CITY LIMITS

COMMUNITY. HOUSING NEWS

JANUARY 1978 VOL. 3 NO.1
LEVENTHAL APPOINTED
NEW HPD COMMISSIONER
KRA VITZ, A PLANNER,
IS DIRECTOR OF ANHD
Alan Kravitz
Alan S. Kravitz, a planner and coordipator of urban studies at the
State University of New York College at Purchase, has been appointed
executive director of the Association of Neighborhood Housing Developers.
The announcement of Kravitz's selection, effective Jan. 23, was made
by Margaret McNeill,president of ANHD and director of the West Harlem
Community Organization.
In addition to teaching, Kravitz, 35, has served as a consultant to
several community-based housing organizations.
He is co-author of a forthcoming book, A Critical Ecology of Urban
Life, advocating decentralization and the development of a wide range of
neighborhood institutions. Among his other writings is a recent essay, sub-
mitted for inclusion in a House of Representatives subcommittee report, on
the negative effects of "planned shrinkage" of cities.
continued on page 12
SURPRISE CHOICE
by Susan Baldwin
Nathan Leventhal, a lawyer
who at 34 has already seen several
brief tours of duty in government,
has been appointed Commissioner
of New York City's Department of
Housing Preservation and Develop-
ment(HPD).
Mayor Edward I. Koch an-
nounced the surprise appointment
January 13, subject to clearance
from the Department of Investiga-
tion, at the end of his second week
in office.
The new administration was
under mounting pressure from
housing activists and tenants with-
out heat in the bitter cold of winter
to choose its top official. They were
concerned about the steady decline
of city housing and services as well
as the impact of the City's fourth-
year Community Development
application.
As former Mayor John V. Lind-
say's Rent and Housing Mainten-
ance Commissioner in 1972-73,
Leventhal was credited with speed-
ing up implementation of the Maxi-
mum Base Rent (MBR) law, inaugu-
rating the city's low income coop-
erative conversion program, and
supervising the transition to the new
housing court enforcement system.
continued on page 9
Community Credit Unions Seek
by Susan Baldwin
Redlining-a hard fact of life, like the midwinter
flu, for the people fighting to save low and moderate
income housing in the inner city.
"Teach Your Dollars to Have More Cents." This
motto is a kind of medicine of the future being tested
today all over the nation by Community Development
Credit Unions (CDCU's) to combat the widespread
disinvestment in inner-city housing by the savings banks
and savings and loan institutions.
The medicine, in the form of the accumulated sav-
ings of the residents of low income neighborhoods, can
work to save housing, says James N. Clark, executive
director of the National Federation of CDCU's, but
only if credit unions' mortgage loans are introduced
into the neighborhoods as part of a comprehensive pro-
gram devised and supported by a wide range of public
and private agencies.
Clark, who works out of the federation's national
headquarters in Brooklyn, spoke to CITY LIMITS in
mid-January in the wake of recent Congressional legis-
lation permitting the federally-chartered CDCU's to
make 30-year mortgage loans. The previous limit was
ten years.
For the 4OO-odd CDCU's, of which there are three
in New York City, having the right to make 30-year
mortgage loans "demands that the CDCU's become
more organized," says Clark. "They must learn how to
lobby and be ready to go to court" to defend themselves
against the attacks of other savings and lending institu-
tions which object to the CDCU's tax-free status and
the 12% limit mandated by law on the interest they
charge to their members.
CDCU's are part of a large and growing national
credit union movement. For the most part an outgrowth
of the 1960's Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO)
programs, they are important to the residents and
businesses of low income city neighborhoods because
often they provide the only accessible savings and credit
mechanism to generate vital community development
activities at less than usurious cost.
CDCU's differ from traditional credit unions in
that their charters do not require that members be
bound by some common association, such as church
membership or place of employment, but only that
they be residents of the same community and in need of
financial help.
The president of the National Federation of
CDCU's is Adolfo G. Ahtyon. He sat recently in the
organization's temporary Brooklyn headquarters, read-
ing the applications for membership that came in the
2
day's mail, and talked about the future of CDCU's in
low income neighborhoods. "You know," he told a
visitor, "I really do think we'll make it."
The federation, whose stationery bears the dollar-
and-cents-wise motto, is three years old this month.
"I got involved with this national movement quite by
accident," Alayon continued. "It was 1971, and a
number of us who had experience in the federal govern-
ment's OEO credit unions were meeting in Washington
trying to figure out what to do since [President] Nixon
had impounded all the neighborhood money. I said
this was a political problem, and the next thing I knew,
I was the head of a political action committee that
finally grew into the national federation. "
Alayon and other credit unions' representatives
volunteered the year-and-a-half that it took, beginning
in 1975, to do a low -income credit union feasibility
study. Last April they won a $72,000 demonstration
grant from the Community Services Administration
(CSA) to underwrite the national staff's salaries.
"Weare writing up a proposal right now based on
the feasibility study," said Alayon. "We hope to re-
ceive a $20 million CSA grant, possibly by this sum-
mer," he added, which the federation would use to
support from 150 to 200 new CDCU's around the
country. He noted that, even if the $20 million is not
forthcoming, the federation has been promised $2 mil-
lion to continue its current work, with which it will be
able to help about 20 new CDCU's.
Alayon is the president of CABS-Consumer
Action Program for Bedford-Stuyvesant-which, with
three other New York City CDCU's known as the "New
York Four," gave early leadership to the national move-
ment. Of the three local CDCU's in operation today,
CABS, originally a federal demonstration program
funded by OEO, has 3,200 members and between
$800,000 and $900,000 in assets. The Lower East Side
Federal Credit Union (LESFCU), another product of
the OEO years, has 1,800 members and assets of about
$500,000. The third, East Harlem's Union Settlement
Federal Credit Union, was chartered in 1957 with
meager staff contributions gleaned from a friendly
poker game. Today it lists more than 1,300 members
and assets of $1.2 million.
A fourth member of the "New York Four," the
Manhattan Economic Development Credit Union, was
placed in involuntary liquidation by the federal govern-
ment last fall after four years' operation under the juris-
diction of the Mid-West Side Community Corporation.
"It's not easy to run a credit union in a poor neigh-
$$$ Freedom For Poor People
borhood such as ours," says Cecilio Fernandez, a
member of CABS' board of directors. "You have to
absorb more losses than you would if you were in a
better neighborhood. The main point we have to keep
in mind is that we are providing a service for a large
group of people who have no other place to go to
borrow money, and that we are offering interest rates
comparable with any bank's."
What are the factors that draw to the COCU's the
members who help them survive the hazards of limited
capitalization and the hostility of competing financial
institutions? An ongoing study, done for the federation
by the research division of the Credit Union National
Association (CUNA), and updated to 1976, provides the
following answers:
"(1) For many members the credit union is the only
source of consumer credit;
"(2) Loans at credit unions generally may be ob-
tained at lower rates than those available from other
financial institutions, and in the case of COCU's, the
rate differentials are likely to be more pronounced than
for other credit unions;
"(3) The income generated from the loans tends to
stay in the community in the form of dividends, reserves
and salaries, rather than accrue to outside lenders;
"(4) Financial counseling and consumer education
services have helped members better understand the use
of credit and more wisely utilize their limited financial
resources; and
"(5) Savings have stayed in the community and
have been recycled through loans."
The study, which reports the responses of slightly
less than half the 400 COCU's, reveals that the respon-
dents have granted a total of about $440 million in loans
to members since 1971, and that members pay about
$4.4 million less in inttrest each year than they would
pay to traditional fin 1 institutions.
Commenting r on the early days of his credit
union, Eugene anager of Union Settlement,
said, "It was a staff credit union (of the
Union Settlement House), operating a few hours per
week with limited assets and knowledge. In 1963, a
full-time treasurer was made available by the parent
organization; trust and assets began to grow and mem-
bership was slowly opened to the community.
"Those in good standing had to vouch for the
integrity of those they were recommending for member-
ship," Sklar continued. "Those on welfare were granted
an initial loan maximum of $100 which, upon good
experience, could slowly grow to $250. And so, the
board struggled with whether we were social workers or
bankers before deciding we were benevolent bankers
and sending recalcitrant borrowers off to the collection
agency."
Screening of would-be members is a key to stability,
all New York COCU's agree. "We want to help every-
one who needs help," said the federation's Alayon, who
still works for CABS, "but this can become a big prob-
lem if it is not adequately controlled. If you just accept
members off the street, you'll get rip-off artists who
travel around the city joining credit unions. You have to
monitor the membership and you have to watch that
continued on page 18
Reprinted/rom the Santa Cruz (Calij.) Community Credit Newsletter.
3
CAREY ASKS $5 MILLION
FOR NEIGHBORHOODS PROGRAM
Gov. Hugh Carey has proposed a $5 million
appropriation for the neighborhood preservation
program, a ten-fold increase over the current
budget.
Carey requested the increased funding in his
executive budget for 1978-79. The State Legisla-
ture must adopt the budget by March 31 for the
fiscal year beginning April 1.
The State Division of Housing and Com-
munity Renewal has been flooded with applica-
tions from community-based housing organiza-
tions for funding under the new neighborhood
preservation program.
More than 100 groups from all over New York
State applied for grants totaling $7.2 million, a
DHCR spokesman said. The program has $500,000.
The response was so much greater than anti-
cipated that the administrators of the program
have asked for additional help.
DHCR is hoping to complete its evaluation of
the applications and make final decisions by
Feb. 1. The spokesman declined to predict how
many groups would be funded.
The new law permits community-based hous-
ing organizations to contract with DHCR for
grants to cover their operating expenses. The con-
tracts are renewable up to three years.
Approximately $350,000 is expected to go to
New York City groups and $150,000 to groups in
upstate New York.
Organizations that are not selected this time
will be eligible for the next round of funding,
scheduled for next spring after the new state
budget has been approved. _
KOCH PLEDGES
ERP SPEED-UP
Mayor Edward I. Koch and Deputy Mayor
Herman Badillo announced this month the imple-
mentation of a "speed-up" formula in the Emer-
gency Repair Program (ERP) that would insure
earlier inspections of no-heat buildings and pro-
vide for more timely payment of verified repair
bills submitted by private contractors.
"Our goal," the Mayor said, "is to encourage
small repair contractors to work for ERP, knowing
that they will not have to wait months before they
are paid-months that they can't afford to wait."
Noting past delays in City payment to small
fuel service contractors, Koch stressed that,
under the new program, contractors with legiti-
mate bills would be paid within a 12-day period.
The Mayor has also authorized overtime pay
for ERP employees whenever prolonged or severe
cold weather increases the backlog of unan-
swered tenant requests for no-heat inspections
beyond the normal range of one or two working
days. .
4
ERP can provide regular fuel delivery and
boiler repair to multiple dwellings where the ten-
ants agree to pay their rents directly to the City
rather than to landlords who conSistently fail to
provide heat. For further information, call: Ray-
mond O'Connor, Director of Recoupment, ERP,
125 Church Street, N.Y.C. 10007; telephone, (212)
566-1044.
In a related matter, Mayor Koch said he is
preparing an executive order that would allow
the City to issue a vacate order to tenants in land-
lord-abandoned or City-owned under-occupied
multiple dwellings, with the idea of relocating
these tenants to a "safe and warm building, rather
than spend tens of thousands of federal dollars to
bring heat" to such dwellings.
"The City does have a right to relocate these
tenants," Koch explained, noting that such a
course would be taken only for buildings "not
in a prescribed treatment program." _
,
"
ANTI-RECLINE COALITION WINS BANKING HEARING
The New York State Banking Department,
responding to pressure from a coalition of anti-
redlining groups, has scheduled a public hearing
Jan. 25 on proposed regulations governing bank
mergers and new branches.
Superintendent Muriel Siebert agreed to the
hearing after meeting Dec. 6 with more than 60
representatives of anti-redlining community
groups who assembled at her office at the World
Trade Center.
Herb Steiner, chairperson of South Brooklyn
Against Investment Discrimination, told Siebert
the coalition members were concerned that they
had not been consulted while the regulations were
being drafted.
"We feel that when the new regulations were
proposed, we were not made part of that," Steiner
said. "We wish that there had been some outreach
to call our people in so that your staff could have
gotten the results of our ideas."
Siebert at first suggested that they submit
their views in writing. When the group rejected
that as inadequate, she consulted briefly with her
aides and said, "I see no problem. I will be de-
lighted to give you public hearings."
The hearing will be held at Union Temple,
17 Eastern Parkway near Grand Army Plaza in
Brooklyn, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The proposed regulations concern interpreta-
tion of the "public convenience and advantage"
criteria that banks are supposed to satisfy in order
to merge, to open new branches or to close old
branches.
As drafted, the regulations would require the
Superintendent and the Banking Board to con-
sider "whether the applicant has taken steps to
ensure that all applications for credit received in
its existing facilities in this State, as well as in
the proposed facility, are considered on their
merits."
Anti-redlining community groups want
stronger regulations to require that banks show a
significant volume of investment and active ad-
vertising in older urban neighborhoods they are
supposed to be serviCing before being allowed to
open branches in newer suburban communities.
The meeting with Siebert was unexpected.
The entire State Banking Board was scheduled to
meet that day and a spokesman had already told
the coalition that the meeting would be closed.
The group planned to distribute leaflets.
When they arrived at the World Trade Center
they learned that the board meeting had been can-
celed due to an Upstate snowstorm. The group
then decided to demand a meeting with Siebert.
The request was denied at first, then granted when
the anti-redlining delegation made it clear they
were not gOing to leave the office without a
meeting.
In addition to South Brooklyn AID, organiza-
tions represented at the meeting included the
Greenpoint-Williamsburg Committee on Redlin-
ing, several Bank on Brooklyn groups and the
Reinvestment Committee of the Northwest Bronx
Community & Clergy Coalition. _
Members of the citywide anti-redJining coalition packed the confer- Herb Steiner, chairperson of South Brooklyn Against Investment
ence room of the New York State Banking Department. Standing is Discrimination.
s
C<O>IDl1IlImer"",f armer:
A 1HI <0> 1IlI i IDl g f <0> 1IlI IDl J aft i <0> IDl
by Bernard Cohen
Construction at the sweat equity project on East
11 th Street was at a standstill. The latest phase of work
was finished. Requisitions totalling $12,000 had been
submitted to the city. And meanwhile there was no
money to buy new materials. A day went by; two days,
a week. And still no check from the city.
Cash flow has not been an uncommon problem in
a city system where processing requisitions from sweat
equity sites has been slow and loan money paid only
after the job was finished. There was no telling how
much longer the wait for reimbursement would be.
Frustrated at the idleness of the project, Michael
Freedberg of the East 11 th Street Housing Movement
turned to a reliable source-the Consumer-Farmer
Foundation.
"So what's the problem? Meyer Parodneck, the
foundation's president, said he told Freedberg. "I said,
'Mike, what's the requisition for?'"
"$12,000."
"Come up and get a check. "
That is the kind of timely service that has made the
foundation a pivotal part of the self-help housing
rehabilitation movement in New York City. It has been
a unique resource for community-based housing organi-
zations, providing them with infusions of cash to tide
them over while they waited for other loans that move
through slower pipelines.
In four years, the Consumer-Farmer Foundation
has given loans totalling $200,000 to $300,000 for more
than 60 housing rehabilitation projects. It has backed
every single low-income sweat equity project in the city.
Interest-free foundation seed money loans have
enabled groups to purchase equipment and supplies,
pay architectural, legal, insurance and other preliminary
fees and begin actual work on a building even before
they can start drawing on construction loans.
As in the case of East 11 th Street, foundation loans
have also come to the rescue with financing so
that construction was not held up due to cash flow prob-
lems that result sometimes because of the city's slow
rate of processing expense vouchers.
There is widespread agreement among community
housing sponsors that without these loans, not only
would sweat equity and other forms of self-help housing
rehabilitation throughout New York City have sput-
tered, but the growth of many neighborhood-based
housing organizations would have been stunted.
"Their support has been extremely vital," said
Ramon Rueda, director of the People's Development
Corp., which has received seed money loans of $55,000
from the foundation for housing rehabilitation in the
e
Melrose-Morrisania area of the South Bronx. "Without
their assistance, the chances of our developing into the
organization we are is doubtful," Rueda said.
The Manhattan Valley Development Corp. bor-
rowed $1,300 to obtain insurance that was a prerequisite
for closing the mortgage loan on two buildings slated to
become low-income cooperatives. MVDC also borrowed
$5,000 to pay for architectural services prior to closing
the loan on a third building.
"We have received the most wonderful cooperation
and response from the foundation," said Leah Schneider
of MVDC. "I think they're the only place in the city we
can count on for an immediate response. "
If Consumer-Farmer is an unlikely name for an
organization dedicated to housing, it is because from
1937 until 1971 it functioned as a milk cooperative,
providing consumers with a saving of to a quart.
At the time the cooperative was organized, the
principal source of milk in the city was doorstep delivery
and "ma and pa" neighborhood stores. Because
mechanical cooling was in its infancy and transporta-
tion limited, dairy farmers had to do business with the
milk company with a nearby receiving station.
To liberate the farmer from the grip of the milk
monopoly, the Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative
Inc. was formed to process, market and distribute milk.
Farmers, many of them with small operations, became
the members. Processing plants were purchased in New
York and New Jersey. At its peak, the cooperative had
72 distributing stations, all located in New York City's
poorest neighborhoods.
By 1970, technology had so changed the dairy busi-
ness that the social purpose of the cooperative was no
longer relevant. Milk stored in bulk on the farm was
being pumped into tanks for easy transport. The farmer
now had a choice of markets. Neighborhood groceries
which had been responsive to local consumer groups
were displaced by large supermarkets owned by large
corporate chains. The number of distribution stations
was down to 32 and many were plagued by theft and
vandalism.
The economics of farming was changed as well.
The number of separate farms was declining but the
size of the remaining ones was growing.
"By 1970, we were dealing with a bunch of million-
aires," said Parodneck. While it took 90 farms to
produce 500 4O-quart cans in 1946, 15 farms were
producing the same amount in 1970, he added.
"It was getting to the point where all we were doing
was making money. It wasn't very inspiring," Parod-
neck said. "The social objective was frustrated so we
.j
.. '
;.
....
went back to our origins-serving the consumer at the
point of greatest need. "
If nutrition was a paramount consumer need of the
1930s, shelter was seen as the consumer issue of the
1970s.
"We felt that the poor could do more to supply
themselves and to influence the supply of shelter than
they had been doing," Parodneck said. "The practice
was always to have somebody doing things for people.
I never liked that. If you want to do something I'll help
you. I won't do it for you."
In 1971, the Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative,
Inc. terminatc::d its activities. Its assets were liquidated
and $1 million was turned over to the new Consumer-
Farmer Foundation Inc.
In addition to the East 11 th Street Housing Move-
ment and MVDC, Consumer-Farmer has also given
loans to the Oceanhill-Brownsville Tenants Association,
the Renigades Housing Movement, United Harlem
Growth and the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood.
Philip St. Georges, director of the Urban Home-
steading Assistance Board, called the foundation
"totally essential" to the housing movement and said
its loans had smoked the city out on supporting self-
help housing efforts.
"The foundation was willing to take the risk with
money at a point where the government was wavering
and even negative about whether to do a project," St.
Georges said. The foundation's commitment, he added,
served as leverage to prod the city into approving loans
to community groups.
Getting a loan from the foundation means passing
the test of dedication.
"My standards are strictly subjective and per-
sonal, " Parodneck said. "What is the dedication of the
people to the project? What sacrifices are they prepared
to make to make the project succeed?
"If a group has lived without heat or hot water,
in a building with boarded-up windows, and withstood
the invasion of addicts-these people have a lot of
conviction. "
That is not to say that Parodneck, a lawyer who
knows real estate, or his longtime assistant, Martin
Young, are soft touches. By all accounts, their standards
of competence and fiscal responsibility are rigorous,
and a group whose other financing is not in place,
whose other legal obligations have not been met or
whose internal structure is shaky should not be opti-
mistic about getting a loan.
"He has taken me to the ropes twice as to the
wisdom of the economics of expanding and the impact
of the seed money," Rueda said. "He is very, very
tough. "
Jim Harris, who negotiated a loan for Los Sures in
Brooklyn, said Parodneck "brings a mature and experi-
enced business-like attitude" to the issue of financing
housing rehabilitation. He said the foundation turned
7
Meyer Parodneck
down Los Sures's first request for a loan because the
group had not gotten its other loan commitments. " He
is hard-nosed about money and hard-nosed about
personal honor," Harris said. "It is a refreshing
combination. "
Unlike most creditors, Parodneck seems to have
the genuine admiration and affection of those who have
borrowed money from him. It is a debt that appears to
go well beyond money.
Parodneck in turn gives the groups high marks for
fiscal integrity and honesty. "Oh, we've had some losses
(he estimated $80,000) and we have some loans on the
books I am quite sure will never be collected. But that's
all right. Those are risks we expect to take. "
One concern that he expressed was the slow rate at
which some of the interest-free loans are paid back.
"We have to find a better formula," he said, adding
that he was considering applying a penalty as an incen-
tive for more timely payments.
Parodneck was sharply critical of the city's housing
agency (Housing Preservation and Development), call-
ing it "an extremely incompetent" department. He also
disapproved of the city's participation loan program,
which carries a five to six per cent interest charge, but
admitted he may be a little old fashioned. '
"The trouble with me is I'm too old. To me five per
cent is a lot of money. It's a high interest rate and $40-a-
room is prohibitive, a luxury rent. .. "
He predicted that there will be a need for a long
time to come for the kind of service the Consumer-
Farmer Foundation supplies. "There's plenty of room
in this field that public funds will never supply," he
said. "The bureaucracy is slow moving. It has to creep.".
,
City-Owned Buildings:
The New Issue of 1978
by Philip St. Georges
With the many wishes of Happy New Year! only
recently fading, housing activists around the City are
returning from the holiday season to discover a grim
new issue in 1978: more City-owned buildings than
ever before. And more City-owned buildings than
imaginable.
Examine these facts:
No. of Current City-Owned Properties 6,000
No. of Properties Actually In Rem Tax
Foreclosure by the City of New York
(Staten Island, Bronx, Manhattan) 13,800
Upcoming Brooklyn In Rem
Foreclosure 12,000 - 15,000
Total Possible City-owned Property
in 1978 31,800 - 34,800
Approximate No. of Dwelling Units
(x7d.u. average) 222,600 -243,600
These figures have been supplied by the City's own
Corporation Counsel, In Rem Foreclosure unit. They
are the result of several years of maneuvering within
City Hall and the City Council over passage and imple-
mentation of the new In Rem tax foreclosure law.
The "old law" had enabled the City of New York
to foreclose upon any owner of private property who
was three years or more behind in the payment of real
estate taxes. The controversial "new law" changed this
allowable arrearage time period to one year or more
(excepting one- and two-family homes).
The rationale for this change had been that the
new law would enable the City to prosecute delinquent
property owners more rapidly, thereby insuring a timely
flow of needed tax revenues into a hard pressed City
treasury. The result appears to have been the opposite-
owners are throwing in the towel en masse and walking
away from properties already hard hit by the inflation
of oil, insurance and utilities costs and the disinvestment
of mortgage and insurance lenders. Inflation and red-
lining started abandonment. The new In Rem law
appears to have brought abandonment to newall-time
high levels, in more neighborhoods than ever before.
8
The unfortunate result for community organiza-
tions and housing activists all around the City is clear.
The greatest slumlord in the City of New York, The
Department of Real Property (formerly the Dept. of
Real Estate) will drastically increase its already secure
position as largest owner and worst maintainer of hous-
ing in New York City. The same 60 managers who are
now incapable of managing 6,000 properties (IOO prop-
erties per person) will now try their skills upon 534
properties per person, or nearly 3,800 units of housing
per manager!
This bleak pictur.e is made worse by the continuing
inability of the Department of Housing Preservation
and Development (HPD) to gear-up any effective pro-
grammatic or development alternatives utilizing Com-
munity Development Block Grant Funds. As of this
writing, only the Community Management Program,
managing approximately 2,000 units of currently city-
owned housing, shows any promise of coping with the
problems. Direct Sales (I-Title Transfer), Participation
Loans (6 buildings closed), receivership, et al. remain
ineffective and mired in bureaucratic quagmires.
So welcome to the New Year! Whole neighbor-
hoods are collapsing and coming up for auction by the
City. Rehabilitation mortgages and property insurance
of any sort are totally unavailable from the private
market. City programmatic alternatives seem not to
exist. And no one knows quite what to do.
Barring a sudden change in the In Rem foreclosure
law by the City Council liberalizing the ability of owners
to redeem their properties from tax foreclosure, 1978
will be the year of City-owned buildings. And while it is
still too early to determine the response of community
planning boards and community housing organizations,
the key new alternatives seem to be land banking and
Public Housing Authority intervention. And of course,
organizing. Because in the end, the City will always
find it easier to sell buildings for short term financial
gains than to deal effectively with the long term prob-
lems of community revitalization. So we must stop
them, again.
Philip St. Georges is director oj the Urban Homestead-
ing Assistance Board.
HPD continlled
Reached at his home on the weekend following his
appointment, Leventhal said he had never applied for
the HPD job nor submitted his resume to Koch. "I was
not in the job market," he asserted.
Leventhal went on, "Every four years I've had
feelings about getting involved in a city agency, and
sometimes this results in getting into hot water too."
As to the needs of the city's low income neigh-
borhoods, Leventhal said, "When I was Rent Commis-
sioner, I did as much as I could for low -income people.
I was familiar with the sweat equity program, and within
that context, we did as much as we could."
Natba. LenDthal
To many observers in the neighborhood housing
movement, their surprise that the choice was one whom
most "insiders" had not predicted was matched by their
relief that Leventhal has a reputation for being alert
to the housing needs of low and moderate income
people.
"It's a wonderful appointment," said Philip St.
Georges, director of the Urban Homesteading Assist-
ance Board (U-HAB). "I worked with him when he was
rent commissioner and found him to be a highly
competent administrator as well as sensitive to new ideas
and the potential of community organizations to build. "
Many others, however, said they did not know
Leventhal but that, on the surface,he sounded accept-
able. And several housing activists noted that it had
been four years since he played an active role in city
housing. One observer said Leventhal's current weak-
nesses lay in the areas of community development and
specific programs for low .. income housing, but added,
"I'm not worried."
Margaret McNeill, president of the Association of
Neighborhood Housing Developers (ANHD), said,
"Most people know very little about him," adding
that she would have preferred someone more familiar
with the housing programs of the neighborhood organi-
zations and someone who has a tie with the federal
government to get more funding for New York City.
McNeill was a member of a citizens' search com-
mittee co-chaired by Clara Fox, executive director of
United Neighborhood Houses, and architect David
Castro-Blanco. Early in December, this committee
submitted a long list of recommendations on the HPD
commissionership to the Koch transition team. This
list did not include Leventhal's name.
Commenting on Leventhal's appointment, Fox
said, "IL came as a total surprise to everyone in the
housing field. This name had never appeared on any
of the lists.
"Our committee," Fox continued, "was merely
a search and outreach committee. The Mayor-elect
made it very clear that he would make the final decision
himself. He did interview the people on our list and a
few others.
"To be perfectly honest, I don't know Leventhal,"
Fox added, "but, from those who knew him [in the
Lindsay administration], the reaction I got was fairly
positive. "
The new Commissioner will face several demands
from the housing movement. Among these are improve-
ments in the implementation of the participation loan
program; continuation and expansion of the community
management program; more equitable allocation and
speedier application of the Community Development
funds; an effective approach to the problems of emer-
gency repair, arson, building seal-up and demolition;
and a more effective bureaucracy at HPD.
A member of the Koch transition team who asked
not to be named told CITY LIMITS in the first week of
the new administration, "There are going to be hard
times ahead. The Mayor will not throw out money to
groups just because the community is screaming."
According to this adviser, "The Mayor expects all
groups to be realistic in their requests. Just as the Mayor
plans to be tough with the unions, the same applies
here," he predicted. "I think he means what he says.
He's going to be a tough Mayor."
The Koch administration has also indicated that no
single official in the Mayor's office will have authority
over housing . .
Alluding to this administrative decision, Leventhal
said, "I don't see any problem here. [Deputy Mayor]
Herman Badillo will be very active in this area of con-
cern, and already has been. We hope to show that this
concern is translated into action. . . I am sure that
[Deputy Mayor] David Brown will also have some hous-
ing positions to make known. "
Commissioner-designate Leventhal refused com-
ment on current HPD programs until his appointment
was cleared, but he did stress the importance to the
city's housing effort of making public specific, timely,
and accurate data on federally -assisted housing pro-
grams. "No one is ever sure of the numbers," he said.
"I ran into that problem in the Lindsay days, but I'm a
'numbers' man, and I don't like that kind of ambiguity.
I think there should be a clear accounting."
[See story on Section 8 Housing Assistance, Page 12 ]
Commissioner-designate Leventhal's appointment
met with wide approval from area housing officials.
Thomas Appleby, who resigned last September as
head of the city's Housing and Development Admini-
stration to become regional administratof of the federal
Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), said of Leventhal, "I think it's a good appoint-
ment. He has background in the department. I'm sure
other officials will have something to say about the
office and the appointment. "
Daniel Joy heads HPD's Office of Rent and Hous-
ing Maintenance; the position Leventhal once held. Joy
said, "I worked with Leventhal in the Lindsay admini-
stration, and, during that period, I acquired a great deal
of respect for his administrative skills and abilities."
Another HPD official, Deputy Commissioner Carl
Callender of the Division of Evaluation and Compli-
ance, said of Leventhal's new job, "Sensitivity is the
key word, and I believe he will bring in people who are
sensitive to the needs of our communities.
" The best test of the new leadership," Callender
asserted, will be the people Leventhal puts around him
at HPD. "I think he'll be firm enough to fire me if I'm
not doing my job. Mayor Koch has said he expects his
commissioners to do a good job, and, if not, they'll
have to go. That's an incentive to do a good job. "
Referring to the new Commissioner-designate,
housing official Alexander Garvin said, "I feel Nat is
going to be an excellent Commissioner. He is energetic,
committed to getting things done, and interested in
seeing that the city's housing stock improves. He is
committed to rehabilitation. He always was, and that's
not going to be a battle. " Garvin, Deputy Commissioner
in charge of Rehabilitation and Neighborhood Preserva-
tion, also noted, "He is a bright, capable, shrewd man. "
Another view of the new Commissioner, as he
awaited word of his clearance, came from tenant leader
Jane Benedict of the Metropolitan Council on Housing.
"I'm hard boiled," she acknowledged, "and I
don't think the housing policies of the city are going to
be changed by Nat Leventhal. Housing should be for
10
people, rather than for the banking and real estate
interests. If Nat Leventhal can turn this around, that
will be fine, but I don't think he can. Housing policy is
not made by the Commissioner, but by the City Admini-
stration" she concluded, "and I haven't seen any policy
change in the new administration. "
Prior to his service as Rent and Housing Mainten-
ance Commissioner, Leventhal worked from 1967-69 on
the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
adjusting cases of alleged discrimination in employment.
From 1969-70, he was fiscal director of the City's
Human Resources Administration; from then until
1972, he was assistant to the mayor, acting as liaison to
City agencies.
When his service as Rent and Housing Maintenance
Commissioner ended in 1973, Leventhal served briefly
as special counsel to a U.S. Senate subcommittee on
administrative practice ~ n d procedure, and entered
private law practice in 1974. He is a public member of
the New York City Bar Association Committee on
Housing and Urban Development.
Leventhal was graduated in 1966 from Columbia
University Law School, where -he was editor-in-chief of
the Law Review from 1965-66.
Leventhal is single and lives in Manhattan. His
salary will be $54,000.
Last summer, Leventhal wrote a letter that was
helpful to a coalition of tenant groups who waged a
successful campaign to repeal a Beame administration
"labor cost pass-along" rent increase. The coalition
contended that the city was letting landlords use a con-
fusing section of the rent regulations (Section 33.8) to
demand exorbitant rent increases in the guise of mere
"pass-alongs" of higher labor costs.
Leventhal's letter, according to William Rowen,
treasurer of the Coalition Against Rent Increase Pass-
Alongs (CARIP), sided with the coalition's interpreta-
tion that Section 33.8 of the MBR (Maximum Base
Rent) law never intended rent - increases beyond the
yearly 7.5 per cent.
CARIP submitted the letter at a City Council hear-
ing on the pass-along issue last September. "It was
effective,"'Rowen said in helping to win the repeal.
~
JOBS PROGRAM FOR 38 NONPROFITS
GETTING UNDER WAY DESPITE SNAGS
The CET A Title VI contract, providing 375 jobs
for 38 community-based organizations, is moving
ahead with approval last month by the Board of
Est imate and a decision by the groups to sign it
despite serious problems with the recruitment
procedure.
Margaret McNeill, president of the Associa-
tion of Neighborhood Housing Developers, the
umbrella organization, signed the contract Jan. 19.
The Emergency Financial Control Board was ex-
pected to give its approval soon.
Passage of the $4.4 million program by the
Board of Estimate on Dec. 1 marked a major vic-
tory for the 38 organizations. The contract in-
includes more than $155,000 in administrative
funds budgeted for use by the local groups to
partially defray expenses of their one-year public
service contracts.
Interviews at the local organizations for the
375 jobs are set for the end of January.
One of the major controversies surrounding
the Title VI program has been the design of an
enrollee recruitment procedure. The city's original
plan was to fill all Title VI jobs by a citywide
referral process involving neighborhood man-
power service centers, the New York State Em-
ployment Service and the Department of Social
Services.
This system was strongly opposed by com-
munity-based organizations involved in the
11
program since it precluded the recruitment of
unemployed neighborhood residents by the local
groups. Since September, a citywide coalition of
Title VI nonprofit sponsors has been negotiating
with the city and federal officials for redesign of
the hiring system.
In December, the outgoing Beame admini-
stration issued a revised recruitment plan permit-
ting nonprofit Title VI organizations to fill 15 per
cent of their allotted jobs through local advertise-
ment, interviewing and hiring-bypassing the
established referral sources. The remaining 85 per
cent of the slots are to be filled through the
standard recruiting system. The city's Department
of Employment insists that its established referral
agencies are capable of locating well-qualified
individuals for the positions.
At a general meeting of ANHD umbrella parti-
cipants on Jan. 13, serious doubts were expressed
as to the capacity of the referral agencies to match
applicants to Title VI job descriptions.
However, in order to prevent further delay of
the program's implementation and in view of the
fact that the city has agreed to permit groups to
request neighborhood residents for all positions,
the Title VI groups voted to begin recruitment and
hiring under the city's conditions.
However, the groups also resolved to closely
monitor and evaluate their progress under this
system and halt its use by the ANHD umbrella if
serious problems arise. _
KTtlVin collJillued
Kravitz joined the faculty of SUNY -College of
Purchase in September, 1976. Prior to that he taught at
Ramapo College in New Jersey, New York University,
Hunter College, College of New Rochelle and the
University of North Carolina.
Between 1968 and 1976, he served as a housing and
planning consultant to the Coalition for Human Hous-
ing and Pueblo Nuevo Housing and Development
Association on the Lower East Side and the Clinton
Planning Council-Save Clinton Committee.
As consultant he conducted studies for these .
organizations and provided assistance for a wide range :
of projects from selection of public housing sites to
development of rehabilitation strategies to economic
development and building organizational bases.
He is currently a consultant for the Project on
Tenant Organization and Tenant Action at the Columbia
University Center for Policy Research.
Kravitz said strengthening the capability of com-
munity-based organizations and persuading policy
makers not to turn their backs on the city's poorest
neighborhoods were two critical issues of the moment.
"The groups that have been around for a while
have gotten a sense of how much they can get out of
the political process, what its limits are, how to play it,"
he said. "I think what they have to do now is really
strengthen their internal institutional capability and
they have to become to some extent financially inde-
pendent."
Convincing policy makers of the feasibility of
saving neighborhoods like Manhattan Valley, East
Harlem and the South Bronx will not be easy, he added,
because "there are a lot of people who are more pessi-
mistic about the city and therefore think it necessary to
write off those neighborhoods. "
An important role of ANHD, he continued, will be
"making it clear to policy makers that there is a viable
approach. . . that produces housing units, that begins
to stabilize things, that's appropriate to those neigh-
borhoods, and demonstrating the kinds of resources
that are required. It doesn't just happen. It happens
with a resource base. "
Calling himself a decentrist, Kravitz described the
efforts of community-based housing organizations as
"the cutting edge of change" and said, "I think that
the development of institutional capability at the neigh-
borhood level is the important thing. "
Kravitz is married and has two sons, Christopher,
8, and Matthew, 5. His wife Sara cooks parttime at the
Turning Point restaurant in Piermont, N. Y. and is the
food editor of the Rockland County magazine COll-
nection. They live in Nyack. _
12
SECTION 8:
THE NUMBERS GAME
Each y e a ~ at this time, people go looking for
specific information about the number of housing
units to be subsidized by Section 8 housing
assistance in the new year, only to find that these
figures are elusive. Getting them can make for the
most confusing "numbers game" in town.
CITY LIMITS spent the better part of a week
recently in calls and visits to the Department of
Housing Preservation and Development (HPD),
the Department of City Planning, and the area
office of the federal Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD), only to find that this
year's figures are still "tentative." According to
best estimates, however, New York City will be
allocated $66.5 million in Section 8 subsidies.
Section 8 wi II not apply to all of the 11,249
dwelling units (du's) that constitute the city's
housing program goals for fiscal 1978 (October 1,
1977 - September 30, 1978). Of this total, conven-
tional public housing financing (non-Section 8) is
planned for 1,059 du's of new construction and
850 du's of substantial rehabilitation.
Section 8 housing assistance will apply to
936 du's of new housing for the elderly (Sec. 202),
440 du's of new public housing, and 1,010 du's of
other government-financed and insured new con-
struction.
Substantial rehabilitation assisted by Section
8 will include 786 du's of housing for the elderly
(Sec. 202), 358 du's of public housing, and 1,300
du's of other government-financed and insured
rehabilitation.
In addition, the Housing Authority will certify
4,510 eligible families for Section 8 subsidies in
existing housing. _
With this issue, Susan Baldwin joins
CITY LIMITS as Assistant Editor. She has
covered housing, urban renewal, politics,
and education as a general assignment
reporter for the York (Pa.) Gazette and Daily,
the Quincy (Mass.) Patriot Ledger, the New
Haven (Conn.) Register, and the weekly West-
sider in Manhattan.
,
PHN AGAIN SPONSORS ORGANIZERS SCHOOL
The Peoples Housing Network will begin
another series of classes in its SCHOOL FOR
ORGANIZERS beginning Feb. 21.
Classes will be held every Tuesday evening
for 10 weeks.
Included among the topics offered will be:
starting a community organization, program
development, anti-redlining strategies, tenant
organizing, housing management and rehabilita-
tion programs and legislation dealing with neigh-
borhood issues.
Close to 200 people from more than 30 organi-
zations attended all or some of the classes at the
School last summer. These included staff and
leadership of community organizations, members
of tenant associations, students, members of
church groups, representatives from planning
boards, staff of service agencies, CET A workers
FACT BOOKS
"Fact Books" for each of New York City's
59 community districts are now available at the
Department of City Planning, Room 1616, 2 Lafa-
yette Street, Manhattan, Monday through Friday
from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Each 12-page "Fact Book" contains census
data, a district map, names and telephone num-
bers of elected officials and .the representatives to
the district service cabinet, and titles of relevant
publications of the City Planning Department. The
pamphlets include such information as median
years of school completed in each district, per-
centage of overcrowded housing units, and char-
acteristics of district households.
The fee for each booklet is 25 cents, if picked
up at 2 Lafayette Street, and 50 cents if mailed.
According to Victor Marrero, former chairman
of the City Planning Commission who as Chair-
man introduced the "Fact Books" last fall , they
are "the first part of the Department of City Plan-
ning's massive Community Portfolio project, a
new state-financed computer information system
to provide data on land use and local characteris-
tics of the city's 59 community districts."
13
and interested individuals.
The cost of 10 classes is $25 per student.
Individual classes are $3.00. Limited scholarships
and group discounts are available. Classes will be
held at the offices of the Association of Neighbor-
hood Housing Developers, 29 E. 22nd St., 10th
floor. All classes will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
To enroll or for further information contact:
Roger Hayes
Peoples Housing Network
29 E. 22nd St.
New York, New York 10010
(212) 533-5650
Special longer training programs (Le., day-
long or week-long) for new staff, CETA workers
or other individuals can be arranged if enough
people are interested. -
BOILER COURSE
Housing Conservation Coordinators (HCC)
will sponsor a second course in boiler-burner
maintenance-repair and energy conservation,
beginning January 24, at HCC' s Clinton head-
quarters, 404 West 48th Street, Manhattan.
Enrollment fee for the course is $10, and
classes will be limited to 20 students. HCC' s first
course ended January 3rd.
The schedule for course II is as follows: Jan-
uary 24, 26, and 31; February 7, 9, 14, 16,21, 23, and
28; March 2, 7, and 9. Graduation will take place
March 14. Each session runs for two hours, from
7 until 9 p.m.
Areas of instruction will include types and
structures of boilers and burners, boiler cleaning,
oil filter replacement, relay replacement, safety
mechanisms, radiator repair, and weatherization
techniques.
Certificates will be awarded to t he partici-
pants who successfully complete the course.
Anyone interested in the program should
send a $10 check or money order to Housing Con-
servation Coordinators, Boiler Course, 777 10th
Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10019.
Stay Tuned to WVMV Radio
Celeste Morales and Reinaldo Pacheco getting ready to go on the air.
It is about 10 minutes before air time and Celeste
Morales, wearing a pair of powder blue headphones, is
leaning into microphone #1. "This is WVMV com-
munity radio in Manhattan Valley on the air again,"
she says in a soft but steady voice.
Sitting next to her, Reinaldo Pacheco flips a switch
and slowly turns a dial, testing his voice in the mike.
"It should read between 80 and zero," advises George
Ruiz, the engineer, looking over their shoulders at the
needle. "It also depends on the person talking," adds
Celeste.
After a few more t$, the sound level is set and
before long the teenagers, at this tiny community-run
radio station are a program of music, local
news items and public service announcements.
WVMV is the new voice of Manhattan Valley, a
4O-square block area between 100th and 110th Streets,
Central Park West and Broadway on the Upper West
Side of Manhattan.
Except for some high-rise luxury apartments along
Central Park West and some surviving once-elegant
townhouses, the area is characterized by deteriorating
old law and new law and a 3,OOO-unit public
housing project. It is predominantly Hispanic and low-
income.
14
The radio station went on the air Dec. 13 after
more than a year of planning and work. (Then mayor-
elect Koch called that night to offer congratulations.)
The station's range is still small but its unique potential
to entertain, inform, train and bring the Manhattan
Valley community together is enormous, according to its
sponsors.
"This is going to take off," said Dan Mack, a
young Fordham University communications professor
who helped set up the radio station. "Radio is so simple
that people should be able to do it for themselves," he
said.
Mack sees the community-controlled station as a
necessary alternative to the conventional media. Not
only is WVMV a source of information that Manhattan
Valley's population cannot get from the big radio sta-
tions, Mack says, but it also places a powerful com-
munications tool into the hands of people who normally
have no access to the major broadcast institutions that
shape everyone's life.
The station's 5-watt signal, which is transmitted
through existing power lines, now reaches about 600
people in a two block area. Once inside a building,
the signal radiates for about 250 feet so that it can be
picked up on a portable radio as well as plug-in radio.
r
Cars passing through the blocks can also tune in. The
frequency is 590 on the AM dial.
Because WVMV does not use the airwaves, it is not
regulated by the Federal Communications Commission.
Sponsors hope to expand the reach of the radio
station to up to one-half of Manhattan Valley. That will
mean either buying additional transmitters (at $300 to
$400 each) or finding a way to shift to the airwaves with-
out falling under FCC jurisdiction.
WVMV's current broadcast schedule is 4 p.m. to
7 p.m. on Tuesday and Friday. Programming is still
being developed, but the station's goal is to mix music
with about 15 minutes every hour of discussion of hous-
ing, health, welfare and other issues of importance to
the neighborhood. -
At the moment, most of the programming is in
English. Organizers of the station discovered that many
of the Spanish-speaking residents of the community
read and write only in English. Celeste is serving as
translator at the station and a format that will include
more Spanish is being worked out.
Ann Schwalbach, director of Parents for Improved
Playgrounds, a co-sponsor of WVMV, said the idea for
the station was an outgrowth of the after-school
program sponsored by PIP. The organization got a
federal grant in 1976 for the broadcast equipment,
which includes a mixing board, turntable and several
tape recorders in addition to the transmitter. A tele-
phone connection enables listeners to call the station
and speak on the air.
The station has had to overcome a number of tech-
nical and logistical problems. Early on, when the station
was located in a church, the engineer discovered during
tests that the signal was being absorbed into the copper
roof of the building and going nowhere. Space has been
a continuing worry. Right now the station is broadcast-
15
ing from a cramped control room at the Manhattan
Valley Development Corp. (also a co-sponsor) at 931
Columbus Ave. The station plans to move soon to space
a few doors away in a building being rehabilitated by
MVDC. Equipment trouble knocked the station off the
air for about three weeks.
One of the things he learned from putting the
station together, Mack said, was how slowly things
move in a situation that depends on voluntary efforts.
"I was sure we would be set up in six months," he said.
To prepare for the station, Schwalbach asked com-
munity organizations to participate in programs and
Mack taught classes on operating the equipment.
The technical training was easy, Mack said, com-
pared with overcoming the conventional model of how
a broadcaster should sound and getting people to be
themselves.
"Everyone has a style and a personality that comes
out and everyone has a lot to contribute," he said.
"Community radio is different. You don't have to
sound great. "
At first, people were very shy about going on the
air. "In general they were taught you had to be smart,
handsome, witty and very articulate. But that was not
the purpose of the Communications Act of 1934, which
said the airwaves belong to the people. It took convinc-
ing people that they were legitimate just because they
had never been on radio before. "
Before long, the stage fright had melted. "I'm
always on the air," said Reinaldo, who admitted he had
been nervous at first. "I didn't want to go on." But
after some practice, "I got used to it."
What happens if he suddenly runs out of things to
say on the air? No problem. "I just give the key to the
engineer and he plays a record. "
NEIGHBORHOODS & WASHINGTON
by Bernard Cohen
WASHINGTON-The voice of the nation's neighbor-
hoods is beginning to be heard in that part of the Wash-
ington bureaucracy that is concerned with urban policy
and programs. Traditionally, mayors have spoken for
the cities and there is little doubt that they are still
regarded as the "legitimate" ambassadors of the
nation's urban centers. But there are also some signs
that neighborhoods are beginning to carve out a place
in the scheme of federal urban policy.
A recent trip through the federal maze turned up a
number of programs that seem to be targeted more at
neighborhoods than at City Hall. There is a new
assistant-secretary level office of neighborhoods ' at
HUD. Neighborhood issues are a compooent of Presi-
dent Carter's soon-to-be-announced domestic policy.
And Congress, recognizing that city neighborhoods
"are a national resource to be conserved and revi-
talized, " has created a national neighborhood com-
mission to identify ways of promoting their survival.
Many observers in Washington say all this con-
stitutes a beachhead, the modest beginning of a neigh-
borhood consciousness at the federal level, which they
attribute to better organization of neighborhoods and to
politics.
"I think the neighborhood issue is joined into this
government for political reasons," said Milton Kotler,
head of the National Association of Neighborhoods.
"The President was elected by a lot of grassroots sup-
port, blacks, working people, neighborhood people.
"Being in for political reasons means that the
bureaucracy looks at the neighborhood section of
government or the neighborhood commission with
great skepticism. "
Kotler said neighborhoods must build a "legitimate
foundation" stressing citizen responsibility and account-
ability.
What follows is a bag of programs and policies
that form an outline of the emerging role of the neigh-
borhoods in federal urban policy.
HUD - Msgr. Geno Baroni is the assistant secre-
tary for the new office of neighborhoods, voluntary
associations and consumer protection. Baroni is said by
insiders to have led the battle to target 75 percent of
Community Development Block Grant funds to low and
moderate income people. (The results of that battle will
be known when HUD releases fmal CD r.,egulations.)
URPG - President Carter last year named an inter-
agency Cabinet-level task force, called the Urban and
Regional Policy Group, to formulate a new national
urban policy. URPG was divided into several task
1
us
forces, one of which was on neighborhoods. The initial
drafts of the URPG's report recommended $25 million
in direct funding for experienced neighborhood develop-
ment organizations; $100 million for mini -grants (' 1 ,000
to $40,(00) to community groups for a wide range of
revitalization efforts; $25 million of CDBG funds set
aside for awards to city governments with concurrence
of local groups; training of local government officials
to work with neighborhood groups and revision of citi-
zen participation standards. Neighborhood-oriented
critics of the report said its thrust was rapid economic
revitalization of cities without proper concern for its
potential effects (displacement) on many of the people
who l i v ~ there. President Carter has rejected the report
on the grounds that it is program-oriented rather than
policy-oriented. It is being revised and the program
expenditure figures ar(:; expected to be dropped.
NATIONAL COMMISSION ON NEIGHBOR-
HOODS - A brand new commission created by Congress
to examine the effect on neighborhoods of federal,
state and local policies, programs, laws, public and
private investment, poverty and citizen initiated revitali-
zation efforts. The commission, which plans hearings
around the country, is charged with recommending
new ways of facilitating neighborhood preservation and
revitalization. It will have 20 members, including two
senators, two members of the House of Representatives
and 16 public members.
ACTION - Action is a federal agency that includes
VISTA and the Peace Corps. In a new shift, VISTA
volunteers are being assigned to neighborhood-based
organizations as well as state government and old-line
agencies. National VISTA grants are going to some 12
broad-based umbrellas of grass roots organizations.
LABOR - A $115 million youth employment pro-
gram of the Labor Department is aimed specifically at
neighborhood-based organizations. Created last August,
the Youth Community Conservation and Improvement
Projects program seeks to employ 22,600 youths, ages
16 to 19, in community-improvement projects, including
rehabilitation of housing. New York City received $3.8
million for the program.
JUSTICE - The Law Enforcement Assistance
Administration has a $15 million program to sponsor
crime prevention programs at the community level.
CSA - Community groups that 'want to do their
own building weatherization can apply to Operation
Open City's Self-Help Volunteer Labor Program, which
will pay for materials up to $125 a unit. The money
comes from the federal Community Services Admini-
stration through the city's Community Development,
Agency to Operation Open City.
CENSUS - The Census Bureau is developing plans
to provide substantial census data by neighborhood, a
first. Under the proposed program, the Bureau would
prepare guidelines and hold workshops on the use of the
statistical data. The chief elected official of the munici-
pality or the "central council" of neighborhoods would
submit a request indicating the blocks making up the
neighborhood for which the census information is
sought.
COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT OF 1977 -
The law contains a new provision that requires federal
supervisory agencies, such as the Home Loan Bank
Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,
to "take into account" the lending records of banks
CAREY NAMES MARRERO
TO STATE HOUSING POST
Victor Marrero, former chairman of the New
York City Planning CommisSion, was sworn in
Jan. 9 as commissioner of the state's Division of
Housing and Community Renewal.
The $47,800-a-year state housing job had
been vacant since last spring.
Marrero served as chairman of the Planning
Commission for two years. Mayor Koch replaced
him with Robert Wagner Jr.
Marrero, 36, previously served as assistant
counsel to Governor Carey and before that as
executive director of the Planning Commission,
district manager of the South Bronx Office of
Neighborhood Government and neighborhood
director of the Model Cities program in the Bronx.
Considered a leading contender for the
Democratic nomination for the CongreSSional
seat vacated by Deputy Mayor Herman Badillo,
Marrero withdrew from the race, reportedly in the
face of opposition to him by Badillo and Bronx
Borough President Robert Abrams.
17
when evaluating whether to grant bank applications for
new branches, mergers and consolidations.
URBAN REINVESTMENT TASK FORCE - The
task force, created in 1970, provides technical assistance
(and sometimes grants) to neighborhood groups to
encourage urban revitalization. Its method is to encour-
age increased urban lending by the savings and loan
industry. The program, it should be noted, is designed
to help declining but not severely blighted neighbor-
hoods. The task force credits its programs with stimu-
lating approximately $30 million in urban reinvestment
through 1977. A bill to establish a Neighborhood Rein-
vestment Corp., which would institutionalize and
expand the program of the task force, passed the Senate
last September. The House is expected to take up the bill
in the current session. -
WAGNER APPOINTED
Robert F. Wagner Jr., 34, has been appointed
chairman of the City Planning CommisSion, effec-
tive January 1,1978. His annual salary is $47,093.
Elected Manhattan Councilman-at-Iarge in -
1973, Wagner, a Democrat, ran in the November
election as a Republican-Liberal for Manhattan
Borough President and was defeated by Andrew
Stein.
An advocate of City Council reform, Wagner
received a 100 per cent voting record from the
New Democratic Coalition (NDC). He was gradu-
ated magna cum laude with a B.A. degree in 1965
from Harvard College, studied history as a Mar-
shall Scholar from 1965-67 at the University of
Sussex, England, and received an M.A. degree
from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs
at Princeton University where he was a Public
Affairs Fellow.
1n another appointment, Jolie Hammer, a
former deputy Manhattan borough president, was
named director of local government and com-
munity relations at the Department of City Plan-
ning. Her yearly salary is $36,437.
Hammer was former Manhattan Borough
President Percy Sutton's representative on the
Board of Estimate. Her duties as deputy borough
president included serving as community liaison
for Sutton's office. _
Credit Unions continued
people do not overspend," Alayon concluded.
The neighborhood residents who make up the
membership of the three New York CDCU's are for
the most part the working poor, welfare recipients or
persons living on meager social security Most
of the CDCU savings accounts they keep are very small.
When they cash payor benefit checks at the CDCU,
members are urged to deposit a small amount-perhaps
the fee they would have had to pay a commercial check
cashing service.
"In addition to cashing checks and encouraging
people to save, we also sell food stamps and money
orders, and accept utility payments for the small fee of
35 cents, and do fmancial counseling," explains Ame-
rico Rodriguez, loan officer at CABS. According to
Rodriguez, CABS is the main distributor of food stamps
in Bedford-Stuyvesant and the parts of Williamsburg it
serves.
Despite substantial and constantly growing mem-
bership rolls, the New York CDCU' s count on the much
larger deposits that are provided by non-member
organizations and individuals-foundations, schools,
banks, insurance companies, other credit unions and
the like. These, like all deposits, are insured up to
$40,000 by the National Credit Union Administration
(NCUA), which regulates all federally chartered credit
unions.
How do the CDCU's in their low income neigh-
borhoods attract the non-member deposits? "It's very
simple," says Hector Figueroa of LESFCU. "We write
letters to these organizations explaining who we are,
stressing that any emergency money they want to keep
here will be available if they run into any fiscal trouble.
We tell them, that if they deposit this money with us,
they will be helping the people living here to have a
better life. "
Figueroa points out that non-member deposits in
his and the other CDCU's do not add up to huge sums
of money. There are typically from five to ten such
deposits ranging in size from $10,000 to $40,000, he
says.
Most of the CDCU credit currently extended to
residents of these low -income neighborhoods is in small
personal, or "signature" loans. CDCU's grailt loans of
any amount, no matter how small, while most banks
refuse to consider any loan for less than $750 or $800.
"If you go to a bank and ask for a $500 loan,"
says Alayon, "they tell you to go get Master Charge or
Visa. We make these smaller loans and charge 120/0 on
the unpaid balance, while the credit cards charge a flat
18%," he explains.
On automobile loans, the CDCU's offer 9%
interest rates, against the customary 12% on auto loans
obtained elsewhere.
What plans do the CDCU's have to put to work
their new power to make long-term mortgage loans?
Both Alayon, president, and Clark, as executive
18
director of the federation, agree on the importance of
this new weapon in the fight to save neighborhoods.
Clark cautions, however, that CDCU's today, for the
most part, lack both the capital and the technical
expertise to rush into' the mortgage field. Assets of
$2 million should be the minimum held by any CDCU
contemplating a mortgage loan program, if it is to main-
tain at adequate levels the other existing loan services
its members demand, says Clark.
Given the assets required, Clark asserts, "If you
get the credit union people together with people working
on housing, you'll have a great opportunity for com-
munity development. Credit unions are changing from
just being consumer-oriented and are now becoming
total financial institutions," he says.
"If the CDCU's are to survive and become a viable
community development tool, " Alayon maintains,
"they will have to follow this route. They must become
involved in housing."
Pointing out that there are many small buildings
and brownstones on the Lower East Side and in Brook-
lyn that need only modest rehabilitation work-work
that is frequently done . now under " sweat equity"
programs-Alayon says, "All you would need to do is
to get the 10 families in a ten-unit building together to
go to the local credit union and borrow $5,000 each.
This $50,000 would serve to do a moderate rehabilita-
tion of the building, which would be used as collateral.
The tenants would do as much of the work as possible
to hold down costs, and the building could eventually be
converted into a low income cooperative," Alayon
predicts.
Meanwhile, according to Union Settlement's man-
ager Sklar, "We have been making money available
for some time here in East Harlem to buy housing
which is modest in price and in reasonably good condi-
tion." How? Union Settlement has been making long-
term loans that could be used to buy housing by lending
on a personal-loan basis, and requiring a number of
co-signers:
"These have been modest loans for $12,000 to
$20,000 in pockets of housing where the neighborhood
hasn't slipped," Sklar adds.
People in the movement believe that CDCU's have
good prospects for future growth, because the need for
them is so great. They could fill the need for housing
loans likely to be unrnet by the savings banks and sav-
ings and loan institutions in low income neighborhoods.
But, say their leaders, in order to become a viable eco-
nomic development tool, they must move on from their
present subsidized operation to become fully self-suffi-
cient financial institutions that provide acceptable
dividends to their membership.
"Money alone is not the panacea," says Alayon.
"Every organization must analyze and re-analyze its
business plan. Every CDCU needs some management
assistance to make this program work, for if you have
all the money in the world and no management, you
won't go anywhere. But if you have good management
and good marketing skills, you will go a long way, and
I think that's what can happen to the COCU's."
Want to organize a COCU for your neighborhood?
Get together seven neighbors as charter members,
yourself included; find 20 more who will commit them-
selves to buy shares and join up; identify your turf,
your purpose and your need; and apply to the National
Credit Union Administration in Washington for a
federal charter. It helps if your COCU can project a
membership of 300 neighbors at the end of a year. The
NCUA will send an examiner to review and grade your
application. In reaching a judgment, the examiner will
appraise both your group's probity and the chances of
its survival.
Jim Clark at the National Federation of COCU's
stands ready to provide assistance to those who would
organize a COCU, and information about COCU's
already existing to those who seek it. The federation
can be reached by mail at 501 March Avenue, Brooklyn,
N.Y. 11206, and by phone at (212)442-2077 or 643-1580 .
_CITY LIMITSt
publilbed moatllly by tile Auodadoa of Napborllood nouia.
Developen, lac., 19 East llad Street, New York, New York 10010
(111) "4-7610
Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Bernard Cohen
Assistant Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Susan Baldwin
Design and Layout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Louis Fulgoni
Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marianne Czernin
Copyright 1978. All rights reserved. No portion or portions oj this
Newsletter may be reprinted without the express written permission
oj the Association oj Neighborhood Housing Developers, Inc.
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39"lSOd's'n
'9HO 1I::lOHd-NON
IN THIS ISSUE
3 a
Leventhal Heads HPD
Kravitz named executive director of ANHD
Community Credit Unions
Consumer-Farmer Foundation
City-Owned Buildings
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