city limits magazine, april 1991 issue

8/3/2019 City Limits Magazine, April 1991 Issue

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A pril 1 99 1 New Yo rk 's C ommun it y A ff air s N ew s Mag az in e $2.00

A ID S F U N D IN G F IG H T D H O U S IN G C O U R T T A S K F O R C EM A n H E W L E E : H O M E S T E A D E R S ' S T O R Y


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eirJl LimirsVolume XVI Number 4

City Limits is published ten times per year,monthly except double issues in June/Julyand August/September, by the City LimitsCommunity Information Service, Inc., a nonprofit organization devoted to disseminatinginformation concerning neighborhoodrevitalization.SponsorsAssociation for Neighborhood an dHousing Development, Inc.Community Service Society of New YorkNew York Urban CoalitionPratt Institute Center for Community an dEnvironmental DevelopmentUrban Homesteading Assistance BoardBoard of Directors*Eddie Bautista, NYLPIICharter Rights

ProjectBeverly Cheuvront, NYC Department ofEmploymentMary Martinez, Montefiore HospitalRebecca Reich, Turf CompaniesAndrew Reicher, UHABTom Robbins, JournalistJay Small, ANHDWalter Stafford, New York UniversityPete Williams, Center for Law andSocial Justice

*Affiliations for identification only.Subscription rates are: for individuals andcommunity groups, $15/0ne Year, $25/TwoYears; for businesses, foundations, banks,government agencies and libraries, $35/0neYear, $50/Two Years. Low income, unemployed, $10/0ne Year.City Limits welcomes comments and articlecontributions. Please include a stamped, selfaddressed envelope for return manuscripts .Material in City Limits does not necessarilyreflect the opinion of he sponsoring organizations. Send correspondence to: CITY LIMITS,40 Prince St., New York, NY 10012.

Second class postage paidNew York, NY 10001City Limits (ISSN 0199-0330)(212) 925-9820FAX (212) 966-3407Editor: Doug TuretskyAssociate Editor: Lisa GlazerContributing Editors: Mary Keefe,Peter Marcuse, Margaret MittelbachProduction : Chip CliffePhotographers: Adam Anik ,Andrew Lichtenstein , Franklin KearneyAdvertising Representative: Howard W. Sonner(212) 439-4707Intern: Joanne PassaroCopyright 1991. All Rights Reserved. Noportion or portions of this journal may bereprinted without the express permission ofthe publishers.City Limits is indexed in the Alternative PressIndex and the Avery Index to ArchitecturalPeriodicals and is available on microfilm fromUni versity Microfilms Internat ional, Ann Arbor,MI48106.

2 /APRIL 1991/CITY UMITS

One More Time

Lke hamsters on a wheel, those folks who blame rent regulation fornearly every ill befalling New York have once again launched acampaign to dismantle the system. But this year, unlike previousyears, they have an unusually good chance of succeeding.Now they're armed with a new study that contends rent regulationsgenerally benefit the rich instead of he poor. The landlord lobbyists fromthe Rent Stabilization Association are leading the assault on Albany,where the regulatory system is again up for legislative renewal.But it's not just this new study that gives them a better shot than usualat convincing Albany legislators to undo the more than 40-year-old rentregulation system. The Census Bureau, busy with the 1990 census,conducted only an abbreviated version of the triennial housing andvacancy survey that helps justify the continued need for regulations. Andreports of declining rents an d increasing vacancies in the press add fuelto the landlords' rhetoric that the regulations are unnecessary as well ascontributing to the decline and fall of New York.As usual, though, the landlords' stats only tell part of the story. Let'stake the basic argument at face value: Well-off tenants with rentregulated apartments are getting the best end of the deal because they'repaying much less in rent than they can afford, For example, a family withan income of $100,000 an d a snazzy regulated Upper West Side apartment that rents for a $1,000 a month is paying just 12 percent of theirincome for rent. In fact, even if they were paying three times that amount,they'd be paying less percentage-wise than many low-income NewYorkers. But it's really a moot point-regulated or not, the apartment istotally unaffordable to families earning the city's median income of$20,000 (based on the city's 1987 housing and vacancy survey).Landlords contend that by deregulating apartments the system willbecome fairer and rents more affordable-a claim that sounds an awful lotlike some sort of voodoo economics. Buildings constructed since 1974don't fall within rent regulation unless the owner received tax breaks orpublic subsidies. But no one's noticed a spate of newly constructedunregulated apartments that are affordable to the poor-or even averageincome New Yorker.Granted, the rent-regulation system is hardly perfect. But landlordsaren't doing anything to help their claims that rent-regulations arestrangling profits and forcing them to let buildings crumble into disrepair.I f most property owners really were doing so poorly, they'd be falling allover each other to stick their books under our noses.Contrary to the landlord lobby's hyperbole, rent-regulation remainsthe best means of protecting all New Yorkers from rent-gouging. Albanylegislators must stand up to this year's onslaught.

* * *We want to offer our belated best wishes to Bonnie Brower, who hasresigned as executive director of the Association for Neighborhood and

Housing Development. For nearly a decade, Brower was an energeticproponent for a sane and equitable housing policy in New York. Herstrident brand of leadership will be missed.* * *

Correction: In "Opportunity Knocks" (March 1991), we wrote that theTemporary Commission on Early Childhood and Child Care Programs is"led" by Antony Ward. Ward is actually executive director. The commission is "led" by its chairman, Sanford Weil, who doubles as CEO ofPrimerica Corporation.Correction II: We inadvertentl y omitted StephenStrah's article, "MakingWork," from the contents page last month. But it's in the issue on page 19.We regret the error. 0Cover photograph by Tom Robbins


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FEATUREWorlds ApartRacial steering has been part of life at the city'shousing projects for years.

DEPARTMENTSEditorial

12

One More Time ...................... ........ .......................... 2BriefsRockaway Project Beached? ................................... .4Manny Hanny Challenged ....................................... 4Salter Square-Off? .................................................... 5YMCA Lockout Loophole ................ ........................ 5ProfileCourt Aid .............................................. .... ................ 6PipelineDisaster Relief ........................ ............................ .. .... 8City ViewInvasion of the Home Snatchers ............................ 19ReviewOur Town .. ... ..... .. .. ............................. ............ ..... ... 20

Housing Court/Page 6

AIDS Money/Page 8

Worlds Apart/Page 12

CITY UMITSIAPRIL 1991/3


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11:1;'1"11ROCKAWAYPROJECT BEACHED?

Nearly nine months after thecity chose Oceanview Associates as the developer for a hugepublicly owned beachfront sitein Rockaway, Queens, theproject seems to have hit roughwaters. The sale of the areaknown as Arverne is still notcompleted and additional citysubsidies may be needed to turnplans for the massive development into reality ."We're still dealing withfundamental issues," saysDepartment of HousingPreservation and DevelopmentCommissioner Felice Michetti,who is negotiating withOceanview. These issues includethe sale price of the land andthe extent of the developer'sobligation to build sewers,roads and schoals for the newcommunity.Harvey Schultz, the formercommissioner of the Departmentof Environmental Protection whonow heads Oceanview, says,"All aspects of the financing areunder discussion," including abigger investment by the city.Schultz adds, ''We're negotiating our business terms in atotally consistent manner withwhat was approved by theBoard of Estimate."Despite the lengthy negotiations, both Schultz and Michettiappear confident the project willmove forward. He describes theproject as a "partnershipbetween the city and ourselves."The oceanfront site has beenvacant for more than 20 years.Oceanview Associates wasselected as the developer ofArverne after a long and hotlycontested process. Some of thecity's largest developers as wellas a nonprofit group seeking tobuild the nationally acclaimedNehemiah-style homes vied forthe site. Oceanview offered $90million for the land, proposedbuilding 10,000 units andpromised to cover up to $300million in infrastructure costs.The townhouse and midrisebuilding apartments would beaffordable to families withincomes of at least $60,000annually. The city earmarked itsproBt from the sale of theArverne proper ty for buildinglower income housing nearby.4/APRIL 1991/CITY UMITS

On the beach: Will the city keep Ocean view 's Arverne project afloat?But terms of the deal beganto change when the Board of

Estimate, at its last meetingbefore being disbanded,reduced the project by some2,500 units . At the same time,the city agreed to coverapproximately $138 million ofthe infrastructure costs.Comptroller ElizabethHoltzman, who cast the soledissenting vote against the deal ,questioned how the city wouldafford these new costs and alsowas suspicious of Oceanview'splans for financing the project."For weeks I have been trying toobtain from city officials and thedeveloper some details of thelevel ot public sector financialsupport this project requires. Inrecent weeks the financingscheme seems to have changeddramatically. Discussions nowseem to include a greater citycontribution than originallycontemplated," Holtzmanwarned last August, notingOceanview had suggested thecity' s Water and SewerAuthority Roat a bond toprovide funding for some of theinfrastructure work.

Oceanview Associates is apartnership of two largedevelopment groups: Forest CityRatner Companies, which isbuilding the Metrotech complexand recently became a partnerin the A ~ a n t i c Terminal projectin Brooklyn, and Park TowerRealty, which is slated to buildtwo mammoth office towers aspart of the Times Squareredevelopment plan. Each ofthese projects is subsidized bythe city. 0 Doug Turetsky

MANNY HANNYCHALLENGEDOnly one penny of eachdollar deposited into Manufacturers Hanover Trust branches inHarlem is reinvested into thecommunity, according to a bankactivist group . This charge is thebasis ot a challenge to Manufacturers Hanover's plans topurchase 10 Goldome Bankbranches.According to a report issuedby the Citywide ResponsibleBanking Alliance: MHT, which isspearhead ing the challenge,Manufacturers Hanover is redlining the Harlem communitywhile maintaining business tiesto South Africa . From 1986through 1989 deposits haveaveraged $105 million at eachHarlem branch but loansamounted to a mere $100,000annually ."Harlem's African-Americanand Hispanic residents investmillions of dollars of theirsavings in MHT's three Harlembranches and they get nothingin return," says JasmineHopper, a banking alliancemember and program directorof the Community Coalition forFair Banking.

But Judy Walsh, a spokeswoman for ManufacturersHanover, says the coalition failsto look at the complete line ofservices the bank offers to lowand moderate-income communities . "It's not only mortgagesthat should be looked at here,"says Walsh, adding that thebank will not comment specifically on the charges because

Manufacturers Hanover has notyet completed its review of thecoalition's study.Walsh also points out thatjust a few days before thecoalition presented its report,the Federal Reserve Bank ofNew York gave ManufacturersHanover the highest possiblerating for meeting the creditneeds of the communities inwhich it does business. Manufacturers Hanover was the firstmajor bank to be reviewedunder the tougher CommunityReinvestment Act standardsmade part of the congressionalsavings and loan bailout bill .Donna Katzin, the director ofthe South Africa program of theInterfaith Center on CorporateResponsibility and member ofthe citywide coalition, givesManufacturers Hanover creditfor a number of local andinternational initiatives, but saysthe bank's relationship withSouth Africa contradicts theseefforts. While ManufacturersHanover has not made loans toSouth Africa for some fiveyears, the bank continues toprovide corresP9ndent servicesto help South African banksconvert currency for international trade. Katzin describesthese services as "the vehiclethrough which the SouthAfrican banks do business withthe rest of the world."Walsh counters that byproviding correspondentservices, ManufacturersHanover is able to push forchange in South Africa . ''We'rein complete agreement withwhat these [anti-apartheid]grou'ps are doing. We just havea different means to accomplishthat end . We're a long-timeopponen t of apartheid," saysWalsh.Manufacturers Hanover hasfiled an application with thestate banking department andthe federal reserve system tobuy 10 Goldome Bank branchesand their assets. The deal isworth an estimated $1 .4 billion.The banking alliance hassubmitted its c h a l l ~ n g e to theapplication to the tederalreserve board of governors andthe Federal Reserve Bank ofNew York . They filed thechallenge under state andfederal CRA guidelines .Manufacturers Hanover' s


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response to the challenge is dueto be delivered to the federalreserve as City Limits goes topress. D Doug Turetsky

SALTERSQUARE-OFFSome 55 South Bronxhomeowners thought they werebuying into a suburban-styledreom of a private home and abackyard . Insteod, the newhomeowners find their publiclysubsidized homes are rackedwith construction problems.Mildewed walls, rusty doorand window frames and soggyinsulation are evidence of faultyconstruction, says Allie Graham,president of the homeowners'association. The Salter Square IIhomes, built under the NewYork City Partnership'S newhomes program, cost $98,000.Each home received $25,000worth of city and state subsidies.Joseph Perri, an engineerhired by the homeowners, explains that because the housesare smaller than average andare built closely together theycreate a trap for moisture. Un-able to escape, the moisturecondenses on inside surfaces ofexterior walls. Perri also notes

that some walls completely lackinsulation ."Workmanship was poorand they didn't design it correctly/' says Perri, who providedthe homeowners with a five-page report on suggested solutions to the problem.Mario Procida, president ofProcida Construction, whichbuilt the homes, acknowledgesthe problems but blames themon bad design. The buildingswere designed by the Mannattan-based architectural firm ofWechsler, Grasso, Menziuso."It is clearly a design defi ciency/' says Procida, addingthat his compony is now planning to implement a "substantialportion" of the engineer 's proposal. These plans include add-ing additional ventilation to thewalls and .basement crawlspaces, changing the interiorfan units and constructing aventilation system in the roofs ofall 55 homes. The 1 3 mostseverely damaged homes willundergo additional repairs.

Salter II is the second phaseof a single-family home projectin the Morrisania section of theSouth Bronx. The project onFox, Simpson, Home and Freeman streets has been opposedby some housing and community activists who think singlefamily homes ar e inappropriateand underutilize land than couldbecome the site of homes formany more families . The MBDCommunity Housing C o r ~ r a -tion is the local sponsor of thedevelopment.The first phase of SalterSquare has also had waterproblems. Water there seef>s infrom the outside because ofporous masonry. Procida Construction has attached aluminumsiding to some of these homes toprevent seepage. D TraceyTully

YMCA LOCKOUTLOOPHOLEThe YMCA is consideringselling its largest New York Cityresidence and already hasrelocated most of its 45 longterm tenants.Most permanent tenants ofthe Sioone House YMCA inChelsea, some of whom hadresided there for 20 years,

snatched up an offer to move toan Uf>per West Side YMCAcomplete with air conditioning,cable television, a swimmingpool and $200 stipend. Thealternative, however, looked

grim: The six holdouts faceeviction.As their eviction battle creepsthrough the courts, a bill toexempt YMCAs from the city'seviction law is winding throughthe City Council. If passed, lock-ing out tenants would no longerbe a crime for the YMCA andother nonprofit groups that rentto "members" in New York City.The bill's crafters had theYMCA in mind but othernonprofits could easily comply,says Anne Teicher, deputxdirector of the Mayor's Officeon Homelessness and SROHousing Services, which 0r-poses the bill. "It really wil openthe door to all sorts ofnonprofits/' says Teicher. Thecity's Department of HousingPreservation and Developmentalso opposes the bill.To housing activists, it allsounds familiar. Gov. MarioCuomo vetoed a 1985 bill thatwould have exempt the YMCAand certain nonprofit groupsfrom the state's comprehensiveanti-eviction laws. The bill faredworse in 1986 and 1989, nevermaking it to the governor"sdesk. Opponents have no doubta city victory would provideammunition for yet anotherAlbany attempt."Should the City Councilenact this bill, they [YMCAexecutives] will take it to AI-bany/' warns Saralee Evans,project director of the Wes t SideSRO Law Project.But the man behind the city

version denies the Albany connection . Anthonr Caracciolo, avice president 0 the ProspectPark YMCA in Brooklyn, says hepushed for the bill because hisown YMCA's tenants failed topay $92J27 in rent in 1990.

At the advice of City Council"Ieadership/' Caracciolo af>-prooched one of the council'smost powerful members,Herbert Berman, who chairs thefinance committee. Berman doesnot represent the Prospect ParkYMCA's district or sit on thecouncil's housing committee. "Idon't know shit from shineola"about housing, says Berman,the bill's prime sponsor.But the YMCA is entitled to ahearing, Berman emphasizes. "Idon't believe any issue is sosacrosanct that we shouldn't befree to raise the issue."Meanwhile, Sioone House isseeking a new type of tenant:the young, backpack swingingtraveler, says James Kirschner,a YMCA spokesman. But evenas it pursues this new clientele,YMCA officials are keepingtheir options open and have putthe building up for sale.Kirschner denies that oustingSioone House's long-termresidents has anything to dowith preparing tor the sale ofthe 1 AOO-room building ."There are people who havebeen calling it home for yearsand we really don' t have thefacilities and staff to make it along-term home/' saysKirschner.D Eve Heyn..,.....

saU1110

NYC . . . . . . . . . . F. . I , Count 13,111"

174aa1o

0 , . . . . . ,28,1. ."' ....y 28, _I,.... .......

(IR SIaeIter ., . . . .

, ..........

Includes adutts In special residences

CITY UMITS/APRIL 1991/5


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By Kimberleigh J. Smith

Court AidThe City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court offershelp to tenants in a slipshod court system.

I n the dingy hallways ofBrooklyn'shousing court, tenants facingeviction sit on hard plastic chairs,shifting their weight in irritation,shuffling papers inpanic. The court is overcrowded, overheatedand underlit.Court calendars areread an d instructionsmeted out in an arcanelegalese. Tenants don'thave a legal right to anattorney, and most can'tafford to hire one, soconfusion, frustrationand helplessnessabound.Amid the mass confusion is a small islandof sanity: A simplewooden table coveredwith handout sheets inEnglishand Spanishandstaffed by helpful volunteers from the CityWide Task Force onHousing Court. Created10 years ago, th e taskforce has set up similartables in every borough.They're a lifeline fortenants and an advocatefor change in a court system that is widely renowned for slipshodjustice.Last Chance

judges are often eager to decide a caseas quickly as possible-most take lessthan 15 minutes. Unless tenants knowtheir rights-and the right questions

haven't paid the rent because landlords aren't making repairs or providing heat and hot water. Unless theyknow how the court system works,the tenants' reasons for withholdingrent can be lost in the shuffle."When a person walks into thatcourt, the first thing the judge says is,'How much do you owe?' We more orless tell the tenants how to conductthemselves, an d it gives them a senseof confidence, because when they walkinto that courtroommostof them are scared todeath," says Hall."The courts are dealing with people whogenerally don't have alot of say in things," saysMaria Mottola, executive director of th ecitywide task force. "It'slike they're playing agame. One personknowsthe rules and the otherdoesn't."Studies by the taskforce-compiled fromthe court's own statistics-have shown thattenants in housing courtcases are overwhelmingpoor andblack or Latino.Many are single womenwith children. The taskforce attempts to hooktenants up with othergroups or city agenciesthat can offer help."Wemake a tremendousnumber of referrals tolocal communitygroups, to legal servicesand the Human Resources Administration," explains Mottola."In a place like housingcourt, just having information and knowingwhat your rights are isempowering. "

"We save a lot ofpeople from beinghomeless, just by givingthem ideas and tactics,"says Kenneth Hall, a coordinator for the Brooklyn arm of the citywidetask force. "It's a scary

Help amid havoc: Aida Serrano (left) and Luce Lugo from the Manhattan TaskForce on Housing Court. Participatory ApproachThe task force-a coa-situation for everyone," he says."There's a much greater need thanthe task force is able to address, bu tthey have bitten off a big piece," saysAndrew Kelman, director of housingfor Queens Borough President ClaireShulman. "Without them, the magnitude of the problem would be muchgreater."With a tremendous backlog ofcases,8/APRIL 1991/CITY UMITS

to ask-it 's easy to be railroaded intoan agreement without knowing theconsequences.Last year the city's housing courthandled some 300,000 cases. About290,000 were petitions to evict tenants, with housing court the only barrier between many of the tenants andthe streets. A good number of thesecases revolve around tenants wh o

lition of more than 100of the city's community groups, legalservices organizations and housingadvocates-grew from a small, volunteer group of Bronx tenant organizersand housing advocates. The task forceis now structured like a wheel, with amini-task force in each borough thespokes. Together, the task force spinsforward, without directives from the"top."


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"We're al l tenant advocates, sowe're used to setting tasks an d doingthem," says Deb Howard, a volunteerat the Brooklyn tables wh o works fulltime for the Pratt Area CommunityCouncil (PACC). Area tenant andhousing advocacy organizations likePACC volunteer their full-time staffatthe tables a few times a month.Howard, who has volunteered withthe task force for close to a year, saysan informal structure helps the organization work in and around the bureaucratic bottleneck of housing court."There are not many officers andvery few formal positions," says Barbara Schliff, a task force volunteerand the lead organizer at Los Sures, acommunity group in Williamsburg.Noting the lack of hierarchical structure, she adds, "The meetings we have,we decide who will chair, we discusswhat we have to discuss and we go tobusiness."Fundamental Reform"I think part of the formula is thatthe people who are in the coalition arepeople who actually work in housingcourt," says Aida Serrano, a coordinator for the Manhattan Task Force onHousing Court an d staff member forthe citywide task force."It's a base for sharing information.I fyou're a volunteeratthetable, whatever it is you learn at the table you cantake i t back to your job."

In addition to working with individual tenants, the task force pushesto fundamentally reform the problemplagued housing court system. A cornerstone of he effort is a 1986 study ofthe court the task force deems one of

"When a personwalks into thatcourt, the firstthing the judge.says IS'How much do

you owe. '"its major accomplishments. The study,"Five-Minute Justice: Ain't NothingGoing On But The Rent," revealedthat while 78 percent oflandlords hadlegal assistance in court, just 20 percent of tenants had a an attorneypresent; that many of the pretrialconferences and hearings lasted lessthan 15 minutes and that most ofthecases observed were resolved through

stipulations, many of which had beenwritten by the landlord.One of the task force's primaryefforts has been toward mandatingthe right to counsel for those wh ocannot afford an attorney. The taskforce has also lobbied vehemently forstronger code-enforcement protections, urging that building ownersmust correct serious violations of thecity's housing maintenance code andmust be current with their real estatetaxes before filing an eviction case. Ithas also demanded the use of plain,multi-language court forms that canbe easily understood; a revision ofpretrial hearing procedures to prevent unfair negotiations from beingmade in the hallways; and a requirement that judges use computers toidentify violations so that tenants canwithhold rent until those repairs aremade.How effective is the task force?Apparently too effective for some. TheRent Stabilization Association, alandlord advocacy group, has recentlyset up its own table at the Manhattancourt house, and apparently intendsto soon have them in the other fourboroughs as well. I f imitation is thehighest form of flattery, then the CityWide Task Force on Housing Court ismeeting its goals. 0Kimberleigh J. Smith is a reporter forthe City Sun.

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l I a ' a j " ~ ' t I By Michael BroderDisaster ReliefAn uneasy alliance seeks federal fundingfor AIDS services.

The late Ryan White, a youngIndiana boy who contractedAIDS during a blood transfusion, was hounded from schoolby small-minded community members. His valiant effort to lead a normal-but abbreviated-life whilebattling AIDS was memorialized byCongress in the passage of the RyanWhite Comprehensive AIDS ResourceEmergency (CARE) Act of 1990.While the passage of the CARE Actwas a symbolic step forward, Congresshas pu t little money behind the act,which targets services to low-incomepeople with the HIV virus. Now, NewYork and the 15 other metropolitanareas hardesthi t by the AIDS epidemicare battling for a chunk of White'sfederal legacy.Total funding this year under theact for metropolitan regions like NewYork, which qualify for special AIDS"disaster relief' money, is just $86million. Half of that sum is disbursedby a formula that allocates funds according to the incidence of AIDS inthe region. New York will receive$15.8 million under this formula. Thecity is now vying for more than half ofthe additional $43 million in funds,bu t efforts have been hampered bybureaucratic constraints and a grueling group decision-making process.Federal AppealTo qualify for the additional funds,city officials ha d to prepare a grantapplication. "Through this application, the City of New York is appealing to the federal government for morehelp. Because to effectively combatthis epidemic the City of New Yorkrequires substanti al federal assistance,not mere tokenism," Mayor DavidDinkins said after signing the city'sgrant request in February.The final application was the resultof an exhausting two-month processundertaken by the New York City HIVHealth and Human Services PlanningCouncil. The planning council members, appointed by Mayor DavidDinkins under guidelines mandatedby the congressional act, joined cityhealth officials, peoplewith HIV, AIDSactivists, community leaders anda/APRIL 1991/CITY UMITS

service providers in a sometimes uneasy alliance.Under any circumstances, such aplanning and allocation processwould be a difficult task. Given thehistory of acrimony among city officials like Health CommissionerWoody Myers, AIDS activists fromACT UP and service providers, thetask seemed daunting. Further problems were created because Congressdecimated the act, reducing fundingfrom $880 million to a paltry $350million. The vast scope of the city's

Too often, AIDSpolicy is driven by

the interests ofpeople in thefield, not by the

needs of peoplewith AIDS.AIDS crisis and the diversity of interests on th e 40-member planningcouncil also led to a working atmosphere that was often tense and sometimes bitter."In some ways the process wasdoomed to faiL" says planning council member Richard Elovich, a recovering intravenous drug user, ACT UPmember and one of the organizers of aclean needle exchange program operating in city neighborhoods for morethan a year. Elovich characterizes thecouncil as a "mosaic of self interest,"where members with divergent agendas competed for time and attention.But in the end, Elovich and othermembers agreed the process was essentially successful and the councilfilled an important need in the AIDScommunity. As Ronald Johnson, acouncil member and executive direc-

tor of the Minority Task Force onAIDS points out, there has been nostructure in which people with HIV /AIDS, AIDS activists, service providers and public officials could meetand exchange ideas and find commonground. "The HIV planning council isa first step" towards this, says Johnson.Wish ListThe complete plan submitted bythe New York City HIV council requests $22.6 million for health services, $3.7 million for mental healthservices and $10.9 for social services.The planned budget also allocates $1.6million for use in Westchester,Rockland and Putnam counties-partof the New York City region-and $2million for administering the councilitself. More than half the moneyneeded under this plan would have tocome from the competitive application process.One of he most hotly debated issuesamong the HIV council members washo w to target the funds and servicesgeographically and among the HIVpopulation. While it was clear thatthe CARE Act intended funds to reachthe poor, uninsured and traditionallyunderserved, it was not clear howbest to fulfill that mandate.The council eventually agreed touse data on geographical distributionof AIDS cases prepared by the HealthSystems Agency of New York City(HSA) to determine where the incidence of AIDS was highest andmembers of targeted communitieswere most concentrated. HSA identified 20 neighborhoods that, whilerepresenting only 45 percent of thecity's population, account for 75 percent of the low income and minorityAIDS cases, 75 percent of the IV drugrelated cases, 73 percent of casesamong 13 to 24 year olds, 72 percentof the cases identified in the past twoyears an d 71 percent of the casesamong women. These neighborhoodsinclude East New York, BedfordStuyvesant and Crown Heights as wellas the Upper West Side, GramercyPark and Murray Hill.Housing HelpAlthough the CARE Act funds aretargeted specifically for health andsocial services, the planning councildid attempt to link some ofits plans tothe housing needs of people withAIDS. "We asked ourselves, given therestrictions, how could we not nec-


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Pennies from Washington: Congress decimated funding for an AIDS services bill.

Peter Smith, president of the Partnership for the Homeless ,believes theplanning council-of which he is nota member-did not adequately ad-

dress the needs of homeless peoplewith AIDS. He notes that all the providers ofhousing services representedon the council operate programs thatare eligible for funding from the city'sHuman Resources Administration'sDivision of AIDS Services (DAS). Hecharges that these members, interestedin additional funding for their ownorganizations, only pushed for housing programs that are eligible for DASfunds."The vast majority of homeless,who are not eligible for DAS housing,will get nothing" from the programsin the council's service plan, saysSmith.If there was one sure area of agreement among the council participants,it was displeasure with the role of thefederal government. The feeling was

pervasive that what was being dividedwas not a pie, nor even a slice but onlya scattering of crumbs. "I am annoyedas hell at the feds for passing thislegislation with great public fanfareand then starving it," says planningcouncil member Dr. David E. Rogers,Q . a professor of medicine at CornellMedical Center and vice chairman ofthe National Council on AIDS.But planning council members likeal Elovich also point a finger of frustration at the Dinkins administration.Elovich cites mixed messages comingfrom City Hall and excessive time

wasted rewriting drafts of he council'sby-laws. And he charges that membership on the planning council wasmarred by "tokenism"-Elovich isone of only three people in the 40-member group who is either HIV-essarily create new housing slots bu timprove on the housing alternativesthat exist for homeless people withAIDS in New York City," says ReginaQuattrochi, a planning council member and executive director of the AIDSResource Center.Plans for enhancing current housing for people with AIDS include adding mental health services, occupational an d recreational therapy andtransportation services; a hot mealsprogram for people living in commercial SROs;and technical assistanceto community-based organizations forhousing development. While thesemeasures would not increase theavailability of housing, they couldimprove the quality of life for peoplein existing AIDS housing.

AIDS Housing Money-Dead on Arrival?

But only the hot meals programand a small fraction of the supportiveservices are allocated from the $15 .8million already granted to the ci ty-the rest would come from the supplemental funds the council is hoping towin.

In addition to federal funds forhealthand social services for peoplewith AIDS, the city is vying forfunds under the AIDS Housing Opportunities Program passed byCongress last October. But so far nofunds have been allocated to theprogram."It's there on paper only at thispoint," says Sharon Myrie of theMayor's Office on Homelessnessan d SRO Housing , referring to thehousing program. No money wasincluded for the AIDS housingprogram in President George Bush 'srecent budget proposal.Congress authorized the expen-

diture of up to $156.5 million in theupcoming fiscal yearwhen it passedthe new AIDS housing legislation.But advocates like KathleenYasuda, a policy analyst with theNational Coalition for the Homeless , are pessimistic about thechances for Congress actually allocating the money during its current session.I f he program was fully funded ,New York City would be eligiblefor as much as $25 million. According to the Partnership for theHomeless, there are about 8,000homeless New Yorkers with AIDS.

D Michael Broder



10/24

positive or a former IV drug user."Too often, AIDS policy is driven bythe interest of people in the field, notby the needs of people with AIDS ,"says Elovich.Positive ResultsDespite such criticisms, Elovichsays, "I think this council was verysuccessful." That view is seconded byGlenna Michaels, who's consultingfirm, Michaels Associates, was hiredby the city to staff the council andperform the nuts-and-bolts mechanics of putting the application together.

Congressdecimated theact, reducing

funds to a paltry$350 million.

"Given the short time frame and thecomplexity of the issues, the outcomewas very good," she says.But Michaels concedes that in manyrespects the development of the application and the decisions about services were staff driven. "There wasn'ttime for the painful process of democracy," says Michaels, who was responsible for ensuring that the proposal met federal guidelines and thatthe city get the most money possible.At the final council meeting beforethe February 15 application deadline,members were seeing a full draft ofthe application for the first time. Therewas little time to carefully review thedetailed document meant to be NewYork's best shotat getting supplemental funding. After leaving the council'shands the proposal still needed mayoral approval and possible revisionsbefore being sent to Washington. Twoweeks after the application was submitted, council members ha d yet tosee the final version.Although the plan is complete,there is still plenty of work for the HIVcouncil. Now its emphasis switchesto implementing the plan andpromptly and effecti vel y spending the10jAPRIL 1991jCITY UMRS

dollars finally appropriated by thefederal government. When it comes tonext year's appropriations, warnsGlenna Michaels, "We will be judgedon how well and how quickly wespend this money." Clearly, the ci ty-and the HIV council-has no shortage

of New Yorkers in need of assistance.It remains to be seen how well theymeet this need. 0Michael Broder is a freelance writercovering HIV AIDS issues in NewYork.

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONSWriting 0 Reports 0 Proposals 0 Newsletters 0 Manuals 0 ProgramDescription and Justification 0 Procedures 0 Training MaterialsResearch and Evaluation 0 Needs Assessment 0 Project Monitoring andDocumentation 0 Census/Demographics 0 Project and PerformanceEvaluationPlanning and Development 0 Projects and Organizations 0 Budgetso Management 0 Procedures and SystemsCall or write Sue Fox

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Case in p'oint:Williamsburg CourtThis 59 unit low income housing development, sponsored by the St. NicholasN,eighborhood Preservation Corporation,is located in Brooklyn's Williamsburgsection.They needed $300,000 to completetneir $7 million plus financing package.Could Brooklyn U n i o n ' s A r e a Development Fund help?Sure we could-with a little help fromour friends, the low Income HousingFund and Bankers Trust Company, They~ a c h pledged $100,000 to match,Brooklyn Union's investment.We've found that the Area Development Fund is a working blueprint fo rchange in the;economic and social lifeof New York .Af your company wouldlike to help as has Pfizer, Bankers TrustCompany and so many others, talk toJan Childress at (718) 403-2583. You'llfind him working fo r a stronger New Yorkat B r o o k l y Union Gas, naturally

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12/24

ORLDAPAA Legal Aid lawsuit exposes racial steering and quotas at the housing authority.

How did this happen and is anyone to blame?BY LISA GLAZER Aid lawsuit claims that for years the housing authority hasused separate and unequal methods of tenant selection-Cornelia Simmons and her two sons, Tyrell and oneforwhites ,anotherforAfrican-AmericansandLatinos.Lance, were sleeping on couches in the living According to the lawsuit, these methods steered whiteroom of a small apartment in Far Rockaway, applicants to predominantly white projects, while theseQueens, when they went to the city's public same projects were often off-limits to blacks an d Latinos.housing authority for help . Hoping to find a safe, "Our society holds as its highest principle that peopledecent apartment, Simmons filled out an appli- of color are entitled to the same rights as white people,"cation in the summer of 1989 and by the following winter charges Scott Rosenberg, the Legal Aid Society attorneyshe was called in for an eligibility interview. She was told who filed the lawsuit. "These practices violated what areby a housing authority employee that four projects would really fundamental tenets in our society, and have beenhave vacancies in the near future: Red since the enactment of the Fair Hous-Hook and Fort Green in Brooklyn and ing Act."Astoria and Queensbridge in Queens. In the face of these accusations, theSimmons responded that each of Th housing authority is sending a com-those projects was dangerous. She then " ere are some plex mix of messages. With damageasked, "Can't I go to Pomonok or For- control at the top of their agenda, theyest Hills?" Pointing to a sheet of paper developments are admitting that race was taken intofrom which he was reading, the em- consideration before families on theployee replied that no vacancies were W here you waiting list were offered an apartment.expected at either development. He Yet they refuse to accept culpability,said her other option was Pink Houses just can't be claiming that many of the practicesin Brooklyn. "Could I be pu t on the now under fire were part of activistwaiting list for Forest Hills or white enough to efforts to promote racial, social andPomonok?" queried Simmons. ''I'm economic integration.willing to wait." get in." Mostimportantly, theysaytheprac-The worker responded, "They don't tices no longer exist. "I have ordereddo that anymore." He added, "Ms. that all procedures touching tenantSimmons, if you don't pick one of the selection be administered with scru-projects I have available for you, then pulous attention to a fair , absolutelyyour application will be put in an inactive file. There is race neutral policy," proclaims Laura Blackburne, thenothing more I can do for you at this point." new head ofthe housing authority. "I am determined toSimmons and her children are black and the story of remedy the past as quickly and as sensitively as possibletheir experience is part of a Legal Aid Society lawsuit and move on ."charging the New York City Housing Authoritywith racial It is not ye t clear whether the lawsu it will be resolveddiscriminat ion. According to statistics in the lawsuit, in through behind-closed-doors mediation or decided after1988 the Pomonok and Forest Hills developments were lengthy an d bitter litigation in the harsh light of the publicmore than 65 percent white and the Red Hook, Fort Green, arena. Both sides say they're willing to settle-and bothAstoria, Queensbridge and Pink Houses projects were sides are pursuing aggressive legal strategies. The situamore than 95 percent black and Latino. Between 1973 an d tion is complicated by a variety of corollary investigations1988,1,532 families moved into Pomonok; 1,117 of them by institutions with agendas that may well be at crosswere white. During that same period, 251 families moved purposes-the United States Justice Department, the city'sinto Forest Hills; 183 were white. Throughout these years, Commissionon Human Rights and the housing authority'sthe housing authority's waiting list was more than 85 own inspector general.percent black and Latino. Additionally, the Staten Island office of the NationalThe culmination ofa five-year research effort, the Legal Association for the Advancement of Colored People12/APRIL 1991/CITY UMITS


13/24

(NAACP) is consideringbringing their own lawsuit and a Brooklynbranch of the Legal AidSociety is in the midst ofa separate legal battleover alleged discrimination in the housingauthority's Williamsburg projects.This flurry of activitysuggests that claims ofracial injustice at thehousing authority areshocking and new, andit's easy to view the dispute as a simple matterof right versus wrong.Yet closer inspectionreveals much greatercomplexity. The currentuproar mirrors manyothers in the housingauthority's 57-year history and these recurrentcontroversies underscore a central and vexing dilemma: Shouldpublic housing provideshelter solely for thosewho need it most orshould it include tenantswith a mix ofages, racesand economic classes?"These are not easyquestions with categorical answers," says Robert Weaver, the nation'sfirst secretary for housing an d urban development, and one of the main architects of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Regarding the use ofquotas or steering to foster integration, he says, "There isa great dispute over this. I happen to be against them butthere have been many people ofgreat sincerity an d dedication who have been for them."This "great dispute" is echoed in widely varying reactions to the lawsuit, a barometer of the city's disparateattitudes toward race. "I think this suit in its basic premiseis petty," says Roger Starr, a former city housing officialwho is writing a book about race relations. "My feeling isthe housing authority is just doing the best it can tomaintain some white people in public housing. Barring areally malevolent purpose, which I don't see here, I thinkthe Legal Aid Society has better things to do."The city's human rights commissioner, Dennis deLeon,disagrees:"The housing authority's practices excludedpeople of color. The Legal Aid Society has stuck with this,they've explored the issues, developed the case. We owethem a great deal."Violet B. Hamilton, the head of the housing authority'sTenant Advisory Council, doesn't waste time with analysis. "I don't bite my tongue-the housing authority is aracist and discriminatory organization," she says. "Thereare some developments where you just can't be whiteenough to get in."

I n 1985, Scott Rosenberg was sitting in hisoffice putting th efinishing touches ona series of lawsuits representing the homelessagainst the City of NewYork. Buried arm-deepin documents, his attention was redirectedwhen a young womanentered his office. Ahousing authority employee, the woman hadtalked to friends, colleagues and mentors andfinally decided to cometo the Legal Aid Society.The reason? She wasprofoundly unsettledbyone of her duties as ahousing assistant.Si ting in his office sixyears later, Rosenbergpauses to remember thevisit. Leaning forward,th e wiry, 35-year-oldlawyer recalls, "She explained that she hadbeen instructed by hersupervisor in the housing authority that therewere certain projectswhere families of colorcould not be referred,that only white familiescould go to theseprojects. She explainedthat these projects werelabeled as 'Phase Two' and she was instructed that i f nonwhite families asked about these projects, they were to bemisinformed that there were no vacancies expected at theproject, even i f they were expected."She herself was Latino. She added that by the termwhite, the housing authority meant white non-Hispanic.She came to us and said, 'Isn't this illegal?' She believedit was illegal, but she was also offended by the fact that allLatino people were being included in the Latino category,even if they were also white. She felt if they were doingthis on the basis of color alone, they should at least beconsistent!"Rosenberg asked the whistleblower if anyone else at thehousing authority would confirm her story, and anotherhousing assistant came in. With two informants, Rosenbergand other attorneys began to collect information on theracial composition of projects ru n by the housing authority. As they started compiling statistics, comparing them,and acquiring anecdotal stories as well as internal housingauthority documents, they saw a much broader spectrumof race-related policies.As alleged in the lawsuit, the practices included the useof phase codes designating projects to which only whiteapplicants to public housing could be referred. Thesepractices are said to have occurred at the Glenwood,Forest Hills an d Pomonok projects in Queens and the



14/24

Isaacs, Holmes an d Robbins Plaza projects in Manhattan.The results of the policy are seen at projects such asRobbins Plaza, where 83.7 percent of the families wh omoved into the project between 1975 and 1988 werewhite-even though whites comprised only about 12percent of all families moving into public housing duringthat period of time , according to Legal Aid.The lawsuit also charges that managers at certain projectsattempted to maintain a "racial balance" in buildings byreplacing white families moving out with white familiesmoving in-and the use of he same procedures for AfricanAmerican an d Latino families. The lawsuit claims thatthis policy allowed white families to move into apartmentsahead of minority families with higher priority on thewaiting list. For example, at the New Lane project onStaten Island, which was 86.7 percent white in 1988 , 57white families moved out between 1984 an d 1988 andwere replaced by 55 white families, according to thelawsuit.Another policy that the lawsuit claims is discriminatory is the use of a neighborhood preference policy forrenting apartments in new projects. Under this policy,families bound for ne w projects were required to comefrom postal zones or neighborhoods nearby. According tothe lawsuit, this policy reinforced the segregated nature ofthe city's neighborhoods-and gave adi s pro p orti onatenumber ofapartmentsto white familieswhen projects wereopened in whiteneighborhoods.

to the Legal Aid attorneys; others were found through legalaid offices in the city's neighborhoods. The case no w hasseven plaintiffs, three of whom were recently added to anupdated version of the complaint.With funding from a new federal fair housing program,Rosenberg is now working on the case with MichelleAdams and Sharon Dulberg. As he sees it, discriminationcaused by the housing authority'S policies shapes the livesof housing authority tenants. "It determines the schoolstheir children attend, the friends they have , how safe theyfeel," he says. "Sometimes it shortens their lives and thelives of their children. A wrong was done to families whowere denied opportunities to live in other communitiesand it is the job of the Legal Aid Society to represent thosefamilies. It's important for our clients-and for New YorkCity as a whole."

Laura Blackburne arrived in New York from Ohio atthe age of 22 with plans to become a teacher, bu t shefound that in 1959 jobs were hard to come by,especially if you were young, female and black. Sheeventually took a job in Jersey City and later became thefirst black teacher at the Grover Cleveland High School inQueens. Within a few years, she was so disillusioned byracism in the schoolsystem that she decided to move on. Hernext place of employment? The New YorkCity Housing Authority , where she acquired an entry-leveljob as a housing assistant.Additionally, thelawsuit charges thatthe housing authori ygave special treatment to Eastern Europeanimmigrantswhowere sent to predominantly whiteprojects such asPomonok and ForestHills, while homelessfamilies , who aremostly black andLatino, were usuallysent to projects thatwere primarily com The Legal Aid team: Michelle Adams, Scott Rosenberg and Sharon Dulberg.

Thirty years later,Blackburne is head ofthe housing authority,the first woman incharge and only thethird black person tohold the job. Trainedas a lawyer, she hasserved as legal counsel to the NAACP andspent the past 11 yearsrunning a conflictmediation program.She also chaired theprised of minorities. Most of the white immigrants whoreceived preference are thought to be Soviet Jews.

The Legal Aid Society lawsuit draws a cause and effectrelationship between these policies and the sharply differing statistics they have compiled regarding the housingauthority 'S projects. About two dozen projects have beenan d remain between 60 and 90 percent white. At awhopping 12 5 projects , blacks and Latinos comprise 98percent of the population. These 12 5 project includealmost half of the entire tenant population of the NewYork City Housing Authority.As a result of their research, the Legal Aid attorneysconcluded that the housing authority's policies were anappropriate target for a class action lawsuit chargingsystemic and pervasive discrimination. Some familieswho were victims of he housing authority'S policies came14jAPRlL 1991jCITY UMITS

much-maligned commission looking into the city's handling of the Korean grocery boycott in Brooklyn.''I'm a civil rights activist-type person who absolutelyabhors any hint of discriminatory practices that result ininjuries on the basis of race," says Blackburne, squeezingin a phone interview between appointments. "But thehousing authority now has a race neutral policy. Weacknowledge that in the past, certain practices promotedcertain goals and some people say that led to discrimination. That has ended. It's history. But the lawsuit still hasto be addressed."I'm a mediator by profession. I'm also a lawyer bytraining. We can discuss this matter or we can go to themat. The message I want to send here is I'm willing todiscuss whatever Mr. Rosenberg brings to to the table .. heball is in his court."


15/24

As well as Blackburne's callfor open communication, thehousing authority's lawyers,Brenda Spears and ShiraScheindlin, note that two settlement offers have been made, withprovisions for monetary damagesto the lawsuit's plaintiffs andthe establishment of a monitoring system to ensure tenant selection is done on a colorblindbasis. (The legal aid lawyerscounter that this is inadequatebecause it does not provide aremedy for the authority's pastpolicies.)

the applicant population thatcaused a shift in the buildingpopulation," notes Scheindlin."In the 1950s, the housing authority was 50 percent white and50 percent minority. Now it's91.5 percent minority an d 8.5percent white. It doesn't take amath major to see that the vastnumber of projects wouldchange."

In an interview in an expansive conference room, Scheindlin and Spears outline th ehistory of he housing authority'stenant selection policies ,accepting that many were racerelated bu t denying any discriminatory intentor effect. Theydo no t sing the praises of thehousingauthority integrationistsfrom the past, nor do they apolo

Housing authority boss laura Blackbume: "We can discuss thismatter or we can go to the mat. "

As to the future, the lawyerssay the most important step hasalready been taken because in1988 the housing authority decided to stop all race-relatedpolicies. They say the authorityis prepared to monitor tenantselection, provide ongoing education for their employees andincrease public informationabout tenant selection policies.Not surprisingly, they have littleinterest in steps such asreinterviewing families on theauthority 's gargantuan waitinglist, providing monetary damgize for housing authority practices that may have mollified community leaders afraid of an influx of "outsiders"by allowing them neighborhood preference. They say thiswas all part of the nuts-and-bolts business of trying tocreate livable communities and build as much housing aspossible wherever it could be done.Describing the phase policy as "social engineering,"Scheindlin says it was an attempt to promote racial balance by sending people of different races to differentprojects-as a way to prevent segregation. She adds thatthe policy underwent a variety of changes over the years,but was always an attempt to ensure buildings met housing authority regulations for tenants from a mix of races,social classes an d family sizes.Explaining the neighborhood preference policy, shesays the practice occured at the time of rent up, and tookplace only at a handful of projects-those on the West Sideof Manhattan, the Lower East Side, Forest Hills , EastHarlem an d Williamsburg. "My understanding is it had todo with with community interest and activism at the timethe project was being built," says Scheindlin. "I won'tbeat around the bush ..people didn't want to see thecommunity change. Neighborhood preferencewas viewed

as a kind of neighborhood preservation."On the subject of preference policies for Eastern European immigrants , Scheindlin responds carefully: "Thisallegation in the complaint exists. We are investigating tosee if white immigrants were assigned ou t of turn. We'rereviewing our waiting lists, we're looking to see if peoplewere improperly assigned. For many years we permittedmanagers to make requests on behalf of individuals. Because of the potential for abuse and probable and actualabuse in some instances, this no longer exists."Having acknowledged that these practices existed,Scheindlin and Spears reject the notion that these policieshad any broader effect throughout the housing authority.Disparities in racial statistics are the natural result of thecity's changing demography, they claim. "It was a shift in

ages to families denied comprehensive housing choice ordevising creative strategies to once again promote desegregation. "We're no longer in the business of social engineering," says Scheindlin. "We're in the business ofproviding public housing for those who qualify."Ironically, the housing authority officials are preparedto let the chips fall where they may, while the Legal Aidlawyers haven't completely abandoned the ideal of integration. When considering remedy possibilitjes such asthe creation of "target" projects to attract whites to blackor Latino developments, Rosenberg says, "If there ha dbeen no past discrimination of any kind and the composition of the tenants reflected the composition o f the applicants, then that would be an acceptable result. But I dobelieve it is permissible for government to take affirmativesteps to overcome the effects of past discrimination."

Established in 1934, the New York City HousingAuthority built the first publicly owned low-income housing in the country an d from the verybeginning, race was a consideration. Constructed inthe notorious slum of the Lower East Side, First Housesprovided fire-proof apartments for Eastern European immigrants who paid an average of $6 a room each month.Further uptown, the housing authority constructed Harlem Houses, a 572-unit complex that arranged mediumsized brick buildings around playgrounds an d a wadingpool. When the housing authority advertised for tenants(who would pay $7 per room each month) they noted thatthe buildings were "of particular significance to Negroes."In the early days, tenant selection for public housingwas a process that involved careful screening, and onlythose with solid jobs, an insurance policy an d a bankaccount were let in. Inspired by the spirit of social reform,the housing authority aimed to uplift the poor, bu t in fact



16/24

they only opened their doors to the most hardworkingportion of the working class.By the 1950s the housing authority was providinghousing for thousands of New Yorkers of a varie ty of races.Blacks were migrating north in search of manufacturingjobs, Puerto Ricans were making their way to the mainlandan d state officials were monitoring to make sure theauthority was meeting an early anti-discrimination law.As neighborhoods started to change, citizens in someareas approached the housing authority with the idea thatpublic housing could be used to promote integration.In 1956, the director of a community coalition inManhattanville wrote to the State Committee AgainstDiscrimination (SCAD) suggesting that th e constructionof more than 2,000 new units of public housing in theneighborhood provided a unique opportunity. TheManhattanville resident, Martin Lebowitz, pointed outthat before site clearing, the area was 41 percent white, 32percent black, 23 percent Latino an d 4 percent Asian, ademographic breakdown similar to that within publichousing as a whole. Wasn't this the perfect chance tocreate a model of neighborhood integration?SCAD's housing director, Edward Rutledge, endorsedth e idea and wrote to the head of the housing authority totell him about it: "We should like to urge you to take suchaffirmative steps in this direction as instructing the personnel of your tenant selection division to make a specialeffort to maintain the pattern of balanced integrationwhich has heretofore prevailed."Warren Moscow, the housing

public relations officer. In his lengthy an d thoughtfulpiece, Roshko denounces the phase policy: "Whatever thelong range benefits that may accrue from the integrationprogram ..the immediate result for non-white applicantsis a sharp reduction in the number of apartments available. Non-whites, although they comprise the majority ofapplicants, compete for a greatly decreased supply oflowrent apartments."Ironically, Roshko's article prompted an investigationby the state Commission on Human Rights-the reformulated office of the State Committee Against Discrimination, which had originally promoted "affirmative steps"toward integration. In 1963, after a 14-month probe, thehuman rights group concluded that the housing authority 'Sphase code policy violated the state law against discrimination and should be terminated. While acknowledgingthe housing authority'S good motives, the director of theprobe, Bernard Katzen, said that the policy had led to lesshousing for non-whites as well as a practice of leavingsome apartments vacant until tenants of the right racewere found.By this time, tenant selection policies were changing,public housing was no longer the home of the "heroicworking class," and housing and race were more than thesource of memos between policy experts. The War onPoverty was in full swing, and the fury stirred up by afederal housing initiative made the quarrel over phasecodes seem minor in comparison. Known as the scatter-site program, the policy was an ex

authority'S director, was incensed bythe suggestion. He typed back: "TheHousing Authority was created to furnish low-rent housing on the basis ofneed. We have no intention of deviating from this primary concern of need,an d starting to pick our tenants on thebasis of race, color or creed. To do sowould, in my judgement, be not onlyunwise bu t unlawful, an d an affrontto the concept of public housing."Meetings and letter-writing continued on the topic and news of theruckus made its way to the media.The housing authority attempted to

An earlyintegration planwon support fromthe NAACP, theUrban League and

the City Club.

periment to build public housing inmostly white, middle-class communities. Of the 13 projects originallyslated for the New York City scattersite program, less than a handful werebuilt in their original form.The most notorious attempt atscatter-site housing took place in Forest Hills, where a long and intricatedispute stretched in to the 1970s. Administrators from the Lindsay administration set ou t to build towers of 24stories each in the middle-class, predominantly Jewish community. Theneighborhood fought back vocifer-quash further discussion but the issuewas clearly still salient-on July 16, 1958, Madison S.Jones from the NAACP joined the housing authority as afull-time, salar ied consultant on race issues.Not long afterwards, the housing authority adopted aprogram to foster integration. Projects would be groupedinto phase codes, with each code noting that a certainracial group was required to maintain an integrated tenancy. A press statement explains, "Mere compliance withthe laws which prohibit discrimination has not preventedsegregation in many developments. The Authority isfaced with the necessity of taking affirmative action inorder to overcome segregation. We believe that our program is one of the few candid attempts to face up squarelyto a controversial an d perplexing problem."Twenty-four groups including the NAACP, the America n Jewish Committee, the Urban League and the CityClub supported the program but this was hardly the end ofthe matter. In 1 960, theNewLeadermagazine included anarticle by Bernard Roshko, the housing authority'S former16/APRlL 1991/CITY UMITS

ously, stating crime and overcrowding as their primary fear. Behind theshouting an d placard waving was the racist assumptionthat the mostly black residents of public housing wouldtransform a quiet, white enclave into an urban war zone.Mayor John Lindsay called on a then-unknown lawyernamed Mario Cuomo to mediate the controversy and afterextensive hearings, briefings, politicking and deal-making, the Board of Estimate approved a revised version ofthe plan: three towers, only 12 stories each, with 40percent of the apartments reserved for the elderly an d aminimum of of the tenants on welfare. In his book, "ForestHills Diary," Cuomo explains the views ofthose who metwith him and inc!udes suggestions that the projectbecomethe housing authority's only low-income cooperative.What he doesn't mention in the book-but does detail inan article written in 1976 for the Queens T r i b u n ~ i s thatthe project's board of directors were allowed to set a racialquota: 70 percent white, 30 percent black.Rev. Timothy Mitchell was a maverick black voice onthe original cooperative board and he can't remember a


17/24

single reason for the 70-30 breakdown. "They just wantedto keep blacks out of the communi ty. I wanted it to be 50-50, but I was outvoted," recalls the activist minister fromEbenezer Baptist Church.Over the next two decades a number of projects werebuilt in predominantly white neighborhoods and theForest Hills quota may have set a precedent for ensuringthat projects in these communities should have a tenantpopulation that is predominantly white. Some housingofficials from the time say the notionthat a white majority had to be main-

from community boards for new housing and at somepoint the idea that new projects should reflect the racialcomposition of their neighborhood was instituted.A variety of race-related tenant selection policies seemto have continued until 1988, after Joseph Shuldinerbecame chairman of the housing authority. Now runningthe Los Angeles Housing Authority, Shuldiner says hefound out about the policies about a year after he took overand went immediately to his board of directors. "I was notpleased," he recalls. "I informed theboard, the board recognized that thistained may have been buttressed bysurveys showing that a 70-30 mix wasthe way to avoid "tipping." (Tippingis the phenomena of white residentsfleeing en masse from a building orneighborhood because it has become"too black" or "too Latino.")

They justwanted to keep

blacks out of

was an issue of great importance, andwe movedwith deliberate speed. Afterseveral months, a proposal [to changethe policies] was brought to the boardand we discussed it at a general retreat. "Around this time, the SupremeCourt decided to uphold a lower courtruling that quotas intended to promote racial integration at the subsidized Starrett City housing development in Brooklyn were against thelaw . "It used to be that you could dowhat you wanted as long as you had

Others confirm the notion thatquotas were set on an ad hoc basis. "Iremember quarreling with my colleagues on the [three-person housingauthority] board because they wanteda project to be 80-20," says SimeonGolar, who served on the housingauthority board in 1968 an d then be-

Forest Hills, saysRev. TimothyMitchell.

came chairman between 1970 an d1973. "We talked an d eventually theysaid 'What about 60-40?' I said you've got a deal. Everysingle project represented compromises. It was a far fromperfect process."A key factor in this process was the community perspective. After decades of strong-arm tactics from admin-istrations that razed entire neighborhoods in the name ofnew highways or slum clearance, many New Yorkers inthe 1960s were calling for greater community participation in decision-making. This le d to a complete overhaulofthe city's charter, including the creation of communityboards. Doing everything possible to ease the path forpublic housing, the housing authority sought approval

"COMMITMENT"

equality of result."equality of result," says Shuldiner."Now you have to have equality ofprocess ..bu t you end up with in-

In a country where public housing has become thehousing of last resort and in a city where the vast majorityof those qualified for public housing are black and Latino,Shuldiner suggests that it's not surprising that the housingauthority reflects broader inequalities. As he surmises,"The real issue is there's just not enough housing." 0Thanks to AndrewKransdorf and Prof. Peter Marcuse forthe use of historical material compiled for Marcuse'sforthcoming book on the history of New York's publichousing.

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Working collaboratively with other community service organizations with similar goals. andworking to establish its viability as a business entity. HEAT has committed its revenue gener-ating capacity and potential t o providing services that work for. and lead to. stable . productivecommunities.Through th e primary service of providing low cost home heating oil, various heatingplant services an d energy management services, HEAT members have collectivelysaved over 55 . 1 million.

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II ,i"I, 11_ By Matthew LeeInvasion of theHome SnatchersTwice this winter our neighborhood in the South Bronx hasbeen invaded by riot police.Yet there has been no riot , noviolence. The "crime" that sent such aheavy duty police force into the community was that a growing number ofhomeless and low-income familiesha d been fixing up a handful of long-

in a demolition crew to rip out thewalls and make the building uninhabitable. Only then was the around-theclock, six-vehicle police guard removed from in front of the building.Less then two months later, the riotpolice were again sent in . This timethe target was a homesteading building on Home Street. Thirty familieswere removed and thebuilding immediatelydemolished.Costly Plans

..............a.lllhI' . . . . ......_....., Putting aside thevalue of the housinglost, which in manyways is incalculable,why woulda city facedwith such a cavernous budget gap spendall that money on police overtime, demolition, relocation an dexorbitant welfare'Calm 11__...................."'1I ........

abandonedbuildings in order to createthe housing they so desperately need.hotel bills? Well, in thecase of Home Street, it is because thecity has plans to build a subsidized

development of private homes forpeople earning $35 ,000 to $55 ,000 ayear. This in a neighborhood wherethe median family income is less than$10,000!On January 13th, Bronx BoroughPresident Fernando Ferrer called onthe Dinkins administration to inspectthe homesteaders ' buildings. Ferrerstated concerns about safety-but hewas already on record calling for theeviction of the homesteaders before

the issue of safety was even raised.This is no t surprising to anyonewho follows Bronx politics. Ferrer isone of the main forces behind a planto attract more middle-income peopleto the South Bronx. At a conference atLehman College last year, Ferrer saidhe wanted 80 percent of the housingbuilt and renovated by the city in theSouth Bronx to be for people.earningmore than $35,000 annually. Whaabout the thousands of ill-housedpeople already living in the area?Apparently, they are not part ofFerrer's vision of a "new Bronx."Bronx FutureNow eight buildings and 150 member families remain in the Inner CityPress/Community on the MoveHomesteaders' Association. Will thecity encourage their self-help initiative or simply evict them with hundreds of police and throw them backinto an already overcrowded and dehumanizing shelter system?The homesteaders want to workwith-not against-the city. The cityhas told us it would now consider aproposal from the group to homesteadsome buildings i f the group couldfind financing. When one realizes thecity subsidizesbig developers to buildmiddle-income projects such as theone slated for Home Street, the cynicism of he gesture seems evident. Butwe're now formulating a proposal withthe help of experienced organizationslike the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board an d the support of localchurches and citywide religious andhousing groups.At this point in the city's historyand of urban America as a wholecan government afford to discourageself-help initiatives among the poor?o

For the past three years the InnerCity Press/Community on the MoveHomesteaders ' Association, a groupof 200 low-income families, has beenrepairing 10 abandoned South Bronxbuildings . These families , many ofthem immigrants from CentralAmerica and the Caribbean , haveformed a self-help group: They cleanout buildings and repair apartmentsas well as share food, resources andinformation about jobs. In short, theyhave created a community. And theyhave done all this without a penny ofassistance from the city. TRYING TO REACH NYC COMMUNITY GROUPS?But in December, the financiallystrapped City of New York launchedan expensive campaign to crush partof this self-help community. First, thecity sent some 250 riot police toCrotona Park East to forcibly evict 52families from apartments they hadrenovated themselves. Two weeks after the initial evictions, the city sentCity View is a forum for opinionand does notnecessarily reflectthe views ofCity Limits.

The Citizens Committee maintains the city's largest and most up-todate computerized mailing list of block, neighborhood, tenant andyouth groups in the five boroughs (about 15,000 names). We do notgive out the list but will handle mailings for other organizations and billthem for costs. If you are interested in using the list, call MehmetKoymen, mailing list manager, at 212-684-6767.

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By Eric Weinstock

Our Town"Urban Politics, New York Style,"Edited by Jewel Bellush and DickNetzer, M.E. Sharpe, Inc. , 1990,$24.95, hardcover.I n 1960, Wallace Sayre and HerbertKaufman, professors at Columbiaand Yale universities respectively,published "Governing New YorkCity: Politics in th e Metropolis.""Governing New York City" quicklybecame the textbook and referenceguide for students of municipal government in general and New YorkCity in particular. However, with themassive social and economic upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, alongwith the structural changes in NewYork City's pol itics an d governance,this "classic" book has cried out forupdating for a long time.Jewel Bel lush fromHunterCollege'sPolitical Science Department and DickNetzer, senior fellow of the UrbanResearch Center at New York University, have attempted to answer thatcry in "Urban Politics, New YorkStyle." Along with a dozen contributors, they cover much of the sameground that Sayre an d Kaufman did30 years ago. Although some of theessays are very good, the desire toupdate a classic is not sufficient toproduce a classic of one's own. As areplacement for Sayre an d Kaufman,Bellush and Netzer fall short. Butthey have produced a useful collection of essays on New York City government an d politics, which deservesa place on the shelfof serious studentsof municipal government.The authors of the individual articles are almost all fellow academics

(examples: Joseph Viteritti, DavidRogers and Edwin Diamond fromNYU, Charles V. Hamilton from Columbia University, Richard Wade fromthe CUNY Graduate Center), however,David Eichenthal (from the New YorkCity Comptroller 's Office) an d GeraldBenjamin (majority leader of the UlsterCounty legislature and a professor atNew Paltz) are on hand to lend theirpractical experience to the blend ofarticles. The academic tone an d natureof the book forces the casual reader toaccept a slower reading speed and totrack down cross-references andfootnotes in order to grasp the subjectmatter fully.Changing TimesMuch of what the authors presenthere is not new information. Many ofthe chapters are mostly descriptionsof the changes thathave occurred since1960, with very little in the way ofnew information or theory presented.The changing demographics of thecity, the collapse of the old-fashionedparty machines an d political partyidentity, the rise of television in mayoral campaigns and the continuedineffectiveness of the City Council arenot exactly ne w concepts.The chronology of the 1975 fiscalcrisis is presented many timesthroughout the book because of its farreaching effects on nearly all areas ofNew York City's government an dpolitics. Despite the number of timesit is mentioned, the discussion doesnot contain any lessons learned fromthe fiscal crisis that could be appliedto the city's current budget woes.But there are very useful chapterson community power, the media,public authorities, the bureaucracyan d economic development. Thegrowing power of real estate develop-

EIGHTH ANNUALManagement&CommunityDevelopmenl47 one- and two-day courses providingprofessional training in :

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June 3 - 8, 1991Lincoln Filene Center, TuftsUniversity, Medford, MA 02155(617) 381-3549

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o Nonprofit Managemento Affordable Housingo Community Economic Developmento Building Community Organizations

ers is highlighted in Jewel Bellush'sarticle on interest groups.Television AgeIt is interesting to note that thestress on economic development byMayor Koch may have a dramaticimpact on politics in the city for yearsto come. Despite the new public fi-

Updating a citygovernmentclassic.

nance law, mayoral elections are nowso heavily dependent on televisionadvertising that huge sums of moneyare needed in order to mount a successful campaign. This makes fullsupport of projects like AtlanticTerminal an d Times Square almostthe only way to get elected. Since thewealthy will always contribute mostheavily to pro-development mayors,these candidates have a huge advantage when opposed by candidatesfavoring small-scale, neighborhoodbased development.In a certain sense"Urban Politics,New York Style" may have beenwritten too early. The most recentcharter reform,with its elimination ofthe Board of Estimate an d most of thepowers of the borough presidents andits expansion of the City Council willprobably lead to some quantumchanges in how the city will functionin the near future. In addition, DavidDinkins' mayoralty will undoubtedlyhave lasting effects on city politics aswell. This is especially true given thestagnation and corruption present atthe end of Koch's 12-year reign an dthe cult of the mayor emphasized bythe media.The need to update a 30-year-oldtext is obvious. But after having waitedthis long, th e authors perhaps shouldhave waited to see the actual results ofthe charter's massive shifting ofpowerThese changes will give "Urban Politics, New York Style" a much shortershelf life than Sayre an d Kaufman's"Governing New York City." 0Eric Weinstock is the director of theHousing Research Project of theCommunity Training and ResourceCenter.


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KNOW YOUR RIGHTSManuals, guides, handbooks, pamphlets and fact sheetsavailable from City Limits' in formation clearinghouse.

TENANT AND HOUSING RIGHTS"Tenant Rights Fact Sheets." Cover a wide range of topics. Some available inSpanish. Community T raining and Resource Cente r. Free. Sendself-addressedenvelope with stamp."A Tenant's Guide to Subletting and Apartment Sharing." New York StateTenant and Neighborhood Coalition. 24 pp. $9"Housing Fact Sheets." Cover a wide range of topics. Some available inSpanish. Metropolitan Council on Housing. Free. Send self-addressed envelope with stamp."A Tenant's Guide to Housing Court." Includes information on holdovers,eviction notices, nonpay ment cases, etc. Separate borough editions, specifywhich one required. Association of he Barof theCityofNewYork. 3 I pp. Free."When the City Forecloses: Community and Owner Options." A guide to thetax foreclosure process. Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development. 33 pp. $6"A Guide to Redemptions and Releases." Guide to how owners repay backtaxes. Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development. 24 pp. $6"Rehab and Rehab-Related Re nt increases: The ABC's of MCI's."Guide to understanding and challenging Major Capital Improvement rentincreases. Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development. $6"Subsidized Moderate Rehabilitation Programs: Improving Housing for Tenants." Detailed guide to city housing subsidy programs. Association of Neighborhood Housing and Development. 75 pp. $25"Tenant Fact Book." Overview of New York's Omnibus Housing Law.Open Housing Center. 27 pp. $6.25"Government-Assisted Co-Ops and Rentals." Outlines eligibility rules andapplication procedures. Open Housing Center. 61 pp. $3.75"Sexual Harassment in Housing." Defines sexual harassment in housing andoutlines what women should do if they are sexually harassed. City Limits. Free.Send self-addressed envelope with stamp."Becoming a Cooperative." Outlines the steps involved in buying a cityowned, tenant managed building. Available in Spanish and English. UrbanHomesteading Assistance Board. 106 pp. $7.75"A Guide to Cooperative Ownership." How to meet the tasks and responsibilities of owning a co-op. Available in Spanish and Enblish. Urba n Homesteading Assistance Board. 126 pp. $14"Where You Stand." A shareholder's guide to cooperative ownership. Available in Spanish and English. Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. 24 pp. $2"People Power." Comic book about how to do community and tenant organizing. South Bronx People fo r Change. $2.50

HOMELESS RIGHTS"Reference Manual for Food, Shelter and Resources for the Homeless."Includes explanations of public assistance programs and shelter rights. Coalition for the Homeless. 163 pp. $11.50.

PREGNANCY RIGHTS"Pregnancy Rights." Pamphlet covers health care and patient rights. MedgarEvers Center fo r Law and Social Justice. Free. Send self-addressed envelopewith stamp.

ENVIRONMENT"Making the Difference: Using the Right-to-Know in the Fight AgainstToxics." Shows how to use laws to acquire environmental data. NationalCenter for Policy Alternatives. $12.

POLICE HARASSMENT"What You Can Do: If You Are the Victim of Police Abuse." Pamphlet oncitizen rights during stop, search or arrest. Citywide Committee Against Policeand Racial Violence. Free. Send self-addressed envelope with stamp.

ENTInEMENTS"Advocacy, Counseling and Entitlement Services (ACES) Manual." Guide to26 government benefit programs. Community Service SoC iety. 300 pp. $40

LEGAL RIGHTS"Understanding the Law." A citizen'sguide to the legal system. New York StateBar Association. 210 pp. $9.95"The Court of New York." Guide to court procedures, with a glossary of legalterms. New York State Bar Association. 51 pp. $3"Managing Your Lawyer." A guide for tenant associations and cooperatives. 28pp. Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. $2.

GOVERNMENT"New York City's Development Review Process: A Guide to Participation." 24pp. Municipal Art Society. $1.50"Coping With City Hall." Pamphlet. Citizens Union Foundation. Free. Sendself-addressed envelope with stamp.

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city limits magazine, april 1991 issue

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