City Limits Magazine, November 1991 Issue

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

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November 1991 New York 's Comm un ity A ffa irs News Magaz ine $2.50

T H E G R A N D M O T H E R O F L O IS A I D A D D E R E G U L A T I N G D A Y C A R EW H O C O N T R O L S E C O N O M IC D E V E L O P M E N T ?


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Citv L imi tsVolume XVI Number 9

City Limits is publisbed ten times per year,monthly except bi-monthly issues in JunelJuly and AugustlSeptember, by the City Limi tsCommunity Information Service, Inc ., a nonprofit organization devoted to disseminatinginformation concerning neighborhoodrevitalization.SponsorsAssociation for Neighborhood an dHousing Development, Inc.Community Service Society of New York

Ne w York Urban CoalitionPratt Institute Center for Community an dEnvironmental Development

Urban Homesteading Assistance BoardBoard of Directors>Eddie Bautista, NYLPilCharter Rights

ProjectBeverly Cheuvront , NYC Department ofEmploymentMary Martinez, Montefiore HospitalRebecca Reich, Turf CompaniesAndrew Reicher, UHABTom Robbins , JournalistJay Small, ANHDWalter Stafford , Ne w York UniversityPete Williams, Center for Law an d

Social JusticeAffiliations for identification only.

Subscription rates are: for individuals andcommunity groups , $20/0ne Year, $30/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 th e opinion of th e 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) 966-3407

Editor: Lisa GlazerSenior Editor: Andrew WhiteContributing Editors: Mary Keefe,Peter Marcuse, Margaret MittelbachEditorial Intern: Paula KalakowskiProduction: Chip CliffePhotographers: Isa Brito, Ricky Flores,Andrew Lichtenstein, Franklin KearneyAdvertising Representative: Jane Latour(212) 304-8324Copyright 1991. All Rights Reserved. Noportion or portions of this journal may bereprinted without the express permission ofthe publishers.CityLimits is indexed in the Alternative PressIndex an d th e Avery Index to ArchitecturalPeriodicals an d is available on microfilm fromUniversity Microfilms international, Ann Arbor,MI48106.

2 jNOVEMBER 1991jCITY UMnS

Blame the City,Not the HomelessThis month's cover story should spur a sense of outrage from eventhe most hardened New Yorker.While the number of homeless families in the city's sheltersswells to nearly 5,000, newly-renovated apartments for homelessfamilies are sitting empty in the South Bronx, Harlem an d CentralBrooklyn.It's just one example of how the city's system for providing shelter andhousing for the homeless is in the midst of a bureaucratic crisis, plaguedby poor coordination, crisis management and harmful policymaking.This wouldn't be so shocking if city officials admitted they had adifficult problem on their hands and were having trouble taking care ofit. Instead, they've spent the past four months haranguing homelessfamilies for inundating the shelter system in the hope of gaining a cityapartment.

It's time to switch the spin control. The problem has very little to dowith the people entering the shelter system and a whole lot to do with thecity officials who decide how the system works. Or doesn't work, as iscurrently the case.The shelter system is not a static monolith-it 's made up of manyinterconnected parts and there's a constant flux of people moving in andout. Changes at one en d of he systemaffect the rest of he system. Becauseof short-sighted policy choices, the Human Resources Administrationhas made i t more difficult for families to leave the shelters. Now there'sa bottleneck an d it takes a long time for newly-homeless families to getinto a shelter, let alone permanent housing.While newly-homeless families wait to get in to a shelter, they oftenbounce back an d forth from the shelter system entryway, the EmergencyAssistance Unit (EAU), to two-night hotels.Each time they return to the EAU they are counted by city officials,which is wh y it looks like there are so many more homeless familiesentering the system. There has been an increase in homeless familiesseeking shelter, but it's not nearly as dramatic as some city officials say.To make matters worse, budget cuts at the housing department haveslowed down the process for moving homeless families into newlyrenovated apartments. That's why buildings are sitting empty.Getting this botched-up system back into sync willbe a major challengefor the mayor's troubleshooters. Meanwhile, between 30 and 55 familiesare sleeping on the floor each night at the Emergency Assistance Unit inlower Manhattan. Blame the city, not the homeless.

* * *Many thanks to everyone who supported our recent fundraiser bybuying tickets, making contributions an d coming to the party. Despiteawful weather, we made about $1,000. Thanks! 0

Cover photograph by Isa Brito


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FEATURE Grandmother/Page 6Shelter GridlockDinkins officials crowd the shelters 12

DEPARTMENTSEditorialBlame the City, Not the Homeless ............. ..... ... ... .. .2BriefsFederal Funds ..........................................................4Burned Again ........................................................... 4Siting Slowdown .............. ..... ........ .. ........................ 5Turn Up the Heat! .................................................... 5ProfileThe Grandmother of Loisaida .................................. 6Pipeline

The Super-Agency ............. ...... .. ..... .... ... ....... .......... .8Unfair Day Care? .... .... .. .... .. .... .................. .... .. .. .. .... 18 Gridlock/Page 12Vital StatisticsCharting the Crisis:The Shelters and Permanent Housing ............... 17CityviewGentrification , Mutual Housing Style ................... 22ReviewBeyond Shelter .......................................................23Letters ........ ......... .... ...... ....... ...................................... 24

Day Care/Page 18

CITY UMITS/NOVEMBER 1991/3


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BR IEFS

FEDERAL FUNDSThe historic National Affordable Housing Act could bring atleast $1 5 million in new federalhousing money to New YorkCity, but new initiatives are

being funded at the expense ofcurrently existing programs,according to low income housing advocates in Washington."It's good news that the newprograms did so well. But we'redisappointed with some of thecuts to existing housing programs," says Claire Doyle fromthe National low IncomeHousing Coalition.Congress has allocated $1 .5billion for the new HOMEInvestment Partnership program,which funds rental assistance aswell as the construction of newhomes and rental units. Theprogram includes a mandatethat 15 percent of the funds willbe allocated to communitybased housing providers."HOME and the communityset-aside are a real breakthrough," comments Bud Kanitz,executive director of the National Neighborhood Coalition."It's a sign of a return of thefederal government to housing."The other major new program, Home Opportunities forPeaf?le Everywhere (HOPE) didnot tare as well. Despite an$800 million authorization fromCongress, the final allocationwas only $500 million. TheHOPE program funds a numberof public housing initiatives,including funding for tenantownership.Overall funding for housingincreased onlX slightly, from$23.7 billion for fiscal year1991 to $23 .9 billion for ~ s c a l year 1992. Funding for thenew initiatives occurred becausesome existing programs werereduced or received no funding.Programs that did not receiveany money for the current fiscalyear include the NehemiahHousing Partnership programand the Section 31 2 loanProgram. Section 8 funding forc e r t i ~ c a t e s and vouchers decreased by about $61 millionfrom the previous year, whichtranslates into a loss of assistance for about 9,000 units ofhousing.To qualify for the newfederal money, states and cities4/NOVEMBER 1991/CITY UMITS

Bush-whKkers: Activists from ACT-UP protested outside of Federal Plaza recently about the shortage ofhousing for people with AIDS.

have to prepare a Comprehensive Housing AffordabilityStrategy (CHAS), which is afive-year plan, to be updatedannually, that outlines howlocal, state and federal fundswill be used to provide housing.New York City's CHAS wasprepared by the Department ofCity Planning, with input fromthe housing authority, thehousing department, themayor's housing coardinationoffice arid numerous otheragencies. The city's CHASsupports the continued need forrent regulation and promises tocommit a significant portion ofnew federal money to very lowincome New Yorkers.About 30 peaple testified ata public hearing on the proposed CHAS. Advocates for thereal estate industry, such asJohn Gilbert III from the RentStabilization Association,opposed the document, whilemany housing advocatesexpressed support."Mostly peaple were verysupportive," says Harriet Cohen,a housing expert from the officeof Manhattan Borough PresidentRuth Messinger. "It's an excellent document that puts togethera lot of information abouthousing and homelessness.There are good policy statements and commitments likesaving housing with expiringfederal subsidies and targetingnew funds to the lowest of low

income." However, she says, thedocument should have includedmore information about the roleand importance of communitybased housing groups.As City Limits goes to press,city planning . s revising theCHAS to meet an Oct. 31deadline for completion of thedocument. Copies of the CHASstatement can be obtained fromthe Department of City planning. 0 Usa Glazer

BURNED AGAINThe revised charter is barelytwo years old, but its loopholesare already showing, andthey're big enough for anincinerator to slip right through .In early August, communitygroups and political leaders inthe Bronx learned that Bronx

lebanon Hospital had hired aprivate firm, Resource Management Technologies Inc., to builda medical waste incinerator inthe Port Morris section of theSouth Bronx. The incinerator,now almost complete, is designed to burn 48 tons of wasteper day, gathered from hospitals all around the metropolitanregion.When a grass roots explosion of demonstrations followedthe revelations, the hospital andstate regulators said the details

of the incinerator had been inthe public domain for two years.But Bronx politicians and thelocal community board saidthey had been misled. ''This wasa very sophisticated attempt toavoid public scrutiny," says ClintRoswell of Bronx BoroughPresident Fernando Ferrer'soffice. He says the hospitaldeliberately turned the projectover to the private firm to sidestep the standard Department ofHealth approvals process, whichincludes community hearingsand a review by the Departmentof City Planning.Bernd Zimmermann, Ferrer'sdirector of planning, says thatthe Bronx lebanon tactic pointsup glaring weaknesses in therevised City Charter. The "FairShare" clause of the charter wassupposed to force the government to distribute unwelcomefacilities evenly around the city.But, Zimmermann says, cityagencies and closely-regulatedcorporations like hospitals canavoid public review of majorprojects by simply privatizingthem. Private companies canbuild facilities like incinerators,waste transfer stations, orsludge treatment plants withoutany input from local residents,so long as their sites are zonedfor industrial use.The impact of the loophole isparticularly damaging inneighborhoods like Port Morrisand Hunts Point, where indus-I


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trial zoning proliferates alongside the most stark poverty inthe city. "Clearly they selectedthis neighborhood because iYpoverty stricken," says Rev .Gregory G . Groover of theBright Temple AME Church inHunts Point. 'We won' t toleratebeing dumped on ."Four hundred marchers at aprotest rally on October 16succeeded in halting construction for the day, Groover says.Bronx Lebanon recentlychose Montenay PowerCorporation to ope rate theincinerator starting in December . Montenay operated agarbage incinerator in GlenCove, Long Island, until it wasshut down August 4th followingviolations of federal and stateair quality regulations andfederal occupational safetyregulations . The hospital'senvironmental research consultants, and the state Departmentof Environmental Conservation,insist, however, that the PortMorris plant has state of the artemissions control technologyand will release virtually notoxins into the air above thedensely populated community."Any incinerator built isalways touted as the best of itskind when it's constructed, andinvariably becomes a dog thatmust be closed," says ArthurKell of the New York PublicInterest Research Group. "As adirect result of this technology alarge majority of medical wasteends up in the air."Ferrer and other localpoliticians r e c e n ~ y demandedthat the city' s Department ofEnvironmental Protection (DEP)do a full environmental impactstudy of the incinerator andhold a series of public hearingsbefore issuing an operatingpermit. And Ferrer' s office ispreparing legislation for the CityCouncil that would establishpublic review rules for all solidwaste facilities, both publiclyand privately owned. The billwould require a special operating permit from the Departmentof City Planning for such plants .The Uniform Land Use ReviewProcedure (ULURP) would be apre-requisite for the permitWhich means communityboards, the City Council andthe City Planning Commissionwould all hold public hearings.

Am-Bush: About 2000 people, inc luding many hom eless New Yorkers,demonstra ted near the preSident 's vacation h ouse in Kennebunkport,Main e, October 5. Th e rally was organized by Housing Now!

Still , anger runs high in theSouth Bronx. The incineratorwas originally proposed in1988, and DEP was fully awareof its scale at that time. "Now,the public is in the position offighting something thaYs alreadyaone," says Roswell."ThaY s what the charte r revisionwas supposed to turn around ."But Groover holds thepoliticians accountable as wellas the regulators. 'W e electthem and put them in office todo their homework, to knowwhat's going on," he says."From now on we're going tokeep them awake." 0 AndrewWhite

construction of new publichousing in low income, minorityneighbOrhoods . But strict costlimitations make it nearlyimpossible for the city to purchase property in areas thatcomply with HUD's rules.'We're trying to get the localpeople at HUD to realize this isjust a ridiculous situation," saysDenise Scott, assistant directorof the Mayor's Office of Housing Coordination.

Of the 1,100 units previouslyallocated to NYCHA, Cohensays she's applied to HUD forapproval to take control of 70 0units in the Bronx that wererehabilitated by the city'shousing department within the

Special Initiatives Program.Applications are also pendingat HUD for two smaller sites forpublic housing-one in LowerManhattan and another on theUpper West Side. She's stillsearching for sites for about370 remaining units.Desp-ite the city' s problems,HUD officials defend their siteand neighborhood guidelines."They derived from a fear ofghettoizing assisted housng in avery limite


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By Anne Sanger

TheGrandmotherofLoisaidaCarmen Pabon is a one-woman roving referral service.A she strolls down Avenue C,Carmen Pabon bears no sign ofher importance in the community. A grey-haired womanwearing running sneakers, a festiveHawaiian blouse and a plaid swingskirt, she pulls a wireshopping cart behindher. The only clue is along string of keys sheproduces from a shoulder-bag.In this instance,Pabon is entering thecommunitygarden shecreated at 119 AvenueC. Later in the day an dthe week she will useher other keys to helpout at numerous locales throughoutLoisaida, the PuertoRican section of theLower East Side."I keep my timebusy doing work," saysthe 70-year-old greatgrandmother who jogsregularly in the EastRiver Park. She helpsfeed the homeless, collects clothingandblankets for them, serves asa transla tor for friendshaving trouble withwelfare an d social security, counsels runaway teenagers,sweeps the front stepsof her church, performs in locally-written plays and writespoetry about her neighborhood.And that's not all.Pabon sometimes shelters people in her

winter, she stays home at night ("Ican't walk too much in the coldweather.") but starts as early as 9 a.m.In an era where big governmentlooks to big business for solutions tothe city's problems, Carmen Pabon is

apartment, most re- Cannen Pabon: "1 keep my time busy doing work."cently tw o youngpeople from El Salva-dor and another from Honduras. Sheis also a roving community referralservice, telling street people wherethey can go to receive shelter, clothesand food. Her hours of operation? Inthe summer when she can't sleep,she'll walk in Alphabet City with afriend until one in the morning. In the8/NOVEMBER 1991/CITY UMITS

a classic grassroots community activist, achieving the most simple an dimportant goals. By caring and advocating for her neighbors, she helpshold the community together whenthe government, the drugs and theeconomy are threatening to tear i tapart.

"I am very glad to know this lady,to have he r close to me," says ValentinOrtiz, a community aid worker at Talbot Perkins Children 's Services, whichworks to prevent foster care placement and provides assistance topeople withwelfare and housing problems. "She's been living here a longtime and she knows about all theresources-the churches, shelters,food pantries, community groups."Ortiz says two or three times a weekpeople who have been referred byPabon come in for help.I f there was ever anexemplary communityvolunteer, then Pabonis the one, adds ChinoGarcia, the founder ofCharas, a Lower EastSide arts organization.

And Father Patrickfrom Bonitas, a refugefor teenage runaways,says, "She doesn 't feelsorry for people, sheoffers compassion."Worked inSewing FactoryBorn in Ciales, asmall Puerto Ricantown, Pabon moved toth e United States in1946 wi h her childrenand worked as a "floorgirl" in a Bronx sewingfactory to support herfamily. The father ofPabon's children followed her to New Yorkand together theymoved to Spanish Harlem. But shortly afterwards, he went to seaas a Marine and Pabonwas alone again-witheight children.Hopelessly overcrowded in her oneroom apartment, Pabonjoined the throngs whoapplied for housing atth e Ne w York CityHousing Authority. Inthe 1950s, she was assigned a five roomapartment on Houston Street, whereshe still resides. Once she ha d adecent living space, she focused herenergy on community issues: the parents association at her children'sschool and volunteering at St. Brigid'schurch.From here she became increasingly


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active in her changing neighborhood.She started to attend CommunityBoard Three and went steadily foryears. Miriam Friedlander, the LowerEast Side's veteran City Council representative, says that in her 18 years ofcouncil work she can't remember atime when Pabon wasn't involved inthe neighborhood. "She a basic activist," says Friedlander. "Deeply concerned about the homeless, alwaysupbeat."Commenting on the transformingLower East Side, Pabon returns timeand again to the need for new, affordable housing. "There have been a lotof changes, bu t they haven't been forthe better of poor people," she says."There is some renovation, bu t it'svery hard to find apartments for thepeople who live here. The rents arealways going up. People can't affordthem, and then they're stuck."All Human BeingsPabon knows many of the homeless people from the area-middleaged men, younger people fromTompkins Square Park, the mentallydisabled who roam the streets mumbling to themselves and to the air."People say to me, 'I see you huggingthe homeless people . What about thesickness? Aren't you afraid?' I say Idon't worry. We are all human beings.I say, Why do you call the homeless'those people'-the same could happen to you tomorrow."All of Pabon's child ren were raisedin the Lower East Side, and most ofthem still live there. One daughterhas a master's degree in English, another works as a social worker. ButPabon's thoughts seem to turn mostoften to her son, Gilbert, who died ofAIDS at the age of 33 . Pabon refers toAIDS in Spanish, as SIDA, an d it is theone topic that shatters he r optimism.While her son was in the hospital,Pabon visited regularly with him andmany others with AIDS. "I used to gosee all the people there, at Bellevueand then at Beth Israel. No more. It'stoo hard. When you go through that,it's very hard to encourage people. Isee a lot of families with one, two,three people with SIDA in the family.Sometimes I feel like my mind is going to explode, but then I say, I willwalk. I'll destroy myself if I continueworrying."To stop the sadness, Pabon helpsothers and also writes poetry. "I writeabout what1 see in this neighborhood,what is right and what is wrong, the

injustice and the justice. 1write whatI feel." Pabon usually writes spontaneously and saving her poems is no t abig priority. When asked for an example, she pulls out a brown paperbag covered with her sprawling handwriting. She did publish one poemrecently in Loisaidamagazine. "I won-

A classicgrassrootscommunityactivist.

der who they are/ the men who runthis land/ and 1wonder why they runit with such a heavy hand.! What aretheir names? And on what street todo they live?! Because I'd like to ride,ride, ride, this afternoon right over totheir house/ and give them a piece ofmy mind.! A piece of my mind aboutpeace for mankind."TolerancePabon attributes her steadfastcommitment to improving hercommunity-and the world at largeto her religious faith. She wears across necklace and serves as aeucharistic minister, helpinghand outcommunion wafers at St. Bridgit'sChurch. Despite her strong beliefs,Pabon is far from evangelical. "I never

argue with nobody about religion,"she says. "Everybody has their ownidea ..the important thing is ' what'sinside you. "Pabon's hospitality was on fulldisplay on a recent autumn afternoon,when about 60 people came for a freemeal at the community graden shehas nurtured from a vacant lot onAvenueC. Amid red and white flowersan d a mixture of small trees andshrubs, one elderly man sat in the sunin his motorized wheelchair whilethree other seniors sat on plastic milkcrates at a round wooden table. Homeless people wandered in, many ofthem former residents of TompkinsSquare Park who relocated to a nearbyvacant lot. A homeless man with anarm of tattoos an d a mouth withoutteeth strode up to Pabon an d gave he ra high five. Another man, LyndonTaylor, shook her hand. "I knowCarmen from when the park closed.She's just.a wonderful person."A younger visitor arrives, her 16 -year-old grandson, Jason Del Rios.Pabon asks, "Why do I always see youhanging around that candy store?And why were you late to school?"Jason smiles ruefully, and says, "Iforgot you were the FBI." Then hepromises to get to school on time.When asked to describe his grandmother he says, "She helps peopleout, she's everybody'S grandmotherin the community." He points to apatch on his faded jeans. "The samething it says on my pants-StreetHero."OAnne Sanger was a summer intern atCity Limits. She is a senior at VassarCollege.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORKERSHOUSING AND HOMElESSNESS COMMlnEEHOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS IN THE '90s:

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED ..WHERE ARE WE GOING?A conference to address the policy and practice challenges created by New YorkCity's continuing housing and homelessness crisis. Students, social workers,advocates and concerned residents are encouraged to attend.

Monday, November 18,8:30 am-3:30 pmHunter College School of Social Work129 East 79th Street ( comer of Lexington Avenue) NYC

Registration: $10; $5 students and low income; orwhatever you can afford!For information about workshops and pre-registration,

contact Diane Wagner (212) 875-2205 or Jeff Schwartz (718) 468-8025.

CITY UMrTS/NOVEMBER 1991/7


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By Paul Lin

The Super-AgencyDoes bigger mean better at the new EconomicDevelopment Corporation?T ere's anew an d powerful forcein city economic development,and i t has the potential tochange the face of New Yorkwith nary a peep from the city government that formed it, or the taxpayersthat fund it.New Yorkersshouldn't be surprised. At thecore of the newsupe r - s i z e dagency is the oldPublic Development Corpora-tion at 161William Street, af reewheel ingorganiza t ionaccountable onlyto the mayor."I s th e Economic Development Corporation in this building?" a man wasasked in theelevator.

deal city-owned land.There was intense debate in theCouncil before the vote early in thesummer. Some members are stillstrongly opposed to the consolidation. "Mayor Koch in his wildestdreams would have never tried to pull

their colleagues voted against the billcreating EDC because they saw thecity creating an authority with thepower of oo many agencies under theguise of trimming bureaucracy fromthe budget - without establishing asystem of legislative checks andbalances.On the WaterfrontThis month, members of the CityCouncil are gearing up for a fight togain legislative control over the city'swaterfront development projects. TheDepartment of Business Services(DBS), composedof the former offices for economic development , businessdevelopment and

labor services, recently negotiateda contract thatwould turn overcontrol of waterfront development to the EDC.The contractmustbe approvedby the City Counci l this monthbefore it becomeslegall y binding."Yes, it is," replied the man."The EDC -sometimes it 'scalled the PDC."

The water:=


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effectively package an d help financeproperties for projects that it favorsprojects that don't necessarily promote the development of the city'sport facilities, which DiBrienza considers important because they provide vital manufacturing jobs. Thecontract would give EDC an"unchecked power base at the expense of a struggling maritime industry," says DiBrienza.In November, 1989, PDC tried tosell the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal to the Daily News for construction of a new printing plant, says EricFreedman from DiBrienza's office. Thecontainer port ha d been inactive forthree years prior to the move, bu tPorts and Trade's opposition to theidea prevented it from going forward.

If the current contract proposal goesthrough, he says, such inter-agencycompetitionwould cease and the public corporation could steamroll anyopposition that seeks to bring the shipping business back to New York.The City Council's lack of oversight over EDC is also a concern to theNew York Public Interest ResearchGroup (NYPIRG). Chris Meyer callsEDC an entity "larger than life," an dsays he hopes council members willtry to insert provisions in the newcontract so that they can playa meaningful role in the affairs ofEDC. But hevoices doubts about the City Council'sability to even alter the contract.One-Stop ShoppingAt the moment, however, developers are pleased at the prospect ofdealing with the semi-autonomousoffice for economic development,designed to cut through red tape andto serve as a one-stop shopping centerfor industries looking to relocate inNew YorkCi ty and companies lookingfor tax breaks as an incentive to stay inthe city.Officials tout the consolidation ofagencies as a budget-cutting, servicesaving move. "We will be lean, meanand focused," says Sally HernandezPinero, the Deputy Mayor for Financeand Economic Development.The creation ofDBS and EDC "willsave $5 million each year and willreduce our economic developmentbudgets by 17 percent," the mayorsaid in April of the consolidation. BySeptember, however, the Mayor'sManagement Report indicated achange in tune, and listed the savings:is $5 million over the next two years.rh e savings nonetheless would come

from cutting 75 jobs. The executiveTen-Year Plan allots $638 million ofcity funds to EDC, to continue formerPDC projects. Over the next five years,EDC's average annual capital budgetwill be $67 million.

The EDC:A one-stopshopping centerfor business.

Catie Marshall, spokesperson forthe EDC, says conce rns about the unaccountability of he new corporationare unfounded. She says EDC projectsare submitted to public scrutiny andreviewby the City Counci l, and wherezoning conflicts ar e concerned,projects are examined by the communities affected via the city's Uniform

Land-Use Review Procedure."Webelieve in community involvement for the benefit of the city of NewYork," says Marshall, who assuresthat representatives from both thecommunity and the EDC can nowwork "side-by-side" for a "userfriendly" approach to industrial development.Despite what could be seen as amove by EDC toward a kinder, gentlerdevelopment corporation, the basicbottom-line priorities of business andpolitics still underlie the corporation'sactivities, according to a former PDCofficial. He says that some 30 formerPDC board members still have tenureon EDC's board, and are likely to continue to "rubber stamp" project proposals that come before them from thechairman of the board, financierArthur Levitt, Jr. Levitt is the formerhead of he American Stock Exchange.And opponents of EDC point toPDC's long history of ineffective useof public money an d sale of publicland, examined recently in a performance audit released in September bythe New York State Comptroller, Edward V. Regan. According to the re-

Housing New YorkersManhattan for Rent, 1785-1850By ELIZABETH BLACKMAR. Winner of the Vernacular ArchitectureForum's Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize for 1990. New in Paper!"[Blackmar] enlivens her study with letters and memoirs by New Yorkersrich and poor, landlords and tenants, and she is adroit in recalling the role ofwomen in the economies of both homes and businesses."-New Yorker.$14.95Alone TogetherA History ofNew York'sEarLy ApartmentsBy ELIZABETH COLLINS CROMLEY."Cromley explores in words, vintage photographs and architects' drawings the evolutionof the Big Apple's apartment blocks. . . . Morethan just architectural history, this is a glimpseat the evolution of American urban culture."-Publishers Weekly. Publication supportedby a grant from the National Endowment forthe Humanities. 83 b&w illus. $24.95Cornell University Press124 Roberts Place, Ithaca NY 14850



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port, PDC had sold 475 city-ownedsites for $68 million since 1977. ButRegan's report said that, on average,PDC took three times longer to closeon site sales than its published targetdate of one year. Delays often resultedin cancellation of sales or reductionsin the land price.The report also said that PDC overreported job-creation figures, and inat least one case continued to reportjobs from a company that had left NewYork.The corporation also failed to monitor the construction progress of buyers, the report said. State auditorswho visited several sample sites soldby PDC found "vacant, debris-litteredlots or abandoned structures." AtGypsum Floors' site on East 182ndStreetan d Park Avenue in the Bronxseven lots purchased in 1989-a warehouse was constructed that violatedcity zoning regulations. At a site inBrooklyn where nine jobs were meantto be created within three years of theMay, 1989 land sale, the only evidenceof employment were drug traffickingand prostitution on a vacant lot, theauditors say.But the real indictment of the PDC

is in the history books. The agency'soriginal mandate was to rejuvenatethe city's industrial and manufactur-

"Any quasi-publicorganizationshould be subjectto the same levelsof oversight as agovernment

agency."ing base, and to retain and create jobs.But during the 1970s, 43 percent ofthe city's blue-collar jobs were lost,according to the federal Bureau ofLabor Statistics. And between 1980an d 1990, one-thirdof he city'smanu-

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10jNOVEMBER 1991jCITYUMITS

facturing jobs disappeared.For those who have been on theraw side of a PDC deal, EDC promisesof renewal are less than convincing."We were always running up againstthem," says Harry DiRienzo, vicepresident of the Consumer FarmerFoundation, which funds low-incomehousing. In on e case, DiRienzo'sorganization wanted residentialzoning in a section of the Bronx'sCommunityBoard Three; PDC, havingdifferent priorities, "wanted a fortressof industrial parks," and got what itwanted. Now, DiRienzo is lobbyingagainst the contract that would turnwaterfront development over to theEDe. "Any quasi-public organizationshould be subject to the same levels ofoversight as a government agencywould," he says. The lack of oversight, says DiRienzo, lets EDC "buycity-owned property for a dollar an dsell it for a million . I think that'swrong."At press time, Gugenheim fromEldridge's office says that a bill is inthe works at the committee level inthe City Council to modify the contractproposal. She said the bill wouldincrease the legislature 'S oversight ofEDC contracts, staffing an d budgetpriorities, at least where the waterfront is concerned.Meanwhile, a bill currently in theworks in the New York State Legislature could change things for EDC.Called "COBRA" or City Off-BudgetReview an d Accountability Act, thebill could provide the City Councilwith the power to oversee EDC's activities project-by-project.But until the COBRA bill starts tomove, or the City Council takes chargeon its own, the EDC on William Streetmay very well keep its low profile,indistinguishable from its front - asheadquarters of the PDC. DPaul Lin is a freelance writerbased inBrooklyn_

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Call Jane Latour(212) 304-8324


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Case in POint: . , . . ~ ..."Fulton Landing -Incubator ProjectThe NY/NJ Minority Purchasing Councilhas a dream: create an incubator fo rsmall business minority entrepreneurs.The incubator itself is a four-story waterfront building in the Fulton landingarea of downtown Brooklyn. Whencompleted, it will offer shared officeservices, managerial and technicalassistance, and below market rents.Citibank, through its Citibuilders Program, is financing $220,000 of the nearly$310,000 needed for the first phaseof this project. The Minority PurchasingCouncil is providing the rest. They askedif Brooklyn Union's Area DevelopmentFund could help with a one-year working capital loan of $50,000.

We could and we did. We've foundthat our Area Development Fund is aworking blueprint fo r change in theeconomic and social life of New York. Ifyour company would like to help as hasCitibank, pfizer, Bankers Trust Companyand so many others, talk to Jan Childressat (718) 403-2583. You'll find himworking fo r a stronger New York atBrooklyn Union Gas ... naturally.6Brooklyf"! Union Gas,Naturally



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Shelter GridlockThe Dinkins administration blames the homeless for an overcrowding crisis in thefamily shelters. Evidence points to problems of the government's own making.BY ANDREW WHITEEery morning, behind asingle steel door on theedge of Chinatown, dozens of women and children and a few me n arisefrom a fitful night on the littered, sticky linoleum floor ofthe Manhattan Emergency Assistance Unit. Some of hem liecurled up on flattened cardboard boxes, or stretched outon tables and black plasticchairs. The stink of the bathroom fills the air. Mice scurryacross the floor, and small children cry constantly, coughing,sniffling, whining. Fights breakout, women curse one another,guards stand clear until a knifeis pulled. These rooms are thefirst stop, and often the secondand third stops, for homelessfamilies coming into New YorkCity's shelter system.

chaotic than usual right now,"explains Elizabeth Lynch fromthe Citizens Committee forChildren. "It's the result of agridlock in the system."Nobody denies that the shelters for homeless families arejammedwith people. As ofSeptember 30th, about 4,800 families were in the shelter system-morethan 15,000people,a number nearly equal to therecord set in 1987.The dispute centers aroundthe reason for this overload.Instead of pointing the finger ata new breed of welfare cheat,advocates look to the Dinkinsadministration. They say thaterratic management, ineptpolicymakingand harmful budget cuts have converged to create a logjam in the system forproviding shelter and housingfor homeless families . Information compiled by City Limitssupports their claim.o many people spend thenight at the Emergency Assistance Unit (EAU) becausethere's no room for them in theshelters. Ask a government official why that is, and he or shewill tell you there's an unprecedented new flood of familiesinto the system. Prod further,

Up to 55 families sleep on the floor or on chairs each night atthe Emergency Assistance Unit ..

To support the "flood"theory, city officials have repeatedly said that at least 200families a day are seekingshelter at EA Us, the entrance tothe shel ter system. Yet a reviewof Human Resources Amini-and they'll tell you that word is going around out on thestreet: If you're poor and can't afford to rent an apartmenton the open market, the quickest route to a subsidizedhome is through the shelter system. People know, they'llsay, that once you're in the shelters for a few months, thecity housing agency is bound to give you a comfortable,rehabilitated apartment.That's the official story, which the Dinkins administration has been presenting to the media since this summer.But many close observers of the shelter system say theofficial story is a myth."The city talks about an avalanche of homeless families. That' s their imagination," says Anna Lou Dehavenon,a widely-respected medical anthropologist who has doneresearch on the city's homeless families, with thegovernment's cooperation, since 1979."The fundamental bureaucratic process is much more12/NOVEMBER 1991/CITY UMITS

stration statistics shows thatonly 31 new families a day came into the EAUs inSeptember. The 200 number includes families who are notne w arrivals-they're people wh o have been bouncingback and forth from the EAUs to two-night hotels to thefloors of friends' apartments because they can't get into ashelter. Families can't enter the shelters because they're full.This is because new policies have made it more difficultfor families currently in the system to leave. At one point,it only took three months for a family to qualify forsubsidized permanent housing. Now a family must waitbetween nine and 12 months. Once a family qualifies for permanenthousing, there'sno guarantee they'll move quickly, because fewer apartments are available. The "Alternative Pathways" policyhas diverted hundreds of apartments away from shelterfamilies and towards families living doubled up with


13/28

friends or relatives.A Streamor a Flood?I n the New YorkCity Councilchamber onemorning in lateSeptember, a row ofpoliticians gazedaround the room astop level officialspresented their interpretation ofwhat's wrong withthe city's emergency shelter forhomeless families.Two departingofficials, VictorKovner and NancyWackstein, gave aclassic presentation of the officialS story. They said theshelter system wasg so overwhelmed

Newly-renovated city apartments intendedforhomeless an d lowincome familiesare sitting emptyin the Bronx, Harlem an d Brooklynbecause of budgetcuts an d mismanagement at th ecity's housing department. An d advocates say th eprocess for referring families fromthe shelter systemto permanenthousing is plaguedby time-consumin g proceduralproblems in thehousing bureaucracy.

Confrontedwith this information, Kenneth .while newly renovated apartments for the homeless sit empty. One example is 1087Summit Avenue in the Bronx, ready for tenants since June.

the administrationcouldn't possiblycomply with theMurphy, deputy commissioner at the Human ResourcesAdministration (HRA), which runs the shelter system,concedes that the vast majority of people at the EAU arenot new arrivals to the shelters. But he still blames thehomeless for the problems, saying many families arelooking for the perfect shelter, and won't accept their firstplacement. .

William Spiller, a deputy commissioner at the Department ofHousing Preservation and Development (HPD), isless emphatic when asked why renovated apartments aresitting empty. He says budget cuts and a hiring freeze haveslowed the pace of paperwork, noting, "This has been avery difficult year."Considering the legal troubles of the Dinkins administration, "difficult" may be an understatement. Behind thepublic announcements about a crisis in the shelter systemare a raft of challenges in State Supreme Court that the cityhas failed to respond to. The administration is facingcontempt charges and possible criminal penalties becauseit is violating three court orders - and a consent decreesigned by the city's lawyers, promising compliance withthe court orders - concerning conditions for homelessfamilies.Advocates say the administration's rhetoric directingblame towards the homeless is part of a public relationsbattle. "Dinkins is trying to regain control of a debate thathe hasn't been able to control at all," says David Steinglassof the Community Housing Association of Managers andProducers (CHAMP), a group of community-based housing providers."You can't help bu t be left with a profound feeling ofsadness when you watch officials defend their own failings by lashing out at families wh o have the misfortune tolive in poverty," adds Steve Banks of the Legal AidSociety's Homeless Family Rights Project, the organization responsible for the lawsuits.

court orders or acity law requiring the closure of barracks shelters forfamilies. They said rules for entering the shelters were toolax, that families were coming into the system withoutbeing truly homeless. Wackstein told the City Council thata nightly figure of 200 families requesting shelter hadbecome common.Yet only about 31 new families came to the EAUsseeking shelter each day in September, according to HRAdata (see Vital Statistics, p. 17). That's only slightly aboveaverage for the rreceeding four years, and below thesummer peak 0 about 34. Most of the families, thedifference between 31 an d 200 or more, are victims of aping-pong policy.These families have already been in the shelters or inthe EAUs sometime during the previous month, and aretrying to get back in. Sometimes their assignment to abarracks shelter is over because they've reached themaximum stay-21 days-and they come to the EAU fora new placement. Sometimes they have been sent repeatedly to hotels, an d after each stay they return to the EAUfor a new placement. Sometimes after a 17 hour overnightwait in the squalid EAU they escape to a friend's floor fora rest, then come back and try again.The number of families bouncing around and showingup repeatedly at the system's gateway nearly doubled thissummer, an d Dehavenon, who has done interviews insidethe Catherine Stree t EAU every week since last January,says it's because dozens offamilies are placed in hotels fora few days, or in overnight beds in the recreation rooms ofbarracks shelters. "By July the situation was so horrendous ," she says, that as many as 55 families were spendingthe night on the chairs and the floor. "I've never seen it asbad as this," she says. "The EAU is a refugee camp withoutthe Red Cross. It' s just falling to pieces."Murphy from HRA denies that the ping-pong effect isthe city' s fault. "The bulk of these families are coming out

CITY UMITS/NOVEMBER 1991/ 13


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of other people's apartments," he says. "It's not a policy ofthe the city driving them back into the EAUs. That's theirchoice to come back in." Murphy says that some familiescome to the EAUs because they know the city might pu tthem in a hotel, "which to some families is desirable." Headds that many people come to the EAUs in search of afood allowance - about $1 3 for three people - that issometimes offered along with a hotel room.But conditions inside the EAUs are not particularlyenticing. The office at Catherine Street is not designed forsleeping, though the place is frequently packed withpeople in the pre-dawn hours. There are two cribs. Andlots of plastic chairs. Since mid-summer, families havebeen spending 12 to 17 hours, and sometimes more, at theEAUs awaiting a placement. "Where we sit is where weeat, where we sleep is where we sit," said Feliciano Frankone late September morning. She was on her third journeythrough the EAU in a little more than a month.Renee Ashley, sitting in the EAU one Friday morning inlate September, told a story simila r to those told by a dozenother women in the office: "Last Sunday they sent me tothe Holiday Inn. We spent two days there. Tuesday I cameback here. I've been sleeping an d sitting on a chair sinceTuesday. I have a 15 yearold son, he's looking ou t forme, he doesn't want to gowith friends because hewants to make sure I'm okay.Now we're placed at theLaGuardia Hotel for twodays. I'll be right back heresitting another four or fivedays. They got babies sleeping on boxes here, boxes onthe floor, night after night."Manufacturing a CrisisThree years ago the citywas in the midst of apolitical maelstrom decrying the conditions andthe expense of housing forhomeless families in themassive, drug-infested welfare hotels. Under the gunfrom the federal government,the Koch administration setout to close them down, andthe Department of HousingPreservation and Development and the New York CityHousing Authority openedthousands of apartments tohomeless families.

Spiller says. "We had to say it's not an entitlement program." The administration was determined to discouragepeople from coming into the shelters.One year ago this month, W ackstein and officials atHRA crafted a policy called Alternative Pathways. It wasa turning point in the city's approach to homelessness.And it opened the cover to Pandora's box.On the face of it, Alternative Pathways looked like agood idea. Families living in crowded conditions couldenter a spec ial HPD lottery for apartments instead ofgoinginto the shelters. Contestants chose a new developmentproject, filled ou t an application, and, i f hey were lucky,a community-based, non-profit management companyinvited them in for an interview. The Alternative Pathways lottery centered around a speci al allocation of cityowned apartments, taken mostly from the units preparedfor shelter families.Latino housing activists and community groups weresupportive of Alternative Pathways at the outset. Thepolicy was announced publicly at a banquet held by theHispanic Housing Coalition on the Lower East Side, andpolitical figures spoke of the antipathy many Latinos havefor the shelters, where non-English speakers are oftensubject to abuse. Others sawit as a way to help families intheir own neighborhoods onthe verge ofbecoming homeless. "I've seen buildingswith 75 families in 20 apartments," says Jose Acuna ofPromesa Housing Services,a non-profit group in theSouth Bronx. "We know wecould fill up any project righthere, with families from righthere," he says.

"It was a holy mission,"says Deputy CommissionerWilliam Spiller ofHPD. "Butno sooner would we get [thehotels] closed than HRAwould say hundreds more

But even by conservativestandards, the city government estimates that at least100,000 families livedoubled or tripled up withfriends and relatives in NewYork City. Officials decidedthat simply creating a lottery for several hundredapartments would no t beenough to ease pressure onthe shelters. So they tackedon a few new rules to maketh e shelters unattractive."Any family entering a shelter or hotel on or after October 3D, 1990," read the notice plastered in the hallways and caseworkers' cubicles, must wait nineRIse and Shine: At 8 a.m. families are awake an d w a i t i n - g - a " t - t h - e - - - ' ~ months before getting aEmergency Assistance Unit. placement in an HPD-man-aged apartment building, or

are at the door. We thought we would lose control of thesystem." City officials saw that new entries were increasing an d aides to the mayor concluded that word of theapartment allocations had spread across the city."The decision was made that a message had to go out,"14/NOVEMBER 1991/CITY UMITS

12 months to get one of 95 0apartments in the city's public housing project.Priority for new housing moved quickly away from theshelter families. Almost 60 0 of the best-quality unitspreviously se t aside for them were allocated to the doubledup lottery. Another 700 were given to families an d indi-


15/28

vi duals that lost theircity-owned and managed homes for onereason or another,whether through fire,urban renewal, majorrepair work or condemnation by th ebuildings department. Meanwhile thefamilies in the shelters began their longwait. HPD produceda record 4,173 unitsfor homeless familiesduring Fiscal Year1991. But only 1,908of them were rentedto shelter families.The number offamilies leaving theshelters dropped pre- Kristin Morse: "Months and months a ~ ~ wasted as buildings si t vacant and families si tcipitously, from in the squalor of shelters and hotels.

HPD. "The rent upprocess is so totalyconvoluted thatmonths and monthsare wasted as buildings si t vacant an dfamilies si t in th esqualor of shelters andhotels," says Morse.David Steinglass ofCHAMP, which represents more than 50non-profit, community based organizations that work withHPD, recently wroteto Deputy MayorNorman Steisel complaining that "i t hasbecome almost impossible to housefamilies from (theshelters) in commu-1,027 in July, 1990 tojust 68 5 in February, 1991, according to HRA. Conversely,the nllmber of families in hotels and barracks sheltersincreased rapidly, from 82 0 to 1,149. By mid summer,

1991, the pressure on the system was too intense, and thecrisis emerged at the front doors to the system, the EAUs.One year after Alternative Pathways was created, th elottery process is crawling forward. Of 1,000 units originally allocated to doubled up families living outside of hecity's housing projects, only 57 9 were rehabilitated andturned over to the lottery for doubled-up families, and ofthose only 216 had been rented, Wackstein told the Council in September. Another 356, she said, "are in th e rent upprocess," meaning the lotteries have been advertised an drental could be anywhere from one month to six monthsaway."The reality is they are poor managers," says KristinMorse of the Coalition for the Homeless. "They couldn'timplement their own policy, they couldn't marshall andcoordinate their resources."Wackstein disagrees. "Alternative Pathways has helpedfamilies in horrible situations. That can't be termed afailure."Empty Buildings, Empty Promises

At 1087 Summit Avenue in the Highbridge section ofthe Bronx, just two blocks from the broad parklandnear Yankee Stadium, a five-story brick tenementhouse stands empty, window shades pulled halfway downand the sidewalk neatly swept.The tenement is one of four in the surrounding neighborhood that city contractors rehabilitated and completedlast spring for HPD's Special Initiatives Program (SIP),where more than half the units are delegated to homelessor doubled-up families. All four buildings, totalling 66apartments, received Certificates of Occupancy in June.But more than four months after they were ready to berented, SIP officials hadn't even appointed a communitybased management group, much less begun looking fortenants. The buildings may not be entirely rented untilnext spring, a full year after they were ready for tenants.

Complaints proliferate about bureaucratic delays at

nity-based housing."The South Bronxbuildings are not an isolated example.Last month, the SIP office chose the Pratt Area CommunityCouncil to manage two attached tenements on GatesAvenue in Brooklyn that were recently rehabilitated. Thegroup's director, Vivian Becker, says her group didn't gaincontrol until the construction work was complete. So the25 apartments will sit empty for another six months, whilethe rental process unfolds. "We haven't even put our ad inthe papers or started marketing," says Becker.The standard procedure at SIP is to appoint a community-based manager and begin looking for tenants at leastsix months before construction work is completed. But theoffice sent out a document earlier this year that outlinedthe status of buildings nearing completion, includingseveral with predicted dates of completion between Junean d October of this year.By October 10 , SIP had no t yet chosen managers for atleast 10 Manhattan buildings on the list that were meantto be completed by October. Directors of housing organizations say the SIP office is frantically changing itsmarketing policies because so many rehabilitat ion projectsare nearing completion, while the search for tenants hasno t yet begun. Officials would not comment on the charge.In fact, apartments are sitting empty all across the city.In another South Bronx project, 26 8 new city-ownedapartments are managed by the SettlementHousing Fund.More than 10 0 are still vacant four months after the finalbuilding received its Certificate of Occupancy. They aremeant to be filled by both shelter families an d an Alternative Pathways lottery, according to Carol Lamberg, theexecutive director, bu t the group has had trouble gettingtenant referrals from HPD. She says that during one recentsix-week period her organization received no referrals atall from the city shelters.Morse says her organization has four apartments in EastHarlem that she has been trying to rent to shelter familiesfor three months. In that time, she says, the city has sentonly seven applications, some from families that were nolonger looking for ahome. "It's amazing," she says. "It's sofew units and I can't tell you how many hours and phonecalls to HPD we've spent on this crud."



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"The problem right now is that you can't get tenants,"adds Chris Havens, general manager ofBEC New Communities in Brooklyn, a community-based manager of cityhousing in the LISC and SIP programs. "Their systemsucks. How can this freight train keep moving in thisdirection?" He blames City Hall, not HPD, pointing outthat the agency has taken heavy blows in the recent roundof budget cuts.Abdul Farrakhan, director of Ocean Hill/BrownsvilleTenants Association, also a commu-

accept and which to reject.Then he gives another explanation for delays. "Some[families] are accepted by [an organization] and theychange their mind. HRA says peopleare shopping around."He says picky homeless families have caused more of abottleneck in the system than the new policies institutedby the Dinkins administration.Meanwhile, at Catherine Street, the families wait, go toa hotel, and come back to wait some more. Orlando andJuanita Pena have been in the systemsix months. They say they can't beity-based management group working with the city, says he takes thebureaucratic hassles in stride. "There'susually a logjam in the paperworkdowntown," he says. "It may sit theretwo, three, four weeks. Then we go andbitch, an d they call us arrogant andmove our paperwork. It's a pathologythat has developed within the agencies."/ Spiller from HPD admits his agency

ij.as made mistakes. "We've been on afull hiring freeze. SIP is understaffed,"he says. But he denies that HPD or CityHall is responsible for many of theproblems slowing the rental of apartments. He argues that some of theblame lies with the non-profit man-

"There's usually alogjam in thepaperwork . .itsa pathology thathas developedwithin the

picky, because they have no controlover where they are sent. "We've beenfive times at the EAU," says Orlando."We stayed in hotels for three days,four days. This month we get sentaround, the Westchester Hotel for twodays, three days here, two days there.Every time we come back here andspend 48 hours. I have two children,Anthony is 15, Orlando Jr. is 11."The welfare documents in Pena 'shands outline a convoluted trail. Heand his wife have been homeless sinceat least June 10, 1991, ejected from hisfather-in law 's. They lived at a barracks shelter until July 15. They spentagencies. "

agement groups, because many of hemare too slow and choosy in deciding which familiesshould get an apartment. "They've interviewed many ,many people," he says, but the city has no right, an d noobligation, to tell the sponsor groups which families to

four days at the Aqua Motor Lodge inOzone Park, Queens; three days at theWestchester Hotel starting September 17, and again onSeptember 22. Then the Laguardia Hotel on September 27an d 28th for $342. The city gave them $13.20 for food fortwo days. And $4.60 for the return trip to the EAU. 0

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Nnle service fees.As a bank and your neighbor we'd like to help yousave more so there'll be more for the people andpurposes you serve.One way is to reduce or eliminate our service fees.For example, if you make less than 31 transactions amonth in your business checking account , you'll payno monthly maintenance or business fees and nocharges per check paid or deposited . And there are nomark-ups on checkbooks, regardless of your activitylevel or balance.Even if you have more transactions, our charges aremoderate. Moreover, you can maintain a money marketaccount with a lower balance than our regular business

customers - and earn interest while you save.For your employees we offer special discounts onmortgages and loans.We cu t the fees, no t the service. Our bankers arewell known for their community involvement. Theyknow the financial needs of not-for-profit groups -planning, budgeting, cost controls, fund raising - andhow to allocate assets for optimum return. They'realways there when you need them.Free booklet. For the bank branch nearest you anda free copy of a booklet describing our not-for-profitproducts, call 212-221-6056 in New York City.Or 1-800-522-5214 outside NYC.

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18/NOVEMBER 1991/CITY UMITS


17/28

Charting the Crisis:The Shelters and Permanent Housing(1) Average number, by month, of new families entering thesheRer system each day, July 1987 to September 1991

4 0 ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

3 5 + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ - -

302520

105o J A SON D J F M A MJ J A SON D J F M A M J J AS 0 N D J F M AM J J A SON D J F M AM J J A S

1988 1989 1990 1991

Cty officials say a flood of newfamilies is entering the shelter system in the hopes of gaining a cityapartment. Yet data from the Hu

man Resources Administration (HRA)show that the number of ne w familiescoming into the system each day has risenonly slightly.Meanwhile, the overall number ofhomeles s families in the system is on therise. Advocates say this is because policychanges have forced families to stay in thesystem longer, and decreased the numberofapartments available for homeless families. In addition, bureaucratic problemsare delaying the rental of already-renovated apartments .One interesting note: accord ing to HRA,the daily average of ne w arrivals to theshelter system always increases in thesummer, rather than the winter, becausethe stress of living in crowded, doubledup conditions can become unbearable inthe summer heat. 0 A.W.Sources:Chart 1 - HRA Crisis Interven tion Servicesvia Legal Aid SocietyChart 2 - HRA Homeless Families CensusChart 3 - Mayor's Management Report,Sept. 1991 and HPD interviews

50004000300020001000

(2) Number of families in the NYCsheRer system

10/89 1/90 4/90 7/90 10/90 1/91 4/91 7/91 9/91

(3) Allocation of 4173 rehabilitated and repairedapartments for the homeless created by HPD,Fiscal Year 1991Unaccounted foror still unrented

905

Alternative Pathways216

Persons with AIDS287

Relocated HPD Tenants 695

CITY UMITS/N OVEMBER 1991/17


18/28

By Mary Keefe

Unfair Day Care? ture of city agencies. By loosening therequirements for licensing, they saythat thousands of "underground" daycare workers will become registeredand give parents a greater number ofproviders to choose from.A new law is deregulating family day care.Ehel Jordan, a middle-aged resident of the Red Hook housingproject in Brooklyn, has spentthe past 15 years providing daycare for up to five children in herapartment. "I love the kids ," she says.Despite the isolation, hard work an dmeager pay, she says, "If I could takemore kids I would."Jordan is one of nearly 3 ,000 womenwho provide licensed day care in theirhomes and look after more than 8 00 0youngsters, manyof them among thecity's poorest. Sheis part of NewYork ' s licensedfamily day care system, a home-basedalternative to daycare centers thatprovides muchneeded employment for low income women andenables workingparents to hold onto their jobs.

by Assemblyman Al Vann and StateSen. Mary Goodhue and it's slated forimplementation in the city by January1992. Critics say that a cut-and-slashbudget environment turned an opportunity for positive improvements intoa major step backwards for family daycare workers and the parents who relyon them.Many family day care advocatesare hopping mad about the changes.

"There's really a need to open upthe system so parents have choices,"says Louise Stoney, former policy director of he state's Child Care Coordinating Council, which supported deregulation. "When parents don 't havechoices, they may not feel comfortable wi h a provider but feel they haveto stay there. We feel parental choicecan make a difference."Because the family day care systemwill be simplified,"registration is amore comprehensive approach, "

adds JoAnn Friedell, head of childcare for the state'sDepartment of Social Services (DSS) .When asked howstandards for safetywill be maintained, she saysparents will helpout, based on information they'vegleaned from aplanned "parentinformation campaign" through themedia. There willalso be an "800"c;:II I number that par-ili ents can call if hey

Family day careis considereda crucial part of th ecity's day care future, but a newstate law looseningregulations threatens to dismantlethe city's systemChanging the RIles: Family day care workers protested outside City Hall recently to opposederegulation . have problems, shesays.

and destroy the support structure thatprovides assistance for the day careworkers.Under current law, inspectors visitthe homes of family day care workersbefore they are licensed, and the homesare monitored at least once a year.The new law will createwhat is knownas a "registration" system. Day careproviders will be authorized to carefor children on the basis of a writtenapplication and random inspectionswill reach onIy 20 percent of he homesacross the state. Day care providersare expected to judge for themselveswhether their home meets health andsafety standards, and parents are expected to take up the slack and perform the monitoring role previouslyprovided by inspectors.Passed in 1990, the law was backed18/NOVEMBER 1991/CITY UMITS

"We're abdicating our responsibilityfor children's health and well-being,"says Letisha Wadsworth, director ofday care services for the Child Development Support Corporation inBedford Stuyvesant, a child care training and referral organization."Deregulation isn't motivated byanything bu t [saving] money," addsSandra Gellert, past-president of theNational Association for Family Day

Many peopleinvolved in family day care say this isa potentially-dangerous, bargainbasement approach . Harriet Yarmolinsky, a family day care coordinatorwithin the city's Department ofHealth,says, "We are asking parents to dothings that will be very hard for themto do. I don't think it gives their children as much protection as they ha dbefore."

Care. "State standards are never any- . Raging Debatething but minimum for health and Congress passed a historic day caresafety and registration is taking it be- bill last year and new money for daylow the minimum." care is starting to flow into statesNot surprisingly, supporters of the throughout the country. Family daybill and the state's Department of So- care is one of the most popularcial Services have another point of approaches, mainly because it ' sview. They say the ne w system will cheaperthanbuildingexpensivenewstreamline day care, which is cur- day care centers and is popular withrently run by an alphabet soup mix- parents, who often prefer to have their


19/28

children looked after within a homeenvironment. Across the country, adebate is raging about appropriatelevels for inspection and licensing.Regardless of the ne w federal money,many states with fiscal troubles aresavingmoney by calling for onIy minimal inspection.New York City's current licensedfamily day care system is really twoseparate systems. A total of 769

Organize!On a hot Saturday morning thissummer, more than 40 womenall family day care providers-gathered in an ornate, high-ceilinged

room in a Brooklyn brownstoneowned by a church. The atmosphere of the architecture was genteel, but the attitude of the crowdwas angry.It all came out. Anger aboutworking for poverty-level wageswith no increases for experience ortraining. Anger about nonexistentvacation days and sick pay. Angerabout being paid by a tax-free stipend that means money isn't setaside for social security. Angerabout the city's notorious ly inefficient day care bureaucracy.The meeting was ru n by organizers from DC 1707 of the AmericanFederation of State, City and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Inrecent years, the union an d familyday care workers have had a long,difficult an d unsuccessful organizing fight, but the struggle is far fromover. A National Labor RelationsBoard (NLRB) decision during theKoch administration denied family day care workers th e right tojoin a union, but DC 1707 is in themidst of a second campaign, this

time to organize a voluntary association that can address th ewomen's concerns.It won't be an official union, butthe hope is that it will pu t organized day care workers in a position to influence policy andnegotiate with the city. The effortis modeled after an early strategythat farm worker organizers usedwhen the NLRB ruled against theirunion effort, according to JamesGuyette, the head of organizing forDC 1707.

women are licensed to provide daycare in their homes through the city'sDepartment of Health. These womenprovide day care that does not recei veany government subsidy. Another2,061 women are licensed throughthe Agency for Child Developmentwithin the Human Resources Administration. These women care for lowincome children who have been referred through ACD, and the day care

The most that a family day careworker looking after children referredthrough the Agency for Child Development (ACD) can make is $300 aweek. That's with a full complement

Family day careworkers make a

pittance.of youngsters-two babies or toddlersat $75 a week and three preschoolersat $50 a week. But few day careworkers consistently earn this amountbecause children are often sick, ormothers work part-time, or the ACDbureaucracy is slow replacing children who have grown and gone toschool.Family day care workers make apittance compared to the wages ofunionized day care workers who lookafter children in city-subsidized daycare center. A teacher's aide with noeducational requirement for employment starts at $16,000 per year withhealth benefits, paid vacation and sickdays, disability an d pension. Thewage scale increases with experienceor education.Guyette says that the only way famil y day care workers ca n improve theirlot is through rigorous organization.We need to "elevate the status of heseproviders an d change the perceptionou t there that these people are nothing but babysitters," he says. Thereare some positive signs towardschange. Family day care workers arestarting to form associations at city,state and national levels and an August convention of the National Asso-

is subsidized by the city.The ACD family day care streamwas created two decades ago as a wayto help women work their way offwelfare. Ironically, family day careworkers have been working for yearsfor very low level wages, no benefitsand no right to form a union. (Seesidebar.)Family day care workers within theACD stream are currently recruited,

ciation for Family Day Care broughtalmost 1,000 providers to NewYork. DC 1707 cooperates with theNew York City chapter of the organization.Hundreds of family day careworkers signed up during a campaign in the mid-1980s and theunion petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a representation election in 1987. The DayCare Council-an organization ofday care centers that acts as a bargaining agent in union negotiationsand is closely tied to the city'sAgency for Child Developmentchallenged th e petition saying family day care providers areindependent contractors, not employees.The union won the first round.Elections were held in 1989, butthe ballots were never countedwhen the federal NLRB reversedthe regional board's decision. Fortwo years, while the hearinggroundon, Koch-era ACD officials intimidated providers involved in theorganizing, according to the union.Some of the women are still afraidto be quoted publicly for fear ofreprisal.After a round of meetings, thenew union effort is about two-thirdsof the way towards the goal of signing on about 2,000 day care workers and borough representativeshave already been elected, Guyettesays. In addition to lobbying onbasic payment issues, muchneeded group insurance is a possibility when 2,000 dues-payingproviders are on board.When Mayor David Dinkins firsttook office, his administration wassupportive offamily day care organizing, Guyette says. In an all-toofamiliar scenario, the city's fiscalcrisis put talks on hold. 0 MaryKeefe



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trained an d monitored by non-profitagencies such as the Police AthleticLeague an d the Cardinal McCloskeyCenter for Children an d Families.Because monitoring will no longer berequired by the state, the sponsoringagency role could be eliminated underthe new system an d providers left tofend for themselves. Some sponsoring agencies are better than others, but

they all provide a basic level ofsupportfor isolated day care providers.Limited Back-UpStill, there are some advantages tothe changes . Th e state la w willconsolidate the DOH an d AC D familyday care streams into one system. Andif a voucher is carefully designed, itwill allow women who look after ACD -

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referred children to also look afterchildren who don't receive a citysubsidy.The new system also mandates 30hours of training for each family daycare provider in a three-year period.However, almost everyone involved

Quality family daycare takes morethan one-shot

training sessions.in the day care debate concedes thatthis is a very limited back-up for theworkers .Day care advocates say qualityfamily day care takes more than oneshot training sessions. People whocare for children in their home areoften isolated, and the isolation isworse for providers in poor neighborhoods who have limited resourcesan d are often caring for children fromfamilies with health or social problems .

The city officials who have toimplement the new law are expressing discouraged resignation. "Registration would not be my first choice,but it is here an d we have to work withit," says Yarmolinsky from the city'shealth department. Even i f the citywanted to continue prior inspectionan d regular monitoring of family daycare homes, the state Department ofSocial Services isn't about to allowthat because it would be "contrary tothe legislation," according to JoAnnFriedell from DSS. The issue requireslegislative change an d many day careprofessionals are now preparing totake th e battle back to Albany.Still, the state la w does not mandate the dismantling of the supportsystem that non-profit agencies provide for day care workers. The citycould save-and improve-this system, but budget constraints mean itwill probably be eliminated. EdwinaMeyers, the new head of ACD, says,"Down the line I see us coming backone day to something more real thanwhere we are moving right now."Nonetheless, she adds, "Right nowthis is where we are ." D


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GUTSY. INCISIVE.PROVOCATIVE.

Life inside a city-owned crackden .. public agencies cutting deals fo rprivate developers . .landlords whocollect the rent an d le t their buildingsrot. Each month, CITY LIMrrS probesth e misguided public policies and inefficient bureaucracies besetting NewYork. But we don't think it's goodenough just to highlight th e muck. CITYLIMrrS looks for answers. We uncoverthe stories of activists and local organizers fighting to save their neighborhoods. That's why CITY LIMrrS haswon five journalism awards in recentyears. Isn 't it time you subscribed?

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III+N'I\l1I By William A. PriceGentrification, MutualHousing StyleA 0-year fight to save low-renthomes in the Upper West Sidemay be lost thanks to severalnon-profit agencies to whichhousing activists have looked for support and the city's Department ofHousing Preservation an d Development.The mechanism of this defeat willbe a proposed Mutual Housing Association (MHA)being organizedin the name ofthe United Tenants Association, a group oftenants whooccupy 181apartments inthe West SideUrban RenewalArea, a 20-square-blockarea runningfrom West 87thStreet to West97th Street,from Central

__ .. . . . .." ... 1 __....., ........... II . ,CD 'L ........

Park West to Amsterdam Avenue.The MHA, if carried out, will resultin objectives which some of the plan'sproponents might otherwise oppose:'privatization and gentrification. Itwill also transform a low income butindependent group of tenants into asubsidy-dependent population.The United Tenants Association'sMHA proposal has been so touted thatnot until the very end of a manymonths-long process has the finalshape emerged from documents thatmost of the tenants have never seen.The MHA was allegedly approved bya "petition" that tenants were persuaded to sign that so misrepresentsthe facts that an opposition groupamong the tenants has charged it is afraud.That opposition group is the AdHoc Committee of UTA Tenants forLow-Rent Hous ing and I am one of itsmembers. We are trying to stop theMHA. Back in 1977, I was one of the

City View is a forum for opinionand does not necessarily reflectthe views ofCity Limits.22 /NOVEMBER 1991/CITY UMITS

founders of the United Tenants Association and for several years was anactive vice president of the group.That's when we were actively considering options that would keep ourcity-owned buildings affordable to lowincome tenants. UTA had originallywo n substantial victories in demanding-and winning-the sponsorshipof 15 buildings in the renewal areaagainst the claims of well-establisheddevelopers. We organized, foughthardand won the respect of he community.Raucous MeetingButin 1989 the UTA Steering Committee, of which I was a member,voted in one raucous meeting to eliminate the possibility of a 99-year-leaseas an ownership option. This left onlythe privatization option open. Thevote occurred when we were gettingsignals from downtown that there was,in fact, no option for us exceptprivatization in one form or anotherWe were getting advice to "Do thedoable." I f we had started out withsuch advice, we never would haveeven existed. With only privatizationleft, I resigned in protest from theSteering Committee.The "petition" that tenants werepressed to sign stated that the tenantswill be paying $45 per room, whilethe rents after a two-year period willin fact be double that amount- about$90 per room-a fact hidden in thefine print. The Ad Hoc Committee'scalculation is that after 10 yearsunder rent stabilization-a three bedroom apartment could go up to$1,012.76 per month. These rentswould be affordable to some of theWest Side in-migrants but would beout of he range oflow income tenantswho have called this area home formany years.The only way this scheme canwork-for low income tenants atleast-is to promise tenants federallyfunded Section 8 subsidies. In 1980,Congress's General Accounting Officecriticized the Section 8 program as"enormously costly" when comparedwith publicly-owned housing. But, ofcourse, that's federal money, so who'slooking?The UTA-MHA package was put

together with the help of several nonprofit agencies. They includeStryckers Bay Neighborhood Council,which was originally funded as aproject area committee to watch over,but not challenge, the urban renewalprogram that moved 9,500 ~ o w incomefamilies out of the area; the Community Development Legal AssistanceCenter, whose adviser helped set upthe UTA by-laws, which some of ushave claimed effectively eliminaterank and file involvement; and PrattInstitute Center for Community an dEnvironmental Development. Theseagencies, or individuals attached tothem, all received sizable fees frommoney raised by UTA for the preservation of low income housing. Iknow-I helped raise the money.In a Newsday article in 1988,housing activist Harriet Cohen wrote,"only i f he city takes the initiative toforge a second public housing systemout of these cast-off properties can itprevent speculation and profiteeringand permanently preserve them asaffordable housing." At the Community Service Society (CSS), whereCohen used to work, a Committee toPreserve Affordable Low-IncomeHousing was created. That group

Rents could goway up.sought a program of permanentaffordability an d concluded thatsomeform of public ownership was key tothe success of any long-range strategyto house low income people.Aside from CSS, the committeeincluded Metropolitan Council onHousing, the Urban HomesteadingAssistance Board, the Urban Coalitionand the Union of City Tenants. Somesuggested approaches included aCommunity Land Trust, a 99-yearlease, a second public housingauthority or continuing city ownership. Neither UTA, nor StryckersBay, nor Pratt showed interest in suchsolutions.The United Tenants AssociationMHA provides a lesson in ho w not toprovide affordable housing for lowincome families. Itshould not proceedand it should not be repeated. 0


23/28


24/28

Distortion?To the Editor:Your Ten-Year Housing Plan Update article (October 1991) accuratelydescribed some of the policy shiftsmade by the Dinkins administrationto the city's housing program. Unfortunately, however, the article presented a distorted view of th eprogram's allocation of resources byincome group.First, the article contained a chartwhich showed more than twice asmany middle income units to beproduced under the program thanhomeless units. However, given themuch smaller per unit subsidies necessary to produce ne w middle incomeunits, the more relevant comparisonis the allocation of dollars to newhousing production. The truth is thatthe program allocates $26 millionmore to produce new homeless housing than to produce middle incomeunits. And when low income unitsare included, it is clear that producingnew housing for the city's neediest ison e of the administration's toppriorites: in tqtal, the program allo-

cates more than $1.1 billion to createnew housing for the homeless andother low income New Yorkers.Second, the article accuratelyshowed that roughly half of the $4.8billion program total is allocated topreservation programs, indicating thatrehabilitating and preserving the city'slow and moderate income housingstock is another top priority of thisadministration. However, the articlethen neglected to provide the breakdown of the $4.8 billion total byincome group, instead showing onlythat roughly half of the productiondollars are allocated to the homelessand other low income category. Infact, more than 88 percent of the totalfunds are allocated to low and moderate income New Yorkers.Finally, i t is also essential tounderstand that the 10-year capitalplan does not include the additionalexpense budget funds which are alsodevoted to the homeless. Last fiscalyear alone, the city augmented the$67 million in capital funds allocatedto the homeless with another $45million in expense funds to repairvacant apartments in occupied city-

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owned buildings for the homeless.The truth is that, with these expensefunds included, the city spent morethan four times as much to providene w permanent housing units for thehomeless last year as for middle income households.Felice MichettiCommissionerDepartment of Housing Preservationand Development

City Limits responds: First of all,we want to take this opportunity tosay it's great that HPD is being moreopen with their planning documentsand budget information so thatinformed policy debates can takeplace.It's true that the money for preservation programs is targeted to homeless, low and moderate income NewYorkers. But preservation programsdo not expand the city's housing stock.Instead, these programs maintainpeople's homes in a livable state-something every private landlord, andthe city as landlord, is required to doby law.We do not deny that when you lookat the city's overall hous ing budget,the majority of funds are directedtowards homeless, low and moderate

income New Yorkers . ButHPD 's ownstatistics show that a whoppinghalfabillion dollars are being directed tomiddle-income housing within the 10-year capital plan. New York City is inthe midst of a serious housing emergency, with a homeless populationreaching 100,000 and hundreds ofthousands more living doubled-upwith friends and relatives. Especiallyin a soft real estate market, do peopleearning up to $53,000 a year deserveprecious government subsidies forhousing?

TAKEOVERA documentary about th ehomeless helping themselvesis available on video fromSkylight Pictures. The cost is$20 for individuals, $50 forinstitutions.Call (212) 9 4 7 ~ 5 3 3 3 .


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

TENANT AND HOUSING RIGHTS"Tenant Rights Fact Sheets." Cover a wide range of topics. Some ava ilable inSpanish. Community Training and Resource Center. Free. Send self-addressed envelope 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 se lf-addressed envelope with stamp."A Tenant's Guide to Housing Court." Includes information on holdovers,eviction notices, nonpayment cases, etc. Separate borough editions, specifywhich one required. Association of he Barofthe City ofNew York.31 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 Rent increases: The ABC's of MCl'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." Over

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City Limits Magazine, November 1991 Issue

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