largely by an act of Congress
intended to make work permits easier to get-
has brought labor certification to a near-halt.
Steep staff cuts have lefr both the federal and state
labor agencies overwhelmed with paperwork that
they do not have the capacity to process.
Obtaining a labor certification in New York
has now become a years-long ordeal. New York
State currently has the worst delays in the coun-
try, with more than 50,000 applications pend-
ing. In October 2002, the New York State
Department of Labor was processing applica-
tions from October 1998, and a newer fast-track
process is backed up by a year and a hal And
that's just step one: Once they are approved by
the state agency, applications must go to the
U.S. Labor Department's regional office-
which is still processing December 2001 paper-
work. Only then can they proceed on to the
Immigration and Naturalization Service.
All in all, these delays result in a wait of as
much as five years for a labor certification in New
York State. The fast-track alternative, the avenue
most employers seeking a labor certification now
pursue, can take as long as two years.
As a result, one of the biggest barriers these
days to tens of thousands of immigrants seeking
to settle in New York is not an INS anti-terror
initiative, but the weak economy. Under federal
law, employers sponsoring an immigrant for a
green card must prove that no qualified U.S.
candidates exist for the job. With unemploy-
ment creeping upward in most industries, that is
increasingly hard for them to do: Jobs that might
have had few applicants when the paperwork
was first fued are now much more likely to have
acceptable resident candidates seeking them.
"Right now, things that were shortages a year
ago, it's generally accepted they're not shortages
anymore," says a staffer at the U.S. Department
of Labor who asked to not be named.
The financial consultant visiting her
lawyer's office is all too aware that there are no
guarantees she' ll prevail. "The uncertainty is
very scary," she says. "If my application is not
cleared by the time my visa runs out, I might
get thrown out of the country."
THE HElLISH GREEN CARD bureacracy was created
by a single clause of the 1952 Immigration and
Nationality Act. It has since grown into dozens
of pages of regulations and policy directives. The
heart of the process, the primary hurdle for any
company wishing to hire a foreign worker, is a
11
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Your Neighborhood Housing Insurance Specialist
test of the often mercurial labor market. "I tell my
clients it's like fishing, " says Manhattan immigra-
tion attorney Allen E. Kaye. "You put a hook in
the water, and if you can show there are no qual-
wed fish in the pond at the prevailing wage, then
you'll get the labor certification. "
Employers must follow a series of steps,
including a recruitment effort supervised by the
local labor department in which they are
required to demonstrate, by advertising in news-
papers and elsewhere, that there are no U.S.
workers able, willing and qualified to take the
job sought by the foreign worker. If a u.s. work-
er with minimum skills rums up, even if those
qualifications pale next to those of the foreign
worker, the local labor department will recom-
mend that the labor certification application be
denied. Successful applications, meanwhile,
move on to the feds.
But employers and their advocates say that this
procedure has essentially ceased to function. ''That
kind of system made sense when it only took three
months from start to finish," says Theresa Cardinal
Brown, director of immigration policy for the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce. "Now you've got a
process that takes three years or more."
In October 1996, the U.S. Department of
Labor developed a tonic for its sluggish labor cer-
tification system-an alternative, fast-track appli-
cation called Reduction in Recruitment (RIR). It
allows an employer to seek job candidates prior to
submining an application for a foreigner to take
the position, eliminating the cumbersome proce-
dure of a supervised recruitment drive.
RIRs are generally given priority over tradi-
tional applications, but not everyone can fue one.
Labor Department guidelines stipulate that an
RIR is permitted only for occupations for which
"there is lime or no availability" of American
workers and that have no "restrictive job require-
ments," such as special language skills. That sec-
ond measure is meant to discourage employers
from creating highly specific job descriptions tai-
lored to their immigrant candidate.
Nonetheless, RIRs became hugely popular
among delay-weary employers and foreign work-
ers-whether they met the criteria or not. Now
RIR applications are backlogged as well.
Tightening labor markets are only making the
delays worse. If there have been layoffs in a par-
ticular industry, the U.S. Department of Labor
often compels companies to run additional adver-
tisements. And if a company sponsoring a work-
er has laid off employees, it must explain why
none of those workers was considered for the
position sought by the foreign applicant.
In the current economy, such restrictive meas-
ures were probably inevitable. What truly vexes
many companies and foreign workers is the lack
of predictability. Says David Grunblatt, an immi-
gration attorney with Wildes, Weinberg, Grun-
CITY LIMITS
blatt & Wildes, P.C, a Manhattan law firm,
"Nobody can plan, and everybody's in a panic."
DELAYS IN LABOR certification have existed for at
least a decade, but lawyers for workers and
employers blame a well-intentioned act of Con-
gress for making matters worse.
Section 245(i) of the immigration law, which
allowed illegal immigrants to apply for perma-
nent residency without leaving the U.S., original-
ly expired in January 1998. When Washington
revived it for four months in the the spring of
2001, the number of labor certification applica-
tions exploded, from an average of about 100,000
each year to 235,000 in those four months alone.
That year, the number of applications in New
York State increased sixfold. According to U.S.
Department of Labor figures, 51,924 applica-
tions were piled onto the state's more than
10,000 applications from the previous year. Just
9,619 were processed in 2001. In the first six
months of 2002, the New York State Depart-
ment of Labor received another 4,850 applica-
tions and processed just 5,734, leaving a total of
53,027 applications still pending. "245(i) is what
really buried us, " says a second source at the U.S.
Department of Labor. "It was a total knockout. "
It didn't help that many of the labor certifica-
tion applications clogging the works are less than
legitimate, variously described by immigration
attorneys as "junk," "crap" and "deadwood."
"When these deadlines came for 245(i), people
were desperate to file, " says Grunblatt. "It was
like a stock market panic. Many people thought
it was some kind of amnesry, and they all knew
that ' if I get something into the system, that will
protect me.' So you had the most ridiculous job
offers and incomplete paperwork done."
The brief reinstatement of 245(i) offered
needed protection to illegal immigrants, but it
also greatly increased the wait for those seeking
a green card through employer sponsorship. "It's
an ironic result that in an effort to create certain
protections for persons who've been here with-
out lawful status, the result of that is, in large
measure, to harm the abiliry of lawful immi-
grants to the U.S. to become permanent resi-
dents in a timely basis, " says Ted Ruthizer, head
of the corporate immigration group at Bryan
Cave LLP. "Nobody thought through and made
any provisions for how to deal with that."
In fact, Congress did worse than fail to make
provisions for the onslaught: It passed steep budg-
et cuts for the bureacracies processing all the
paperwork. Federal funding for the units process-
ing work applications decreased by about half over
the last 10 years, according to the U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor, even while the workload more
than doubled. States, which get reimbursed by the
feds to administer their programs, have borne the
brunt of these cuts. In the last two years alone, fed-
DECEMBER 2002
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INSIDE TRACK
eral money allocated to state programs shrank
&om $40 million to $26.1 million.
"The states are our first line," says the depart-
ment staffer. "And they're oveIWhelmed. They
haven't had any increase in staff. In fact, they've
decreased staff significantly in the last few years,
while getting a tremendous increase in workload."
In the U.S. Department of Labor's regional
New York office, the number of staff has steadi-
ly decreased, dropping &om 20 in 1994 to 14 in
2002. At the same time, labor certification
applications received annually by the New York
regional office rose from 6,530 in 1997 to
12,300 in 2002.
Staff cuts have also hit the labor certification
division at the New York State Department of
Labor, but a spokesperson refused to provide
specifics, referring inquiries to the U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor. "It's their program."
Not necessarily so, says the U.S. Department
of Labor staffer. "We fund the states and we give
them the guidelines, but it really is a state-run
program."
WAITING FOR A LABOR CERTIFICATION applica-
tion to break free of bureaucratic amber o&en
means plans put on hold and dreams deferred.
"I have clients who have aspirations," says
immigration attorney Mark Kalish. "They
want to start their own businesses. I tell them,
Commitment is
you can't, not until you got your green card."
A civil engineer from South America, who
only recently filed his application and has less
than a year le& on his work visa, says he feels like
he cannot think about the future. "I don't want
to plan too far ahead. I might have to leave."
Many foreign workers in the labor certification
line take great pains to remain in their employer's
good graces, even if they are being mistreated. The
civil engineer, for one, is reluctant to ask his
employer for time off. "I can't afford to," he says.
Anomey Jun Wang has had clients whose
employers have withdrawn their labor certification
applications midway through the process. When a
foreign worker is fired or laid off, says Wang, the
labor certification clock usually winds back to zero.
"I have clients who were let go because of the eco-
nomic downturn," says Wang. ' ~ d it happened
during the process of the labor certification. They
have to find a new employer, change their status,
and the labor certification has to start all over
again-if the new employer is willing to do it."
There are pockets of hope. Employees with
temporary work visas &et that their visas will
expire before they get their labor certification,
but attorneys report that the New York State
Department of Labor is o&en willing to expedite
an application if a worker's visa is close to run-
ning out. "I have to give them a compliment,"
says attorney Deborah Norkin, "in that they're
reasonable and efficient in how they expedite the
case when you give them really good cause."
Another bright spot emerged this fall, when
Congress approved, as part of the Department
of Justice budget bill, a provision allowing
extensions of H-IB temporary work visas in
one-year increments if a labor certification has
been pending for at least 365 days.
And this May, the U.S. Department of Labor
issued a proposal to overhaul the program. Called
PERM for "permanent," the new regulations
would allow employers to file directly with
regional offices of the U.S. Department of Labor.
Applications would be processed in an automat-
ed system that could take as little as 21 days. The
trade-off is that random applications would be
subject to full audits, and lawyers will likely have
a harder time haggling over technicalities that
could make all the difference for their clients.
The proposed new system is a mixed bag, as
Allen E. Kaye sees it, but he gives the govern-
ment credit for trying to reform: "There's a lot
of good in it. And there's a lot of bad in it. But
they have to do something."
Adam Fifield is the author of A Blessing Over
Ashes: The Remarkable Odyssey of My Unlike-
ly Brother and a collaborator with l.%yne Bar-
rett on Rudy! An Investigative Biography of
Rudolph Giuliani.
Tomorrovv starts today
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14
CITY LIMITS
Matt Pacen,a
For once , psychologists and politicians agree: Adults who need
help taking care of themselves are better off living at home ,
not In hospitals. But who's gOIng to rescue the agency that's
supposed to keep them housed? BY MATT PACENZA
M
iss Leslie is bored. She's waiting outside a brick apartment
building just south of Prospect Park for a city marshal to show
up and evict a tenant. As a caseworker for the city agency
Adult Protective Services (APS), her job is to assist adults who have trou-
ble caring for themselves because of physical or mental disabilities.
On this cool October morning, Miss Leslie is fulfilling her final
responsibility in the case of Mary Ann Stroud, a disabled 50-year-old
who will lose her apartment because she fell behind on her rent. Leslie's
brief efforts to put the eviction on hold failed. As she explains it, she just
got the case a few weeks ago, so there was little she could do. Now her
only role is to be sure that Stroud has a safe place to go.
A neighbor walks up to Miss Leslie demanding to know what's going
on. When he finds out Stroud is in the process of being evicted, he's pissed.
"She can barely get down the steps!" he tells Miss Leslie. When the case-
worker says that Stroud might not be able to keep her three dogs, his anger
builds. "It's bad enough she's losing her apartment," he says, shaking his
head. "Now you want to take her dogs away too? She loves those dogs!"
Miss Leslie doesn't show much sympathy for Stroud. It's a tough city.
There's not much housing available on Stroud's $604-a-month budget, and
DECEMBER 2002
there's nothing either she or APS can do about that. When Stroud had asked
her a few days ago how she could find a new apartment after the eviction, "I
told her, 'Write your Congressman,'" Miss Leslie says, smoking menthol cig-
arenes as she calmly waits. "We're not in the real estate business."
Fifteen minutes later, the eviction is complete. The marshal arrives,
the super opens up Stroud's apartment. Finding neither her nor her dogs
present, the marshal puts new locks on the door.
Just a few blocks away, at a park bench in the Parade Grounds, Stroud
sits sleepily, the three mid-sized, mixed-breed dogs-Jada, Jasmine and
Moet--calmly at her feet . She can sleep on a friend's couch around the
corner for a few weeks, and she has found a place for the dogs for at least
a few days. After that? Who knows.
She was up all night packing stuff to move out, but Stroud coherent-
ly details the story of how she came to lose her apartment. It's rather dif-
ferent than Miss Leslie's version.
"My case was terribly mismanaged," says Stroud, a bright but clearly
pained woman whose spiral into homelessness began in December 2000,
when she tripped on the sidewalk, stepped in a hole and broke her foot
badly. She lost her $9-an-hour receptionist job at the Pacific College of
lS
Oriental Medicine, which had been just enough salary to pay for her
$775 one-bedroom apartment. For several months, she was able to pay
her rent with her savings and that modest disabiliry check. But begin-
ning in June 2001, she fell behind.
That September, her landlord began the lengthy eviction process. For
the next year, despite debilitating back pain that arose after her foot
injury, Stroud tenaciously sought help. Her hope was to get enough
money from the government to pay her back rent, and then to find a
decent job again. But in a series of bewildering bureaucratic moves, the
ciry Human Resources Administration denied her rent application twice,
for different reasons each time, even after she presented her case at an
appeal hearing. Then, as her eviction date grew near, and a Housing
Court judge determined that her injuries were sufficient to incapacitate
her, she was ultimately directed to APS and Miss Leslie.
On September this 10, Miss Leslie visited Stroud at her apartment,
institutions in New York that house the mentally ill and elderly, according
to recent high-proftle news reportS. Such horror stories have reinforced
what professionals had already concluded: The best place for adultS who
need some help, whether due to age or mental infirmiry, is in the com-
muniry, not an institution.
Studies show that both the elderly and mentally ill maintain their health
and independence longer when they live in familiar environmentS. And
even if a vulnerable adult getS an array of supportive services while at home,
research shows that's still less costly than the institutional alternatives.
"A lot more effortS are going on to maintain people with various kinds
of cognitive impairmentS at home," says Stephen Crystal, a Rutgers Uni-
versiry professor who studies aging. "We're continuing as a sociery to try
and move away from the institutional model in long term care."
Three years ago, the u.S. Supreme Court weighed in and agreed: A
person with mild to moderate disabilities should remain living at home.
If such a person doesn't have family or friends
ROBERT WI LLIAMS IS A PROTECTIVE
to make sure he pays his rent, keeps his apart-
ment moderately clean, eats properly and gets
periodic medical attention, it's up to the gov-
ernment to step in.
S ERVICES SUCCESS STORY: HE GOT HE LP
W ITH T HE RENT AND A FI NANCIAL PLAN .
Gregory P. Mango
and suggested various possibilities for averting the eviction. Maybe they
could get part of the back rent from an outside chariry, or try to convince
the landlord's attorneys to wait a few months, until Stroud's health
cleared up enough for her to get a job and start paying the rent back.
Stroud was thrilled, optimistic for the first time in several months that
there was a chance she might not lose her apartment. According to
Stroud, Miss Leslie then promised to mail the chariry application and a
sample attorney letter so that they could begin the fight.
The paperwork never came. The next time Stroud saw Leslie was the
day of her eviction.
T
hey're dangerous. Their staff is ill trained, and some workers even
have criminal records. Their doors are locked and their clientS are
neglected-sometimes actively abused. That's the assessment of
16
In New York, that's explicitly the mission of
Adult Protective Services, a division of the
ciry's Human Resources Administration,
charged by state law with helping anyone over
18 who because of mental or physical impair-
ments can no longer provide for his or her
basic needs, and who has no family or friend
willing to help. APS is the front line of a
defense designed to allow some of sociery's
most vulnerable members to live safely in their
own homes-not in institutions.
It's a broad mission, one that translates into
everything from paying the bills for a slightly
absentminded old person to hiring a cleaning
company to throwaway years of accumulated
junk in a still-occupied apartment. APS is not
the only authoriry with responsibiliry for the
elderly and mentally ill-guardians appointed
by state judges also play a role [see "On
Guardian," page 19l-but it is the first call for
a neighbor who's disturbed by the growing
smell from next door. Or, as in Stroud's case,
from a Housing Court judge concerned that
an eviction will throw a disabled adult into the street.
Those calls are answered. But far too often, according to profession-
als who work with the elderly and mentally ill, APS caseworkers make
mistakes and misjudgments, and the clients they're supposed to be help-
ing remain mired in crisis.
Take the case of Mr. B, a 65-year-old mentally retarded man who
lived in a tiny room at a Queens SRO hotel on a small amount of money
he earned ftom part-time work. In early 2001, Mr. B's landlord tried to
have him evicted because his room was cluttered with junk. Mr. B's
attorney, Kim Breger of Legal Services for the Elderly (who declined to
share her client's full name) was able to convince the landlord to let Mr.
B stay, as long as his room was professionally cleaned from time to time.
Breger turned to APS, which had been helping Mr. B manage his
finances for several years, and asked them to get her client on Medicaid
CITY LIMITS
home care, which would pay for the housekeeping.
More than a year passed. APS never applied for home care for Mr. B,
despite repeated entreaties from both Breger and the Housing Court
judge. The room never got cleaned-and still hasn't been to this day. Mr.
B ended up losing his room a few months ago, not due to an eviction,
but when he entered the hospital.
T
hose simple failures-to fill out the proper form; to make the
right phone call-regularly mar APS' work, say professionals who
work with elderly and mentally ill New Yorkers. "Cases just get
forgotten about for months," says Ed Josephson, director of the housing
law unit at South Brooklyn Legal Services.
APS' problem-solving reputation is so bad that many social workers
and attorneys say they have learned to contact the agency only in the
direst situations, out of the fear that as caseworkers solve small problems
they may create bigger ones. Lawyers tell stories of clients for whom APS
sought to appoint permanent legal guardians with absolute decision-
making power, even when they themselves felt confident the client only
needed their house cleaned and their bills paid. "We don't want to let a
government agency off the hook," says Denise Tomasini, an attorney
with the Goddard-Riverside Tenant Assistance Project. "But it's just not
good for our clients. We avoid them like the plague. "
The case of Mary Ann Stroud is hardly the worst horror story of what
happens when APS fails . Miss Leslie's lack of followup may have helped
her lose her apartment, but Stroud is fortunate to have some friends who
can put her up at least temporarily, and enough skills to land her a job
once her health clears up.
But take a close look at how little Miss Leslie actually did, other than
make sure that Mary Ann Stroud didn't get thrown out OntO the street-
or shot by a marshal. The roots of the work that APS does today-and
doesn't do--can be traced back to 1984, when cops killed Eleanor
Burnpurs, a severely mentally ill 66-year-old woman who was shot after
violently resisting her eviction from a housing project. She owed just
$417.10 in back rent.
The case generated massive publiciry, and since then making sure that
evictions don't lead to tragedy has been one of APS' principal mandates.
In fact, a full 60 percent of its cutrent caseload begins with the threat of
an eviction. It's critical work. If your mission is caring for the old and
sick, and institutions are an unpalatable alternative, then fighting to keep
vulnerable adults in their homes is necessarily a prioriry. Especially in a
ciry with historic housing shortages and landlords always eager to bring
in higher paying tenants.
Would-be Eleanor Burnpurses are threatened with eviction every sin-
gle day. At a minimum, APS is there when the ciry marshal arrives, to
make sure a bad situation doesn't become worse. But at some point, does
preventing tragedy amount to allowing evictions to happen?
In most of the evictions that Tina Brooks of the Urban Justice Cen-
ter has wimessed, she says the caseworkers are chiefly focused on ensur-
ing that the eviction happens without interruption: "They seem to be
there to make sure the tenant doesn't obstruct the marshal."
D
eciding whether to keep an older or mentally ill person in the
communiry calls for decisions that are rarely clear-cut. Just
because a mentally ill woman stinks because she rarely bathes,
does that mean she can't take care of herself? When an old woman has
six dogs that piss and shit on newspapers that don't get changed, is that
a sign of incompetence? Does an ailing elderly man who has only eaten
DECEMBER 2002
potato chips and butter for the last fWo years need a guardian? Is wear-
ing shorts outside all winter a sign of dementia?
Such trying ethical and social work dilemmas define the work of the
APS staff. Even if they do a terrific job, their work is always underap-
preciated. Most of their clients don't want help. Clients' neighbors or
associates are rarely pleased with the outcome, either unhappy that the
person wasn't evicted or the apartment remains dirry, or angry that their
friend was moved to an institution.
The agency does have its success stories. In June, Robert Williams, a 50-
year-old man with mild mental retardation, found an eviction notice tacked
to the door of his room at a Central Harlem SRO hotel, where his rent is
$240 a month. His landlord wanted to evict him for owing a few months
rent that Williams had missed paying while visiting relatives in the South.
When he went before a Housing Court judge in July, he feared he
might lose the tiny, cluttered room, equipped with cable TV, a phone
and plenry of canned food, that he has called home for a decade. But the
Deciding whether t o keep an
old or ment a ll y ill person
living at home i sn 't s i mple .
Just because a woman st inks
up he r hallway because she
rarely bathes , does it mean
she can ' t ca r e fo r he r s el f?
Does an ail ing elderly man
who eats only potato ch i ps
and butter need a
legal guard ian ?
judge quickly reassured his fears, put the eviction on hold, and directed
him to an APS caseworker so that he could try and get his back rent.
It worked. The city approved a grant to pay his back rent, and APS
put Williams on a financial management plan so that he doesn't fall
behind again. That's good, Williams says, since not being able to read or
write makes paying bills difficult. Now, he says, "I'm up to date. Every-
thing seems to be working out perfect. "
Such experiences show how much APS can and does matter. Only
this agency has the legal power to pay bills for an easily confused client,
or to make sure she doesn't face eviction while simultaneously having
thousands in the bank or under the mattress. Its caseworkers can con-
vince colleagues at the ciry's social services agency to approve one-time
grants for back rent to avoid evictions. They can bring a psychiatrist to
a tenant's home to determine the extent of a mental disabiliry, or order
a cleaning team to make an apartment safe.
The need for its services is only increasing. Not only is there new
17
momentum to keep mentally ill people living in the community, but the
sheer number of very old people in New York City is growing. There are
1.3 million people age 60 and over. The number older than S5 grew by
lS.7 percent berween 1990 and 2000.
O
n February 5, a city marshal evicted 79-year-old Mattie
Thompson and her sister Mary from the Morningside Heights
apartment where Mattie had lived for nearly half a century
(Mary arrived in 1965). The next day, their landlord immediately rent-
ed out their rent-controlled apartment to a new tenant, raising the rent
from $246 to $SOO.
The sisters were forced into a nearby nursing home. With limited
incomes-about $1,600 in Social Security each month berween the rwo
of them-and Mattie's diabetes and recent bout with breast cancer, look-
ing for a new apartment was unthinkable. ''Age is starting to get to me,"
Mattie, a retired nurse's aide, told her HRA psychiatrist.
This work has a well-earned
reputat i on for being l i terally
the dirtiest in social
services. Many of i ts
caseworkers couldn 't get
jobs at other ci ty agenc i es.
"It 's like they say in EI Paso
about the Red Ri ve r," says
one nonprofi t executive. " By
the time the
her e ,
r i ver runs down
it' s pr etty dry."
Keeping the Thompsons in their apartment should have been as sim-
ple as applying for $13,000 in emergency back rent from the city. (Accord-
ing to APS, about SO percent of the applications for back rent it makes are
approved.) The Thompsons' application was ultimately okayed-but not
until four months after they were evicted, once a Housing Court judge dis-
covered that the Thompsons' APS caseworker and their court-appointed
guardian both failed to ask for the correct amount of back rent.
The Thompsons' case, unlike so many others, ended well. Judge
Michelle Schreiber ordered the sisters returned to their apartment fol-
lowing what she called an "utter failure" on the part of both the agency
and the coun-appointed guardian. It was not a decision made lightly-
Judge Schreiber had to evict the 37-year-old woman who had subse-
quently moved into the apartment.
APS agrees with the judge's decision. An agency spokesperson said
"errors were made," and pledged to "make every effort to see that this
never happens again."
18
Errors similar to those that nearly left the Thompsons marooned in a
nursing home plague every step of the process that's supposed to keep vul-
nerable adults in their homes, attorneys and advocates for the elderly say.
Referrals to APS-typically from a neighbor, landlord or Housing
Court judge-are fust screened by phone. Most are initially accepted,
then forwarded to the agency's more rigorous assessment unit, which has
60 days to decide if the agency will offer its services.
Once a case is accepted, APS provides resources that range from
house cleaning to financial management. For the bulk of its cases, the
first step is to try and apply for emergency housing funds from HRA's
rental assistance unit, which aids not just APS clients but welfare recipi-
ents and other needy New Yorkers, too. (Last year, APS received $1.1
million in back rent funding for 41S clients.) The grants for back rent
are one-shot deals, however, and HRA will only approve an application
if a client currently earns enough money to guarantee his or her ability
to pay future rent. Mary Ann Stroud, for one, failed that test.
APS caseworker Miss Leslie says that these resources are difficult to
procure for clients. When she asks for benefits from other HRA depart-
ments, like those that award Medicaid or food stamps or cash assistance,
she is often thwarted. "We're all in the same agency," Miss Leslie said that
morning, before Stroud's eviction, "but to get anything done you have
to .. . " and she waves her index finger in the air around and around.
While APS isn't unique for having bureaucratic snafus and delays, con-
sider the state of its clientele. Most have some blend of mental illness,
dementia, paranoia and physical disabilities. "It's impossible for an attorney
to navigate APS," says Tomasini, "I can't even imagine being mentally ill."
At the heart of the pattern of small but critical mistakes that perme-
ate APS' work are the agency's 220 caseworkers, critics say. There's no
question that APS casework is difficult: Entering an apartment where
someone of questionable mental stability lives requires courage. Having
the fortitude to investigate the cause of an overwhelming odor of feces
demands an unusually steady will. Gently quizzing a suspicious and like-
ly hostile client calls for strong communication skills. But given all that,
APS caseworkers far too often lack the basic skills and commitment
required to do even an adequate job.
Critics point to APS' hiring process as a major problem. Prospective
caseworkers need a bachelor's degree and have to pass a general civil ser-
vice exam for entry-level caseworkers. Those who pass can apply for any
open caseworker slots, in agencies from Department for the Aging to the
Administration for Children's Services. Since APS work has a well-earned
reputation for being literally the dirtiest and most thankless, observers
say, it's generally the least qualified caseworkers-the ones who can't get
hired at other agencies-who apply to APS. "It's like they say in El Paso
about the Red River," offers Ken Onaitis, the director of the crime vic-
tims assistance program at the Burden Center for the Aging on the
Upper East Side. "By the time the river runs down here, it's pretty dry."
Agency perks lag behind those of their colleagues at agencies like
ACS, which entices new employees through prospects of career advance-
ment: The children's agency added a program in 1999 that helps new
caseworkers earn a master's in social work after hours.
Hiring and retaining staff has been so difficult for APS that only
recently-and briefly-was the agency able to meet its state-mandated
goals for caseload ratios, which are 15-to-1 for its eviction and assess-
ment units and 25-to-1 for its ongoing care unit. As recently as June
2001 , when the City Council held a hearing on protective services, the
caseworker's union chief, Charles Ensley, testified that ratios regularly
went above 40-to-1.
CITY LIMITS
D
espite their grievances with the city services assigned to keep vul-
nerable adults in their aparrments, the professionals who work
with the elderly and mentally ill say they want more of them.
They may throw up their hands at the months it takes to file a piece of
paperwork, or the caseworker who misses repeated appoinrments, but
social workers and attorneys say that, ultimately, their clients need APS to
be not just better but bigger.
That's because right now, APS refuses to assist most people who seek its
services. Last year, the agency rejected 5,823 of the 7,919 cases it assessed.
APS Deputy Commissioner Linn Saberski, who reports directly to HRA
Commissioner Verna Eggleston, says they're just following the law. For each
of those denials, APS determined either that the client was in good enough
mental and physical shape to take care of herself, or they discovered some-
one else, like a friend or relative, who could take care of her instead.
Not true, say the agency's critics, who say that adults who clearly need
outside help to stay in their homes are consistently refused. Most com-
monly, they say, APS automatically rejects anyone who has an attorney
or caring neighbor or even a distant relative, even when that support is
clearly inadequate.
For example, Tomasini remembers an elderly man whom APS refused
to help because his ex-wife-who lived in another state, and had no
intention of helping him-had called them to alert them of his impend-
ing eviction. The agency told Tomasini that her call constituted evidence
that he had family who could step in.
APS also refuses cases if it thinks another city agency might take on
the work. Ed Josephson tells the story of a 37-year-old woman with two
small children and a mental disability whom his office fought to keep in
her house when she was threatened with eviction. APS first turned her
down because a caseworker said it was an Administration for Children's
Services case. Then the agency said that since she had an attorney, she
didn't need help from APS. Ultimately, a judge agreed with Josephson
and ordered APS to take the case.
Critics of APS assume that the agency refuses so many cases because
their resources are limited: With just 220 caseworkers, the thinking goes,
APS decides to accept only the direst cases. But the agency's chief denies
this. "Our decisions aren't based on resources, " says Saberski, stressing
that the only factors are the severity of the potential client's disability and
the presence of other caregivers.
Yet city data itself suggests that resources may in fact be an issue. Even
as the number of referrals has risen sharply over the last four years, from
6,662 to 10,105, the agency has maintained a caseload that's remarkably
similar, always between 3,753 and 4,000. {APS asserts that the number of
referrals has spiked because it has redefined what a referral is.}
The numbers that can't be argued with are the dollars and cents: the
agency's resources have barely increased, from $21 million in 1996 to just
$23.9 million this year, according to the Independent Budget Office.
F
or years, APS seemed impervious to outside criticism. Typical of
its attitude was the response of former Deputy Commissioner
Sandra Glaves-Morgan in 1996, when a New York Times reporter
asked whether she thought her casework staff suffered because few had
specialized training in working with the elderly or the mentally ill. "We
prefer it that way," Glaves-Morgan said. "You really don't want someone
who's a stuffed shirt, 'Hi, I'm an M.S.W, la di da.'"
These days, APS' new leadership seems to be taking client dissatis-
faction more seriously. Its current leadership, personified by Saberski, has
brought positive energy and a listening ear to the agency, critics say.
DECEMBER 2002
"There's some very capable people leading APS," says Janet Lessum, an
attorney at Bet Tzedek Legal Services who has more than a decade of
experience working with the agency.
In her four years, Saberski has instituted a series of reforms, the most
promising of which is a resuucturing of staff territory. Previously, a case-
worker had cases throughout a borough-she might have to visit clients in
both Astoria and Owne Park in the same day. But in a shifr that's already
in place for certain units in Manhattan and will extend to the whole city by
next year, caseworkers and their supervisor are now assigned to geographic
disuicts. Not only will that cut down on travel and allow caseworkers more
ON GUARDIAN
Adult Protective Services can't do the job of keeping an elderly
or mentally ill person in her apartment on its own. More ofren than
not, that battle is played out in Housing Court, where trained legal
representation is essential. Judges will typically appoint an attor-
ney-known as a guardian ad litem, or law guardian-to act as a
legal advocate for a defendant threatened with eviction.
On the face of it, the law guardians seem like an effective means
for keeping indigent vulnerable adults in the community. But
Housing Court observers say their efforts are limited, and even
counterproductive. The problem more than anything is one of
compensation: the court doesn't pay law guardians enough to
aruact lawyers with skills and commitment. They earn about $400
per client, no matter how much work a case demands.
So guardians have a well-earned reputation for minimalist work.
They will cursorily apply for benefits, but won't appeal when denied.
They won't go out of their way to make a case seem compelling in order
to convince jaded judges and HRA caseworkers. Law guardians are also
prone to quickly sign agreements to pay the rent-to delay the eviction
under the hopes the money will eventually come through-without
first making sure that a landlord's claims are legitimate.
"While the guardian idea is well-meaning, they tend not to do a
lot of follow-up," says Toby Golick, director of Cardozo Law
School's Bet Tzedek Legal Services, which provides advice and rep-
resentation to the elderly. Adds Josephson, "They're not the type of
people who make strenuous efforts on behalf of their clients."
One such guardian, Queens attorney Ralph Pennington, defend-
ed his role in the Thompson sisters case {which the judge called an
"utter failure"} by saying that he had done everything he could-it
was the APS caseworker he was working with who failed. ''They
don't act promptly," he says. "They're overwhelmed. " -MP
time, says Saberski, but it will allow APS staff to develop consistent rela-
tionships with neighborhood institutions that already serve the elderly. "We
hope it will lead to more joint work on our clients' cases," she says.
Neighborhood groups in Manhattan say they welcome the change-
in fact, they lobbied for it for years. Local help is essential, says Rebecca
Carel, executive director of Ft. Washington Houses Services for Elderly
in Washington Heights. "We have a wealth of knowledge. We know
where the grandson lives. We know their favorite food is yogurt. If the
APS caseworker goes in with our worker, the elderly person is much
more likely to be receptive."
continued on page 36
19
Coney
Island
20 CITY LIMITS
Why a bunch of addicts
and drug dealers are
the best th i ng that
ever happened to the
boardwalk.
By Annia Ciezadlo
Photos by Joshua Farley
DECEMBER 2002
A block beyond the boardwalk,
just a bunt away from Coney Island's new
minor league stadium, the women are out
tricking by 11 in the morning. Just before
noon, Jerome Goodwin and Janet Fishman run
into Chocolate and Venus working the Surf
Avenue stroll.
Wearing raspberry velvet stretch pants,
Chocolate is pretty, with only one front tooth
knocked out. Venus is missing aU of her teeth, and
her legs are hideously swollen, but this doesn't
stop her from flirting outrageously with Good-
win, who is taU, older and sternly handsome.
Both women are renegades, meaning they
work for themselves. It's more dangerous that
way, but you make more money-important if
you have a habit to support, which both do.
Chocolate smokes crack. Venus, not to be out-
done, declares, 'Til smoke anything that
smokes, and I'll drink anything that pours."
Chocolate has another life. One of her two
children is going to college, and the other is
working in a law firm. They know what she
does; sometimes, her daughter picks her up
from work and drives her home. ''I'm giving
them a lot, " she says. ''And they have respect for
their mother, because they see I don't bring it
home-I don't bring it around where they live."
Goodwin asks them if they're ready to quit,
and they both laugh. "Nope," says Venus,
clamping shut her toothless jaw and thrusting
her chin in the air. Chocolate shakes her head,
but she doesn't seem so sure. He asks if they use
protection. Venus shrugs and rolls her eyes.
'Tm gonna give it to you straight," he says,
pulling out some condoms, and Chocolate,
switching her hips, replies: "Give it to me raw,
baby! That's the way I like it!"
He does, but not the way she means. "I've
been 12 years sober, 17 years in jail, and 40
years using on the streets," he preaches, and
pauses to let that sink in. "I've been in every
kind of situation, from jail to I even had a gun
in my mouth. And the nigger pulled that trig-
ger and that shit sci11 wouldn't go off, so I know
there's a higher plan for me. "
They stare at him, speechless. "And what
I'm telling you is, you better straighten up"-
he holds up his hand, as if swearing on a
Bible-"or you gonna straighten out," he says,
slowly tilting his forearm down so it lies in
front of him, flat as a corpse.
Half a block from Chocolate and Venus,
toward the boardwalk on 22nd Street, Good-
win and Fishman run into another prostitute,
washing herself at a fire hydrant. "I remember
you guys!" she says, when Goodwin holds out
a little baggie of condoms and soap. "I was
sleeping on the beach, and you left a bag of
condoms right next to my head. I found them
when I woke up." Her leathery, battered face
lights up at the memory of this kindness.
Across the hydrant from her, an elderly,
half-naked man leans over and sticks his head
in the water, ignoring the whole exchange.
Directly behind him, a school bus full of chil-
dren on a day trip to the stadium idles half in
and half out of a parking lot. One little boy
presses his face up to the window, wide-eyed
and a little fearful, taking in the scene.
I nside the office where Goodwin and
Fishman work, there's a map of Coney Island
on the wall, stuck full of color-coded pushpins.
Strung along Surf Avenue where cars cruise, 13
green pins stand for prostitution. Over by
Ocean Parkway, toward Brighton Beach, two
blue pins denote male prostitution. Red is for
drug sales; there are 32 of those, clustered
around Mermaid and Neptune. Right in the
middle of all the red is a lone purple pushpin:
"WE ARE HERE."
"Here" is at the heart of the crackheads'
bazaar, at 19th and Mermaid: a litde white
house, home to a crisis intervention and preven-
tion center called Amethyst Women's Project.
Like the 15 other people who work at
Amethyst, Goodwin and Fishman are used to
the surroundings. Goodwin used to be a drug
dealer, and Fishman was once addicted to
crack. Most of their coworkers are former deal-
ers, addicts and prostitutes, too. Many have
been to jail at least once. Some, like Goodwin,
have done serious time. Now they walk the
streets cruising for clients, passing out con-
doms, urging HIV tests and trying to convince
people to quit doing drugs, all either for noth-
ing or for a paycheck of just $100 a week.
The arrangement is nothing unusual : Most
drug prevention outfits hire former addicts as
counselors and outreach workers. But at
Amethyst, it's not just the counselors who used
to be in that life-it's pretty much everybody,
from the volunteers to the development direc-
tor, all the way up to the executive director her-
self. In fact, the head of the organization didn't
just used to do drugs; she sold them, right here
in Coney Island.
Just five blocks away from where Amethyst
is now, Aida Leon used to deal crack out on
Mermaid Avenue. Back in those days, the
1980s, she had a rep as one of the neighbor-
hood's wiliest dealers. Her friends remember
her as always surrounded by big shots with
money, cars and fancy clothes. "Aida, yeah,
you'd see her hanging out on the Avenue," says
Francisco (Cisco) Gomez III, smiling nostalgi-
2 1
cally. "Her and her boyfriends in their Lincoln
Town Cars-she always had rich guys."
After Aida got clean, she got out of Coney
Island, where every block was a reminder of her
old life. She got married, bought a house,
moved to the suburbs. But as Coney Island was
devastated by AIDS, she kept returning to bury
her old friends, especially the women. So in
1999, she carne back to the neighborhood,
determined to win back her old client base,
what she calls the "lost souls of Brooklyn."
She patrols the same streets she used to sell
drugs on, looking for addicts and prostitutes
and sometimes finding her own past. She'll see
girls out on the streets, using or tricking, and
recognizes them as her
old friends' daughters.
'Til see some girl," she
recounts, "and she'll
say, 'I'm Nilda,' and I'll
be like, 'Shit! I got
high with your mom!'"
Now Aida wins
awards with regularity.
She gets grants from
half a dozen founda-
tions. Several claim
they discovered her
first, bur none of them
are right: She found
them. A few years ago,
at an awards dinner-
she was dressed all in
leather-she collared
her first foundation
officer and coaxed her
into helping out
Amethyst.
"What she has is
charisma, and she's
using her charisma to help others," says
Howard Josepher, one of the godfathers of
harm reduction, an approach to drug treat-
ment that works with active users as well as
those who have already quit. "What you have
there is a charismatic personality who is deter-
mined to do something for her community,
and that usually augurs well for both the per-
son and the community."
Coney Island has been a dumping
ground ever since land speculators created parts
of it in 1902 with illegally landfilled trash. A de
facto red light district in the 1880s--{)ne 19th
century moralist famously dubbed it "Sodom by
the Sea"-the neighborhood evolved in the
22
"I'll see some girl and she'll say, 'I'm
urban renewal era into a place where the city
warehoused unwanted human beings, in acres of
housing projects that loom around the shoreline
like a mountain range. "Coney Island has always
been a dumping ground," says author and
Coney Island native Charles Denson. "It could
be described as the sump of Brooklyn."
Now, thanks to a few determined locals and
Rudy Giuliani's obsession with stadiums, all
that has changed. After years of malign neglect,
the city invested $31 million in building
KeySpan Park, $5 million to clean lead paint
off the Parachute Jump, and $220 million in
city and state money to completely rebuild the
Stillwell Avenue subway station, the dank and
crumbling cavern at the end of the W line. For
the last two summers, fans have flocked to the
7,700-seat stadium for sold out games. Other
changes may be coming to the Island, too: Bor-
ough President Marty Markowitz wants to
reopen the Parachute Jump for business, and
there are rumors that Disney is sniffing out
land deals.
Most residents believe the neighborhood's
worst days are behind it, and they're basically
right. Crime is down as dramatically as the rest
of the city's; the local police precinct maintains
that the neighborhood is now one of Brooklyn's
safest. Property values are rising, says Judi
Orlando, head of the Astella Development
Corp., which has built almost 1,000 affordable
single-family homes in the past 30 years.
"We removed urban renewal from the
neighborhood, and we removed the bulldozers,
and now the neighborhood's coming back,"
says Frank Giordano, who has earned the title
of "unofficial mayor" (the neighborhood has
three or four of them) after running a pharma-
cy on Mermaid Avenue since 1960
Bur while most people who live here agree
that Coney Island is changing for the better, it
still carries the legacy of its days as the neigh-
borhood the city would rather forget: few jobs,
7,000 units of subsidized housing, 30 percent of
the population on public assistance, and some
of the most flagrant drug dealing and prostitu-
tion in the city. "It's just
out in the open out
here," marvels Sheldon
Mcleod, the new direc-
tor of Coney Island
Hospital's Ida G. Israel
Community Health
Center, and a recent
arrival to the area (he
formerly worked near
Times Square).
Men come from
Gravesend, Sheepshead
Bay and points north
to cruise the waterfront
for sex. Women and
girls, some outsiders
but mostly locals, sup-
ply it. Unsurprisingly,
their health is not
good: AIDS and gon-
orrhea are epidemic,
and in 1999, Commu-
nity District 13 had the
city's highest infant
mortality rate-a reliable indicator ofrugh teen
pregnancy and poor prenatal care, of which
Mcleod says he sees a lot.
Far from trying to keep her business quiet,
Aida likes to remind local officials that the drug
problem is there, the prostitutes are there, both
toO obvious to be ignored. "In the last maybe
five to six years was when everything carne into
this community, and it started to have some
life," she says. "But drugs, prostitution and all
of that, the economically underserved-they're
out there, and I mean it's not just a small situ-
ation-it's a very critical situation and it's just
not being addressed. And they're acting as if
they push it to the back, it's just going to go
away. And it's not."
CITY LIMITS
Nilda,' and I'll be like, 'Shit! I got high with your mom!'"
Aida will also tell anyone who asks-and
even those who don't-that these people are the
neighborhood, and that the neighborhood is
them. When she says "the community," she
means everybody, including the junkies, the
prostitutes, the crackheads. At Amethyst, it's the
very people who brutalized the neighborhood
who are essential to healing it. They are the ones
who will be willing to walk the
sidewalks night and day for
almosr no pay, going back to
their old haunts, "trying to pull
out somebody that's in a place
where we were in our lives," as
Amethyst's development director
Frank Neve says.
"They know the enclaves, the
pockets where people who are at
risk gravitate towards," says
McLeod, who recently asked
Amethyst to help him find
parients who weren't getting
rreated for HIV "We don't know
rhese places. They do. They
know the population, they know
rhe neighborhood, and they
know which burtons to push."
Coney Island never had the
luxury of sending its problems
somewhere else; it was some-
where else. No one knows that
better than the people who lived
ir, and thar's exactly why they're
the ones who can save ir.
Aida-like Madonna or
Evita, she is simply Aida-
speaks in a loud rasp that would
be on TV if The Sopranos were
ready for a Nuyorican female
cast member from Brooklyn. She
says "forger about it" a lot. She
also says "outrageous," meaning
amazing, as in "my mom, she's
just an ourrageous lady. I don't
know how she did it, man-14
kids, wall-to-wall addicts!"
Driving around Coney Island, Aida delivers
a running monologue, parr braggadocio, part
confessional. At 30th and Surf, she taps her
windshield with one long, hot-pink fingernail.
"You see that building?" she says. "They used
to deal serious weight in that building, I mean,
forger about it," she says.
At 21st and Surf: "She was one of my first
clients," she says, pointing to a ponytailed
DECEMBER 2002
teenage girl. "She was hooking, doing all kinds
of stuff. She still comes in to do peer counsel-
ing." The girl looks to be about 16.
"When I was dealing, this was my spor," she
says, driving past the corner of 24th on Mer-
maid. "We all had our lime turf, you know? I
used to do some crazy shit when I was out here,
because I had a lot of backup. I had nine broth-
ers, all of them dealing, and you would not
wanna mess with me. I would hold a gun to
your head, and I did that quite a few times, but
I never kilt nobody," she says. Her brothers, the
same ones who used to run the neighborhood's
drug trade with her, are all clean and now help
bring in clients: They hang around outside
Amethyst, flirting with women passersby,
offering them condoms or inviting them to
Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
Outside Amethyst, Aida pulls up and gets
out of her car. A sexy, 46-year-old bottle blonde,
she's dressed "for outreach," which means tight
acid-washed jeans, a lavender halter top that
reveals her tattoo and smooth brown belly, and
Birkenstocks. A couple of guys walking down
the street stop to leer. One of them makes a
sucking, kissy noise. "Hey,
Mami," he calls out suggestively.
"When can I come in and get my
test results?" Next week, she tells
him, tossing her head.
Inside the lime white house,
Aida has pur purple decorations
everywhere: In the barhroom,
whose door has to be held shut
with a phone book because the
lock is broken, there's a bouquer
of purple plastic flowers; upsrairs,
she's hung purple lace curtains;
and outside her office, someone
has nestled a teddy bear in the
exact center of the purple loveseat.
Wherever you are in rhe
building, you can usually hear
Aida yelling at somebody-on a
recent weekday morning, it was a
feckless client who was trying to
convince her rhat his parole offi-
cer "wouldn't let him" go to
rehab. "Bull-SHIT, bro, I work
for the Department of Parole!"
was her answer to that, delivered
at top decibel, as she followed
him out of the office shouting in
Spanish. (Aida doesn't work for
the Department of Parole-she's
given to exaggeration to make
her point-bur she does consulr
closely with them.)
You get the feeling Aida
thinks she can browbear people
into quirting drugs. And maybe
she can: Listening to her bullyrag
excuse-making clients, you imag-
ine them giving up crack just to
get her to leave them alone. "She's a very con-
vincing person .. .I think she's always been like
that," says Ronald Stewart, a parole officer who
knew her back in her drug dealing days and
now serves on Amethyst's board of directors. "I
wasn't around when she was really into the
drugs, but I think she was a hustler, as we
would call them. She was probably very decep-
tive and conniving; I think she tricked a lor of
23
She showed the track marks on her arms: "I told them, 1
people. And I think she uses that now in a pos-
itive way."
Growing up in Coney Island, Aida was
shooting up by the time she was 12. She did
time in all the juvenile facilities-Peekskill,
Spofford, Mount Loretto. When the Leon fam-
ily moved here from Puerto Rico in 1957, they
joined a generation of blacks and Latinos who
had essentially been driven to the water's edge.
There was always a small black community
in the neighborhood, but in the 1950s Parks
Commissioner Robert Moses, who despised
Coney Island's proletarian amusements, decid-
ed to use the neighborhood to warehouse fam-
ilies who couldn't
afford to live elsewhere.
The city began demol-
ishing rows of small
storefronts and hotels,
at the same time plac-
ing poor black and
Puerto Rican families
in empty summer bun-
galows.
In his excellent new
book Coney Island Lost
and Found, local author
Charles Denson
recounts how Fred
Trump, Donald's
father, raked in city
poverty dollars by
housing poor families
in abandoned beach
bungalows with no heat
or hot water. "There
was a lot of substandard
housing in Coney
Island, and the city was
able to place poor families there," says Denson.
Among them were the Leons: Aida remembers
stuffing cardboard into the boiler to stay warm
in the winter.
The deliberate displacement was followed by
classic scorched-earth urban renewal. As the city
tore down hotels, apartment buildings and
viable small businesses, many who still owned
property in the once-flourishing neighborhood
torched it. After the bungalows themselves were
demolished, a number of the bungalow-dwellers
stayed in the neighborhood, doubling up with
other families. So when Mayor Lindsay decided
to raze more of the area to build acres of massive
housing projects starting in the late 1960s, they
were initially ecstatic. "You had working-class
24
families, there was some black, some Hispanic,"
recalls Stewart. "We felt immensely overcrowd-
ed. So when they talked about building projects-
we were elated, man! We were in heaven, you
kidding? We all moved in."
The Leons moved into the Grenadier Apart-
ments in 1974, when Aida was 18 and working
at a medical office. By that time, the Leon boys
had started selling weed. Soon they moved up
to harder drugs-heroin, cocaine. Aida was
using seriously, but still functioning. In 1977,
she enrolled at College of Staten Island. "That
stood out," says Maria Lopez, who was getting
high with Aida back in those days. "In all this
madness-the riffin and the raffin, the drug-
ging and all-and here she is going to college."
Aida dropped out when she got pregnant.
In 1980, at 24, she had a son. Throughout the
1980s, as the neighborhood surrendered to
crack, she deteriorated too, turning more and
more of her life over to drugs, dealing and
doing short stretches at Rikers. At one point,
her mother took her son away from her. She
would come to the door, and Mrs. Leon would
open it just a crack, enough to stick a sandwich
through and tell her to go away.
In those days, gangs and drug families
ran Coney Island; the police were afraid to
come into their territory. "We owned the com-
munity," Aida brags now. "Who the hell was
going to come into this community where peo-
ple were shooting each other in the streets? And
I was out there shooting too!"
With her nine brothers, she ran the neigh-
borhood's retail operations. People knew not to
mess with the Leon family. Evetybody knew
Aida-she wouldn't sell to you unless you
did-and everybody knew where to fmd her
when they needed to. Standing on the corner
of 24th and Mermaid, she would defend her
territory against anybody who tried to take it.
But the illusion that she could control the
neighborhood, and the life, didn't last. One
night in 1984, Aida says, she walked into the
building at 30th and Surf at around four in the
morning-"I don't
remember what time it
was, 'cause I was coked
up"-with $800 in her
pocket to buy crack to
sell on the street.
Inside the building,
her connection's apart-
ment was empty.
When she walked into
the bathroom, she
found the family she
usually bought from, a
woman, her man and
their son, all shot dead.
Aida went on a
rampage, usmg more
than she ever had
before. Other drug
dealers thought she
had killed the family.
They found her on
Mermaid Avenue, and
beat her with chains.
She went and shot
through their door. At one point the police
picked her up and asked her to help them catch
the killers, hinting she might be accused if she
didn't. She showed them the track marks on
her arms: "I told them, 'You can't do shit to me
anyway-look what I did to myself. You're
going to have to get them on your fockin
own.'" Six months later, she went to Samaritan
Village and got clean for good. She was 29.
For the next 10 years, Aida followed a well-
traveled path to recovery. She worked in treat-
ment centers all over the city, getting state licens-
es to do drug and alcohol counseling. When she
would tell people she was from Coney Island,
sometimes they wouldn't believe her: 'They
would think I lived in the freakin rides!" she
CITY LIMITS
au can't do shit to me anyway-look at what I did to myself."
exclaims. She worked at an alternative sentenc-
ing program and learned harm reduction.
But nothing was as influential as Ana
Aponte. During Aida's stint as a drug counselor
at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx,
Aponte encouraged her to start a counseling
program specifically for women. A proud,
political Puerto Rican, Aponte was Aida's first
exposure to ethnic pride, a different but no less
fierce kind ofloyalty than in the gangs she grew
up with. "Puerto Ricans are very clannish, very
loving people, but when I went to the South
Bronx was the first time I was able to see that
pride, and understand my
identity and my culture,"
she says. "I didn't have
that in Coney Island. It
was all about being bare-
foot and pregnant."
Aida did get married
twice, first in 1988 and
then in 1994. Both hus-
bands died of AIDS. After
her second husband died,
in 1995, she was devastat-
ed. In the midst of her
grief, it was Aponte who
pushed her to return to
Coney Island and open
Amethyst.
She had tried to get
things rolling before,
without much success:
When she first came back
to the neighborhood in
1985, there were no NA
meetings there at all, so
she started them. But
when she proposed
launching a treatment and
assessment center for drug
users, the Coney Island
-.-......
COM
I
i
community board was less than supportive.
"They took me off the podium, and they were
like, 'You have to go through certain commit-
tees, and so on,'" she recalls. "I was like,
'They're never gonna let me open this thing.'"
The second time around, Aida didn't ask
permission. She got a bunch of her old friends
together, and talked them into helping her fix
up a vacant garage. (Two years later, she traded
it in for the lime white house.) She painted it
purple inside, naming it after the semiprecious
stone that the ancient Greeks believed was
proof against intoxication.
On August 9, 1999, Aida held her grand
DECEMBER 2002
opening of Amethyst Women's Project. "It was
an outrageous mess," she recalls with satisfac-
tion. "I just took the community in a hostage
situation. There was such a crowd. When they
came, they were like, 'Who is this woman?'"
Running a successful community-
based nonprofit is not entirely unlike running
your neighborhood's drug trade. You spend a lot
of time wheedling, bullying and manipulating
people into doing things they don't want to do,
like giving you things for free. When cash isn't
available, promises will have to do.
vices, including detox and rehab. Her workers
show up at the precinct when clients get arrest-
ed. When nonviolent offenders are in danger of
being put away, the staff sometimes pull strings
with the courts to get them into sentencing pro-
grams that substirute drug treatment for jail
time. At all times, they try to be a constant pres-
ence on the street, important whether you're a
dealer or a healer.
Because most of Aida's staff are recovering
addicts, the work is part of their recovery, and
vice versa. Everyone contributes treatments
from his or her own experience: there's a men's
group, a group for women
-----
Pushpins
dealing,
There are signs tbi hot spots
are moving east and beyond.
who have lost their kids to
foster care, and one for
teens. Aida also has sup-
port services for women
who have experienced
domestic violence and a
At Amethyst, Aida has created a sort of per-
petual motion machine: once she helps people
recover, she gets them to work for her. They, in
turn find new clients, and that helps Amethyst
keep going. "I'm creating a major resource
bank for myself, " she boasts, adding that she
wants "to bring people that are highly motivat-
ed and compassionate to this population, that
are not fried, or burnt out, and that are not just
going to try to pick up a paycheck. I want to
see results. "
Aside from the outreach, which brings in
clients, the work is a combination of traditional
peer counseling with referrals to extended ser-
weekly legal clinic for
women who are doing sex
work. "If you don't allevi-
ate some of them stresses
that a client has once they
get clean, they're not
gonna be able to stay
clean," explains Aida.
"They're gonna be like,
'Why should I stay clean?
I'm not gonna be able to
see my kids.'"
Aida yells at everybody a
lot. It's part of her apptoach:
loving yet ruthless, deter-
mined to make people do
things they didn't think they
could possibly do. "Aida,
she's been real tough on me,
like my big sister or some-
thing," says Cisco, formerly
a burglar and member of
the gang Homicides, Inc. She pushes many of
her clients and volunteers to go back to college.
But not everybody thrives under Aida's
benevolent dictatorship. Maria Lopez is one of
Aida's biggest success stories. An old friend from
the neighborhood-she has a son by one of
Aida's brothers--she was out on the streets,
hooking, pickpocketing, even robbing a gas sta-
tion once. Lopez came in for treatment on Aida's
second day in operation-"one of her first
'clients,' so to speak," says Lopez, grinning at the
double entendre, because she was also a customer
in the old days. She and Aida remain close.
Lopez got clean right away and started
25
I
Prostitutes dread worki ng elsewhere, where "the
working as a volunteer counselor. But while she
loved rhe new structure in her life, Aida's
unceasing demands exasperated her. The final
maw came when rhe staff had to prepare a big
public presentation. She remembers Aida
yelling at her and everyone else. "That drove
me crazy," she says. ''I'd never done a presenta-
tion before-I had never worked in a working
environment. I never had to take orders from
anybody." Lopez quit her gig at Amerhyst.
Others find rhe toughest part of rhe job is
confronting their former lives. Annette
Quinonez is responsible for easing new clients
into rhe program. Back when Quinonez was "all
busted up"-tricking, strung out, wirh no
money-rhe girlfriend
of a big-time crack
dealer was kind to her,
giving her an occasion-
al freebie. Months
later, the next time
Quinonez saw her, rhe
roles were reversed: her
friend was "tore up
from rhe floor up, " and
Quinonez was married
to a powerful Pana-
manian drug dealer.
Not long after,
Quinonez was on her
way out of rhe house
to buy groceries and
crack-"being one of
them functional ad-
dicts, you know?"-
when she realized she'd
forgotten her money.
Returning to her apart-
ment, she caught rhe
woman giving her hus-
band a blow job.
"So turn around, years later I get a client.
She's doing all rhis motion, rhe crack motion
shit. She asked me, ' Did you get high?' I said,
'Yeah, I have a history.' Click. Right rhere, I
said, This is the bitch. So I asked her, where did
you get high? She says 'Ocean Parkway.' I said,
'You don't remember me?' I said, '[ had rhe
spot on Ocean Parkway. '"
Instead of hating the woman wno had sex
wirh her husband, Quinonez discovered that
more than anything she wanted to help her. "I
was able to get her rehabs and everything. And
rhen I saw her .. ." She trails off, swallows. The
woman she desperately wanted to help had
relapsed into addiction. "So that was hard."
26
Late one Friday night, Cisco is
hanging sheetrock while Aida prepares for rhe
night's NA meeting. Returning from a neigh-
borhood Italian restaurant, she brings him a
lobster dinner. "Look at that!" he says. "She's
always taking care of me."
Part of rhe reason Aida's always feeding every-
body is rhat she can't afford to pay rhem real
salaries. Everybody makes eirher norhing or $100
a week, even rhose wirh kids, except for Aida and
development director Frank Neve. After working
unpaid for rhe first two years, borh get small
salaries now from grants: Aida gets $40,000 a
year for her round-rhe-clock work, and Neve gets
$20,000 for working part-time.
Some stay on, some don't. Wirh rhe experi-
ence she's gained at Amerhyst, pretty, quiet Lisa
Valentin could easily get a job somewhere else.
Instead, she stays on, working for a $100 week-
ly stipend, because she says she knows Aida
needs her. Cisco, who used to rob houses with
Aida's brorhers, started out as Aida's right-hand
man. But with a family to feed, he
couldn't afford to stay on, so now he only helps
out occasionally.
For all her resourcefulness, jobs are rhe one
miracle Aida can't conjure. Douglas Oakley is a
case in point: In rhe 1980s, he had 15 guys
running drugs under him in Coney Island.
Now rhat he's clean, he's one of Aida's best out-
reach workers, because knows all rhe tricks, like
how to find crackheads in the projects (walk
down rhe stairwells). But when Aida tried to
hook him up wirh a job doing outreach for
Coney Island Hopital, it fell rhrough at rhe last
minute. Oakley rhinks his felony record is
probably the reason. "Coney Island's changing
positively, but for us, there's still no jobs," says
Cisco, who says he would leave if it weren't for
his morher.
A few of rhe folks at Amerhyst grumble
about the stadium, which city officials
promised would generate jobs. As Judi Orlan-
do points out, it did bring jobs-just not very
good ones. "If you rhink about it, rhey play 38
games here, and rhey're part-time games," she
says. "That's not a job.
That's like pin money. "
Aida has a scheme
to change her staff's
economIc cIrcum-
stances. She has
applied to the local
community board to
build a transitional
housing center for
women with AIDS,
about six blocks from
where Amethyst is
now. She's envisioning
it as something like a
benevolent patronage
mill: Aida hopes rhat
when the new place
gets built, she can give
her staff paying jobs.
"Last night, I had a
dream that me and
Aida were walking
down the hall with
amethyst-colored
walls-it was so beautiful!" says Fishman. "We
borh had clipboards, and I was wearing a suit.
It was a real job."
Sitting on the boardwalk, drinking
a beer at noon, Robert Allen-everybody calls
him Spike-meditates on Coney Island's tenu-
ous future. Spike, who wears a do-rag wirh two
little braids sticking out, is more or less home-
less right now-he has a trailer he can sleep in,
but doesn't want to broadcast its location. He is
38 years old and has lived in Coney Island his
whole life.
When Governor George Pataki came to
Coney Island to campaign last September, rhe
cops cleared people like Spike and his friends
CITY LIMITS
guy put a gun to your head and say he's going to kill you ."
off the boardwalk. "The governor came out
here," he says bitterly. "You know how far he
went? To the Parachute Jump. But the cops
were snatching everybody up. "
He waves to include his wife, Helen Gonza-
lez, whom everyone calls China (pronouncing
it 'Cheeni) . "It's rough for us still out here," he
says. "When they say they're gonna revitalize
the area, they're talking about the amusement
area. They're not talking about us." China nods
morosely over her beer.
For now, Coney Island remains as isolated as
ever. The renovation of the Stillwell Avenue sta-
tion, which will bring a big boost in 2004, has
cut it off from two subway lines until then. And
though many residents
appreciate KeySpan
Park-Quinonez sent
her five-year-old son to
a Police Athletic League
day camp there-its
cusromers haven't
changed the area sub-
stantially, aside from
making it harder to
park. "They shoot in
and shoot out," says
Giordano.
But if the revitaliza-
tion visions the Giu-
liani administration set
in motion are ever real-
ized, then Amethyst-
and Aida-will be
faced with a predica-
ment. A revived amuse-
ment area could bring
jobs, but to get tourists
flocking to the seaside
once again the city will
want to clean up the neighborhood. If the
police clear all the pushpins out of the area, like
they did in Times Square, then what becomes
of the people who worked there?
Already, it's getting harder for Coney
Island's beach dwellers to find hiding places. In
the summer of 2000, homeless people built a
little fishing colony on the pier across from the
stadium site. Mostly addicts, they set up tents
made of tarps and cardboard. They would carry
out buckets of crabs they had caught and sell
them to the restaurants on the boardwalk.
When the city knocked down the Thunderbolt
and built KeySpan Park, it filled in the space
underneath the boardwalk and cleared off the
pier. The crackheads and prostitutes who used
DECEMBER 2002
to sleep on the beach went elsewhere.
Both Aida and Frost'd, a citywide group
that does street outreach to prostitutes, say
there have been fewer sex workers along Coney
Island in the last several years. Yelena Makhnin,
head of Brighton Beach's Business Improve-
ment District, says there's an increasing popu-
lation of street prostitutes on certain corners in
that neighborhood just to the east, some black
and Latina, others "ladies from the former
Soviet Union." Makhnin suspects they might
also be moving indoors, to brothels.
They could also be moving to other parts of
Brooklyn. Chocolate, who lives in East New
York, comes to Coney Island to work the
streets because it's safer. Out here, she thinks
the worst that might happen to her is that a
guy might not pay her for a date. In other
neighborhoods where she has worked-Canar-
sie, Sheepshead Bay and all the other strolls in
Brooklyn-you can expect much worse,
"everything from the guy put a gun to your
head and say he's going to kill you if you don't
do this or that, to keep you in the car and have
all his friends come do you." In East New York,
a friend of hers was almost killed out tricking
last summer. "They beat up my girl so bad,
they lefr her for dead, " she says, her chin trem-
bling. "She's brain-dead now."
Such stories are not unusual. Violence
against prostitutes increases exponentially
when they're pushed to remote parts of a city,
says prostitution researcher John Lowman. A
criminologist at Simon Fraser University in
British Columbia, Lowman conducted a
quantitative analysis of violence against prosti-
tutes in Vancouver for the Canadian Depart-
ment of Justice. After that city began a con-
certed campaign to move them out of a high-
ly trafficked area and into a more remote one,
he found that murders increased "in the hun-
dreds of percent. "
That was partly due to one particular serial
killer, but as Lowman points out, moving pros-
titutes to distant areas makes it easier for such
assailants to prey on them. "There's less eyes on
the street, the women
are spread out more,
they don't spot for each
other," he explains.
"They don't take
license plates, because
they're in these dimly
lit areas, and predatory,
misogynistic men
clearly have been much
more able to pick up a
woman without being
seen."
Displacement and
dispersal create a much
more intractable law
enforcement problem
as well. Lowman is
skeptical of the logic
that prostitution can
ever be reduced by
"sweeps" and other
traditional policing
methods. "Those
human beings are not
detritus to be dealt with that way," he says.
"We have to find real answers to the problems
that lead to addiction, and especially the kind
of survival sex that is involved with addiction-
driven prostitution."
Which is where Amethyst comes in. Aida is
adamant that, wherever its clients end up,
Amethyst could follow them. When asked
what she would do if the city drove the prosti-
tutes out of the neighborhood, she shrugs. "Go
somewhere else, somewhere that needs us," she
says. "This community is so small, you could
see any kind of change coming."
Already, she's made a few forays out of her
turf. As the number of Russian prostitutes
continued on page 38
27
Machine Dreams
In a post-partisan political
world, will voting be
a luxury good?
By David Jason Fischer
EVERY TWO YEARS, as November draws near,
candidates for political office pull certain
words and phrases out of storage like so many
Christmas lights and tree decorations. "Leader-
ship" is one hardy example; "issues" is another;
"bi-partisan" is good, most of the time. But
even better-if a lopsided majority of Ameri-
can cities is correct-is "nonpartisan."
Nonpartisan elections, already used in some of
New York's special elections, are the norm in most
American cities. By letting an unlimited number
of candidates run on the ballot without party
labels, the reform essentially brings the dynamic
of a primary to the general election: It's a free-for-
all. The two leading vote-getters then go head-to-
head in a runoff, which in a city like New York
could often mean that two Democrats would
compete directly for the office.
The idea is that by taking out party labels,
nonpartisan elections encourage voters to decide
on the basis of attributes other than party
label-such as issues, for example. Political par-
28
INTELLIGENCE
THE BIG IDEA
ties are unavoidably fractious and self-interested,
the thinking goes, and when they have too
much power they can playa disproportionately
large role in who wins and who loses-indeed,
in who even gets on the ballot, as John McCain
found out in 2000 when he tried to take his
insurgent presidential campaign against anoint-
ed candidate George W Bush to New York.
(McCain got on the ballot eventually, but lost
the state's Republican primary afrer wasting pre-
cious time and resources.)
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a politician
with little attachment to party, touted all these
arguments in his effort to bring nonpartisan
elections to New York earlier this year. The
city's charter commission chose not to place a
referendum on nonpartisan elections on the
ballot this year, suggesting the question might
come before voters in 2003.
Ironically, insiders claim that the force
behind the delay came from Governor George
Pataki, who feared that Democrats eager to
preserve their party's large advantage in city
politics might turn out in force to oppose the
measure-and cast votes against his re-elec-
tion bid while there. Apparently, even non-
partisan elections can be held hostage to a par-
tisan purpose.
As it happens, the governor's calculation-
that keeping the referendum off the ballot this
year would depress turnout among city
Democrats-is in perfect keeping with the his-
tory of partisan electioneering in the U.S.
Study afrer study has shown that nonpartisan
elections, like many other "good government"
reforms from the heyday of urban political
machines, decrease voter turnout.
For all the high-minded rhetoric about doing
away with corruption, ensuring fair elections
and deciding political contests on merit alone,
many scholars and historians of American poli-
tics point to another, no less vital goal of reform-
ers: to sever the bonds between party bosses and
the typically uneducated, low-income commu-
nities that faithfully voted as the bosses wished.
"Reformers were unhappy with how close
machine politicians were to their supporters,"
says author and University of California at San
Diego political science professor Amy Bridges.
In fact, Bridges notes, this was a prime motiva-
tion for self-professed good government
activists: "They tried to create more distance.
They were happy these people weren't voting."
THROUGH THE EARLY 20th century, and in some
cases till much later, local party machines per-
vaded working-class and immigrant communi-
ties, helping them with the occasional Thanks-
giving turkey, cash handout, a word with the
police, even a job or a doctor's visit. In exchange,
their beneficiaries voted, reliably and monolith-
ically, for the machine's slate of candidates.
The goal of the machine was power, not
democracy, as evidenced by its equal penchant
for keeping voters out of the booths and will-
ingness to commit outright fraud in the name
of victory. But regardless of intent, machines
concerned themselves with the working-class
electorate and its needs.
They still do, in a way. Though the great
machines that once dominated urban politics in
America are long gone, the "mini-machines" that
operate in the boroughs retain enough power to
punish candidates, from judgeship hopefuls to
aspirants for the city's top office. In most parts of
Queens, the Democratic machine is sufficiently
Strong that Republicans don't bother to run can-
didates against them for city offices.
"In Queens County, virtually everybody
supported by the [Democratic Party) organiza-
tion gets elected, and they get support from
the organization," says political consultant
Joseph Mercurio. "That means workers, legal
talent, election day operations, fundraising-
all the nice things in terms of party. "
The Bronx Democratic Party all but sat out
the general election for the 2001 mayoral race
afrer Fernando Ferrer, the borough president,
lost a bitterly contested runoff to Public Advo-
CITY LIMITS
cate Mark Green. "They didn't do anything on
Election Day, " says Mercurio. "There was a
substantially lower vore in me Hispanic com-
muniry man mere might have been had mey
been working actively for Green. Maybe 85,000
Hispanics didn't vote who might have voted,
and Bloomberg's margin of vicrory was about
half mar. You could argue mat mat's organiza-
tional strength."
Bur for me most parr, modern-day political
organizations don't shepherd nearly as many
voters to me polls as meir more colorful prede-
cessors-probably because mey have less ro
offer ro parry workers and potemial voters.
"It used ro be mat machines could deliver
votes because people feared losing jobs or ben-
efits if the machine lost the election. That's no
longer me case," says Humer College political
sciemist Ken Sherrill. "There's virtually no evi-
dence that machines as they now exist lead sig-
nificant numbers of peo-
ple to me polling place."
tive voters ro ferret out just what's going on and
which comender best represents meir views.
In the March 2001 issue of Political
Research Quarterly, a trio of professors-Brian
Schaffner and Gerald Wright of Indiana Uni-
versiry, and Matmew Streb of Loyola Mary-
moum Universiry-announced the results of a
study comparing partisan and nonpartisan
races for local and state office in Illinois,
Nebraska, Kansas, Norm Carolina and Min-
nesota, from me 1970s to me 1990s. They
concluded: "We find mat nonpartisanship
depresses turnout and mat in nonpartisan
comests voters rely less on parry and more on
incumbency in meir voting decisions."
The reasons for this have a lot ro do wim me
ease wim which vorers can get information on me
election. "What happens in nonpartisan elections
is mere are many middle-class groups mat fill in
for getting out me vote," Bridges explains. "Local
chambers of commerce,
maybe me Masons. Mid-
With me decline of
parry organizations as me
focal poim of politics,
individual candidates have
filled me void. This makes
voter turnout increasingly
dependem on me emer-
tainmem value of a given
campaign. "The machine
has been replaced by
money and media as me
agency of mobilization ro
get people ro the polls,"
says historian and Gomam
Institute head Mike Wal-
lace, "and it clearly hasn't
been as effective."
As Governor
Pataki knows,
even nonpartisan
elections can be
held hostage to a
partisan purpose.
dle-class people have more
of those groups man
working class, much less
me poor. The electorate is
much more middle class."
As always, election
winners craft an agenda,
and make policy choices
mat reflect me wants and
needs of me elecrorate-
in this case, a wealthier
and smaller one.
"If nonpartisan elec-
tions benefit anybody,"
says Sherrill, "it benefits
mose who are wealthy
WITH REPUBLICRAT Bloomberg ensconced in
Ciry Hall, parry labels seem less relevant man
ever in New York. It's probably not surprising,
men, mat Bloomberg headed me effort to
bring nonpartisan elections to New York Ciry.
Supporters claim mat mere's rarely, if ever,
any doubt about which candidates would line up
wim which parties. "In no place where you have
nonpartisan elections does anybody have trouble
wim who me Democrat is and me Republican
is," says Mercurio. "I don't mink it breaks down
parry. Ask [Chicago) Mayor [Richard].) Daley if
he has less of a political organization."
But me rise of me self-fUnded candidate
who transcends established parry machinery has
redefined politics, from me federal level ro ciry
elections. In me free-for-all of a multi-candidate
battle, it becomes more difficult for less atten-
DECEMBER 2002
enough ro get meir mes-
sage out and mobilize voters. When voters can't
rely on parry label ro evaluate candidates and tell
you which side wants what, then mey have ro
rely on omer cues."
Sherrill offers anomer argumem that could
have particular resonance in the aftermath of
last year's ugly Democratic primary comest for
me mayoral nomination. When mey make
voting decisions, "other than just name recog-
nition mat comes from outrageous behavior or
spending on advertising, people rely on em-
niciry and race. So nonpartisan elections are
rypically much more divisive than partisan
elections. "
In omer words, me race ro me lowest com-
mon denominaror speeds up. Imagine a may-
oral runoff berween AI Sharpron and Dov
Hikind, and suddenly Boss Tweed might not
look so bad .
INTELLIGENCE
THE BIG IDEA
NEW REPORTS
If you work in a field even remotely linked to
housing, this city publication based on the
1999 Census Bureau surveys is a must-have.
It's full of useful citywide data, like how much
rental housing is rent-stabilized (52 percent)
and the median monthly rent ($700.) There are
literally tens of thousands of numbers, but the
broad conclusion won't surprise anybody:
"Very poor households seeking affordable,
decent housing had even more difficulty find-
ing it in 1999 than in 1996." In those three
years, the city gained 59,924 units renting
above $1,OOG-and lost 116,808 below $700.
"Housing: New York City 1999"
Department of Housing Preservation and Development
www.nyc.gov/hpdor 212-669-7452, $30
There are more teens than ever in the city's
foster care system, and this report cogently
argues for making their needs a policy priori-
ty. But the report's real power are its heart-
breaking anecdotes, from teenagers. who
struggled to survive mental illness, fought
loneliness and isolation or were victims of
sexual abuse-like Ijeoma, who, at age 13,
tried unsuccessfully to report her gang rape to
police. Because she had been choked, she
couldn't speak properly; as a result, the police
determined that she was retarded, not a
crime victim.
"Uninvited Guests: Teens in New York City Foster Care"
Center for an Urban Future
www.nycfuture.orgor 212-479-3345
An associate's degree from a California com-
munity college will set you back $632 in tuition
and cheaper than the
$5,114 it costs to get the same education in
New York State. This timely report indicts the
state's political leaders not only for failing to
make higher education more affordable during
the late 1990s economic expansion, but for
actually making it much more expensive:
Since 1995, state support for CUNY and SUNY
actually declined by 12 percent.
"Shifting the Burden"
NYPIRG
www.nypirg.orU/ligheudor 212-349-6460
29
INTELLIGENCE
CITY LIT
Whiteness Control
Who cares more about the working class, white liberals
or white supremacists?
The New White Nationalism In America:
Its Challenge to Integration by Carol Swain
Cambridge University Press, 526 pages, $30
By Hakim Hasan
WHO WilL BE THE NIGGER? This question is a
rhetorical ghost in Carol Swain's The New
White Nationalism In America. It haunts every
page, as a reminder of our sordid social history,
but it is not examined as our inheritance, and
therein lies Swain's immediate failure.
Swain, a professor of political science and
law at Vanderbilt Universiry, has written
many books in one. There is the book about
growing up as a poor black girl in rural south-
ern environs. There is the book about how her
entollment in a communiry college ignited
her fanatical determination to succeed and the
book about the mentorship she received
almost exclusively from white males. There is
the book about the disdain that many elite
blacks have towards poor blacks-"a degree of
class snobbishness," she writes, "that is rarely
discussed outside of minoriry circles."
Anyone of those books could have provided
an unusual depth of insight into that great,
unexplored topic, social mobiliry among
blacks-particularly middle- and upper-mid-
dle- class blacks one generation removed from
p las tic -sli pcovers-o n -furni tu re poverry.
Swain, however, is after more elusive dog-
matic prey. Her animus toward the liberal elite,
coupled with her disdain for affirmative action,
culminates in an empathetic examination of the
grievances of white nationalist groups led by a
coterie of avowed white supremacists: David
Duke, Jared Taylor, Reno Wolfe, Don Black,
Michael Hart, Dan Gayman, Matthew Hale,
Lisa Turner and William Pierce. (Pierce, the
author of the infamous racist tract The Turner
Diaries, died this past July. ) Working and mid-
dle-class whites could conceivably form a coali-
tion with their black counterparts, she implies,
through the schiwphrenic and racist vehicle of
white supremacist organizations. After all, there
are blacks who believe affirmative action does
not help them and that the influx of immi-
grants erodes their socioeconomic mobility.
30
Colored White: Transcending The Racial Past
by David Roediger
University of California Press, 323 pages, $29.95
Swain contends, at times convincingly, that
affirmative action does not benefit poor or
working-class whites or blacks. Her authority
on the shibboleths of race and class is informed
by her working-class pedigree: "When I express
reservations about certain forms of current
affirmative action policy, " she writes, "I do so
from the standpoint of a black woman with a
firsthand knowledge of what it means to be
poor and disadvantaged in America."
She argues that white supremacist groups are
becoming the voice of working- and middle-
class whites. The fate of the nation, she believes,
now rests upon the liberal elite's ability to
resolve those whites' grievances about black-on-
white crime, multiculturalism, globalization,
affirmative action and immigrants from third
world countries. Their failure to do so could
result in a race war. (Conservatives, presumably,
already understand this.)
Swain believes that sincere religious convic-
tion, mainly to Christianity, can eliminate
racial strife. She also contends that more pub-
lic funds should be invested in community
colleges, that welfare agencies should be audit-
ed to make sure they are disbursing monies to
the poor, and that government agencies should
forge partnerships with car dealerships to help
the working poor buy cars, since reliable access
to transportation is crucial to obtaining jobs.
These are solid recommendations, firmly
rooted in Swain's working-class experience. The
tragedy is that Swain's hunger for honest dia-
logue about race relations, coupled with her
desire to be novel, results in a bizarre conflation
of the legitimate concerns of the white working
and middle classes with the baseline ethos of
racist manifest destiny.
If Swain had read sociologist Kathleen Blee's
20-year body of work on white supremacist
groups, she would know that there is no basis
for an accord here. White supremacists reject
affirmative action and immigration because
they represent levels of social mobility on the
part of people of color that they simply cannot
countenance. White supremacists cannot
accept a vision of American society where peo-
ple of color can rise above-or even equal-
whites. Blacks have to be on the bottom; their
whole world is rooted on this.
SWAIN IS RIGHT about one thing: Liberal intel-
lectuals have failed to honestly define bread-
basket issues-race relations, affirmative
action, crime, welfare reform, income inequal-
ity and family values-that resonate with aver-
age Americans. This failure has contributed to
the rise of a new breed of conservative intellec-
tuals like Swain and John McWhorter. Mean-
while, white liberals occupy themselves in a
high-flown discussion among academic and
intellectual elites about white privilege.
In the burgeoning field of whiteness stud-
ies, largely the province of whites, scholars
examine the relationship of white identity to
privilege and hegemony. In Colored White:
Transcending The Racial Past, a collection of
previously published essays, David R. Roedi-
ger explores how we can "move beyond white-
ness" as a badge of privilege. Using the exam-
ple of Elvis Presley, he argues, not at all con-
vincingly, that whites adopting the cultural
expressions of blacks-what the cultural histo-
rian Ann Douglas might call "mongreliza-
tion"-is our best hope of null ifying white
identity. (That he does not discuss any other
conduit for crossing over besides culture-
specifically, music-is a significant omission.)
CITY LIMITS
Colored White is labored reading for the
layperson. Nevertheless, it offers a much more
textured critique of race relations than The New
White Nationalism. In "What if Labor Were
Not White and Male," Roediger, a professor of
history at the University of Illinois at Urbana,
avoids the mumbo jumbo of culrural studies
and writes with stunning historical probity. And
in ''All About Eve, Critical White Studies and
Getting Over Whiteness," he provides a good
historical overview of whiteness studies itself
Roediger acknowledges that whiteness
studies is, essentially, an appropriation of the
writings of people of color and their authori-
ty on racism. In ''All About Eve," Roediger
makes the ancillary argument that scholars
and intellectuals of color are not only disre-
garded by the white intelligentsia as experts,
but are also maintained in a system of sofrcore
academic white supremacy: "Characterizing
the study of whiteness as a project of white
scholars," he writes, "thus represents both a
continued insistence on placing whites at the
center of everything and continuing refusal to
take seriously the insights into whiteness that
people of color offer. The enduring and scan-
dalous inability of historians to come to grips
with Du Bois as an expert on the past of the
white south is one index of this failure." Even
in the academy, it seems, scholars of color
have to be at the bottom.
The subordinate status of intellectuals of
color is also an index of the failure of white aca-
demics-including Roediger et al.-to give up
any privilege. By skirting any forthright exam-
DECEMBER 2002
ination of racism in the academy, Roediger
avoids questions closer to home: Under what
circumstances will elite white liberals give up
privileges that have accrued to them? Or is
Roediger's analysis of white privilege aimed
strictly at working- and middle-class whites?
Leaving these questions to the critical imagi-
nation, most of Colored White consists of overly
theorized conceptions of white privilege. Con-
sider this passage, from "White Looks and Lim-
baugh's Laugh," in which Roediger writes with
the mimicked incomprehensibility of a graduate
student: "Limbaugh's laugh clashed dramatical-
ly with the much-emphasized attribute of the
imperialist gaze: its production of the illusion of
an absence of the European male viewer, an
absence that Giselda [sic] Pollock characterized
as the ' real meaning of the Orientalist project.'"
Though I might agree with Roediger in
principle, I would be more inclined to read
Swain. Roediger's unreadability stems from the
fact that he is writing for an academic audience,
whereas Swain is writing for the general public.
For Roediger, this is just plain bad literary and
political strategy. If he sincerely wants whiteness
studies to be part of a larger dialogue, then he
needs to write for a less exclusive audience.
Swain may be casting her net a little too
widely, but part of her message is, sad to say,
absolutely correct. In order to have a frank,
painful, and honest discussion about race in this
country, we have to forego the liberal niceties of
touchy-feely egalitarianism. The cognitive
process of racism is so embedded in the psyche
of Americans that Roediger's ultimate solu-
tion-"crossing over into nonwhiteness"-is
completely unrealistic. It also nullifies
any hope of pluralism: By erasing whiteness, he
creates a kind of reverse hegemony of blackness.
We cannot be so silly as to believe that race
neutrality-if that, indeed, is the ultimate
goal-will result in the equitable allocation of
resources and power in this republic. I am
reminded of Douglass Turner Ward's play, Day
of Absence, which depicts the racial hysteria
that ensues when whites have no one else
below them. It is set in a small southern town
in 1965 where, one day, all of the blacks mys-
teriously disappear. Suddenly confronted with
no fixed racial hierarchy, whites are para-
lyzed-and immediately begin redefining
the underclass.
Who will be at the bottom? For working-
and middle-class Americans, this remains the
vexing question .
Hakim Hasan is the director of the Urban Imti-
tute at Metropolitan College of New York. Con-
tact him at hhasan2@aol.com.
INTELLIGENCE
CITY LIT
NOW READ THIS
Emma: A Play
By Howard linn
South End Press, $9
Esteemed leftist historian Zinn brings famed
anarchist Emma Goldman to life in a snappy but
educational work that captures her life as labor
organizer, orator and outspoken critic. The play
strikes an admirable balance between intellec-
tual debates and personal struggles-there are
plenty of lines like "The dictatorship of the prole-
tariat, he said, is like the dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie." But Zinn also portrays Emma her-
self with humor and complexity, particularly as
she interacts with her various lovers. Much ofthe
action takes place in New York, with the play
aptly capturing the rhetoric and hope of a revo-
lutionary era long past.
Praxis for the Poor
By Sanford F. Schram
NYU Press, $19
This Bryn Mawr professor argues that academic
research on welfare and poverty should be delib-
erately engaged with pressing political issues. He
draws inspiration from the tradition of Francis
Fox Piven and the late Richard Cloward, who not
only transformed the academic history of poverty
but also helped found organizations of the poor in
the 1960s. But if Schram's goal is to make acad-
emic research more relevant and accessible, why
is his book jargon-laden and at least three times
longer than it should be?
Empire City: The Making and Meaning of
the New York City landscape
By David M. Scobey
Temple University Press, $40
This dense and detailed book argues that the cre-
ation of an established real estate market begin-
ning in the 1850s and into the 1880s-oot the
technological and transportation improvements
of the late nineteenth century, as many believe--
deserve the credit for the city's explosive expan-
sion. The birth of capital markets that fed real
estate speculation were the most critical engines
behind the city's epic growth.
31
INTELLIGENCE
MA KI NG CHANGE
Two Turntables and a Megaphone
Hip hop activsts have thrived
at the grassroots. Can they
grow up and still keep it real?
By Hilary Russ
IMAGINE KIDS ANXIOUSLY awaiting that last school
bell of the day so they can go out and beg for
more money for education. As unlikely as it
sounds, that's exactly what happened this past
June, when tens of thousands of kids and older
activists gathered in front of City Hall to rally
against a proposed $385 million cut to educa-
tion. Rap impresario Russell Simmons, whose
Hip Hop Sununit Action Network hosted the
event, brought along fellow superstars Alicia
Keys, Jay-Z and Chuck D. Their presence helped
garner press coverage nom outlets large and
small: City Council member Charles Barron told
the Washington Post that the rally was an "awe-
some, awesome revolutionary moment." Shortly
32
therea&er, Mayor Bloomberg restored $298 mil-
lion to the city's education budget.
The rally may never have come off at all,
however, if it weren't for ongoing efforts by
teachers, unions, and a movement that's rapidly
gaining power: hip hop activism. Over the past
few years, a broad movement commined to seri-
ous political action-with hip hop as its medi-
um of communication-has taken root across
the country, organizing young people around a
variety of political and activist campaigns.
Juvenile justice, for example, has been a rally-
ing cry for hip hoppers nom coast to coast. In
New York, the citywide Justice 4 Youth Coalition
launched an effort to redirect $65 million slated
for juvenile jail expansion. Headed by the Prison
Moratorium Project, which has made its name
among young people by coordinating and dis-
tributing a political hip hop compilation CD
called No More Prisons, the coalition packed City
Council hearings with young activists, including
former juvenile offenders armed with facts and
personal stories. Ultimately; the city scaled back
the expansion, cuning $53 million. On the oppo-
site coast, 2001 saw an urban-suburban coali-
tion-headed by the Youth Force Coalition of
over 20 youth organizations-fight the construc-
tion of a youth "superjail" in Alameda County,
California; the number of beds was eventually cut
back by 120.
The phenomenon hasn't gone unnoticed; the
New York Times and other publications have run
lengthy articles in the last year hyping the politi-
cal involvement of major hip hop figures like
Simmons. But they've missed a critical point: hip
hop activism isn't being led by the men with the
deep pockets, but by grassroots activist groups.
"Every successfUl grassroots initiative right
now is using hip hop" when it comes to on-the-
ground organizing done by people of color,
declares Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, who helped coor-
dinate The Future 500, a national directory of
youth activist organizations released in October.
Abdul-Matin says that about 60 to 70 percent of
the groups in the directory do hip hop activism.
Hip hop activism has been able to act as a
door for those just entering the political realm.
"Hip hop activists were really effective at growing
a new constituency who hadn't been involved in
politics before or who didn't know how to politi-
cize their engagement," says Alvin Starks, a pro-
gram officer at the Open Society Institute (051),
which has been giving more and more grants to
groups using hip hop in their work.
Hip hop's power as an organizing tool, say
activists, lies in the fact that it forms a common
cultural bond for a multiethnic generation. At a
panel discussion held this summer at 051,
Marinieves Alba, founder of a youth leadership
development nonprofit called Generation Hip
Hop L.E.A.D.S., laid out why it works: "In the
Puerto Rican community we have a saying, that
in order to reach the masses you have to speak
to them in rice and beans, " she said, drawing a
muffied laugh from the crowd. "So, hip hop is
rice and beans for a lot of young people .... Fun-
damenrally, it's the [001. It's the bridge. "
WHERE THAT BRIDGE is leading, and what [0 do
with the fierce energy the movement has galva-
nized among young people, is the big question
that hip hop activists must now contend with.
Heady on local victories, activists are getting a
taste of success-and power. Comparisons
between hip hop activism and the civil rights
movement are common, but they beg a funda-
mental question: Can-and should-hip hop-
pers take on the political establishment?
While activists have launched successfUl local
grassroots campaigns-for example, forcing uni-
versities to drop a food service company with ties
to private prisons and scaling back the construc-
CITY LIMITS
tion of juvenile detention facilities--they've bare-
ly begun to mount an effective challenge to the
balance of political power, so necessary to spark
the broad political change most of them say
they're committed to. The movement, in Srarks'
words, "needs to gain changing-social-systems
teeth. " Not all efforts have been as successful as
those of the Justice 4 Youth Coalition, and few
have chosen to focus on political prey.
For one thing, the number of elected offi-
cials who can credit hip hoppers with their
political success are few and far between. Ras
Baraka-a teacher, hip hopper, and son of poet
and activist Amiri Baraka-tried and failed
three times to win public office in Newark; and
Brooklyn's George Martinez, a Puerto Rican
MC of modest national fame-he rhymes
under the moniker Rithm-lost his 1996 bid
for a New York City Council seat.
Issue-based political campaigns haven't fared
so well, either: In 2000, hip hoppers mobilized
a dazzling array of youth against California's
Proposition 21, which allowed kids as young as
14 to be tried as adults. Nonetheless, the propo-
sition passed with 62 percent of the vote (the
proposal, however, failed in San Francisco and
Alameda counties, where most hip hop mobiliz-
ing against the initiative took place).
Hip hop's lack of success in the formal polit-
ical realm hasn't gone unnoticed. "It's not
enough for your group to protest. You need to
get with the people working on policy, or you
need to hold politicians accountable, " says
Yvonne Bynoe, co-founder of Urban Think
Tank, a Brooklyn-based policy group aimed at
the "hip hop generation."
The vety thing that makes hip hop such a
powerful organizing tool-a common culture-
in some ways can undermine irs political power,
too. DefIning the movement in terms of cultural
expression, not political goals, leaves the door
wide open for political differences. Sean "P-
Diddy" Combs and LL Cool J provided an illu-
minating example this fall of the limits of defIn-
ing politics through hip hop: While Combs
backed Democrat H. Carl McCall in the gover-
nor's race, LL threw his weight behind Pataki-
the Republican incumbent who's been excoriated
by many hip hop activists for underfunding New
York City schools, an issue front and center at
Simmons' June rally. (Simmons backed Andrew
Cuomo.) The divide isn't strictly liberal/conserv-
ative; it's more revolution/reform, ranging from
black power-inspired radicals spouting off about
a people's army to young people working on edu-
cation reform, and everything in between.
What's really missing is a shared, national
agenda-and organization. Before activists can
DECEMBER 2002
really push policy, posits Bynoe, they will need
to build a sound coordinating body. "Structural-
ly, there has to be some national appararus that's
pushing for an agenda. Until you have a politi-
cal platform that you've clearly articulated,
there's never gonna be any hip hop anybody."
But faith in the political process is in short
supply among youth who've grown up with an
underfunded education system and skyrocketing
rates of incarceration. "We've not been able to
link people in the hip hop community to the
body of politics," sighs Keith Carson, an Alame-
da County Supervisor in CaIifornia, well known
among local hip hop activists for his support of
their work. "They often say, 'You haven't attempt-
ed to value us or listen to us. You just tell us what
to do or come when you need something."
Jordan Bromley of the Hip Hop Congress
has concerns, roo. "Everybody knows hip hop
is completely disorganized," he sighs; Bromley
"Until you have a
political platform,"
says one observer,
"there's never
gonna be any hip
hop anybody_"
should know-the Hip Hop Congress has fIve
college chapters and is working to build a
broad network. "Everywhere, there's hip hop
organizations," he says; the challenge is fInding
and coordinating them.
Nonetheless, many activists don't see differing
ideologies as a problem. "Unity without unifor-
mity. That's where our strength is," says KofI Taha
of Active Element Foundation, which published
The Future 500. Hip hop journalist Jeff Chang
agrees: "There isn't an interest to endlessly debate
the correct line." Rather, the newer grassroots
generation is imbued with "this notion that there's
a lot of work that needs to be done, let's just go
out and do it. Let's go out and work, let's fInd our
common ground and srarr moving. "
THAT MAY TAKE a lime more time, though, as
some grassroots hip hop organizations are strug-
gling just to stay afloat. "Lessons they've learned
INTELLIGENCE
MA KING CHANGE
on the ground, tactically, strategically," says
Chang, "have not necessarily transferred across
the country." Campaigns and political maneu-
vers aside, hip hop activists face the same chal-
lenges that confront every burgeoning move-
ment: leadership development, institution-
building, knowledge transfer, and, most notably,
funding. "On the real, people need to fIgure out
how to make money," laments Abdul-Matin. "A
lot of people drop out because they're broke."
Getting the cash to run a nonprofIt is espe-
cially daunting. Often, foundation officers expe-
rience a culture clash when 20-year-olds in
baggy pants and dreadlocks ask them for money.
When hip hop groups vie for public attention,
they butt heads with the commercial image of
misogynistic, blunt-smoking rappers out to get
girls and big cars. Once the basic culture clash is
surmounted, there's still fIguring out how to
meld the agenda of often-radical activists with
that of well-to-do foundation officers.
"Foundations are on a learning curve," says
Starks. "They have to catch up." Hip hop
activists are linking cultural and political work
in ways that older funders may not understand:
"It's been 'you have your organizing over there,
and your poetry slams over there, '" notes
Chang. "Young folks see these two together.
That's something new that many funders aren't
beginning to recognize until now. "
Case in point: Alba's leadership program
teaches its kids meditation skills, to cope with
"drama" at home-a bit unorthodox by foun-
dation standards. But, warned Alba at the OSI
panel, "if I feel like putting that in a proposal,
you better like it and support it."
Still, the OSI panel and the steady press
attention the movement has been drawing sug-
gest an increasing respect on the part of funders
and media. "It's becoming a sexy thing with
these foundations," says James Bernard, a pro-
ject coordinator at the Rockefeller Foundation
and founder of the groundbreaking hip hop
magazine The Source. "They're interested, but
we've got to take it somewhere."
Activists will have to decide what funding to
seek, and on what terms. Starks points out that
they shouldn't just look to foundations for help:
money may come from individual donors, the
community-even corporations.
As it works through its growing pains, hip
hop activism is still poised to blossom. At the
summer panel, Bernard launched a good-willed
tirade on the crowd. "This generation is not apa-
thetic," he ranted. "They've seen losing-they
want victory." The crowd was energized, nod-
ding and laughing along with him. "1 wanna
fuckin' win."
33
INTELLIGENCE
NYC INC.
Spare Some
Change?
If our cash-strapped
government wants to help the
poor, it had better get serious
about reforming its approach.
By Ben Esner
MORE NEED AND LESS MONEY. Those may not
sound like ideal conditions under which to step
up the fight against poverty, but in New York
City's case they might offer just the right com-
bination.
If there is a silver lining to the multibil-
lion-dollar budget deficit, it is the prospect
that the economic squeeze will push policy-
makers, community development gtoups and
service providers to focus on ptoblems that
tend to go unchallenged during boom times:
out-of-control government bureaucracy, inef-
ficiency and an unforgivably fragmented
approach to the task.
The key to imptoving the efficiency and
effectiveness of New York's anti-poverty strate-
gy is not more money, it is integration--{)f
funds, of programs, of the efforts of various
agencies. And here optimism fades. Creating
an integrated system that both builds commu-
nities and adeptly addresses the more pressing
aspects of poverty requires a high degree of
accountability, flexibility and competence-
not exactly the characteristics most closely asso-
ciated with government.
Still, the evidence against maintaining the
status quo is overwhelming. Few would dis-
agree that substantial sums have been spent on
piecemeal efforts that have not produced large-
scale results. A look at any of the relevant ser-
vices-child care, workforce development,
public-assistance administration or any of a
dozen others-reveals a pattern: Elected offi-
cials create programs and provide funds fo
address specific problems or populations, or to
reform programs already on the books. These
programs and reforms are frequently enacted
outside of any context, with no examination of
how close in nature, intended outcome or
structure they are to existing efforts, and with
little or no flexibility built in.
34

A project of the Center for an Urban Future
The result? Programmatic isolation instead
of communication and integration, and work
constrained by narrow mandates and cumber-
some rules. These regulations are then strictly
enforced by fiercely protective bureaucracies,
which tout accountability for their mostly non-
profit contractors while insulating themselves
almost entirely from it. Statistical goals are set
for agencies, departments and divisions instead
of more meaningful standards such as increases
in income, vacant lots developed, private
investments secured, or interagency and private
partnerships formed.
Add to this mix the mind-numbing division
of government funds among these inflexible
bureaucracies, each with its limited scope and
unique reporting requirements, and you
achieve the following exemplary result: An
organization that provides early childhood
education services to children five and under in
New York City may be funded and overseen by
at least three agencies (excluding of course the
several others that regulate its physical plant),
each with different requirements and regula-
tions, and may have to submit separate
reports-in different formats-to the Agency
for Child Development, the office of Head
Start, and the city's Universal Pre-Kindergarten
program, plus additional paperwork to the
Human Resources Administration if the group
serves children who receive child care vouchers
at that agency.
This particular problem is so acute that the
nonprofit sector has developed entire organiza-
tions dedicated to sorting out the mess. These
groups provide technical assistance directed at
figuring out how to work with government,
integrating funding from different programs,
and financing community development. While
some add value to the process, these groups
also divert millions of (mostly private) dollars
every year, essentially for the purpose of re-
administering money already administered
once by government.
At a time when poverty rates are showing a
slight decline-a result of the economic boom
of the late 1990s-inefficiencies in govern-
ment programs for the poor might not seem
like a cause for urgent action. But the poor
have hardly disappeared. The 2000 U.S. Cen-
sus showed 300,000 more New Yorkers in
poverty than there were a decade earlier, despite
billions of dollars spent over that period. And it
remains highly uncertain whether the working
poor will be able to hold onto their economic
gains--{)r, for that matter, whether an income
slightly over the poverty line is enough to sus-
tain a family.
In order for us to fix what's broken, more
than government will have to change.
Government is at the top of the human-ser-
vices funding chain-it provides more dollars
for anti-poverty work than any other funding
source-and over the decades New York's non-
profit sector has grown to reflect some of the
public sector's weaknesses. Like the bureaucra-
cies under which they serve, many nonprofits
are disorganized, unproductive and often
downright wasteful. In addition, the abundant
and generous array of private sector institutions
that provide funds for human services and
community development efforts inevitably
mirror the government's approach, and help
enable the market's fragmentation.
Integration on the scale necessary to make
the use of public money more efficient requires
a sustained effort at restructuring the way
human services and community development
funds are both administered by government
and spent by the nonprofit organizations and
other private contractors that are paid to carry
Out public policy. In short, reform in the pri-
vate sector is a necessary condition for
demanding the same from government.
A plan for achieving real efficiency and
accountability in New York's anri-poverty
effort must include several components. One
of these is a focus on results-those quantifi-
able things that define a program's success. This
means a shift from focusing on benchmarks
such as the number of clients served to gauges
such as increased income, career progression
after receiving government-subsidized work-
force training, or the developmental progress of
CITY LIMITS
young children as they move through childcare
programs. Another is the institution of stan-
dards for organizational performance that
encourage sound management, strong fiscal
oversight and flexibility.
But the most important element is one that
is missing almost across the board: a regular
assessment of whether a given program, project
or organization has a sensible and strategic rela-
tionship to a clear overarching mission-like
ending poverty in New York City-as well as a
relationship to the hundreds of other entities
receiving public and private funds to work
toward that same end.
It is not enough for organizations or pro-
grams simply to show that they are doing what
they set out to do. Government must begin to
ask analytical questions such as: "Where does
this organization or program fit into the mis-
sion?" "How will it help us fulfill the concrete
objectives we have set?" and "Is funding this
particular group or project the most effective,
efficient way to pursue our goals?" And if the
answer to the last question is "no," we should
spend our money elsewhere.
In order for the city to develop a truly inte-
grated, accountable system, this kind of assess-
ment must become a central organizing prin-
ciple for the future of government-sponsored
and privately backed community-building
investments.
Assessing funding requests and discerning
whether or not a project's elements are related
ro a system-that is, some series of steps,
probably involving multiple organizations,
directed at a comprehensively defined goal and
integrated with other public expenditures-is
possible. What is hard is making those kinds
of decisions, and making them work, when
rules are substituted for reason, institutional
convenience trumps innovation, and rigidity
triumphs over flexibility in everything from
procurement regulations to workplace union
titles. On these grounds alone, the time for
change has come.
The good news is that economic pressure to
streamline and integrate the city's diverse anti-
poverty services into a true system dovetails
nicely with the emergence of a reasonable con-
sensus among top practitioners and outside
experts about what is wrong with current gov-
ernment policy in this area.
There is growing recognition that reducing
public assistance caseloads is not the same as
reducing poverty; that education and training
are credible and desirable components of any
large-scale anti-poverty campaign; that one
focus of such an effort must be on local eco-
DECEMBER 2002
nomic development; and that low-income peo-
ple who are not receiving public assistance
must be included in any overall strategy in
order for it to be effective.
Not only is there general agreement about
what the deficiencies are, there is also more and
more agreement about what to do about them:
Helping people accumulate assets, encouraging
property ownership, supplementing earned
income for low-wage workers, supporting edu-
cational attainment, backing commercial
enterprise, ensuring access to culture, and pro-
moting local development are all emerging
forcefully as essential elements of an integrated
The key to improving
the efficiency
and effectiveness
of New York's
anti-poverty
strategy is not more
money. It is
integration-of
funds, programs
and efforts.
effort to build up New York's neighborhoods.
The mayor's policy changes, especially those
that sharply contrast with his predecessor's,
may orient the city toward this broad-based,
integrated anti-poverty effort designed to help
people achieve long-term self-sufficiency. The
administration's public position on the reau-
thorization of Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families and its acknowledgement of the City's
obligations under the Workforce Investment
Act both point in this direction. Mayor
Bloomberg has said, for example, that he wants
to increase the number of public assistance
recipients eligible to receive work credit for
participating in education and training pro-
INTELLIGENCE
NYC INC.
grams. Proposed changes also include a more
flexible definition of assistance under TANF, to
allow enhanced support to families that are
employed, but not yet self-sufficient. Listen
closely, too, to commissioners and mayoral
advisers, and you will hear that goals are being
defined more comprehensively, and that there
is a clear directive from City Hall to make gov-
ernment work berter.
The ability of the Bloomberg administra-
tion to meet its policy objectives in this area
depends on its leadership in reforming the
bureaucracy and building real partnerships
with practitioners. With the looming reality of
budget-driven cuts in human services, finding
new ways to channel limited funds directly to
programs is essential. Partnerships must be dri-
ven by a mutual commitment to results, quali-
ty, integration and agility at all levels. Achieve-
ment here would definitely qualifY as a legacy,
but, more importantly, it would have a sus-
tained, long-term impact far out of proportion
to the human and political capital required.
Fortunately, there is reason to believe that the
Bloomberg administration has the skills and the
background to demand collaboration, enforce
standards and reward quality, while also possess-
ing the mechanical know-how to do things such
as revamp bureaucracies and use information
technology to make business more efficient.
For instance, the mayor knows enough
about the power of information technology to
understand that a computer system that parses
the same information differently for different
agencies could relieve providers of the obliga-
tion to file multiple, multi-formatted reports.
Or that an internet-based network could
enable someone to check for openings in all of
the city's publicly funded childcare programs-
something that is currently impossible because
the computers at the various agencies involved
do not communicate with one another. Just
having some idea about how to do such things
may help motivate this administration to look
closely at reforming the system.
This is a big project, for sure. But with the
economic pressure on, and so many sound and
innovative ideas about community develop-
ment and anti-poverty work being discussed
among New York City's leaders in these fields,
now is the time to tackle it .
Ben Esner is the Deputy Director of Independence
Community Foundation and a member of the
Board of Directors of the Bedford Stuyvesant
Restoration Corporation. He was the chief of staff
of the New York City Department of Environ-
mental Protection.
35
HOME
REMEDIES
continued from page 19
Other Manhattan providers of aid to the elderly remain skeptical that
the caseworkers they've had such a difficult time with will suddenly be
responsive to their suggestions for how to handle a case. "They've sup-
posedly started a program," says Onaitis. "But their workers have never
called me. And as far as I know, none have ever called any of our parmer
agencies either. "
C
risis services for adults have been so weak that advocates for the
disabled have turned in desperation to a class action lawsuit. In
April, the New York Legal Assistance Group sued the city of
New York for systematically refusing clients without legal justification.
Its complaint also attacked the agency's failure to adequately provide ser-
vices to the clients it does accept.
NYLAG ftIed this suit in hopes that they could provoke similar
changes to those that helped reinvigorate the city's child welfare agency.
''As a result of litigation, they're paying higher salaries to their casework-
ers," observes NYLAG attorney Jane Stevens. "It's a good example of
how litigation and advocacy can squeeze the balloon. "
As City Limits went to press, NYLAG was in the midst of serious talks
with APS that Stevens hoped will soon lead to a settlement. APS is offer-
ing to rework its assessment process to more carefully examine a prospec-
tive client's other options before ruling him or her ineligible. In addition,
APS is promising better coordination with the city's Department of
Homeless Services, so APS clients who are evicted can have more direct
access to housing subsidies and programs.
The prospect of resolution forces one immediate question: How
could APS possibly handle additional work? There's one word that every-
one, including Miss Leslie, uses to describe the agency's 220 casework-
ers: overwhelmed. Without additional resources, additional casework
seems like the last thing APS can do right now. NYLAG recognizes this
danger: "Unless there's a new infusion of money," says Stevens, "it
wouldn't be very easy to accomplish new things. "
Success doesn't have to be unthinkable at APS-if the agency secures
the resources to step in and do what's necessary to keep a vulnerable adult
in the community. In the current New York budget crisis, any additional
money will have to be fought for aggressively.
Robert Williams, for one, is grateful that someone figured ou( how to
save his modest room, so that he can stay in his neighborhood and con-
tinue to volunteer at the local soup kitchen. And continue to go to the
same shops where he knows where the bargains are and the cashiers
won't take advantage of him. "I'm a good tenant," he says. Thanks to
what he calls "those nice ladies"-his Housing Court judge and case-
worker-"No one can mess with me," Williams says proudly. "I can stay
in my home. "
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Coney Island
HIGH
continued from page 27
began to increase, she got a Russian-speaking
worker who could talk to them, only to lose her
to college. Now Oakley, who's also going back to
school, is trying to teach himself Russian. It's
slow going: "I know just enough to say 'Do you
have a Medicaid card?'" he says, smiling wryly.
But if the little white house were to be picked
up and dropped down in East New York, Wzzard
of Oz-style, Aida's omniscience in Coney Island
wouldn't do her much good. In her neighbor-
hood, she knows everybody, from the prostitutes
out on the stroll to the local community board,
whose district manager calls her "a dynamo. "
Even the 60th Precinct is said to occasionally
send clients her way (though Aida says she does-
n't know anything about that).
And it's on her own streets that Aida finds her
inspiration. Last August, Aida found Ibian Soto,
an old friend from the neighborhood, turning
tricks on the street in sweatpants and a dirty t-
Oakley is trying
to teach himself
Russian. It's slow
goi ng: "I know just
enough to say
'Do you have
a Medicaid card?'"
shirt. She took her horne, put her in some clean
clothes. Then she made up Soto's face and gave
her a whole new hairdo. "The next day, she woke
up, and I said, 'What do you want for breakfast?'
Now, you know, most people, they'd say, 'Oh,
whatever you want to get me, Aida'--cause I
don't do breakfast and none a that shit in my
kitchen," she says with disdain.
"But she looked up at me and you know what
she said? 'I'll have eggs over, and toast, and coffee,'"
Aida relates, pride masquerading as outrage. "She
ate her ass offi She thought she was on vacation."
Not long afrer, Soto was back on the street,
and Aida was scheming to get her back and into
rehab. A month later, she finally did. "That girl,
she's like a sister to me," says Aida. "She's like the
last one that might die on me. Out of all the girls
I used to get high with, that are still out there,
she's the last one who's still alive."
She pauses, then speaks quietly for once. "Such
an outrageous thing," she says, "to save a life. "
CITY LIMITS
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JOB ADS
ACCOUNTANT - Not-for-profit Organization is
seeking experienced accountant; BBA or BS
with experience in NYS, NYC funded programs,
monthly vouching; budget variance knowledge
a must. Computer literate, w Fund EZ software
knowledge a plus. Excel.Lotus working experi-
ence essential. Salary range mid
$20s. Fax resumes to: BVSJ Attn: Human
Resources 718-935-1629 or email to
admin@bvsj.Xohost.com.
ACCOUNTING MANAGER - Large non-profit
organization seeking Accounting Manager to
oversee accounts receivable/payable, invento-
ry control and reporting functions. 3-5 yrs
experience, prior supervisory experience a
must. Experience in non-profit a plus.
Send word document of resume to
Doug@4-evolution.com
ADMINISTRATI VE DIRECTOR - Legal non-
profit seeks experienced manager: office oper-
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purchasing, equipment. HR: benefits, recruit-
ing, policies, orientation, morale. Admin:
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problem-solver, develop effective systems,
cooperative, diplomatic, sensitive, energetic,
team- player. College degree, 6+ years office
management experience. Skilled in
Word/Excel. Fax resume, letter and salary
requirements: Admin Director, Brennan Center
for Justice, 161 Avenue of Americas, 12th floor,
NYC 10013, fax 212-995-4550
DECEMBER 2002
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT - CUCS' Career
Network, a job training & employment program
serving tenants of supportive housing, is
recruiting for the following position: Adminis-
trative Assistant. The Administrative Assis-
tant supports program management and
direct service staff by carrying out administra-
tive functions. This position requires interac-
tion with program participants, including pos-
sible supervision of clerical interns. Resp: Fil-
ing, supply inventory & purchasing; managing
vendor accounts; managing agency funds;
word processing; and report preparation &
database management. Reqs: High School
Diploma or equivalent; 2 years office experi-
ence; good interpersonal and organizational
skills; good computer skills; effective written &
verbal communications skills; & ability to flex-
ibly manage multiple tasks. BA preferred.
Salary: $29,725. Benefits: compo bnfts incl
$65/month in transit checks. * Send resumes
and cover letters ASAP to: Carlene Scheel ,
CUCS/Career Network, c/o The Prince
George14 E. 28th Street, New York, NY 10016.
Fax: 212-471-0758, Email:cnhire@cucs.org.
CUCS is committed to workforce diversity. EEO
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT - Duties
include: maintain the continuity of the office
by relaying information, basic accounting,
database management skills, able to work in
a fast pace, effective communication skills,
problem solver, planning, need strong writing
and internet research skills. This job pays
$9 per hour for a six-hour workday,
Monday-Friday. Send resumes to
ernplanning@yahoo.com
ADVOCATE - To coordinate activities in the
Bronx about disability rights issues. Must have
excellent communication skills, be comfort-
able making presentations and possess basic
computer/internet skills. Bilingual in Spanish
or ASL a plus. People w/ disabilities encour-
aged to apply. Job description at www.bils.org.
Send resume and cover letter to Asst. Dir.,
BILS, Istei n@bils.org or fax 718-515-2844.
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM DIRECTOR - Aso-
ciacion Tepeyac seeks part-time Program
Director for Queens After School Program for
Latino children. Description: oversee programs
and activities, recruitment, training, staff
meetings, evaluation of program development,
and related paper work. Requirements: MA in
Education or related field, experience working
with children and youth, supervising staff or
volunteers, bilingual in EnglishlSpanish. Send
letter, resume to: Paulina Quintero, Program
Coordinator, Asociacion Tepeyac, 251 West
14th Street, New York, NY 10011,
pallisq@ hotmail.com, 212-633 7108 ext 32.
ASSET MANAGER - The Enterprise Social
Investment Corporation (ESIC) is currently
searching for an Asset Manager for our New
York, NY office to oversee a portfolio of tax
credit projects through site visits, financial
review and problem resolution as needed. This
position requires a thorough knowledge of real
estate and basic finance. Bachelor'S degree
and 5 years + housing and real estate
required or Masters degree with 3 years expe-
rience preferred. Property management and
financial or accounting experience will be
helpful. We offer a competitive salary and
excellent benefits. Send resume with salary
requirements to: The Enterprise Social Invest-
ment Corporation, c/o HR, 10227 Wincopin
Circle, Ste. 800, Columbia, MD 21044.
Fax:410-772-2676; E-mail: jobopp@esic.org.
ASSISTANT HOUSING DIRECTOR - Candidate
should have an administrative background
with working knowledge of Housing Opera-
tions, Rent Collecting, Financial Reporting.
Must be computer literate with minimum 2
years working in Housing Management and
Development arena. Should be able to super-
vise staff, manage time and complete payroll
reporting. Extensive skill in maintenance reg-
ulations, cleaning and construction services to
rental units and other spaces within company.
Should be self-starter and able to work with all
types of people and situations. Salary com-
mensurate with experience. Low $30s and up.
Fax resumes to: BVSJ Attn: Human Resources
718-935-1629 or email to
admin@bvsj.Xohost.com
ASSISTANT TO DIRECTOR - Fifth Avenue
Committee, a leading Brooklyn CDC, seeks FIT
individual to assist executive director with a
range of managerial , programmatic, and
administrative tasks. Responsibilities:
Research, writing, and special projects. Coor-
dinate meetings and follow-up. Enhance inte-
gration through tracking organizational per-
formance, joint program planning, communi-
cations, and mgt systems. Qualifications:
Project mgt experience in related field. Excel-
lent communication and research skills. Self-
starter. Exp. w/not-for-profit organizational
development. Strong commitment to FAC's
mission. Salary commensurate w/experience.
AAlEOE. Letter, salary req's, & resume to Brad
Lander, FAC, 141 Fifth Ave, Bklyn, NY 11217,
blander@fifthave.org, or fax to 718-857-
4322. More info at www.fifthave.org
ASSOCIATE CIRCUIT RIDER - Growing
national project empowering grassroots orga-
nizations through technology, seeks individual
with experience in technology and community
organizing. Salary: up to $38K; good benefits.
Persons of color, formerly on welfare or low-
income are encouraged. EOE. For more, see
www.lincproject.org. Send resume, references
to Gina Mannix, Welfare Law Center, 275 Sev-
enth Ave. , Ste 1205, 10001. Fax 212-633-
6371, emaillinchire@welfarelaw.org
CASE MANAGER - Safe Horizon seeks Case
Manager, Full-time including some evenings
for Streetwork Project, an innovative outreach-
counseling program for homeless youth in
Midtown Manhattan. Responsibilities include
counseling and case management, street out-
reach, case file maintenance and other duties
as assigned. BA or equivalent experience pre-
ferred, Spanish-speaking a plus. Send resume
and cover letter to D. Nish, 545 8th Avenue, NY,
NY 10018.
CASE MANAGER - The Hunter College Center
on AIDS, Drugs and Community Health is seek-
JOB ADS
ing a Case Manager to facilitate empower-
mentlsupport/health education groups, both
in jail and community sites, provide assess-
mentlintake and individual health education.
Conduct program follow-up; develop health
and social service referrals; manage special
educational events; other duties assigned. Bi-
lingual Spanish/English required. Salary:
$28K - $35K depending on experience. Send
resume and the names and telephone num-
bers of 3 references to J. Daniels, Center on
AIDS, Drugs and Community Health, Hunter
College, 425 East 25th Street, New York, NY
10010, or via email to
Jessie.Daniels@hunter.cuny.edu. No phone
calls please. The Center on AIDS, Drugs and
Community Health is an Equal
Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
CASE MANAGERICASAC - Non-profit Mental
Health Agency located in Harlem has full time
position for case manager. Responsibilities
include substance abuse and mental illness
counseling, intake, ADL services, running
groups and home visits. Experience with MICA
population. CASAC eligible and 2 years of
related experience. BA degree preferred.
Computer literate. $32K with great benefits.
Fax cover letter and resume to 212-316-9618
or email to hr@westonunited.org.
CASE MANAGERS - Article 31 clinics: BA +
experience. Bilingual Spanish or Chinese
(Mandarin and Cantonese) and English pre-
ferred. Institute for Community Living, Inc is a
dynamic, nationally acclaimed provider of
comprehensive services to people with mental
disabilities. Recent expansion has resulted in
the creation of a number of managerial and
clinical openings. We invite you to join our
dedicated staff and make a difference. We
offer an attractive total compensation pack-
age and opportunities for growth and develop-
ment. Send resume of interest to: Institute for
Community Living, Human Resources Depart-
ment, 40 Rector Street, New York, NY 10006,
fax 212-385-0378.
CASE MANAGER - for Cathedral Community
Cares, the social service program at the
Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine.
Responsible for case management of home-
less and low-income clients who seek emer-
gency services through the Crisis Intervention
and Opportunity Center. Seeking a candidate
who has SpanishlEnglish fluency, at least 3
years of experience doing casework, proficient
with Microsoft Office, excellent communica-
tion and interpersonal skills, ability to work
collaboratively with a small staff, familiarity
and experience working with city and state
agencies is a plus. Salary is $30,000, nego-
tiable, plus benefits. E-mail , fax or mail a let-
ter and resume to: Raquel Granda,
Director, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue New York,
NY 10025, fax: 212-316-7582,
rgranda@cathedralcares.org
CASEWORKER - For more than 75 years,
Catholic Charities has been providing commu-
nity programs and social services with com-
passion, competence and respect. Working
together we provide individuals and families
39
JOBAOS
with services they need to live and thrive. We
are looking for a Caseworker (Refugee Social
Services Program) Duties: Caseworker provides
case management to help prepare refugees,
asylees and Cuban/Haitian entrants for
employment, overseeing the case from begin-
ning to end. This includes conducting assess-
ment and intake, completing application and
service plan, assisting clients to acquire iden-
tity documents, making referrals and enrolling
clients in relevant social services. Caseworker
also prepares resumes, educates and encour-
ages clients on job search, interviewing skills
and the world of work. Writes case notes and
maintains case file, helping to secure and
track documentation required for billing pur-
poses. Caseworker works with job developers to
ensure clients meet action deadlines. Commu-
nicates with employers as needed in collabora-
tion with job developers. Provides administra-
tive, data entry and program support to job
developers and project manager. Qualifica-
tions: College degree preferred. Prior casework
and administrative experience preferred but
will train on the job. Highly motivated and self-
starter. Strong organizational and analytical
skills. Excellent communication (oral & writ-
ten), and interpersonal skills. Ability to priori-
tize and handle multiple complex tasks. Strong
computer skills. Bilingual ability preferred but
not required. Catholic Charities promotes bal-
ance between work & life for our employees
with 19 paid holidays along with an excellent
benefits and vacation package. Please submit
resume & cover letter indicating position of
interest and salary requirements: Catholic
Charities-Personnel , 1011 First Avenue New
York, NY 10022, Fax: 212-826-8795, Email:
ccjobs@archny.org
CLERGY ORGANIZER - The Northwest Bronx
Community and Clergy Coalition seeks an
experienced organizer to staff an interfaith
clergy committee, organize social action com-
mittees at local churches and mosques, and
integrate the work of these groups into the
broader organizing efforts of the organization.
Issues include housing, school reform, and
immigration. Applicants should be committed
to social justice, and have five years experience
in interfaith work and/or community organiz-
ing. Spanish language abil ities, familiarity
with congregation-based models of organiz-
ing, and a background in theology or religious
education are preferred. Salary to $35-40 K
based on experience, with good benefits. Send
cover letter and resume to Clay Smith at
nwbstaffdir@mindspring.com or fax to 718-
367-5655.
CLIENT SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE - God's
Love We Deliver, a NYC non-profit, non-sectar-
ian organization dedicated to alleviating
hunger and malnutrition for people living with
HIVIAIDS and other serious illnesses seeks a
Client Service Representative to assess and
register potential and current clients for the
agency's Meal Program, monitor adherence to
establi shed guidelines for program eligibility,
and work with clients and their support net-
work and medical providers on issues of eligi-
bility, certification and delivery of service.
Candidates must have a College Degree (BA,
BS or BSA) in social work or health care admin-
40
istration; two years experience in
customer/client service or advocacy in a com-
munity-based organization or health care
facility; solid working knowledge of HIVIAID
and/or other serious, life threatening or debili-
tating illness and related confidentiality laws;
experience in or knowledge of medical termi-
nology or coding in accordance with the Inter-
national Classification of Diseases (UICD_9
U
);
proficiency in MS 2000 Office software with an
emphasis on Word, Excel and Access and expe-
rience with verbal and written communication
skills in Spanish, French or Creole. Must be
willing to work a flexible schedule including
overtime and holidays; travel within the five
boroughs on NYC and Hudson County, NJ; and
have a desire to work with a diverse group of
clients, staff and volunteers. Excellent bene-
fits package. Send, fax or e-mail resume with
cover letter, which must include salary history
and requirements to HR-GLWD, 166 Avenue of
the Americas, NYC 10013 or Fax 212-294-
8101; recruitment@glwd.org. EOE
CLINIC DIRECTORS - Article 31 Cl inics: CSW/
PhD + 5 years clinical and supervisory experi-
ence working with children and families. Insti-
tute for Community Living, Inc is a dynamic,
nationally acclaimed provider of comprehen-
sive services to people with mental disabilities.
Recent expansion has resulted in the creation
of a number of managerial and clinical open-
ings. We invite you to join our dedicated staff
and make a difference. We offer an attractive
total compensation package and opportunities
for growth and development. Send resume of
interest to: Institute for Community Living,
Human Resources Department, 40 Rector
Street, New York, NY 10006, fax 212-385-
0378.
CLINICAL COORDINATOR - Dorothy Day
Apartments/Pioneering Supportive Housing
Model for Families is seeking to fill the position
of Clinical Coordinator. This position is
responsible for ensuring the provi sion of effec-
tive on-site case management services to 43
low-income families and 27 single adults in a
pioneering new supportive housing site, the
Dorothy Day Apts., located on Riverside Drive in
Upper Manhattan set to open January 2003.
The Dorothy Day seeks to strengthen and reuni-
fy families. Tenants will receive comprehensive
on-site services including day care, after
school and case management services. Resp:
Participate in all aspects of program start-up;
hiring and supervision of professional and
paraprofessional team: program development
& evaluation; host agency relations, contract
compliance, regulatory & agency standards &
policies; 24-hour beeper coverage Reqs: CSw.
Minimum of 3 years applicable post-masters
experience with children and families, child
welfare, residential setting/supportive housing
and/or mental health expo At least 1 year
supervisory expo Administrative & manage-
ment exp preferred. Strong writing & verbal
comm skills; computer literacy. Bilingual
SpanishlEnglish pre!. Salary: $46,459. Bene-
fits: compo bnfts incl $65/month in transit
checks. Send resumes and cover letters ASAP
to: Kathleen McDermott, CUCS Administrative
Offices, 120 Wall St. 25/FL, New York, NY
10005. Fax: 212-801-2356, Email :
admnhire@cucs.org. CUCS is committed to
workforce diversity. EEO.
COMMUNITY ASTHMA COORDINATOR
Health Force, is seeking a coordinator for a
ground breaking community asthma prevention
project. This position requires 1) implementing
a wide-ranging community asthma interven-
tion plan. 2) Supervising community asthma
educators to carry out effective home visits.
Qualifications: A Bachelor's degree and at
least two years experience in community health
and/or organization. Must show the ability to
plan and execute community implementation.
Superior organizational communication and
planning skills. Spanish language ability a
plus. Salary: Low to Mid-$30's, commensurate
with experience. Send resume and cover letter
to: Juanita Lopez, Director Health Force, 552
Southern Boulevard, Tel. 718-585-8585/Fax
718-585-5041
COMMUNITY NUTRITIONIST - Large non-
profit organization seeking Community Nutri-
tionist. Person will lead the organization's
efforts in providing nutrition education to
1,200 emergency feeding programs. BIVIlS,
R.D, 3 years of progressively responsible expe-
rience required. Certification from American
Dietary association Preferred. Please send
word document of resume along with cover let-
ter to Doug@4-evolution.com
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER / ADVOCACY COUN-
SELOR - Advocacy and Community Organiz-
ing Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, a not-for-
profit social service agency on the Upper East
Side of Manhattan, seeks dedicated advocates
committed to social justice, tenants rights and
advocacy issues to provide community orga-
nizing group services and individual advocacy
counseling for people who live work or go to
school in the Lenox Hill area on the East Side of
Manhattan. Responsibilities: assist tenants in
distressed buildings to collectively address
poor conditions/services, harassment, evic-
tion, and rental overcharge; provide individual
casework services and coach tenants for hous-
ing court, maintaining relevant case files.
Qualifications: Knowledge of NY rent regulation
laws and entitlements available to New Yorker
a plus; experience in neighborhood-based
community organizing; MSW degree preferred,
B.A. required in Social Work or related field,
computer skills required; bilingual
EnglishlSpanish a plus. Salary $29 - $32,000
(depending on experience) plus benefits.
Resume to: Rebecca Oliver (Code UNH) Coordi-
nator, Advocacy and Community Organizing
Services, 331 East 70th Street, New York, NY
10021, fax 212-288-0722, email
roliver@lenoxhill.org
COMMUNITY ORGANIZING ASSISTANT -
CHLDC seeks a part-time Community Organiz-
ing Assistant, who'll work 15 hours/wk until
June 2003. Tasks: Recruitment and develop-
ment of membership for CHAFE, a group of
parents and residents who work to improve
local public schools; assisting to organize
meetings and events; researching educational
issues. Requirements: Bilingual
(English/Spani sh). Send cover letter and
resume to Emily Blank, CHLOC 3214 Fulton
Street, Brooklyn, NY 11208, fax 718-647-2104,
emilyblank@yahoo.com
COUNSELOR (PTl FOR ADULT ESOl/CIVICS
PROGRAM - General counseling, referrals,
academic advisement, related support ser-
vices for adult ESOUCivics students; organize
workshops; collaborate with director and
instructors. 2-4 evenings a week. BA, experi-
ence req.; MA, knowledge of citizenship
process, familiarity with NYC public school s
preferred. Bilingual a plus. Fax letter &
resume to Leah Youman @ 718-552-1192, or
emaillrachy@yahoo.com
DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS ASSO-
CIATE - One of the nation's pre-eminent
Harlem based community development organi-
zations is seeking a Development and Commu-
nications Associate who will report to the Vice
President. Must be an experienced fundraising
professional with a demonstrated track record
to support the Development Office in maximiz-
ing annual fund and campaign giving for the
agency. The dynamic individual will assist the
VP in all development activities including:
major gifts, annual campaigns, special
events, grant writing and reporting and
administrative support. Qualifications: Must
have a minimum of three to five years of direct
experience in fundraising and grant writing.
Solid interpersonal, organizational , and analyt-
ical skills. Proficient in MS Office and
Fundraising software applications, preferably
Raiser's Edge. EOE. We offer a competitive
salary and fully paid health insurance pack-
age. Send letter of interest and resume to:
Abyssinian Development Corporation, Human
Resources Department, 131 West 138th
Street, New York, New York 10038, Email:
pholley@adcorp.org or Fax 212-368-5483.
DIRECTOR - The United Jewi sh Organizations
of Williamsburg (UJO) seeks a full time director
to run its workforce development programs.
Major responsibilities include: start up and day
to day operations for an entry level employment
training and placement contract, oversee an
adult education center, and work with execu-
tive director on developing new workforce
development projects. Prior experience with
government funded performance based work-
force development or vocational education pro-
grams required. Familiarity with Chassidic
community helpful. Excellent salary and bene-
fits. Please fax resume and list of references to
718-643-6581.
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY BASED PROJECTS
- Not-for-profit organization seeking to fill a
full time position to oversee a mentoring pro-
gram and several community based/high
school projects. Major duties include develop-
ing and implementing gang prevention and
youth leadership curricula, direct supervision
of staff, coordinating staff trainings, working
as part of an interdiscipl inary team, building
community linkages, and maintaining compli-
ance with budgetary and funding objectives
and outcomes. Must have a minimum of a B.A.
degree plus 3 years experience working with
high-risk youth. Fax resume to Clinton Lacey
212-760-0766.
CITY LIMITS
DIRECTOR, CHILDREN AND FAMILIES PROJECT
- Leading nonprofit organization is seeking a
talented professional who can develop innova-
tive programs to assist homeless children and
families on their journey from city shelters to
permanent housing and independence. The
Director will oversee the entire operation of the
project, create city-wide and neighborhood-
based programs, and participate in our advo-
cacy efforts. This position offers a unique
opportunity to work in a creative environment
and to help build the resources necessary to
effect social change. Send resume and cover
letter to:Di rector of Human Resources, The
Partnership for the Homeless, 305 Seventh
Avenue, 13th floor, New York, NY 10001 AAlEOE
M/FIDN/sO.
DIRECTOR, FUNDRAISING AND COMMUNICA-
TIONS - Located in East Harlem, New York,
Hope Community is a dynamic, community-
based neighborhood preservation corporation.
Hope Community procures financing, con-
structs, markets, and manages a diversified
housing portfolio for households with special
need, very low income, and low and moderate
income. We currently manage 1.350 apart-
ments through our participation in various fed-
eral , state, city and private programs. The
Director is responsible for conducting
fundraising activities to acquire restricted and
unrestricted funds; collaborating with program
directors on the completion of government
contract applications and reports, and man-
aging a capital campaign. Public relations
activities are also under the Director's man-
agement, including organizational marketing,
production of internal and external information
materials and the annual event. The Director
reports to the Executive Director. Qualifica-
tions: Candidates should have 2-5 years of
supervisory experience as a fund raising man-
ager; Excellent interpersonal , verbal and writ-
ten communication skills; Significant experi-
ence in conducting and managing the internal
and external communications function; High
level knowledge of the not-for- profit and find-
ing community; Demonstrated commitment to,
and enthusiasm for, promotion of Hope Com-
munity's mission; Excellent computer literacy
and supervisory skills; Interest and capability
to work in a participatory culture, and as a
partner within a diverse organizational team
and individuals at all levels. To apply, fax
resume and cover letter to 212-828-7733 Attn:
Sheilah Goodman or e-mail to
sgoodman@hopecommunityinc.org. HOPE
Community Inc. values diversity and is proud
to be an Equal Opportunity employer. Minority
candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
DIRECTOR OF ORGANIZING COMMUNICATIONS
-SEIU Local 32BJ Organizing Communica-
tions Director. Metro New York activist, pro-
gressive, 70,OOO-member building service
union seeks dynamic, creative, experienced
communicator for internal and external com-
munications program. Will be responsible for
communications activities in the union's sub-
urban territories and will supervise a staff of
two. Successful candidate will have excellent
persuasive writing skills, strong record of
media placements as well as the ability to
develop themes for and carry out successful
DECEMBER 2002
press events. Must develop compell ing cam-
paign literature (ads, flyers, brochures) as well
as fact sheets, releases and op-ed pieces.
Specific duties include: Developing and plac-
ing strategic story ideas and messages for
news medi a; Writing and distributing news
advisories and Releases; Organizing media
events; Media interviews; Writing campaign ad
copy; Interviewing building service workers;
Writing and designing leaflets and pamphlets;
Reporting and writing stories for union maga-
zine and website. Skills and qualifications
required: Excellent writing skills; Strong media
relations skills; Supervisory experience; Com-
mitment to progressive social change; Proac-
tive, strategic, creative thinking; Some graph-
ic design ski ll s; Campaign, or labor organizing
experience; Bilingual skills a plus; Ability to
work long hours, includi ng nights and week-
ends; Must have own vehicle as position
involves travel to New Jersey, Long Island,
Westchester County and Connecticut. Salary
based on experience. Excellent benefits.
Women a nd people of color a re strongly
encouraged to apply. Please send resume to
Karen Crowe, Communications Director via fax
at 212-388-3777, email at
kcrowe@seiu32bj.org or mail to 101 Avenue of
the Americas, New York, NY 10013.
DIRECTOR, SPECIAL NEEDS - Westchester
non-profit seeks experienced, creative, caring
person for its Housing Division who wants to
make a difference & help us develop & expand
our programs/initiatives. Applicants should be
an MSW, CSW, CASAC with 5+ years relevant
clinical and admin expo Car/ valid driver's
license required. Excellent Salary/Benefits.
Send resume Director of Human Resources,
Westhab 85 Executive Blvd., Elmsford, NY
10523. Fax 914-345-3139. EOE.
EDUCATION DIRECTOR - Seeking an enthusi-
astic proponent of arts education; creative per-
son with good people skills to manage award-
winning Education and Outreach Program.
Competitive salary pl us generous health, den-
tal, and vacation benefits. Resumes to 111
N.Central Ave #425, Hartsdale, NY 10530,
Fax: (914) 682-3716 or e-mail :
ExecDir@westchesterphil.org
ESOUCIVICS ADULT EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR
(PTl - Instruction, curriculum development,
assessment in adult ESOUCivics program.
Commitment to learner-centered, participatory
education. 2-4 evenings a week, occasional
Saturdays. BA, 3 years experience teaching
adults req. MA, knowledge of NYC public
schools, experience with theme-based instruc-
tion preferred. Fax letter & resume to Leah
Youman @ 718-552-1192, or email
Irachy@yahoo.com.
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT - Large non-profit
organization seeking Executive Assistant to
President. B.AtB.S degree, Prior Executive
Assistant to V.P or higher, Strong computer
skills (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Out-
look) required. Please send word document of
your resume along with cover letter to
Doug@4-evolution.com
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - The Audre Lorde Pro-
ject, a nationally-renown center for LGBTST
People of Color organizing, seeks a new Execu-
tive Director to provide leadership for next
stage of organizational & programmatic
growth. Qualifications incl.: 5 years experience
in grassroots leadershi p & campaign develop-
ment; Significant supervisory, managerial ,
program development and fundraising experi-
ence; Significant experience and/or activism in
multi-racial, multi-gender, intergenerational
LGBTST communities. Compensation: Based
on experience and ALP's commitment to inter-
nal equity. To Apply: Send resume, cover letter,
and names and telephone numbers of three
professional references by October 30th to:
ALP; Attn: ED Hiring Committee; 85 S. Oxford
St., Brooklyn, NY 11217 or Fax 718-596-1328.
Email applications not accepted.
FELLOWSHIP - Assist in all aspects of Pro-
ject litigation in cases brought throughout the
country to protect reproductive choice. Appli -
cants should be self-motivated, committed to
reproductive rights, and have a proven ability
to work with a wide range of people; Third-year
law students and recent graduates. Reply to:
Louise Melling, Associate Director, RFP, ACLU,
125 Broad Street- 18th Floor, NY, NY 10004.
GED INSTRUCTOR - Part-time, Mondays and
Wednesdays from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Bache-
lor's degree, familiar with GED requirements,
some experience, ability to relate to students
from diverse backgrounds. Contact Susan
Feingold or Idalis Cuadrado 212-666-2197 or
212- 663-4067/8.
PROGRAM SUPERVISORS - MH Residences;
BA + 3 years direct MH experience. Institute for
Community Living, Inc is a dynamic, national-
ly acclaimed provider of comprehensive ser-
vices to people with mental disabilities.
Recent expansion has resulted in the creation
of a number of managerial and clinical open-
ings. We invite you to join our dedicated staff
and make a difference. We offer an attractive
total compensation package and-opportunities
for growth and development. Send resume of
interest to: Institute for Community Living,
Human Resources Department, 40 Rector
Street, New York, NY 10006, fax 212-385-
0378.
GENERAL MANAGER, YALE SUMMER SCHOOL
OF MUSIC - Norwalk Chamber Music Festi-
vai/Yale Summer School of Music brings the
world's top chamber musicians to the Ellen
Battell Stoeckel Estate. Situated in Connecti-
cut's Litchfield Hills, the School is dedicated to
the training and development of professional
musicians of the highest caliber. The Norfolk
programs are among the most selective sum-
mer music programs in the world. An out-
standing opportunity exists for an experienced
General Manager to oversee the year round
administrative, operational , and financial
activities of the programs. Reporting to and in
consultation with the Director, the General
Manager will initiate and coordinate develop-
ment efforts, plan, prepare and administer the
annual budget, coordinate admissions activi-
ties, manage public relations and marketing
activities, contract faculty, visiting artists and
staff, manage concert production and super-
JOB ADS
vise staff and overall maintenance of the faci l-
ities. Duri ng the Norfolk Summer season the
General Manager resides on site in Norfolk
Connecticut. Bachelor's degree and a mini-
mum of 3 years administrative experience in a
classical music performing and/or teaching
institution. Knowledge of box office adminis-
tration, grant writi ng, fund raisi ng, familiarity
with accounting procedures and software,
strong marketing and communication skills
and excellent computer skills required. Yale
University is an Affirmative Action Equal
Opportunity Employer. We invite you to discov-
erthe excitement, diversity,rewards, and excel-
lence of a career at Yale University. Send your
resume and apply online at www.yale.edu/jobs.
Please reference Source Code
EACTYLlM19145. Visit our website at
httpJ/www.yale.edu/schmusl
HIGH SCHOOL COORDINATOR - PT, Design
and implement educational , college and
career activities for high school youth. Facili-
tate workshops for parents, serve as a liaison
with teachers, guidance counselors, and com-
munity providers. Requirements: Master or BA
plus experience with youth, bilingual preferred,
strong organizational and programming skills.
Salary: Commensurate with experience. Send
resume to: Carmen Diaz, Hunter College,
Department of Urban AffairslLPP, 695 Park
Avenue W1616A, NY, NY 10021.
HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL - New Catholic
high school to open in the Bronx in August
2003. Cristo Rey New York High School is look-
ing for an accomplished principal who is a ser-
vant leader comfortable with the challenge of
starting a new school that is also a new busi-
ness. Principal expected to recruit a flexible,
dynamic faculty with whom she/he will work to
meet the needs of economically poor and edu-
cationally underserved students. Position
requires a Master'S in Education Administra-
tion, minimum five years experience as a
school leader, five years of high school teach-
ing experience and proficiency in Spanish. To
learn more about the national network
of Cristo Rey model schools, visit
www.cristoreynetwork.org. Send resumes and
cover letters of inquiry to Mr. William Ford,
President, CRNY, P. O. Box 541479, Mott Haven
Station, Bronx, New York 10454, or Cri-
stoReyNY@aol.com. No phone calls.
HOUSING CONSULTATION COORDINA-
TORITRAINER - The Center for Urban Com-
munity Services (www.cucs.org) is seeking a
unit coordinator to oversee the housing consul-
tation activities of the Residential Placement
Management System (RPMs). This unit pro-
vides information and assistance for people
with mental illness and their workers to access
supportive housing in NYC. The ideal candi-
date will have experience working in drop-in
center, TLC, and/or supportive housing pro-
grams, both in a direct service and superviso-
ry capacity; be familiar with mental health
housing options and placement, and be look-
ing to apply their clinical expertise, resources,
and supervisory skills in an administrative and
technical assistance capacity. Reqs: Masters
Degree (MSW pre!); 5 years social service exp
with the SPMI population (including 2 years in
41
JOB ADS
supportive housing and two years direct super-
visory exp.) Computer literacy. Exp in training
pref. Salary: O. Benefits: compo bnfts incl
$65/month in transit checks. Send resumes
and cover letters ASAP to: Maura McGrath,
CUCS/Housing Resource Center, 120 Wall St.
251FL, New York, NY 10005. Fax 212-635-
2191, email: hrchire@cucs.org. CUCS is com-
mitted to workforce diversity. EEO.
and pleadings at all levels of the federal and
state judiciary; participation in trial litigation,
including discovery and motion practice. The
Fellow is selected annually from third-year law
students or recent graduates. Reply to: Steven
R. Shapiro, Legal Director, ACLU, 125
Broad Street-18th Floor. NY, NY 10004. 212-
549-2651.
JOB DEVELOPER - Use strong communica-
tion & marketing skills to network with busi-
nesses and place veterans in jobs. BA plus
demonstrated success in job placement. Back-
ground in disabilities helpful but not required.
FIT 42K-45K plus generous benefits. Fax
Resume: Attn. HR 212-585-6262 EOE.
LENDING MANAGER - The Lower East Side
People's Federal Credit Union (LESPFCU) is a
leading community development credit union
in the New York City area. Charted in 1986
after the closing of the last remaining bank
branch in an area of 100 city blocks, LESPFCU
is now a full service financial institution with
almost $10 million in assets and four thou-
sand members. LESPFCU is being designated
as a low-income credit union by the National
Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and certi-
fied as a Community Development Financial
Institution (CDFI) by the US Department of the
Treasury's CDFI Fund, from which is has
received four awards. The Lending Manager
will: Oversee Real Estate, Consumer and Busi-
ness/Microenterprise Loan Programs, Super-
vise and provide support, guidance to lending
staff, Work with Board of Directors and CEO to
establish goals for all areas of lending, Evalu-
ate and monitor; loan programs to ensure
lending goals are met, Research and develop
new loan products and programs, Review sta-
tus of delinquent loans with Chief Financial
Officer, Collections Officer, and other loan offi-
JOB READINESS TRAINER - Midtown Com-
munity Court. BA, Organizational and commu-
nication skills a must. Start date: ASAP.
Responsibilities include: implementing a Job-
Readiness curriculum; providing individual job
counseling for participants; coordinating
guest speakers and motivational workshops;
assisting job developer with placements; and
coordinating retention activities for graduates.
See www.courtinnovation.org. Email resume to
atolosa@courts.state.ny.us or fax resume to
212-586-1144. DOE.
KARPATKIN FELLOWSHIP - Analysis of pend-
ing Supreme Court cases; drafting of briefs
42
Announcement of Professional Vacancy
Safe Space. Queens Facilitated Enrollment Project. 96-01 43
rd
Avenue, 2
nd
Floor. Corona, New York 11368
Applications are invited for consideration for appointment to the following
positions:
Facilitated Enroller: (brief description of duties) Assist families with eligibility
detenninations, gather documents, fill out applications and select a health
plan when appropriate. In addition, the Facilitated Enroller will be authorized
to conduct the personal interview for Medicaid enrollment and re-certification,
to detennine Medicaid eligibility. The Facilitated Enroller will also conduct
outreach activities within the targeted community. Enroller will hold non-
traditional hours (including evening and weekends)
Qualificationslskills required: High School Diploma required, Associate or
Bachelors degree in social work or related human service field preferred.
Experience in conducting outreach and workshops. Excellent communication
and writing skills. Willing to work flexible hours, if needed. Knowledge of
Queens Community and strong computer skills a plus. Must be bilingual
(speak one or more of the South Asian languages). Queens' residents are
encouraged to apply.
Salary Range: $20,000 - $27,000 (based on experience).
Date to be filled: ASAP
Administrative Assistant: (brief description of duties) Provide general
clerical duties: Schedule and reschedule client appointments; Handle
incoming and outgoing mail ; Prepare office bills for payment; Maintain
inventory for office supplies; Order office supplies; Maintain alphabetic filing;
Prepare bills for payment; Prepare bi-weekly payroll summaries.
Qualifications/skills required: High School Diploma required, Associate or
Bachelors degree preferred. Excellent communication and writing skills.
Willing to work flexible hours, if needed. Knowledge of Queens Community
and strong computer skills a plus. Must be bilingual (English/Spanish).
Queens' residents are encouraged to apply.
Salary Range: $20,000 - $26,000 (based on experience).
Date to be filled: ASAP
Persons interested in the above positions should submit a resume along with
a letter of application, to: Brunilda Clennont, Director,
Health Access 96-01 43
rd
Avenue, 2
nd
Floor, Corona, New York 11368
cers, Perform all other duties assigned by
management for the smooth and efficient
operation of the credit union. Additional qual-
ifications: Motivated and aggressive individ-
ual capable of managing numerous programs
and working with a rapidly growing loan port-
folio. Commitment to program objectives of
providing credit and services to potential bor-
rowers. Willingness to work in low-income
community. Bilingual in Spanish and English
preferred. Strong analytical, organizational,
managerial, and interpersonal skills. Experi-
ence with or knowledge of Community Devel-
opment Credit Unions or Community Develop-
ment Financial institutions. Salary commen-
surate with experience, benefits include three
weeks vacation, medical (100%), dental, life
insurance, 401K plan and transit checks. To
apply please submit a letter of introduction,
resume and salary history/requirements to:
Pablo DeFilippi , CEO, Lower East Side People's
FCU, 37 Avenue B, New York, NY 10009, Fax
212-529-8368, email pdefilippi@lespfcu.org.
LOAN OFFICER - Dynamic non-profit lending
institution seeks an experienced Loan Officer
(5+ years preferred) with strong analytical
ski ll s and a commitment to community devel-
opment to join its New York City operation. The
Loan Officer will underwrite, close, and moni-
tor projects addressing the needs of low
income communities and individuals, includ-
ing affordable housing (transitional and per-
manent), service-enriched housing, treatment
facilities, child care centers, and educational
facilities. Responsibilities will include: cus-
tomer outreach; due diligence review; credit
analysis and loan structuring; preparation and
presentation of loan requests; coordination of
loan closings; and ongoing portfolio review.
Some of travel is required. Bachelor's degree
required and Master's degree preferred, in
business, real estate finance, urban planning
or related field. Experience in multi-family and
commercial real estate lending, housing or
related field strongly preferred. Resumes with
cover letters and salary requirements should
be forwarded to our main office: Low Income
Housing Fund, 1330 Broadway, Suite 600,
Oakland, CA 94612, Attn: Human Resources, or
via e-mail to: hr@lihf.org. Salary commensu-
rate with experience and excellent benefits.
The Low Income Housing Fund believes that
diversity creates excellence in its programs
and operations. EOE.
MAINTENANCE SUPERVISIOR - Candidate
must have demonstrated work, supervisory
and general experience in field Maintenance
and Repairs with knowledge of cleaning build-
ings. Should have some col lege or certifica-
tions in courses pertaining to Housing and
Building Maintenance. Must be computer lit-
erate, able to maintain inventory records.
Should be able to perform light industrial
repairs to fixtures and plumbing apparatuses.
Salary commensurate with experience. Low to
mid $30s. Fax resumes to: BVSJ Attn: Human
Resources 718-935-1629 or email to
admin@bvsj.Xohost.com
MEN'S HOMELESS SHELTER DIRECTOR -
Candidates must oversee all aspects of run-
ning a 200+ bed Men's Homeless Employment
Shelter. Must have managerial, administra-
tive, budgeting and supervi sory skills as well
as working knowledge of City, State, Federal
funding and reporting requirements. Should
have experience in providing social , education-
al and training services to move client to inde-
pendent living. Candidate should possess BA
or BS with minimum 2 years working experi-
ence within Human Service Field (mentally dis-
abled, ex-offenders, veteran population, home-
less) , be computer literate and an energetic,
community oriented visionary. Salary com-
mensurate with experience. Mid $50s and up.
Women and Veterans encouraged to apply. Fax
resumes to: BVSJ Attn: Human Resources
718-935-1629 or email to
admin@bvsj.Xohost.com
MICROENTERPRISEISMALL BUSINESS LOAN
OFFICER - An established community devel-
opment credit union with a rapidly growing
micro and small business loan portfolio seeks
a MicroenterpriselSmall Business Loan Officer.
The Loan Officer will assist potential borrowers
with loan applications, offer technical assis-
tance, and other sources of support to member
businesses. Prepare in depth review of appli-
cant's business income, profits, assets and
liabilities. Evaluate loan applications and
make recommendations to the credit commit-
tee. Conduct outreach centered around
microenterprise and small business lending.
Credit Union offers positive work environment
and benefits. Please forward resume and
salary requirements to the attention of the
CEO: pdefilippi@lespfcu.org or fax to 212-
529-8368
NEWSPAPER EDITORlBUSINESS MANAGER -
The St. Nicholas Preservation Corporation
seeks a Newspaper EditorlBusiness Manager
to oversee publication of Greenline, a commu-
nity newspaper. Publication currently reaches
13,000 residents in the growing Williams-
burg/Green point market. Applicants must
have good writing skills, be well organized, a
self starter and a team player. Newspaper
experience is a plus. Must have editing, sales-
manship capabilities or sales experience.
BSIBA Degree plus two years work experience
required. Send cover letter to Michael
Rochford, 11 Catherine Street, Brooklyn,
New York 11211 or email to
mrochford@stnicksnpc.com
NUTRITIONIST - United Jewish Organizations
is seeking a nutritionist to provide nutrition
and vitamin education/outreach work to chil-
dren, women, and the elderly. Position will
include one-on-one nutritional counseling as
well as school and group programs. Thi s posi-
tion requires excellent communication/out-
reach ski ll s and writing skills for nutritional
articles and pamphlets. Candidate must have
specific experience and knowledge of vitamins.
Please send your cover letter and resume to:
Lisa Levy United Jewish Organizations, 32
Penn Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211 Fax: 718-643-
6581
ORGANIZING LIAISON - Advocacy and
research organization benefiting low-wage
workers and the unemployed seeks Organizing
Liaison. Responsibilities: communicate with
CITY LIMITS
unions, grassroots and advocacy groups on
welfare-to-work, nonstandard (part-time, tem-
porary, etc.) and immigrant worker issues;
monitor developments in these areas; and pro-
vide techni cal assistance on employment law.
Must have: background in economic justice
ca mpaigns and policy advocacy and excellent
analytical, writing, and speaking skill s. Exten-
sive travel required. Salary dependent on expe-
rience, based on union contract. Excell ent ben-
efits. Resume with references ASAP to Orga-
nizing Liaison, National Employment Law Pro-
ject, 55 John Street, 7th Floor, New York, N.Y.
10038. More info at www.nelp.org.
OUTREACH COORDINATOR - Outreach Coor-
dinator for NYC Community Response to Traf-
ficking in Persons Project. Ti me Commitment:
October 1, 2002-September 31, 2003. ECPAT-
USA seeks Outreach Coordinator to support
anti-trafficking education and awareness
raising project in New York City. Duties: 1)
Assist in organizing city-wide training ses-
sions about human trafficking (including
logistics and recruiting partici pants), 2) Liai-
son between diverse communities, project
staff, consultants, and law enforcement, 3)
Serve as resource coordinator for communities
wanting to learn more about trafficking and
services for victims, 4) Assist with preparation
of outreach materials, 5) Coordinate evalua-
tions and assist in report preparations. Mini-
mum Qual ifications: 1) Experience working
with diverse NYC communities and coordi nat-
ing a complex project, 2) Strong organization-
al , communication, and writing skills, 3) Inter-
est in the issue of human trafficking, 4) Cul-
tural sensitivity and ability to work with people
at many levels, 5) Proficiency with Microsoft
Office Suite and Internet and library research.
Desirable skills: Community organizing. Sec-
ond language such as Spanish, Russian or
Chinese. Prior experience crafting a public
information campaign. Salary: $35,000 Send:
Cover letter, resume and writing sample to
ECPAT-USA by fax: 212-717-2549 or email:
ecpatusa@hotmail.com
PARALEGAL CASEHANDLER - For Lower Man-
hattan Neighborhood Office to assist persons
affected by the World Trade Center disaster.
Primary responsibili ties: staffing disaster-
assistance hotline and providing advice, case
coordination, and representation to people
affected by WTC Disaster, including non-citi-
zens. Also represent Legal Aid Society at coali-
tion meetings with other disaster relief organi-
zations and assist with representation of
clients in unemployment hearings; represent
and advocate for clients in administrative
matters before various tribunals. Update Legal
Aid's disaster assistance manuals. Fluency in
languages other than English is a plus. Excel-
lent written and oral advocacy skills required.
Four-year college degree or paralegal certifi-
cate also required. Salary: $31,600/yr + excel-
lent benefits. Send cover letter, resume, and
short writing sample to Helaine Barnett, Attor-
ney-in-Charge, Legal Aid Society, Civil Divi-
sion, (address beginning September 30, 2002)
199 Water St. , 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10038;
OR e-mail to Nancy Richardson, Assistant to
Attorney-in-Charge, e-mail :
nrichardson@legal-aid.org. Women, People of
Color, Gays and Lesbians and People With Dis-
abi lities Especially Encouraged to Apply.
PARENT TRAINER - The Metropolitan Parent
Center seeks a Trainer to work w/parents of
students with disabilities. Will develop and
present workshop content, and coordinate
guest faculty. Requirements: Bilingual Eng-
lish/Spanish, Knowledge of special education
system and parents' rights, Commitment to
inclusion of students with disabil ities, and
equity for students of color. Salary to $42K
DOQ. EOE. Send resume & cover letter to Par-
ent Trainer/ Sinergia, Inc. 15 West 65th Street,
6th floor, NY, NY 10023, Fax 212-496-5608 or
e-mail to jfpep@si nergianY.org.
PREVENTIVE SERVICES DIRECTOR - Candi-
dates must oversee program implementation;
coordinate relationships between referral
sources; program and lead training classes;
have working knowledge of substance abuse,
family reunification and experience in inter-
ceding with clients. Must have managerial ,
administrative, budgeting and supervisory
skills. Requirements: BA or BS with minimum
2 years working experience with Human Ser-
vice Field (mentally disabled, ex-offenders,
veteran population, homeless) . Salary com-
mensurate with experience. Mi d $40s and up.
Women and Veterans encouraged to apply. Fax
resumes to: BVSJ Attn: Human Resources 718-
935- 1629 or emai l to
admin@bvsj.Xohost.com
PROGRAM COORDINATOR - The National
Urban League seeks a Program Coordinator,
Quality Way Initiative for the Affiliate Develop-
ment Programs and Policy Department. The
Program Coordinator is responsible for coordi-
nating the planning and delivery of training,
technical assistance, and other project tasks
with Urban League affiliates, external partners
and consultants. The successful candidate's
responsibilities will also include managing
and maintaining project records, and prepar-
ing materials for workshops, training sessions
and conferences. Bachelor's degree required.
At least two years work experience, preferably
with workforce development programs, along
with knowledge and experience in program
self-assessment, capacity building and qual i-
JOB ADS
ty improvement processes. Excellent commu-
nications skills with a demonstrated ability to
wri te and edit reports, create program materi-
als, and summarize information clearly and
accurately. Must be abl e to analyze and trans-
late research into written products for practi-
cal application. Must be able to travel 25-35%
of time, work late and on Saturdays when
required. Salary range is $39k-$45k, depend-
ing on experi ence. Submit resume and cover
letter to recruitment@nul.org or fax to 212-
558-5497. Please mention you were referred by
Citylimits.org.
PROGRAM COORDINATOR - The Trinity
Human Service Consortium seeks a qualified
professional who can market our social ser-
vices, develop programs, secure funding and
develop greater outreach in this inner city
Williamsburg neighborhood. Masters level or
equivalent required. Salary negotiable on expe-
rience. Great benefits. Fax resume to: 718-
384-3030
PROGRAM DIRECTOR - Non-profit Mental
Health Agency located in Harlem has full time
opening for individual to take charge of our
scattered site supported housing program.
Experience with MICA population with 2 years
in scattered site program. Progressive super-
visory and management experience with a
good track record. Masters level education.
$45K with great benefits. Fax cover letter and
resume to 212-316-9618 or email to
hr@westonunited.org.
PROGRAM DIRECTOR - Yorkville Common
Pantry seeks a Program Director for our new 24
hour 7 day a week East Harlem based emer-
gency food program. Will oversee the staff and
scheduling and report to the Deputy Executive
PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
MI(UA(L 6. BU((I
CONSULTANT
Consultant Services
Proposals/Grant Writing
Hud GranL'i/Govt. RFPs
Hoosing/Program D<vdopment
Real E.'itate Sales/Rentals
Technical Assistance
Employment Programs
Capacity Building
HOUSING, DEVELOPMENT & FUNDRAISING
Community Relations
PHONE: 212-765-7123
FAX: 212-397-6238
&MAIL: mgbuccl@aol-com
451 WEST 48th STREET, SUITE 2E
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10036-1298
SPECIALIZING IN REAL ESTATE
J-51 Tax Abatement/Exemption 421A and 421B
Applications 501 (c) (3) Federal Tax Exemptions All forms
of government-assisted hOUSing, including LISC/Enterprise,
Section 202, State Turnkey and NYC Partnership Homes
KOURAKOS & KOURAKOS
Attorneys at Law
Eastchester, N.Y.
Phone: (9141
DECEMBER 2002
21 2 . 7 21. 9 7 64
.J RE I C H 2 @ E A RT H LlN K.N E T
W WW. C R E A T IVEHOTLl S T . COM / .J REI C H
ADS, ANNUAL REPORTS , BOOK DESIGN, BRO CHURES, CATALOGS,
OFFICE SPACE PROBLEMS?
IJ.WId
Expert Real Estate Services - once
available only to major corporations and
institutions -
CS1
C51 INC.
(845) 566-1267
Now offered to NYC' s Non-Profits . ..
at no outot-pocket cost,
or at specially reduced rates.
Visit our web site: www.npspace.com
Call for a free, no-obligation consultation.
www.npspace.com
43
JOBADS
Director for Programs. Will be principally
responsible for publicizing project, encourag-
ing referrals and maintaining relationships
with referral agencies, distributing food and
referring clients to other programs. Also in
charge of scheduling all shifts. Qualifications:
Master's Degree OR related experience. Mail
Resume to: Hester Sullivan, Executive Director
for Programs, Yorkville Common Pantry, 8 East
lO9th Street, New York, NY 10029
PROGRAM OFFICER - National non-profit
community developmenVaffordable housing
organization seeks dynamic professional to
liaison with four community-based organiza-
tions (CBOs) that are the focus of a new effort
to concentrate resources and technical assis-
tance in four NYC neighborhoods. Will com-
plete neighborhood and organizational assess-
ments, developlimplement technical assis-
tance plans. Will also oversee a home-based
childcare initiative. Requires undergrad
Announcement of Professional Vacancy
Safe Space. Queens Facilitated Enrollment Project. 96-01 43
111
Avenue, 2
nd
Floor. Corona, New York 11368
Applications are invited for consideration for appointment to the following
positions:
Safe Space, COBRA Case Manager -- Provide COBRA case management
to individuals and families infected and affected with HIV/AIDS. Conduct
assessments for clients, defining long and short-term goals and objectives.
Advocate and assist clients to gain entitlements. Communicate with service
providers to coordinate clienfs goals and service plans. Requirements BA
degree with experience in intensive case management.
Fax Resume to Carolyn Blakely: (718) 291-5020 ore-mail
cblake/Y@safespacenyc.org
SAFE SPACE, AIDS Institute -- FfT counselor experience with youth, MICA,
HIV/AIDS, entitlements, and LGBTQ communities. Residential experience,
Spanish speaking, BA and 2-3 years preferred. 30k. Fax cover letter/resume
to Safespace, attention J. Hylton, Fax 212-977-5210 or email to
jhylton@safespacenyc.orq.
SAFE SPACE, KIDWISE - Senior Social Worker in school based mental
health program in SE Queens - Mid $40K. This individual must have
MSW/CSWand S/FI Certification. Responsible for supervision of two
graduate interns and maintenance of case/oad of group clients. Please fax
resumes to Gabrielle @ (71B) 276-5624.
DJJ -- Program Manager MSW, one year supervisory experience including
fiscal management, program planning and case management experience with
adolescents and families. Experience with juvenile justice a plus. Please fax
resumes to Safe Space at 718- 297-5304, attn: J. Begley or e-mail
jbegley@safespacenyc.org.
SAFE SPACE, Mental Health -- CSWs with at least one year experience
needed for fee for service clinics in Manhattan, Far Rockaway and Jamaica,
Queens. $22-$25 per session, DOE. Please fax resumes to Safe Space at
718337-2750, attn: B. Edwards.
SAFE SPACE, Preventive -- 1-)Director of Preventive Services, CSW, 3
years supervisory experience including fiscal management, program planning,
extensive case management experience with families and strong knowledge
of substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, knowledge of ACS regs a
must. Please fax resumes to Safe Space at 718- 297-5304, attn: C.
Barometre or e-mail cbarometre@safespacenyc.org.
2-) MSW w/at least 2 years supervisory experience to supervise ACS
Preventive Program. Strong Knowledge of family dynamics and case
management a must. Knowledge of Queens and bilingual Spanish a plus.
Salary high 38K-43K, DOE. Fax resumes to Safe Space at 718- 297-5304,
attn: C. Barometre or e-mail cbarometre@safespacenyc.org.
SAFE SPACE, Residential
Vocational Trainer/Job Developer BA, to facilitate Employment and
Independent Living workshops and provide job development assistance to
adolescent population. Must have excellent platform skills, and experience
working with youth in foster care. Salary DOE: mid-upper 20's. Please fax
resumes to Safe Space: 718- 297-5304, attn: J. Begley or e-mail
jbegley@safespacenyc.org.
SAFE SPACE, Bilingual Social Worker
Spanish-speaking MSW to provide psychotherapy and facilitate groups in our
Ryan White Mental Health program. Experience in working with individuals
infected and affected by HIV. Candidate should be familiar in working with
adolescents, families and couples.
Fax resumes to Carolin Blakely CSW (718) 291-5020
44
degree and min. 2 years relevant experience.
Masters preferred. Demonstrated ability to
manage multiple projects, and develop part-
nerships. Strong communication, organization
and analytical skills needed. Visit us at
enterprisefoundation.org. Fax 410-772-2702
resume with salary requirements to: The
Enterprise Foundation, Attn: HR/PO-NYC,
10227 Wincopin Circle, Suite 500, Columbia
MD 21044-3400. EOE MlFNIH
PROGRAM OFFICER, EVENT MANAGEMENT
AND DESIGN - Corporation for Supportive
Housing is seeking a Program Officer in New
York City, exempt status, and reporting to the
Director of the Resource Center. This position
strengthens Corporation for Supportive Hous-
ing's promotional materials design aesthetics.
Additionally, plans, manages and coordinates
CSH's internal and public events. Key responsi-
bilities: Working with the Resource Center
Director, creates CSH promotional materials for
internal and external events distribution and
use. Manages the entire publication process
from budgeting and revenue tracking through
distribution and inventory. Plans and coordi-
nates most CSH internal and public events
including the biannual staff training, work-
shops, and full conferences. Process manage-
ment includes maintenance of training sup-
plies, presentation and design support,
hotel/meeting planning, event marketing and
registration, and related resource material
maintenance. Performs on-site meetings and
events execution. Establishes metrics and
tracks performance of events. Qualifications:
Bachelors degree in communications, adver-
tising or related area required. Experience and
related skills: Minimum of three-five years of
events ManagemenVimplementation required.
Familiarity with graphic design and marketing
preferable. Working knowledge of the following
software programs: Access, Word, Excel , Pow-
erPoint, HTML, and Quark. Previous experience
and exposure to housing service delivery envi-
ronment helpful. Demonstrated ability to work
effectively with profeSSional staff, government
agencies and community- based organiza-
tions. Skilled in facilitation, team building and
forging collaborative partnerships. No calls
please. Mail resumes to Director of Resource
Center, Corporation for Supportive Housing
(CSH), 50 Broadway, 17th floor, New York, NY
10004 or fax 212- 986-6552 or email to
info@csh.org.
PROJECT DIRECTOR / COMMUNITY ORGANIZ-
ER - Westhab, Westchester County's largest
non-profit housing and social services agency
is seeking an exceptional candidate for a newly
created position reporting directly to the Presi -
dent. (S)he will be directing the start-up of a
model group residence for homeless young
adults and will work with the President on
Community and economic development initia-
tives in Yonkers and Mt. Vernon. Ideal candi-
date will have an MSW Degree and some expe-
rience and education in program development
and community organizing. Bilingual a plus.
Excellent salary/benefits. Send letter/resume
to President, Westhab, 85 Executive Blvd.,
Elmsford, NY 10523. Fax 914-345-3139. EOE
PROJECT MANAGER - The Center for Urban
Community Services (CUCS), is currently
recruiting for a Project Manager. This position
is responsible for site location of new pro-
grams. Additional responsibilities include pub-
lic sector grant writing and coordination, rela-
tionship building in New York City communi-
ties, process management, internal communi-
cation and coordination. This individual will
also monitor projects after initial development.
Staff for strategic planning process. Reqs:
MBA, JD, MPA or other relevant graduate
degree. 3-5 years experience as a project man-
ager required. Non-profit experience in New
York City preferred. Salary: $70K-$75K, com-
mensurate with experience. Benefits: compo
bnfts incl $65/month in transit checks. Sen d
resumes and cover letters by 10/7/02 to: Kath-
leen McDermott, CUCS Administrative Offices,
120 Wall St. 25/FL, New York, NY 10005. Fax:
212-801-2356, Email:admnhire@cucs.org.
CUCS is committed to workforce diversity. EEO
PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER - needed to
develop and manage comprehensive market-
ing/promotions campaign. Responsibilities:
writing and producing marketing materials
(newsletters, annual reports, brochures) ;
building relationships with and pitching sto-
ries to press; website development; event plan-
ning. Ideal candidate will have a Masters
degree, background in Journalism or Commu-
nications, and at least 2 years experience
working in the nonprofit sector. Candidate
must also possess strong interpersonal , writ-
ten and oral communication skills. Salary:
$34,000 to $39,000. Please fax/email a cover
letter, resume and writing sample to Christina
Brown, Deputy Director. Fax: 212-420-8670;
pronskyr@coned.com
REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE -
Becker and Becker Associates seeks a Real
Estate Development Associate to assist with
public/private development ventures including
an 80/20 project in Manhattan; affordable
housing using LlHTC and Historic Tax Credits;
and a charter school/day care center. Real
estate development, grant writing, and finan-
cial modeling experience preferred. BBA is
located in New Canaan, CT -1 hour from Man-
hattan and New Haven. Visit
www.beckerandbecker.com for more
information. Send letter/resume to BBA, 26
Forest Street, New Canaan, CT
06840 c/o Kirsten Springer, or
kirspring@beckerandbecker.com.
SECRETARY - The Salvation Army Social Ser-
vices for Families and Adults is seeking a Sec-
retary. This position reports to the Office Man-
ager. 35 Hours per week 8:30am - 4:00pm,
Monday-Friday. Essential functions: Assists
Office Manager with daily requests. Types and
prepares a variety of letters, memos and
reports for the department. Gathers and col-
lates necessary data for submission of
required reports. Ability to mai ntain highly
confidential nature of human resource and
client related work. Monitors and posts time
and attendance reports on all SSFA staff at
DHQ. Maintains a follow-up system on reports
requiring action on a periodic basis. Maintains
files; searches files and records for readily
identifiable information, as directed. Does
inventory of the Stockroom once a month and
gives a report to the Office Manager. Relieves
CITY LIMITS
Receptionist when necessary. Creates and
maintains mailing lists databases for the
Corps and SSFA Programs. Ensure that forms,
copy paper, fax paper, memo paper etc., is
available whenever needed. Set up applicants
for Clerical Skill Testing and process results.
Work on special projects and performs mes-
senger duties as needed. Detail oriented.
Qualifications: Bachelors degree preferred or
comparable work experience. Type 50 wpm.
Computer literate. Ability to read, write and
speak English. Salary: $26,000. Submit
resume and salary requirements to: Rebecca
Moore, Office Manager @ The Salvation Army,
120 West 14th Street, 7th floor, New York, NY
10011, fax 212-337-7279. No calls please.
SOCIAL SERVICES - Domestic Violence Orga-
nization that provides wide breadth of legal,
counseling, and shelter services to women and
children seeking to fill the following positions:
Supervising Social Worker for transitional fam-
ily shelter - Manage family services counsel-
ing unit and provide crisis intervention. Super-
vise a staff of five. Conduct groups. Ensure
compliance with contract regulations, agency
goals and timely submission of reports. Some
early evening hours. MSW or advanced degree
in counseling required, must have supervisory
(min two yrs) and solid clinical experience
preferably in domestic violence field. Exp. in
residential settings and/or bilingual (Eng-
lish/Spanish) a plus. Women's Counselors-
Manhattan and Bronx. Positions include pro-
viding counseling, conducting community
education outreach and involvement in state
and local advocacy. MSW required, Bi-lingual,
Spanish speaking preferred. Competitive
salary and benefits. FAX resumes w/cover let-
ter specifying position to: HR 718-588-6848.
EOE
SOCIAL SERVICES SUPERVISOR - Nazareth
Housing is a small , enterpreneurial not-for
profit serving homeless families of the Lower
East Side of New York. We are poised for
growth. We seek a BI-UNGUAL (Spanish/Eng-
li sh) Social Service Supervisor to manage a
supportive services program. Responsibilities
include caseload management, supervision of
staff, progra m development and execution,
intake and interviewing of prospective resi-
dents and extensive contact with City agen-
cies. MSW and 5 years of experience working
with diverse populations are required. Ideal
candidate is energetic and flexible with strong
communication skills. Must be computer liter-
ate. Position reports to Executive Director.
Please e-mail resume with cover letter
stating salary requirements to
mkilbourn@nazarethhousing.com. An equal
opportunity employer.
SOCIAL WORKER - Non-profit Mental Health
Agency located in Harlem has position in our
Hlv/AIDS housing program for MSW. Respon-
sibilities include cl ini cal services, supervise
casework staff and intake. Experience with
population and substance abuse a plus.
Excellent growth potential. Bilingual a plus.
$38K with great benefits. Fax cover letter and
resume to 212-316-9618 or email to
h r@westonunited.org.
DECEMBER 2002
SOCIAL WORKER - The Citizens Advice Bureau
(CAB) is a large, multi-service non-profit serv-
ing the Bronx for 30 years. CAB provides excel-
lent benefits and offers opportunities for
advancement. The Nel son Avenue Family Res-
idence, a tier II shelter for homeless families
seeks a Social Worker. The position requires a
MSW level social worker to provide intensive
case management with homeless mentally ill
clients. Exp. with mentally ill, welfare advoca-
cy, entitlements, good communication skill
and knowledge of foster care system a +. Fax
resume to G. Rosich @ 718-299-1682 or email
grosich@cabny.org or candidates can mail
resume with cover letter indicating position to
CAB 2054 Morris Ave. Bronx, NY 10453. CAB is
an equal opportunity/affirmative action
employer.
SOCIAL WORKER - The Ruth Fernandez Res-
idence, an emergency housing facility for
homeless families, is seeking qualified candi-
dates for one opening for a Social Worker.
Responsibilities include: Conducts needs
assessment and case management for
assigned families, conducts intakes, home
visits and apartment inspections, holds bi-
weekly interviews with clients, maintains up to
date files including client history and profile,
provides information and referrals, arranges
for provision of services, advocates and inter-
venes with government agencies, short-term
counseling and assists in developing service
plans with goal of restoring family indepen-
dence, coordinates workshops, seminars and
other activities for general client population,
performs other related duties as assigned.
Qualifications include: B.S'/B.A degree from
an accredited four-year college or university in
Social Services or related field. Ability to work
with individuals and families. One year of
experience in related human services field.
Bilingual (Spanish and Engli sh) a plus. Start-
ing salary: $29,562.00 plus fringe benefits
package including major medical plan, four
weeks vacation per year, insurance and com-
pany pension plan. If interested, please fax
resume Ms. Gladys Vazquez at 718-893-1033.
Available Immediately.
SOCIAL WORKER and BOOKKEEPER - Aso-
ciacion Tepeyac is seeking 2 Full-time Social
Workers and 1 full-time Bookkeeper, contact
Joe McNulty, 212-633-7108 ext 12.
SOCIAL WORKERITHERAPISTS - Article 31
Clinics: CSW + experience. Bilingual Chinese
(Mandarin and Cantonese) preferred. Institute
for Community Living, Inc is a dynamic,
nationally acclaimed provider of comprehen-
sive services to people with mental disabili-
ties. Recent expansion has resulted in the
creation of a number of managerial and clini-
cal openings. We invite you to join our dedi-
cated staff and make a difference. We offer an
attractive total compensation package and
opportunities for growth and development.
Send resume of interest to: Institute for Com-
munity Living, Human Resources Department,
40 Rector Street, New York, NY 10006, fax
212-385-0378.
SPECIAL EVENTS MANAGER - The Special
Events Manager is responsible for managing
all facets of activities for HELP USA special
events, including fund raising and public
awareness events. As an integral part of HELP
USA's private fund raising efforts, the Special
Events Manager's main responsibility is to
raise unrestricted funds for HELP USA. Must
have BAIBS and 3-5 years of relevant event's
management experience. Should have excel-
lent communication and organizational skills
as well as the ability to work independently
and manage multiple tasks at one time.
Should also be experienced in working with
varying levels of staff, corporate boards and
volunteers. Familiarity with Raiser's Edge
software a plus. Please send cover letters with
salary requirements and resumes to HELP USA,
Director of Development, fax 212-444-1888 or
email at donate@helpusa.org
JOBADS
STAFF ATTORNEY, HOUSING - Gay Men's
Health Crisis seeks Staff Attorney to represent
clients and advise them of their rights and
obligations in family and housing law from
intake to case resolution including litigation
before family and housing Court Judges. Works
closely with other members of the Legal Unit,
Advocacy Unit and Care Management Depart-
ment to ensure resolution of client problems.
Provides on site legal services to clients at
community based organizations and health
care facilities. JD from an accredited law
school and admission to New York State Bar
required. Proven experience with family and/or
housing law and experience interacting with
city, state and federal officials required. Must
have the ability to do legal research, excellent
writing skills including preparation of techni-
cal documents and court papers, strong inter-
HOUSING DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR
The New York City Housing Authority is seeking a Housing Development Coordinator for its
Housing Finance and Development Department.
The Housing Development Coordinator will perform very complex and analytical or coordination
work related to the development and/or implementation of housing programs and development
plans deSigned to preserve and upgrade neighborhoods, or to improve urban renewal areas
or public and private housing. May supervise subordinate staff.
RESPONSfBILlTIES:
Coordinate and/or supervise activities related to the creation, implementation, financing and
management of complex, multi-component housing development programs and projects.
Tasks include but are not limited to the following:
Analyze the effect of current statutes and regulations, including federal, state and local laws
on development of public housing in New York City;
Work in teams to prepare policy documents and design pilot programs for the production of
additional public housing units or renovation of existing units under HUD's Mixed-Finance
Guidelines and New York State Public Housing Law;
Research supportive service and development programs operated by other public housing
authorities, nonprofit and government agencies in the United States and abroad for purposes
of implementing simi lar programs for NYCHA residents;
Prepare and write applications in response to government Notices of Funding Availability
(NOFAs) or private foundation grant program criteria;
Prepare and write solicitations and contracts for consultants (e.g. planning, construction,
engineering or supportive services); participate in contract negotiations to produce initial
contracts and, as necessary, subsequent contract modifications;
Lead teams of three or four people to research and write implementation plans for 1) the
development of housing units and community facilities; and 2) the provision of supportive
services or training programs;
Facilitate public meetings NYCHA residents, staff and local stakeholders to collect information
necessary to produce applications, solicitations, and planning documents;
Develop spreadsheets to analyze financial viability of planned developments; and Develop and
maintain databases to track departmenfs housing development programs and activities.
SKilLS DESIRED:
Ability to write clearly and persuasively; excellent reading comprehension skills and capacity
to synthesize complex regulations and policy conoepts for the purposes of presenting information
to NYCHA stakeholders unfamiliar with source material;
Knowledge of current federal, state and/or city housing policy; supportive service trends;
financing mechanisms for affordable housing; and/or urban planning strategies for neighborhood
revitalization of mature urban areas;
Working knowledge of federal, state and New York City housing subsidy programs and agencies;
Experience working on HUD Mixed-Finance transactions involving multiple participants and
a variety of subsidy sources;
Ability to apply regulations or policy principles to design new housing development or resident
service programs for NYCHA constituents;
Ability to work well among a diverse population of stakeholders;
Ability to manage tasks, solve problems independently, and and provide constructive
criticism of others' written material;
Ability to collect information about programs planned or implemented outSide of NYCHA
(elsewhere in the country or New York City) , deconstruct programs and analyze potential
barriers to implementation for NYCHA constituents;
Ability to analyze programs implemented by the Department of Housing Finanoe and Development
to resolve difficulties as they are encountered in the field;
Willingness to develop generalist skills on-the-job in a wide range of disciplines; and
Working knowledge of Excel and Access software programs.
QUALIFICATIONS:
A Bachelor's degree from an accredited college and three years of full-time satisfactory
professional experience in the development, appraisal , financing, negotiation, or disposition
of real estate, or in real estate law, or in urban planning or analytical or coordination work
related to housing programs; or
A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent and seven years of full-time
satisfactory experience as described above.
Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. Graduate study in the
field of urban studies, city planning, business or public administration, finance, architecture,
engineering or other related fields may be substituted for up to one year of the required
experience on the basis of 30 credits equaling one year of experience. Graduation from an
accredited law school may be substituted for one year of the required experience. However,
all candidates must have at least two years of experience as described above.
Interested applicants may fax resume, cover letter and salary history to 212-306-7905 or
mail to New Yorll City Housing Authority, Human Resources Recruitment Unit, 250 Broadway,
11th Floor, New Yorll, NY 10007; Attn. : BB, Senior Recruiter;
Job Code: HFD, Hous. Dew. Coord. EOE/MF
4S
46
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OFFICE OFTIIE CIlYVISIONARr

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possible to raise revenue from
East River bridges without
causing significant traffic
delays, but why should
motorists be the only ones
who pay toUs?
Let's require small
transverse fees at all major
crossing points in the city.
PEDESTRIAN AND CYCLIST
EZ PASS PLAN NO. 236'1I-A
GOTANIMPRACTlOUSOLUTION
TO AN INTRACTABLE PROBLEM?
OFFICE OF THE CITY VISIONARY
CITY LlMITS MAGAZINE
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FLOOR. NY NY 10005
ootcv@ citylimits.
CITY LIMITS
personal skills, including the ability to work
effectively in a diverse environment with
clients, staff, outside attorneys and officials,
and volunteers. Bilingual English/Spanish a
plus. Send resume with cover letter that must
include salal)' requirement to GMHC HR Dept,
119 West 24th Street, New York, New York
10011, or electronically to jobs@gmhc.org.
GMHC values diversity and is proud to be an
Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer.
SUPPORTIVE SERVICES MANAGER -
MSW/CSW HIVIAIDS Supportive Housing Facili -
ty. Leadership role, reporting to the Executive
Director, involves full responsibility for all
aspects of the ClinicallSupportive Services pro-
grams. Must have a proven track record of
accomplishment in an organization providing
services, under city or state contracts, to home-
less persons with co-presenting mental health,
addiction and forensic issues. Excellent writing
skills and a high degree of computer proficien-
cy are mandatoI)'. Serious candidates should
forward resume and detailed cover letter, stat-
ing salal)' requirements to Executive Director,
Clover Hall, 333 Kosciusko Street, Brooklyn, NY
11221. Fax 718-602-9107. EOE
TEAM LEADER - Help USA, a homeless hous-
ing provjder seeks a candidate to lead an
interdisciplinal)' team with the ability to coor-
dinate three (3) Case Managers with a case-
load of 63 clients. Will provide individual
supervision, crisis intervention and support to
the team and Case Managers. Ensure that
protocols and regulations are adhered to by
the counseling staff. Special requirements:
MSW (preferred) or related degree required.
Computer literacy is a must. Minimum of two
years supervisol)' experience required. Must
have clinical as well as case management
experience. Salal)': starts in mid $30s.
Resumes should be sent to: Tabitha Newkirk-
Gaffney, Director of Social Services, fax
718-485-5916 or via email at tgaffney@hel-
pusa.org
VOCATIONAL SERVICES SPECIALIST - The
Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS),
a national leader in the development of effec-
tive housing and service initiatives for home-
less/formerly homeless individuals invites
applicants with experience providing services
to the mentally ill population to apply for the
position of Vocational Services Special ist.
Focus of position is on providing clinically
based vocational treatment planning, support,
advocacy, assessment, and referrals for par-
ticipants desiring to work or return to work.
Applicants should have experience working
with formerly homeless, or with individuals
with mental illness and other disabilities, work
well with a team, and have exp managing a
caseload. Computer literacy required. Bilin-
gual SpanishlEnglish pre!. Experience working
with groups or leading workshops helpful.
Reqs: BA + 2 yrs direct svs exp with indicated
populations (BSW + 1 yr), High School Diploma
(or GED) + 6 yrs exp (Note: For applicants
without college degrees, evel)' 30 credits can
be substituted for 1 yr exp). Salal)': $30,773.
Benefits: compo bnfts incl $65/month in tran-
sit checks. Send resumes and cover letters by
ASAP to: Carlene Scheel , CUCs/Career Net-
work, c/o The Prince George 14 E. 28th Street,
New York, NY 10016. Fax 212-471-0758,
Email:cnhire@cucs.org. CUCS is committed to
workforce diversity. EEO
Vp, COMMUNITY HOUSING - MA or doctoral
degree + 5 years experience in the community
mental health-housing field required. Knowl-
edge of applicable Federal , NYS and NYC reg-
ulations essential. Institute for Community
Living, Inc is a dynamic, nationally acclaimed
provider of comprehensive services to people
with mental disabilities. Recent expansion
has resulted in the creation of a number of
managerial and clinical openings. We invite
you to join our dedicated staff and make a dif-
ference. We offer an attractive total compen-
sation package and opportunities for growth
and development. Send resume of interest to:
Institute for Community Living. Human
Resources Department, 40 Rector Street, New
York. NY 10006. fax 212-385-0378.
WEB CONTENT MANAGER - Develop and
maintain the layout and flow of website infor-
mation for effective communication with inter-
nal and external users of the site. Journalism
or English degree; excellent writing and editing
skills; experience managing projects in a
matrixed environment. Reply to: ACLU, Com-
munications, Attn: LS-EMC, 125 Broad Street-
18th Fl . NY. NY 10004.
YOUTH MINISTER - This position's goals are
to evangelize the youth of the community by
creating a transformational intersection of
faith, family, community and schools. This
intersection will be created through activities,
bible study, regular worship. prayer, faith
based community organizing and academic
excellence. A commitment to Christ and
JOBADS
Christian ministl)'. a BA or advanced degree
with previous youth ministl)' and knowledge of
grant writing are necessal)'. Send resumes to:
Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2430
Walton Avenue. Bronx. NY 10468 phone 718-
367-8330. Attn: Rev. Foster.
Yorkville Common Pantl)' seeks staff for our
new 24 hour 7 day week East Harlem based
emergency food progra m. We va I ue & seek a
diverse workforce for: PROJECT COORDINATOR
oversees staff and scheduling, reports to the
Deputy Executive Director for Programs. Princi-
pally responsible for publicizing the project,
encouraging referrals and maintaining rela-
tionships with referral agencies, distributing
food and referring clients to other programs for
ongoing provision of supplemental)' foods. Will
also do scheduling for all program shifts.
Requires Masters plus related experience.
ASSISTANT WEEKDAY COORDINATOR assists
the Project Coordinator with the above-men-
tioned duties. In addition this person will be
the intake point for all evening referrals. The
OVERNIGHT INTAKE CASE AIDE will distribute
food as well as develop relationships with any
nighttime emergency service providers; will
also be responsible for updating any outstand-
ing paperwork and computer data entl)'. Three
Part-Time WEEKEND INTAKE CASE AIDES will
cover the weekend shifts with similar respon-
sibilities to weekday positions. Per diem
INTAKE AIDES cover shifts in the event of ill-
ness or other absence and coverage needs.
Should be able to work various shifts, week-
ends and holidays. EOE. Resumes: Hester Old
Sullivan, Deputy Executive Director for Pro-
grams. YCP. 8 East 109th Street. NY. NY
10029.
Reach 20 ,000 readers in the nonprofit sector
DECEMBER 2002
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For more information, call Susan Harris at 212-479-3345.
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