City Limits Magazine, August/September 1986 Issue

August/September 1986
$2
S P E C I A L D E A L S F O R S H O D E V R O P E R S ? D
B E Y O N D S U F F O L K ' S B E A C H E S D M U T U A L H O U S I N G D
Bushwick's , = ~ ,
Second Chance, '
2 CITY LIMITS August/September 1986
City L i m i ~ s
Volume XI Number 7
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FROM THE EDITOR
A Dissenting View
on Commercial Rent Controls
The mayor's Small Retail Business Study Commission was charged
last spring with handing down a verdict on commercial rent controls,
Vociferous activity by small merchants who've been pushing for controls
plus the determination of City Council members, especially Ruth Mes-
singer, forced Mayor Koch to take action. But unfortunately, all parties
expected the commission to echo the mayor's own tacit aversion to
controls. And they were right.
Released in June, the commission's report offers one puny proposal
to help small business owners, some of whom are facing 66 percent
rent increases or the loss of their livelihoods. The recommendation is
for mandatory lease renewal negotiation with a one-year lease extension
if negotiations fail. That's putting a Band Aid on a tumor and hoping
the patient will go away, according to three of the commission members
who disagree with the majority view.
In their 80-page dissent, Ron Shiffman of Pratt Center for Community
and Environmental Development, John Torres, president of the Metro
Spanish Merchants Association and Julian Wager, president of Queens
County Business Alliance, state that the majority opinion "does not
address the fundamental problem of rent increases at all, and merely
offers threatened merchants time to move or fold the business ... this
proposal would have no impact on those who abuse the free market
system by asking exorbitant rents or who refuse to renew leases."
Not simply a critique, the dissenting report offers its own solutions
to a citywide situation in which 38 percent of merchants cite rent as
their most serious business problem. The aim is to "balance the needs
of property owners, small businesses and neighborhoods." To that end,
the three call for decisive, immediate action: a City Council bill placing
a moratorium on evictions due to failure to renegotiate a lease.
Other short term treatments for ailing merchants laid out by the dis-
senters include mandatory negotiation and binding arbitration based
on successful models in London and Berkeley, California that are quick,
inexpensive and effective in measuring rent increases against true mar-
ket value. A plain language commercial lease should be added to existing
laws on real estate leases.
All the proposals make good sense and if members of the City Council
Committee on Economic Development have any themselves, they will
consider them strongly when making 'recomendations to the Council
this fall. The small bodegas or restaurants which give a neighborhood
its flavor and are part of its history are being threatened. Their disappear-
ance in turn deprives some residents of jobs and many others of familiar
and needed goods, services, and not least, social networks. That is the
insidious nature of gentrification.
A long-time watering hole in my Brooklyn neighborhood will be
closing down, I recently heard, a victim of competition from a fancy
Mexican restaurantlbar across the street and impossible rent increases.
The old bar was one of the few unpretentious, reasonably priced places
to meet friends for food and drink and a game of darts. The Mexican
food was good, too, and half the price of the upscale joint. But more
important, many of the patrons were people born and reared in the
neighborhood - working class folks who have withstood the tides of
gentrification. When that place shuts its doors, a piece of the community
will wither and everyone will be that much poorer for the loss of diver-
sity. Its time to place a human value on things now left to free market
forces. A commercial landlord's right to limitless profit must be weighed '
against the social and economic needs of people who comprise the
city's neighborhoods.oA.F .
Cover photo by Bill Gold.II
INSIDE
FEATURES
A Second Chance: Public Housing Gives Bushwick
Hope for Renewal 12
1\vo public housing projects are the pride of this
once-blighted community and its symbol of revitali-
zation, smashing negative images of low income
housing.
Not Just Beaches: Housing Shortage and
Homelessness in Suffolk 17
Vacationers love the sandy, white beaches of Suffolk
but for people who live there, the lack of affordable
housing is no picnic.
DEPARTMENTS
From the Editor
A Dissenting View on Commercial Rent
Controls .... .... ........ .. ........ ................................. 2
Neighborhood Notes
Bronx ..... ... .... ....................................... : ........... 4
Brooklyn .. ...... ..... .. ........................................... 4
Manhattan .. ... .................................................. 5
Queens ... ........ ..... ................... .......................... 5
Short Term Notes
Bounty Hunters ............................................... 6
Saving Sound Housing .......................... : ........ 6
Money for Homeless Stalled .......................... 7
Harlem Tenants Battle Church-Funded
Landlord .. .. ...................................................... 7
Beggars Banquet .............................................. 8
West Side Relief .............................................. 8
Legislation
Special Interests in SRO Bill ......................... 9
Pipeline
When the Cooperating Gets Tough .............. 10
Paving the Way for Mutual Housing ............ 20
Letters .. ........ .... ... .. .... .. ......................................... 22
\Vorkshop .... ... ... .. ................................................. 23
August/Sttptember 1986 CITY LIMITS 3
Bushwickl 12
Brooklyn
Tell It to the Judge
All of the media attention focused
on Leonard and Irving Spodek is a
mixed blessing for other aggrieved
tenants in the borough. The casual
observer is left with the impression
that the Spodek dealings are an ex-
ception to an otherwise efficient sys-
tem. But the Spodek case is far from
unique, demonstrating owners' abilty
to flout the law and evade city and
state agencies. "
For example, the tenants of 102
Eagle Street in Greenpoint brought a
cpntempt motion against their land-
lord. She attempted to force them to
move by removing the back wall, cut-
ting off all the essential services in
the building and changing the lock
on the door. After Judge Gerald Bank
suggested the tenants just move out,
the case was referred to Civil Court
Judge Samuel Weinberg. Weinberg
was recently indicted on two counts
of arson-far-profit. A second, super-
ceding indictment later charged
Judge Weinberg with, among other
things, illegal eviction of his own ten-
ants and hiring a thug to rape senior
citizen tenants who refused to move.
The Eagle Street tenants, fearing
they wou[d not get a fair trial from
an indicted landlord in judge's robes,
decided to settle the case out of court.
From Bad to Worse
As bad as housing court can be-
and both tenants and landlords are
united on this count-the other
agencies are hardly any better. Ten-
ants at 486 Brooklyn Avenue have ex-
perienced the inefficiences of the
city's Department of Housing Preser-
vation and Development firsthand.
The owner was granted a low interest
8A loan to rehabilitate the building.
According to the tenants, most of the
promised work was never done or
done poorly, and no appreciable re-
habilitation resulted. But the owner
was rewarded with a rent increase of
over 30 percent for Major Capital Im-
provements. The order granting the
rent increase states that many of the
tenants filed formal complaints but
says nothing about what action was
taken to look into their charges.
The order granting the rent in-
crease came from the state's Division
of Housing and Community Renewal.
It provides a schedule for phasing the
increaes at six percent increments
each year. This is the maximum MCI
raise allowed by law in anyone year.
Until last summer DHCR routinely ig-
nored the six percent limit. Nonethe-
less, the tenants at 1125 Lorimer
Street just received notification that
their owner has been granted a 7.43
percent increase. The Lorimer Street
tenants wonder how many other in-
creases have been granted in excess
of the legallimit.DDavid J. Dower
The Bronx
Crackdown
On a rainy June Saturday, 1,000 re-
sidents of the Northwest Bronx
gathered at Fordham Road and the
Grand Concourse to protest what they
claim is inadequate police and gov-
ernmental response to the problem
of "crack" in their communities. The
protesters say dealers roam openly,
and the violence associated with the
drug business is spreading through
the streets.
The police contend they are doing
all they can. Four days after the de-
monstration, Bronx Borough Police
Commander John McCabe sent a let-
ter to Northwest Bronx Community
and Clergy Coalition President Denis
Boyle, defending the police effort. "It
has been my experience in talking to
community residents and business
people and by my own personal ob-
servations that there has been a mean-
ingful improvement in the illegal nar-
cotics conditions in the ... area," wrote
Commander McCabe.
Northwest Bronx Drugs Out lead-
ers remain unconvinced. Offers to
sell crack are commonly heard on the
streets and drug vials can be found
on sidewalks. Drugs Out leaders be-
lieve McCabe is stonewalling and de-
nying the severity of the problem in
his command. But area residents
promise to keep the heat on the cops
and the dealers.DLois Harr
Manhattan
Property Rights
The city's 7 A administrator prog-
ram may be as dilapidated as some
of the buildings it encompasses. The
program, which puts court appointed
managers in seriously neglected, dis-
repaired buildings, seems to encour-
age speculation over tenant-control
of buildings. Properties abandoned
by owners who failed to provide ser-
vices, make repairs and pay taxes, are
being scooped up at bargain prices
from the city in questionable deals
just before the city forecloses.
In a number of instances, buildings
have been successfully run by 7 A ad-
ministrators, who put the property
back in shape and prepare for the Ten-
ant Interim Lease program (TIL) for
tenant co-ops. One such building was
321 St. Nicholas Ave. After three years
of work renovating vacant, fire-dam-
aged apartments, installing a new sec-
urity system, elevator service and get-
ting the boiler fully operational, 7 A
administrator Emma Olton applied to
get into TIL. But all her hard work
was scuttled when the owner, notori-
ous landlord Adonis Morfesis, sold
the building just before the city fore-
closed for ten times what he had paid
for it in 1981. Morfesis has been the
subject of intense HPD litigation for
an outstanding 3,000 violations and
$400,000 in judgements and fines
owed the city on some 25 Manhattan
properties.
Speculators "Redeem Building
A group of East Harlem tenants
have also organized against the
takeover of their 7 A-run buildings.
With some of the buildings' owners
as much as 40 quarters in tax arrears,
residents are opposed to them selling
their buildings at a profit to DAX, a
realty company headed by Allan
Manarelli and Erik Jacobs. Milagros
Gerena-Rochet of 172 East 122nd
Street has questioned the legality of
the redemption process by which
DAX acquired her building and sev-
eral others about to be taken by the
city for back taxes. Gerena-Rochet as-
serts that tenants struggled to manage
August/September 1986 CITY LIMITS 5
the buildings and "all of a sudden,
after years of abandonment buildings
are being redeemed." Tenants claim
that DAX has issued illegal leases,
raised rents for residential and com-
mercial spaces and attempted the
eviction of a 40-year resident by
breaking the door locks.
Tenants took their objections to
Community Board 11, which has ac-
cepted in concept a DAX redevelop-
ment plan of city-owned buildings.
The "Machito Court" project calls for
one and two bedroom condominiums
on Lexington Avenue and 111 th Street
selling from $70,000 to $85,000. The
approval of the community board
would pave the way for HPD to trans-
fer the building to the Public Develop-
ment Corporation for sale to DAX.
Tenant action resulted in a hearing
held by the board and the city-owned
properties committee. Manarelli and
Jacobs, a former city employee, were
recently featured in a real estate jour-
nal that proclaims "paint, pride and
a whiff of profit have madea big dif-
ference to some streets in El Barrio. "
With East Harlem slated as the next
"frontier" for gentrification, Milagros
Gerena-Rochet and the other tenants
are calling upon the board to com-
prehensively plan for the develop-
ment of some 800 parcels of city-
owned land without the displace-
ment of long-time low income resi-
dents.OMary Breen
Queens
The Displacement Puzzle
On June 16, the Housing Commit-
tee of Community Board 2 released
its report on residential housing dis-
placement titled, "Toward a N.Y.C.
Anti-Displacement Policy - 81
Pieces of the Puzzle." The report was
prepared by a subcommittee of the
Housing Committee after their 12 ses-
sion series on the factors influencing
residential displacement held last
fall.
A comprehensive study of the
causes of residential displacement,
the booklet looks at its effect on three
neighborhoods within Board 2 -
Hunters Point, Long Island City, Sun-
nyside and Woodside. Collection of
data began in fall of 1985 with six
groups contributing. They were Gate-
Way Community Restoration, Wood-
side Senior Assistance Center, West
Central Queens Neighborhood
Stabilization Program, Catherine
Sheridan Houses, Colon Council for
Older Adults and Community Board
l Housing Conference. Although
these groups are active within
Queens Community Boards 1, 2 and
3, 80 percent of the individuals ex-
periencing housing troubles seen by
these agencies live in Board 2.
The report presents case studies
familiar to housing activists through-
out city neighborhoods, such as in-
creasing rents, Major CapitaJ Im-
provements activity, lack of protec-
tion for small building residents and
inadequate funding for development
of decent affordable housing.
Five categories of recommenda-
tions are made to tackle displace-
ment: public financing for rehabili-
tated and new affordable units; im-
proved enforcement of existing laws
to stem loss of housing by deteriora-
tion; additional legislative
safeguards; special zoning regula-
tions; and increased money from city
housing programs.
Although the report focuses on cen-
tral Queens, its recommendations
would have far-reaching effects.
Copies can be obtained from Commu-
nity Board 2, 55-11 Queens Blvd.,
Woodside, NY 11377.olrma Rod-
riguez
providing complete architectural and engineering services to
non-profit developers
NEW CONSTRUCTION, REHABILITATION AND CONVERSIONS
o Building Evaluation and Inspection
o Feasibility Studies
o Preliminary Design/Scope of Work Studies
o Complete Construction Drawings & Specifications
o Construction Supervision
HUD SECTION 202 SENIOR CITIZENS HOUSING, HOMESTEADING
PROJECTS, GROUP HOMES, HPD RFPS, DSS/HHAP RFPS
Call John Harris RA. for an evaluation of your project's needs
J.C. HARRIS ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS
saGA GATES AVENUE BROOKLYN. NEW YORK 11221 (718)453-2406
SHORT TERM NOTES
BOUNTY HUNTERS
William Tucker, a freelance
writer living in Brooldyn, has an
offer: he'll pay $50 for tips
leading to rich and famous
people living in rent-controlled
apartments. So for, out of one
million rent-regulated
apartments in the city, about 30
persons have turned in their
neighbors who pay "Iow rents"
according to Tucker's tip-off tally.
Calling this a "tremendous
response," Tucker paints to
neighbors who have fingered
the likes of Mia Farrow, Carly
Simon, Alistair Cook, Jay
Stewart Dankberg, a housing
court judge, and Wilfred Wyler,
father of Council Member Ruth
Messinger. Tucker confirms the
stories by contacting the
landlords.
"Theres an incredibly high
demand for apartments in New
Yonc because of the horrible
things we've done to supply'*
Tucker says. "Iij like to hire Ralph
Nederto do an investigation of
rent control. Heij find it has
pushed prices in the other
direction and driven landlords
out of business."
T",cker wants to write a book
on rent controls called "Moscow
on Hudson" because he
believes the Rent Guidelines
Board is essentially the Politburo
of New York. "The way Eastern
Europe and Communist
countries function is with price
controls," Tucker says. "Once
you put a price control on one
thing, everything else is skewed.
You bosically increase the
buying power of the rich and
famous."
Michael McKee of the New
Yonc State Tenant and
Neighborhood Coalition
believes that Tucker's efforts are
all part of an "emerging,
well-orchestrated public
relations campaign to give rent
regulations a bod name."
McKee adds, "Tucker's
emph,asis on the stars, the
celebrities and the rich and
famous is focusing on the
exceptions, not on the majority
of typical renters who benefit
froin rent regulations. And even
what hes calling '_good deals'
out a campaign of harassment
against them at Daniels behest
including threats of physical
viQlence, theft of an electric
meter box in the basement and
damage to a wall and plumbing
inside the house. Acres denies
tenant's claims and insists his
service to Daniels is purely out
of friendship.
But the most terrifying
incidents occured the evenings
_ of May 7 and 8 when
Free market .. r William Tucker:
ii unidentified palice officers
pulled up to 36 W. 130 St. in a
van and kicked down the doar,
according to Nsia Akuffa Bea of
H.'. compiling a hi' list of tit. rich and famous in ren'- regulated apartments.
and 'low rent'-$1,870 per Although the water has been
month paid by Mia Farrow- turned off and on many times
most people I know couldn't since then by Daniels or her
afford." agent, Bob Acres, tenants were
But Tucker's interest runs well without gas or electric for almost
beyond the issue of affordable three solid months, says Darby.
homes. "The best mechanism is Calls to the Mayor's Office on
the free mancet place. I have to SRO Housing resulted in
drum this into people. It's the inspections by the Centrol
main purpose of my Complaint office of the housing
book. "OTerrl Suess department and the health
HARLEM
TENNANTS BAnLE
CHURCH-FUNDED
LANDLORD
An employee of the United
Methodist Church's Global
Ministries who received a
mortgage through the Ministries
is now the subject of a city
investigation into tenant
harassment. Her building is also
the subject of an investigation by
the palice Civilian Complaint
Review Board into several
alleged illegal eviction attempts.
Helen Daniels, owner of 36
W. 130 St. in Manhattan,
received a $40,500 mortgage
from the Ministries Mortgage
Service department for her
April purchase of the 12-unit,
single-room-occupancy
building. Shortly after she took
title, there was a serious decline
in building wide services,
according to tenants. Says
eight-Y8(Jr resident and
president of the tenants
association Mary Darby, ':4, few
days after the landlady came by
to tell us she had bought the
house, the water and electric
went out."
department on June 29 and a
building wide inspection,
scheduled for July 22.
According to Alan Kleinman of
the SRO office, "we referred this
situation to the law department
for harassment and cuts in
services. They are checking into
a civil lawsuit for injunctive
relief."
While Darby and another
tenant leader, Dolores Shepard,
have attempted to negotiate
with Daniels, they claim, "She
says she couldn't talk to us
because we're hostile. If you
didn't have any place to wash
or cook youij be hostile too."
, Daniels denies the tenants'
complaints of harassment and
cuts in services. "1 realize it is
difficult for them. At this paint,
it's as diffcultforme as forthem."
She plans to move into a vacant
room in the building. Her
relationship to Bob Acres, who
lives at 22 w. 130 St, identified
by the 32nd Precinct's narcotics
unit as a crack house, has raised
many questions for the tenants.
Daniels met Acres, a self-
described former drug addict,
shortly after purchasing the
building and has been seen with
him frequently ever since by
residents of the block. Tenants
claim Acres has been carrying
the Harlem Reclamation Project,
an anti-gentrification and
tenant advocacy group. "They
said they had an order to evict
the tenants who were squatters
on the landlords instructions,"
says Akuffa Bea. All tenants
were at that time current on rent
payments. The two officers in
charge were not wearing their
badges. One identified himself
as Officer Marvin Blue, says
Akuffa Bea, which caused
further suspicions because he
was white and Officer Blue of
the 32nd Precinct is black.
At the precinct, Officer Blue
refused comment on the
incident because tenants on
June 5 filed with the Civilian
Complaint Review Board for an
investigation of palice
involvement in what they claim
was an illegal eviction attempt
as well as the impersonation of
one palice officer by another.
Officer Blue did state that the
pal ice are never called in to
evict tenants from a private
from city-owned
buildings.
Meanwhile, the tenants have
filed an action against Helen
Daniels in Housing Court for
harassment and cuts in services.
And working with the Harlem
Reclamation Project, they
staged a rally at their building
June 29 to
neighborhood ro the threat of
landlord abuse tied to
gentrification on the landmanc
block and the added danger of
flagrant crack dealing in several
buildings. "What's happening at
36 is happening all over the
city," says Akuffa Bea.OA.F.
. SAVING SOUND
HOUSING
Protection of structurally
sound residential buildings from
demolition is the goal of
legislation passed by the State
Assembly June 4 with much
lobbying by residents of City
and Suburban Homes, owned
by Peter Kalikow. The bill,
sponsored by Assemblyman
Pete Grannis in the Assembly
and Senator Roy Goodman in
the Senate, extends provisions
of a 1974 law on demolition of
rent-controlled buildings to
buildings regulated by rent
stabilization law.
The Sound Housing
Preservation Bill would prevent
occupied building owners from
falsely claiming hardship and
applying to the state for
permission to vacate a building.
Undercurrent law, an owner of
a rent-controlled building must
prove he/she is not earning at
least a 8.5 percent profit to get
approval to vacate and then
demolish. That same
requirement does not now
apply to stabilized buildings.
The bill also calls for a
moratorium on demolition of
sound housing while the city
conducts a study of its housing
stock to develop policy on
preserving affordable housing.
The Kalikow buildings on East
79th St., tenants of which
actively pushed the legislation,
are only one example of viable
buildings being threatened with
demolition. According to Maria
. Mottola, coordinator of
community organizing
programs at Lenox Hill
Neighborhoad Association on
M o n h a t t a n ~ East Side, the
problem is serious. "We've
worked with 150 associations in
the past year and a half. Out of
those, 49 were under threat of
demolition with serious decline
in services," she states. ':4. lot of
tenant associations are getting
notices that their buildings are
going to be demolished-five
or six groups of buildings."
The legal procedure far
demolition of an occupied
building starts when a building
owner applies to the state
August/Septembe, 1986 e CITY LIMITS e 7
Division of Housing and
Community Renewal (DHCR) for
permission not to renew leases.
Owners are not required to
renew them while their request
is pending and in fad it can be
years before a final decision is
rendered, says Mottola, and
. "tenants can be harassed out in
the interim." Owners of rent
controlled buildings must go
through an economic hardship
test and if approval is granted,
must relocate tenants in
comparoble housing in a
comparable neighborhoad.
708 Lexington Avenue. But
Mottola thinks that number
masks the fad that landlord
harassment empties buildings
faster than it takes for an owner
to receive approval. "Landlords
will walk into a tenant meeting
and say, 'You're not going to be
here a year from now.'
Warehousing, decreased
services and harassment are
very common." She notes that
an owner of three buildings on
East 60th St. tried to empty them
by claiming imminent collapse.
The Goodman bill did not
Kalik_ building. on East 79th 5.,...:
Many IUdt lound bulldlngl on til. Ealt Sid. are facing d.mo/ltion.
Extending the hardship test to reach the floor of the Senate this
stabilized building owners is session, but community
vital, according to Peter Newell organizers have hopes far
at Assemblyman Grannis' office. building a wider coalition of
"You wouldn't be able to buy support for it in coming months.
yourself into a hardship An Anti-Demolition Task Force,
situation, paying an inflated formed through Lenox Hill, has
price and then claiming you're been educating tenants on the
not making an 8.5 percent demolition process and will
return," says Newell. He notes push for action in Albony. It is
that the new bill would change legislation that has common
the basis for determining sense, says Mottola. "We go to
hardship, taking the value of a meetings on the housing
building under continued rental shortage and homeless and
use, rather than adding its then you go through
assessed value in an inflationary neighborhoods where perfectly
climate. good housing gets tom
There have been 26 down."OA.F.
applications to DHCR for
permission to terminate leases SERE LI E F
for demolition since 1984, WEST ID
according to agency records.
Only one request has to date Responding to what they
. been granted, for a building at . termed "out of control
development" and "lack of a
comprehensive plan for the
West Side of Manhattan," West
Side legislators and over 20
community groups, including
Community Boards 4 and 7,
have called for a moratorium on
any further development
requiring city approval in the
area from 14th Street to 125th
Street baunded by Eighth
Avenue/Centrol Park West to the
Hudson River.
Participants at a press
conference held on June 9th
explained that a moratorium
would allow the City Planning
Commission time to develop a
comprehensive zoning plan
based on a study of. the
environmental impad of more
than 40 large development
projects planned or propased
for the area. Concern was also
registered over potential use of
another 30 "underdeveloped"
sites.
A study recently released by
State Senator Franz S. Leichter
found that the 40 projects
would create a minimum of
more than 2,200 staries of new
construction, over 25,000
I additional subwaY riders during
rush hour, 10,000 new luxury
apartment units and 90,000
new residents and employees
along with thousonds more
visiting new retail centers. "Our
concern is that no serious effort
is being made to address the
extraordinary impad this scale
of development will have on the
West Side as a whole,"
comments Leichter. "The
problem is not development per
se but overdevelopment at
random."
Westsiders are citing a 1978
state environmental
conservation law that authorizes
a Generic Environmental
Impad Statement if a number of
significant projects are planned
for a specific area. In oddition,
the Coalition Against Lincoln
West-a West Side group that
opposed developments
planned for old Penn rail yards
-seeks to implement section
197 A of the City Charter, which
permits community boards to
initiate overall planning for the
. "orderly growth and
development of a community."
With the endorsement of .
Community Board 7, the
Coalition engaged Professor
Peter Marcuse of Columbia
University to prepare a
comprehensive study of the
area from 59th Street to llOth
Street. This study, along with a
generic environmental study,
would serve as a basis for City
Planning to develop a master
zoning plan.
City Planning is admittedly
less than enthusiastic about the
prospect of an overall plan for
the West Side. Con Howe,
director of City Plannings
Manhattan office, says that
while the agency is undertaking
or has completed five studies of
specific West Side districts, "We
don't think a master plan is
appropriate for today. The most
effective planning looks at an
area defined by the issue or
project addressed."
[]Melissa Murphy
MONEY FOR
HOMELESS STALLED
Manhattan Borough
President David Dinkins has
charged the Koch administrotion
with failing to spend money
appropriated for permanent
housing for the homeless.
Dinkins says that of the
approximately $70 million .
allocated for homeless housing
in 1985 and 1986, "thecitywos
only able to spend a pahry
$450,000."
Dinkins believes the city has
not come to grips with the
magnitude of the homeless
crisis. "Each year, money was
added to the budget; each year
it remained unspent. The money
quickly added up until this year
the city now boasts it has $100
million in the budget for
homeless housing, though in
fod, very little may actually be
put to work for the homeless."
He adds, "Is this how this
administration respands to an
emergency?"
. Poul Crotty, commissioner of
the Department of Housing
Preservation and Development,
issued a prepared statement
refuting severol of Dinkins'
charges. "The Borough
President mistakenly assumes
that $70 million for homeless
housing programs should have
been spent by the end of fiscal
year 1986." Crotty says $14
million was never intended to be
spent until 1987. The
commissioner claims the
projects are moving along as
quickly as possible, given the
variety of state and local
reviews and approvals required.
Barbara Poley, coardinator of
the Mayor's Office of Homeless
Services, agrees. "We tried to
cut through and facilitate ... but
you just have to go through all
the hoops and steps you need
to go through." She adds many
of the programs are "moving
along well now."
But Dinkins doesn't believe
the city really tried to expedite
the programs. He points to the
mayor's readion to middle
income housing problems.
"When he decided middle
income affordable housing was
an emergency need, he
conduded a massive outreach
to developers, he established a
task force to advise him on what
rules and regulations needed to
be changed, and he hired a new
housing coordinator to
implement the task force
recommendations-all within
six months."
Dinkins also expressed
reservations with the city's
continued allocation of money
for new barrack-style shelters to
house the homeless. He has
called for an end to the use of
these large shelters and created
a task force to report on how to
quickly use available funds for
building shelters.oD. T.
BEGGAR'S
BANQUET
The city's Human Resources .
Administrotion is developing a
distribution program for giving
awoyfood from nine sites in all
five boroughs. But anti-hunger
advocates charge that the
program will institutionalize
begging.
The food pockages, limited to
=
~ ~ ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ .
Waiting for lunch at Holy Apo.tl :
Th. HIlA p'an. to s.t up its own food giv.-awoy program.
one per four-person household,
would have enough for an
estimated three days each.
Critics of the plan argue that
money, rather than food
packages, should be provided
because the new progrom only
exacerbates the situation of
'handouts' from existing soup
kitchens and pantries while
doing little to address HRAS
failure to provide for legally
mandated cash grants and
expedited food stamps.
Martin Burdick, HRAS deputy
diredor for income
maintenance, says that
everyone who needs
emergencyfaod assistance gets
food stamps within 48 hours.
The advocates disagree.
Burdick also maintains that
Pre-Investigation Grants, legally
mandated emergency public
assistance prior to a fully
investigated case, do not have
to be in the form of cash or
check when food is the issue. In
fad, Burdick argues that the
newly proposed program
answers the legal requirement
while combating froud.
"Everyone needs money, but
everyone may not be hungry,-
explains Burdick.
Not everyone believes fraud
is a major issue, though. "HRA
claims that they will be reducing
increased demands on an
already overburdened system
of emergency food providers,
but they are already the largest
referral agency to these
providers," says Agnes Molnar
of the Community Food
Resource Center. "By making
their own food distribution
centers, HRA only
institutionalizes begging."
The Human Resources
Administration says the new
plan responds to a recent state
Department of Social Services
(DSS) directive, the result of
Legal Services cases that
charged DSS and HRA with not
providing existing government
benefits. These cases, according
to Molnar, were intended to
encourage better use of existing
programs, not the creation of
substitute food distribution
systems.
. HRA estimates that nearly
5,000 fomilies will be eligible
for the food packages each
month. Officials are confident
they will be able to get federal
and state funding for the
projed.DAndy Lanset
LEGISLATION
Special Interest in SRO 8ill
moratorium. Shea and Gould
lawyers representing Stephen
Haynes, principal owner of the
Pennview and the adjacent Palmer
Hotels met with Father Donald
Sakano of Catholic Charities Neigh-
borhood Preservation Office in late
June to discuss development plans.
Says Sakano, "The owner has three
SRO hotels and wants to demolish
two of them. Their bottom line was-
can you influence legislation to help
our problem?" Sakano told the
lawyers he couldn't deal with it since
he didn't know "what mechanisms
the city has" regarding replacement
of SRO housing. Sakano feels the situ-
ation on SROs is "overdue for clarity
form the city" causing confusion for
developers and SRO tenant advocates
alike.
BY ANNmE FUENTES
ON JUNE 6, THE CITY COUNCIL'S
Housing Committee approved an ex-
tension through the end of 1986 of
the moratorium on conversions of
single-room-occupancy hotels and
the anti- warehousing provision of
that legislation.
The moratorium on conversions
and warehousing of vacant SRO units
was set to expire July 9. The new legis-
lation, which awaits Mayor Koch's
signature to become law, does more
than just extend its predecessor's pro-
visions. Amendments introduced
near the end of the June 6 meeting
offer a way out of the moratorium to
developers of SRO's that became vac-
ant between January 9, 1985 and June
6, 1986. By paying $60,000 into a city
housing trust, developers could con-
vert or demolish SRO housing, pro-
vided that no proof of tenant harass-
ment can be shown.
Advocates of SRO tenants are wor-
ried by these new amendments and
wonder what connection may exist
between them and special interests
held by developer William Zecken-
dorf. "The warehousing provision
may exempt many buildings," says
Hank Perlin of the West Side SRO Law
Project, "and it will be hard to enforce
with only three months left."
Perlin questions the last-minute in-
clusion of the buy-out provision that
he believes is tailor-made for Zecken-
dorf's conversion of the Alpine Hotel
on W. 57 St. "We've been told it was
a special exemption for the Alpine,"
says Perlin of information from a city
council source. The Alpine became
vacant of tenants on June 1, just com-
ing under the wire to meet the June
6 deadline for a buy-out. Council
Member Ruth Messinger says of the
amendments, "it definitely seemed
the legislation allowed for the exemp-
tion of the Alpine and several other
hotels."
Further indications that the buy-
out option may have been geared to
the needs of would-be developers of
SRO hotels surfaced at the office of
the West Side SRO Law Project. Direc-
toi Sara Lee Evans says several former
tenants of the Pennview on W. 34 St.
came to her June 10 and 13 to check
the legality of agreements with the
owners they had signed stating they
had moved out for a set payment.
"The agreements were dated June 1
and they were still living there, " says
Evans, "They wanted the appearance
that the building was empty by June
1," she adds. She wrote a letter to the
Pennview owner's attorney at Shea
and Gould, noting that back-dating of
documents is fraudulent. Attorneys
at Shea and Gould, who are also rep-
resenting Zeckendorf in the Alpine
deal , did not return calls from City
Limits.
Council Members Carolyn
Maloney and Stanley Michaels, both
on the Housing Committee, have a
beef about how the amendments were
approved on June 6. According to
Steve Simon at Michaels office, the
special exemption amendments were
introduced late in the meeting.
Michaels demanded to know what
they were and what Housing Com-
missioner Paul Crotty thought of
them, leaving the room with Maloney
to call Crotty. When they came back,
committee chair Archie Spigner had
already called the vote and the exten-
sion with the new amendments were
passed by those present, with no dis-
cussion.
Committee chair Spigner denied
that any irregularity had taken place,
either in the timing of the amend-
ment's introduction or the vote. "The
chair does not have the obligation to
make sure all members are in the
room at the time of a vote," he says.
He would not comment on the allega-
tion that the amendments were tail-
ored to accomodate Zeckendorf.
Spigner was the author of the amend-
ment offering a buy-out option.
The Archdiocese of New York also
plays a role in this scenario, accord-
ing to Perlin and Nancy Biberman of
the East Side SRO Law Project. Biber-
man, who is working with the hous-
ing office of the Archdiocese, says un-
named city officials have told de-
velopers that if they want a special
exemption from the conversion
moratorium, "they should talk to the
Archdiocese. " John Cardinal O'Con-
nor has lobbied for the SRO
Perlin believes the developers' at-
torneys were interested in making a
deal with the Archdiocese to develop
the Palmer and Penn view in ex-
change for turning another SRO
hotel-the Congressional on 83 St.
and West End Ave. - into replace-
ment housing for low income tenants.
Perlin says the Palmer and Pennview
"have histories of illegalities. One of
the managers pled guilty to bribbing
an inspector; another was convicted
of evesdropping on phone calls;
another ex-employee was charged-
with assault and coercion of tenants;
and there have been many illegal evic-
tions." He counted six fires in the
Palmer in recent times that were
termed suspicious or arson by the
Fire Dept. According to the SRO legis-
lation, a developer forfeits the right
to convert an exempted building if
there is proof of tenant harassment.
Clarity in city policy on SROs may
be around the corner. On July 10, a
mayor's bill positing a permanent
stand on SROs was introduced in the
City Council. But after inspecting it,
Hank Perlin found the mayor's bill
even worse than the current laws.
"There is no plan for the production,
preservation or replacement of
SROs," he says, "and it appears to
expand the buy-out option so that
every building is potentially exempt
from the warehousing and conver-
sion prohibitions. And for some
buildings, the requirement for a buy-
out payment is eliminated altogether.
It's ironic, everything it proposes will
just :worsen the very problems the bill
is supposed to ameliorate. "D
PIPELINE
When The Cooperating
Gets Tough
BY ELEANOR BADER
MIDDLE AND UPPER INCOME CO-
op owners have several ways to settle
building-related conflicts. First, they
can go to their board of directors,
often a professional grouping of
lawyers, doctors, accountants and
business people. If the matter is resol-
ved by that body, the issue is drop-
ped. If not, they may go to an outside
lawyer or management company
commissioned for the occasion.
Low income cooperators don't have
such an array of options. While they,
too, have boards of directors, the pro-
fessional know-how is often missing.
Their boards are composed of regular
people; tenants-turned-cooperators,
lacking licenses, professional titles
and initials after their good names.
Neither do they usually have much
experience in legal negotiations.
Imagine, then, trying to quickly
and peacefully resolve the situation
low-income cooperator Jeanette
Toomer and her neighbors faced sev-
eral months ago. Originally home-
steaders, Toomer and seven others
took over a vacant, abandoned and
dilapidated building on Manhattan's
Amsterdam Avenue in 1980. They
spent two years doing demolition and
rehabilitation to make the building
livable. Although work still remains
to be done six years later, the build-
ing's eight units are fully occupied
and comfortable.
Toomer and her neighbors own
their units; they purchased them for
$250 each from the city four years
ago following extensive negotiations
and participation in the Tenant In-
terim Lease (TIL) program. Monthly
rents are low-$200 per apartment.
This doesn't leave much extra in the
building management fund, Toomer
admits, should a major repair become
necessary. And if even one tenant
fails to pay rent for one month, the
building is put in the precarious pos-
ition of facing an almost certain
crisis.
'frouble Ahead
They faced a nightmare when three
tenants simultaneously stopped mak-
ing monthly payments. How to re-
solve it-fast and permanently-be-
came a critical rallying cry for the rest
of the building. After some discus-
sion, the rent-paying cooperators de-
cided that they didn't want to go to
a lawyer, fearing a lengthy legal battle
and a mountain of bins. "We wanted
an agreement," said Toomer. "What
will you pay, and when?"
They opted for mediation, in a spe-
cial city-funded program run by the
Urban Homesteading Assistance
Board (UHAB). UHAB, a 13-year-old
self-help group, provides technical
assistance to low income homestead-
ers, cooperators and residents of city-
owned buildings. The mediation pro-
ject is a little more than a year old.
To date it has worked with residents
of 27 buildings. The four participat-
ing mediators, all city-employees,
have been trained at the Institute of
Mediation and Conflict Resolution, a
private organization under contract
with the city. UHAB takes care of all
the logistical details, scheduling ses-
sions at times convenient for all par-
ties and coordinating any necessary
follow-up.
Toomer and her neighbors entered
mediation with a great deal of trepida-
tion. A lot was at stake, both for the
non-paying tenants who faced evic-
tion, and for the remaining
cooperators whose grip on financial
stability was slipping.
"One of the tenants agreed to pay
his monthly maintenance plus $150
per month toward the arrears.
Another one had a lot of problems.
His mother had died and he used the
money for the funeral. Each person
in arrears went in to talk to the
mediator separately. Then the rest of
us would talk to her. Finally, we all
got together to reach an agreement,"
Toomer explained. In one case the
mediation agreement has been fol-
lowed and the cooperator is again in
good standing. Unfortunately, neither
of the other two ended so positively.
' ~ t the time mediation seemed
helpful," said Toomer. "In the long
run it was a way for them to stall and
get away without being serious.
They're only afraid of court." One of
Low income co-op re.ident JeaneHe Toomer:
For Toomer and her fellow cooperators, mediation
_. only a partial .ucceu.
the tenants has since signed a Hous-
ing Court stipulation, agreeing on a
payment schedule. The third de-
faulted and may be evicted.
Mixed Results
According to Rebecca Reich,
UHAB's director of project develop-
ment, the mediation project has had
mixed results overall. She admits that
the experience Toomer had is not un-
common. Yet, she cites other situa-
tions in which mediation was a posi-
tive experience, resolving long-stand-
ing conflicts without court involve-
ment.
"One co-op came to mediation
where there were on-going bad feel-
ings between two of the officers of
the building. They refused to work
cooperatively. They were always sus-
picious of each other. There were al-
ways grumblings, always rumors.
Many of the tenants felt that the build-
ing was being run badly, that the offic-
ers weren't communicating with
them," she recalled. "Mediation rec-
ognized the hard feelings but got the
two officers to agree to work together
and be more responsible to the other
tenants. They agreed to hold public,
meetings and give tenants copies of
the meeting minutes."
J
1
The goal of this, and other media-
tion sessions, concluded Reich, "is
not kissing and making up. Our inten-
tion is insuring that people have a
decent place to live and are at least
on civil terms with their neighbors."
But it is not easy for either tenant
or mediator. Harvey Fisher, a paid
mediator who has been with the pro-
gram since it began, is constantly on
his toes" so as not to become a party
to the dispute. You also can't force a
settlement on people. You need to
hear what each person is saying and
see if there is any common ground
for agreement to be reached."
Another mediator, who has been
called in only occasionally, feels that
tenants often have unrealistic expec-
tations for each session. "Basically,
the fallacy of mediation is that both
sides eliter on an equal basis," he
said. "The point is they're not equal.
The board of directors ultimately has
the power, the tenant cooperator
doesn't."
This is not the context from which
Fisher operates. "My partner and I
try to deal not only with 'the legal
dispute, but try to get behind the
scenes and work on,the larger issue-
running a building in everyone's
common interest." He described the
tension of working with a group of
people who were previously unanim-
ous in their opposition to a private
landlord, a group that has worked to-
gether to deal with city bureaucracies
and that has succeeded in taking over
a building, setting priorities for re-
pairs and doing common work on a
common agenda. "Suddenly, the
larger issues, the pressure of a battle
against a landlord or the city are sub-
merged and a tremendous amount of
rivalry and resentment comes to the
surface." Fisher feels that it is impor-
tant to put the current tension into a
long-term context, so that tenants can
keep the issue in perspective. He also
feels that there is a value in keeping
such conflicts out of court and work-
ing to resolve disputes in a way that
maximizes people's potential for col-
lective living.
Risky Business
The debate promises to be ongoing,
not only among mediators, but be-
tween tenant organizers and activists
and tenants themselves. While few
people question the potential good
that can come of mediation, many are
critical of its use to resolve conflicts
that are actually larger than the indi-
vidual situations that are presented
to a mediator.
Such critics, like Jane Benedict of
the Metropolitan Council on Hous-
ing, feel that city-owned housing
should remain in city hands, with
tenants runriing the buildings but not
owning them. Benedict fears the con-
sequences of one group of tenants, as
a board of directors, becoming pitted
against other tenants. ' ~ l l of a sudden
tenants are trying to evict other ten-
ants, just like landlords," she warned.
Furthermore, says Dave Robinson,
until recently coordinator of the
Union of City Tenants, so many city-
owned buildings are in deplorable
shape that dangling the dream of
apartment ownership for a mere $250
is deceptive. In fact, he says, such a
program often saddles tenants with
an incredible financial burden, mak-
ing it extremely difficult to manage
the building over the long haul. "The
city needs to recognize that it is going
to have to take responsibility for re-
habilitating and maintaining, at af-
fordable rents, a large percentage of
in-rem buildings. Within that struc-
ture, tenants should have the
maximum amount of control over is-
sues affecting their buildings. Media-
tion and cooperative ownership can
be positive steps, but they are not sub-
stitutes for public involvement. There
is no substitute for that:"
Criticisms aside, Jeanette Toomer
is glad she owns her apartment, glad
she and others struggled to renovate
the building and glad that she entered
mediation when the going got too dif-
ficult to handle by themselves. De-
spite the problems, she and other
cooperators wouldn't trade co-op liv-
ing for any other housing arrange-
ment. "No," she says, "this is defi-
nitely a good way to live. There's no
need to worry about a landlord arbit-
rarily raising the rent or arbitrarily
kicking you out. My kids have the
security of a home. I know my neigh-
bors and don't live among strangers."
"But," she added after a few mo-
ments thought, "you need patience
and hard work to see it through. You
just have to keep on."O
Eleanor Bader is a freelance writer
and tenant organizer.
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FEATURE
A Second Chance:
Public Housing
Gives Bushwick
Hope for Renewal
'" -,.. . ~ '" makes Casuso's enthusiasm so
BY DOUG TURETSKY
W
hen Kathleen Casuso looked
out the front window of her
Bushwick, Brooklyn, home
ten years ago, she saw a neighbor-
hood in ruins. "You saw everything
falling down around you. You saw
people who lived there all their lives
walk away from their homes," she re-
calls sadly.
The devastation was palpable,
physically and mentally. An entire
community seemed to be in its death
throes, with abandoned buildings
and littered, vacant lots like scars on
a community that was one of the
poorest in the city, if not the entire
state. Casuso remembers that it was
impossible to even walk along the
sidewalk for fear that a chunk of de-
bris would fall off one of the inumer-
able deserted, rotting buildings. For
Kathleen Casuso, who had lived in
the neighborhood all her life, and for
unique is that the development is part
of a public housing project. While
public housing is often viewed as the
death knell for a neighborhood by
homeowners and others near a pro-
ject, Casuso and many other long-
time owners in Bushwick see the
Bushwick II and P-60 public housing
developments as the key to the com-
munity's future.
Down But Not Out
"You'd have to have seen the neigh-
borhood before the public housing
and then after to really see the im-
provement," explains Casuso. From
her vantage point on Harman Street,
where she's lived for 20 years, Casu so
has seen some of the worst times for
this once solid, working-class neigh-
borhood. Bushwick's decline re-
ii suIted from a number of disparate fac-
T
he Brooklyn community of Bushwick
was nearly laid to ruins by years of
governmental neglect and bank disinvest-
ment. But two public housing develop-
ments have shown there can be a road back
from urban decay.
many other long-time residents, it
was a traumatic time. Most of her
neighbors-many of them life-long
friends - fled.
When Casuso looks out her front
window today, the scene is quite dif-
ferent. Where there was once devasta-
tion, there is now revitalization. "You
see the new buildings, the trees, the
grass," she says excitedly. What
tors, beginning with the migration of
old-time ethnic families to the sub-
urbs in the 1950's. As early as 1969,
the city recognized the problems
threatening the community, conclud-
ing in its Master Plan for the city's
future, "Bushwick urgently needs al-
most every type of community facil-
ity and service .... " But the worst was
yet to come.
Just as the city's report was coming
out, a block-busting scandal ram-
paged through Bushwick. Feeding on
residents' concerns about the decline
of the neighborhood, real estate
speculators with shady connections
to the Federal Housing Administra-
tion's mortgage department offered
quick cash to anyone who wanted to
sell. In some cases they'd buy a build-
ing on a quiet, relatively stable block
and insert tenants whose "job" was
to trash the neighborhood and
thereby persuade other homeowners
they'd better sell before things got re-
ally bad. Purchasing the houses at
below-market value, these operators
would then steer naive customers to
the community and resell the houses
at an inflated rate through non-bank,
FHA insured mortgages. Many of the
purchasers couldn't afford the
mortgages, so when the FHA fore-
closed the speculators reaped an im-
mediate payoff. The scam resulted in
the abandonment of some 400 build-
ings in Bushwick.
But the block-busting game
wouldn't have worked without other
factors contributing to the problems
of the community. Many of the area's
traditional sources of employment-
the Brooklyn Navy Yard, breweries
and knitting mills-were closing
down. The neighborhood's long-time
resident Italian and German families,
in search of new jobs, began to leave.
They were replaced by a growing
number of blacks and Hispanics,
many of whom received public assist-
ance. By 1970 this once almost exclu-
sively white community was 57 per-
cent minority. The result was a cycle
of disinvestment. Says one city offi-
cial who knows the neighborhood
well, "Bushwick had really been red-
lined by the city as well as the banks
for a long, long time."
With homeowners and banks fle-
eing and property values plummet-
ing, arson became another major
problem. Entire blocks were virtually
wiped-out as first one building and
then another was torched. Properties
owned by absentee landlords were
especially vulnerable-the interests
of the owners were often defined only
by quick profits from fire insurance,
not the long-term health of the com-
From March to December
1976, there were 810 fires in
Bushwick, resulting in the abandon-
ment of 125 buildings. Both shopping
strips and residential blocks were
scorched. And because a good deal
of Bushwick's housing is attached
wood frame homes, the fear caused
by the arson epidemic was that much
greater. As the neighborhood de-
teriorated, arson-far-profit was soon
joined by arson-far-kicks. On the
block opposite the Casus a residence,
just four out of 38 buildings were still
occupied by 1977. Alberta Williams,
an eight-year resident of Bushwick,
describes the devastation bluntly: "It
was a bombshell."
Even early attempts to revitalize
the neighborhood backfired, con-
tributing to the decimation. In 1972,
a six-acre site in the heart of
Bushwick - from Central and Wilson
Avenues to Menahan . and Grove
Streets - was cleared to build a hous-
ing project and new elementary
school. But a few months after the
site was cleared,which included dis-
placing 33 businesses and 277
homes, then-President Richard
Nixon declared a moratorium on
such federally sponsored projects. By
the time the moratorium lifted, the
city was in the midst of its fiscal
crisis. For years the site remained a
wasteland as Bushwick continued to
fester.
Bushwacked
On a sultry summer night in July,
1977, New York City suffered a black-
out. Millions of dollars of damage
was incurred in the ensuing riots
throughout the city-but no neigh-
borhood was as battered as
Bushwick. Arsonists and looters ran
freely, setting the community ablaze.
While Bushwick still smouldered
from the blackout, three young ar-
sonists torched an old knitting mill
at Knickerbocker Avenue and
Bleecker Street. By the time the blaze
was put out, a feat that required help
from fire companies throughout the
borough, four city blocks had burned.
During the 1970's, Bushwick lost
nearly one-third of its housing stock.
The population declined from
137,000 in 1970 to 93,000 in 1980.
Once a solid, working-class neighbor-
hood, the 1980 Census showed 40
percent of Bushwick's residents were
on public assistance. Years of gov-
ernmental neglect and cuts in ser-
vices-"planned shrinkage" in the
words of former Housing Commis-
sioner Roger Starr-had contributed
to the deterioration of the neighbor-
hood's facilities and the flight of
banks and homeowners. The most
blighted section was at the very heart
Privatization Hits
Public Housing
A recent vote in the House of
Representatives authorized the
sale of public housing apartments
to their tenants. The sponsors of
the bill say it will help cut govern-
ment costs and stem the tide of
crime and vandalism in public
housing.
The measure calls for selling the
apartments at 25 percent of their
market value and offering low in-
terest loans to the buyers. Rep. Jack
Kemp, one of the chief sponsors of
the bill, believes it's an opportu-
nity to transfer valuable property
to low income people. But New
York City Housing Authority
spokesman Val Coleman is less
than enthusiastic. "It's one of those
programs that sounds real good if
you say it fast.'
Coleman believes selling units
to tenants would be detrimental to
the public housing system. "You'd
skim off the very best public hous-
ing ..,p:tarket and !
leave only the waist" And the :
majority of public housing tenants
could not afford their apartments.
Adds Coleman, "There's kind of an
implicit elitism here."
The Reagan. administration has
long sought to turn public housing ,,;
over to private ownership. Last
year a pilot program was started,
but lawmahrrs passed the new bill
well before the three-year project
was completed. The privatization
measure was part of the 1987
budget appropriations for the De-
partment of Housing and Urban
Development, which allocated no
money for new public housing
units.DO.T.
of the neighborhood, an area
bounded by Central, Wyckoff and
Flushing Avenues.
But the disasterous night of the
blackout and subsequent fire at the
knitting mill may have, ironically,
been a lucky stroke. The plight of
Bushwick became a focus of media
attention, particularly in the Daily
News, which did a series of in-depth
articles. It was also an election year,
and that paper seized on the moment
to confront the candidates for
mayor-who included Ed Koch and
Mario Cuomo - on how they would
deal with the problems of a commu-
nity like Bushwick. A debate was
held at the home of Kathleen Casuso.
The debate itself did not offer much
to residents. In fact, the responses of
the candidates seemed to underscore
how huge, and perhaps insurmounta-
ble, the problems in Bushwick had
become. Following the debate, the
candidates took a walking tour of the
neighborhood and Koch, recalls
Casuso, was visibly moved. He made
a promise: If elected mayor, one of
the first orders of business would be
naming a task force to explore ways
to revitalize the community. Casuso
declares, "The man made a promise
and he kept it."
First Aid
Immediately after taking office,
Koch formed a Bushwick Task Force,
with members from the Department
of Housing Preservation and Develop-
ment, the City Planning Commission,
the New York City Housing Authority,
local politicians and Community
Board members. Chineda Carter, who
was chairperson of the Community
Board at the time, says she did an
assessment of Bushwick and found
adequate housing was the most pres-
sing need. The Task Force responded,
according to its 1978 report, with a
plan designed "to utilize the public
housing construction site P-60 as a
core around which to build a new
community. "
. In addition to the P-60 site, which
had been bouncing on and off gov-
ernmental agendas for many years,
the Task Force outlined the plan for
!he Bushwick IT public housing de-
velopment. These two projects,
situated side-by-side in the most rav-
aged part of the community, were, in
the words of David Feingold, deputy
Kathleen Calulo in her Harman Street home:
A homeowner /iving aera .. the st,..e' from the projects, s h e ~ glad 'hey _re
built.
director of Bushwick's Neighborhood
Preservation Office, "the most excit-
ing part" of the Task Force's plan.
Local homeowners like the Casuso
family and neighborhood tenants
looked forward to the coming hous-
ing projects.
The P-60 project has four high-rise
buildings with 324 apartments and
was completed on August 31, 1981.
While P-60 is a more traditional pro-
ject, the Bushwick II development is
more innovative. Taking advantage of
the large amount of vacant land in
the area, Bushwick II was designed
as townhouses with plenty of green
grass and open spaces. Six hundred
apartments in 50 different buildings
are already occupied, and another
300 apartments in seven new build-
ings are currently scheduled to be
completed by December 1986. The
transformation of a once-desolate
area is remarkable.
Because the image of a housing pro-
ject is so negatively etched in the pub-
lic mind, many people don't realize
that Bushwick II is a public housing
project. "Here, the projects, such as
they are, really fit. When the people
saw it they thought it was really won-
derful," says Feingold. "The housing
is seen as a real part of the community
and it has contributed to the physical
regrowth as well as the substantial
social growth of Bushwick." Amy
Cohen, director of program planning
for the Housing Authority, agrees that
it was important to do more than just
fill up the vacant land: "You're doing
something that's going to effect the
physical composition of the block for
50, 60, 100 years."
Project residents concur. Anna
Gonzalez, a life-long resident of
Bushwick and president of the P-60
and Bushwick IT tenants' associa-
tions, calls the projects a "new birth"
for the community. "We are proud of
the way we are living now," says Ruth
Torres, a 22-year resident of
Bushwick who now lives in P-60. Al-
though Alberta Wiliams worries that
the ouildings were not well con-
structed, she feels "the apartments
themselves are nice. The layouts are
nice ... Inside and outside the build-
ings are well maintained." And Will-
iams has no doubt the public housing
projects have been a boon to the
neighborhood.
The tenants treat their new homes
with fride. There is an active tenants'
patro , which keeps a look out for van-
dals. A play area for children and a
senior citizens' center offer on-site
recreation. But what may be the most
visible sign of tenant involvement is
the 19 flower and vegetable gardens
tended by residents.
Alex Wolf, the current manager of
Bushwick II and P-60, says the at-
titude of the tenants, especially those
living in the townhouses, is remarka-
bly different from what he has en-
countered at other projects in his 23
years with the Housing Authority.
"The tenants that are in the town-
houses feeL.it's more like a home set-
ting. There's very little vandalism,
people are aware of what's going on."
Unfinished Business
"The projects are a great, great im-
provement. And they gave the people
who moved in a nice place to live,"
says Casuso. But she adds, "There's
still a lot that has to be done."
Bushwick IT and P-60 have provided
approximately 1,200 desperately
needed affordable housing units in
Bushwick. But the need is still great.
Wassim Lone, a tenant organizer with
the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior
Citizens Center, charges that 50 per-
cent of the community's housing
stock is still in poor condition.
"There's not enough going on to ad-
"Bushwick had really been redlined by the city as well as the
banks for a long, long time," admits one city official.
The Bushwick P-60. and
Bush'Wick n housing projects ~
both 1federally funded. P-60 was
'completed first , opening its doOJ,'s
!fan August 31, 1981. Comprising
four buildings of seven and 14
stories, P-60 cost $20.7 million to
t.Construct and is home to about 940
people. The tenants are over-
whebningly
dress the full scope of the problem,"
he says.
City planners and housing officials
hoped the public housing projects
would spur local homeowners to
make improvements on their own
property and restimulate the real es-
tate market in Bushwick. While this
has haprened to some degree, there
are stil hundreds of abandoned
buildings and vacant lots, even in the
area immediately surrounding the
projects. Says Father Ed Brady of St.
Barbara's, an ornate church that to-
wers behind the townhouses, "Hous-
ing is getting desparate here."
Bushwick II and P-6O t.nant association presid.nt Anna Gonzalez:
US.cerus of'th. public ho"sing tit. neighborhhod is more stobie "'an it was
Ii.,. perra G90'"
In 1984, the City Planning Commis-
sion issued the Bushwick 1iiangle
Proposal, which sought to capitalize
on the $150 million invested in pub-
lic housing and other revitalization
efforts outlined by the Bushwick Task
Force. These other efforts included a
Homeowner Improvement Program,
arson prevention, the renovation of
some city-owned buildings, tree plan-
,tings, clean-up and fencing of vacant
lots and the seal-up or demolition of
abandoned buildings. The Proposal
Aero the .t .... t from th.la.t pha of Bu.hwick II :
'attered and vacant building. ar. nill a common
.ig"t in Bu."wic".
called for spending up to $400,000
for similar efforts on private homes
and city-owned property closest to
the public housing projects as a way
of maximizing the effects of the pub-
lic investment. John Collins, liaison
to Bushwick for the Planning Com-
mission, calls it "a modest budget
proposal" with significant neighbor-
hood impact.
But many believe such modest
budget proposals are not nearly
enough. "I have not been impressed
with the city's efforts or attitudes to-
wards rebuilding the neighborhood,"
declares Father Brady. Describing the
improvements as "marginal,"Wassim
Lone adds, "HPD is pouring some
money into the area but it isn't nearly
enough. "
Much of the money now being
spent in Bushwick is aimed at
strengthening the private real estate
market. The local Neighborhood Pre-
servation Office, which first opened
in 1975, is coordinating the activities
outlined in the Triangle Proposal. In
fact, part of the impetus behind the
building of the public housing, de-
spite the usual fear that it will ruin
a neighborhood, was to strengthen
the private market.
David Feingold explains that one
of the most important accomplish-
ments has been the rebuilding of
Bushwick's image. This was due, in
a large part, to the public housing.
The goal was to make homeowners
think, says Feingold, "If the city is
investing, we should invest too."
Adds John Collins, "If you want to
look at the market effect of the public
housing, it has been a boon."
But rising property values will in-
evitably lead to rising rents. Current
plans to rehabilitate buildings near
Housing consultant Roy Pingle describes the new projects as
"some of the best housing in the neighborhood."
the projects will create apartments
renting from $525 to $575 per
month - well beyond the means of
most residents of a community where
the median family income is $7,500.
the rublic pr.o-
)ects as some a the best housmg m
the neighborhood," Ridgewood-
Bushwick Senior Citizens Center
housing consultant Roy Pingle says,
"The way to generate housing for
people with low incomes is public
housing. "
Almost all of the $83.7 million
needed to build P-60 and Bushwick
II came from federal funds. But such
funding has all but disappeared since
the Reagan administration took of-
fice. Between 1981 and 1985 Reagan
cut federal housing assistance by 60
percent, and the most recent Congres-
sional budget appropriations in-
cluded no money for new housing
construction. For a city starved for
low income housing, the drop off has
been staggering. In the last year of the
Carter administration, money was al-
located for building 2,302 public
housing units in New York; during
the Reagan years there's been funding
for less than 500.
The cut-off in funding cannot erase
the success of P-60 and Bushwick II,
which proved that public housing
can be an essential component of
neighborhood revitalization. Kath-
leen Casuso believes the public hous-
ing projects helped reduce crime and
abandonment, renewing her hopes
for the community she's lived in all
her life. Alberta Williams agrees, say-
ing that public housing has "most de-
finitely" improved the neighborhood.
"We're really learning as blacks, His-
panics and Italians to live together
peacefully. Because of the public
110using the tenants imd homeowners
have learned to work together."D
'rt4
s
Thousonds 01 AppllcatlonsJ'
"Hundieds 01 Apa,',nents .
. The need for low-cost housing health problems, seriously ofer-
\1*<1n Bushwick,ls ' sOi.overwhelming crowded>. t the m!
that the HousiJ;lgAuthority l8- agency also s,creens ourfamilies '"
calved 10,000.applipations forti?e with." .rec;9rds,P(,
. first 330 apartments available m rent ot tha.t have' tnemherswi1h hlS-
of
didn't get an apar!ment and ac- a J series' ot " protests
cU$8d the HQusing Auq,.ority of staged after
tenantiIig P.:.aO with too many "out- . 'proCess W-as completed
, siders." : . one ever proved someone was
Val Coleman. a Housing Author- wronsmlly admitted or denie4.8D'
ity spokesperson, discounts many apartment. K8thleen QiSusobe-
of the charges as desperation. . liaves Pt. of the problem was sim-
"There's an enormous amount of ply naivety...;..some people just
cat-fighting over who gets what." didn't fill &:application.
The Housing sav- "They assUJIiI!! that beCause
eral basic critena for selecting who were there they would be included
j , gets tomO\1eiinto a new prOject. going on." \ji
, Anyone displaced in order to build The demand for publicbou g
" the pew- housing gets first .crack. in B}lshwickJDlrrors the need for
'" Those living closest to ilie project low iindinoderate inc()mehousing
are then given next priority. In a throughout the city. The Housing
, community like Bushwick, ,;currently has
i
200,000
could have been filled many tUries families appr6ved and waiting for
over by people living nearby who a vacancy in p'rOjects citywide: At
wanted an apartment. So the Hous- last year's turnover rate it would
. ing Authority: takes into account take about 40 years for each of
. ,"immediate need based, on such families ... ,to reeive apew-
tors as whether a family is living mElDt.on.T. , .
in, SUb-standard conditions, facing ,
August/September 1986 e CITY LIMITS e 17
FEATURE
Not Just Beaches:
often, so there is a very low turnover
rate-under five percent of all
houses are sold each year compared
to 17 percent nationwide. Restric-
tive zonirig codes and community
attitudes have limited the type of
housing built. But a high demand
for housing will continue to grow
in coming years, fueled by a de-
creasing household size, rapid job
growth, the growing reputation of
Long Island's colleges and univer-
sities, and the aging of the city's
"yuppie" market into a suburban
one.
Housing Shortage and
Homelessness in Suffolk
BY JAY MARCUS
T
en men huddle behind an aban-
doned movie theater. A small
clearing hidden from view
from the street is their home. The
walls of the theater and some trees
encroaching from a wooded area af-
ford them protection from the ele-
ments. Blankets and bags of cloth-
ing are strewn about the make-shift
campsite. The men, some of whom
describe themselves as Vietnam vet-
erans, share an uneasy camaraderie.
Sometimes they wander the few
blocks to the booming business dis-
trict, watching their "neighbors"
who frequent the boutiques and res-
taurants. Welcome to Suffolk
County.
Usually perceived as an area of
white sandy beaches, rolling
woods, and fertile farmland, Suffolk
County has become, almost without
notice, one of the most developed
counties in the northeast. With 1.3
million residents-more than 13
states - it's one of the most popul-
ous counties in the country. Still
the largest agricultural producing
county in the state, Suffolk also has
the fastest corporate job growth rate
in the state, with office space doubl-
ing between 1980 and 1986. Only
New York City and Nassau, Suffolk's
neighbors to the west, have more
businesses. The Suffolk towns of
Huntington, Islip, Brookhaven and
Babylon are exceeded in popula-
tion in the state only by New York,
Rochester and Buffalo.
The towns throughout the county
have readily encouraged this
growth, particularly the rapid busi-
ness expansion. The success of
these .efforts is reflected in the
county's skyrocketing real estate
values and rapid rise in housing
costs. Although this freewheeling
growth has meant riches for some,
it has also meant poverty and home-
lessness for others.
According to the Long Island Re-
gional Planning Board, there is a
"severe shortage of affordable rental
housing for low and moderate in-
come households" accompanied by
a "decrease in the number of low
or moderately priced units." The ef-
fects are easy to see in the tremend-
ous rise in the number of sheriff
evictions -32 percent between
1980 and 1984 -and homelessness.
High demand and low supply re-
sult in rising prices, and the average
price of a single family house in Suf-
folk has jumped over 100 percent
since 1980 to $135,000. Indeed, the
vacancy rate for houses and rentals
has not exceeded three percent in
the past 20 years. The rental market
is particularly explosive. Almost
L
ong Island's Suffolk County is experien-
cing an incredible rate of development.
But as the rich get richer, the poor are
becoming homeless.
A survey by Housing Help Inc., a
nonprofit organization, found the
number of homeless doubled be-
tween 1983 and 1984 to over 7,000.
Overcrowding exists in almost
10,000 households in the county,
and those who were raised here
can't afford to stay. According to the
Housing Assistance Plans of the
towns in the county, a relatively
conservative indicator of need,
there are over 37,000 households
needing housing assistance in Suf-
folk County. A 1984 report by the
New York State Division of Housing
and Community Renewal ranks Suf-
folk County the highest in the state
in terms of housing costs as a per-
centage of income.
No Place 1b Go
Unlike other suburbs that grow out,
Long Island is bounded by water
and New York City and thus cannot
expand. Long Islanders don't move
half the rental housing stock in Suf-
folk is illegal two and three family
homes, putting knowledge of vacan-
cies at a premium and pushing rents
higher.
While the cost of housing rises,
the number of Suffolk residents
needing lower cost homes also in-
creases. The number of female-
headed households with children
has doubled and trends nation-
wide, as well as in the
guarantee that this number will
continue to grow. Over 55 percent
of Suffolk's female-headed house-
holds with children under five
old live below the poverty
line. .
AlthouAA Suffolk is experiencing
an incredIble job growth rate, it is
largely in lower paying retail and
service sector jobs. Currently many
of these workers commute from
New York City or travel from eastern
Suffolk to work in such areas as the
Route 110 corridor in Huntington.
But rising land prices in eastern
Suffolk are quickly reducing the
number of homes affordable to the
new workforce.
The number of peoyle living in
non-family households is also ris-
ing rapidly. Residents of such non-
family households often include
the widowed, disabled, unmarried
working poor and others with li-
mited incomes. Lodging houses, a
major source of housinB for this
po})ulation has been on the decline
in the county, decreasing by 25 per-
cent in the last five years.
Zoned Out
Instead of planning for needed af-
fordable housing, towns have used
their zoning codes to obstruct meet-
ing the market needs and to create
a lopsided, unnatural housing mar-
ket. Long Island has the highest per-
centage of owner-occupied housing
in the country and SUffolk county
has the highest percentage of single-
family homes in the state. Non-
profit agencies have been forced to
go to court to build needed sub-
sidized housing. When towns do
allow the building of subsidized
family housing, it is usually in areas
already overcrowded with low in-
come households.
Suffolk Housing Services, a non-
profit fair housing center, has in-
itiated several lawsuits in the
county encouraging a more ba-
lanced housing market. 1\\10 of
these lawsuits are exclusionary zon-
ing cases, seeking relief for non-
profit developers to build sub-
sidized housing. ''Absent court or-
ders," says Suffolk Housing Ser-
vices Director Janet Hanson, "the
towns continuously refuse to build
low and moderate income hous-
ing."
She cites a list of proposed pro-
jects halted by the lack of coopera-
tion from towns in the county. "Be-
tween 1975 and 1981, when under
the federal Section 8 rehab and new
construction programs over 1,500
family units were allocated to Suf-
folk, only 388 were built." Those
few that were built resulted from
the threat of loss of federal Commu-
nity Development funding or pend-
ing lawsuits. "During the 1960's and
1970's, when there was often fund-
ing available for public housing,
only 48 such units were built," she
adds.
Homeowners use the political
process to fight affordable housing
and maintain Suffolk County as
their perception of suburbia. Tlie re-
sponse to a recent plan to build 30
subsidized homes in Selden, in the
Town of Brookhaven, is typical of
community reaction throughout
Suffolk. To keep prices "low"-
about $70,000 for a single-family
home - the Diocese of Rockville
Center donated the land and the
state, through the Affordable Home
Ownership program, gave a grant.
Applicants needed incomes be-
tween $21,000 and $39,000 to qual-
ify.
When the project was an-
nounced, community opposition
was fierce. Fearing the effects this
new development would have on
property values, residents signed
petitions and packed town board
meetings. According to Robert Reut-
zel, deputy commissioner of Hous-
ing and Community Development
and Intergovernmental Affairs for
Brookhaven, only after community
leaders were assured that the aver-
age income of the proposed resi-
dents was $29,000 and that the
houses would be of top quality did
the opposition subside-although
diehards continue to resist. As
Town Supervisor Henrietta Acap-
ora states, "These are houses that
fit right in with the surrounding
neighoorhood - probably among
the highest priced in a few years
when the first residents sell them.
Yet there was opposition." When
asked what she felt the reaction
would be to a proposal for low in-
come housing, Supervisor Acapora
comments, "I would be tarred and
i
1
III
J
J
~ n d i n g the night in a lcIy.hore. Long 1.land. cloth drop:
TIl. town. in Suffolk " __ li n unwilling to acknow/.dg. tit. growing prob/.m
ofllom.I ... n ....
feathered and sent out of town!"
The towns in Suffolk have acted
to zone out its most needy resi-
dents-the elderly, disabled and
growing numbers of female-headed
households with children. Accord-
ing to Lee Kopelman, director of the
Suffolk County Planning Depart-
ment, "Low income is still there,
but the towns don't plan for the
poor."
New Jobs, No Homes
Having encouraged the creation
of thousands of new, mostly lower
paying jobs, Suffolk now faces the
the burgeoni!lg housing needs of
the new workforce. As Kopelman
says, economic development and
new housing are like "love and mar-
riage-they must go together."
According to the Long Island Re-
gional Planning Board, since 1980
over 50,000 new jobs have been
added, 64 percent of them in the
lower paying service and retail sec-
tors. But in Suffolk's inflated mar-
ket, there's little housing these
workers can afford.
Despite the shortage, less than
1,000 rental apartments have been
built in the county since 1980. And
with rents averaging over $600 for
a one bedroom apartment, most of
it is too expensive. During the same
time over 1,800 units have been con-
verted to co-ops, making a net loss
in rental units.
There was recently a move to put
a moratorium on the rapid groWth
of office space in the Melville area
of Huntington. The debate centered
mostly on the traffic, air quality, and
ground water effects. In the end the
town board did not endorse a
moratorium, but rather authorized
a Generic Environmental Impact
Statement to be written. In Hun-
tington, over three million square
feet of office and industrial space
has been developed since 1980. Dur-
ing that time, no new rental apart-
ment units have been built and 262
of the existing units have been con-
verted to co-ops.
According to Jerry Kramer, a large
developer and builder in Suffolk
County, chances for new rental
housing units affordable to new
in the county are close to
nil, unless there is a major effort by
the towns. He cites the proposed
price of single-family h.ouse in Suffolk-the vast
majorIty of the housmg stock - has Jumped 100 percent since
1980.
Fa, 'rom SuHolk', beach .. and palatial home,:
HLucille" _its lor emergenc)" placement.
revisions to the federal tax laws, the
near elimination of federal sub-
sidies for affordable housing, the
high price for land in the county,
and the lack of zoning for higher
density buildings.
In other parts of the country
localities have taken strong actions
to tap the economic expansion and
rising real estate market to assist in
building affordable housing. Bos-
ton and San Francisco have started
Housing Thust Funds with develop-
ers' contributions. New York City,
among others, has put a
moratorium on the closing of single
room occupancy hotels.
Amidst the crisis there are small
signs of hope. Affordable housing
is no longer a pariah. Media atten-
tion to the homeless has sensitized
the public to the issue. Rapidly ris-
ing property values have made
some homeowners less fearful of
the presumed economic effects of
affordable housing. Many of those
unable to find housing in Suffolk
were raised there and are the chil-
dren of the current residents. In
their role as parents, residents are
starting to show concern. The next
couple of years will be crucial to
the course of Suffolk's develop-
ment. The county may grow as an
economically integrated unit or it
may dissolve further into an area
where affluent residents force lower
llaid workers, single mothers and
the disabled into overcrowded, di-
lapidated zones reserved for Suf-
folk's "second class" citizens. Only
time will tell.D
Jay Marcus is special assistant to the
Commissioner of Human Rights for
New York State, an urban planner
and was founding director of Hous-
ing Help, Inc. of Suffolk.
20 e CITY LIMITS e August/September 1986
PIPELINE
the Way for Mutual Housing
BY BEVERLY CHEUVRONT
COLLECTIVE OWNERSHIP OF HOU-
sing can take many forms. One collec-
tive arrangement with an interna-
tional history of success - mutual
housing-has' been gaining a footh-
old in New York.
Based on a concept that began in
Berlin more than a century ago, then
spread through Europe and Canada,
mutual housing associations were de-
signed to provide low-cost housing
for working-class families. An associ-
ation owns the project, and residents
pay a refundable membership fee to
join, plus a monthly fee or rent that
covers operating expenses and helps
to replenish the original fund so new
housing can be developed.
A mutual housing project is now
being planned for a half-dozen aban-
doned, city-owned buildings on the
Lower East Side between Avenue B
and Second Street. The association
will be made up of residents, commu-
nity leaders, government officials,
and business representatives.
"The benefits are that residents
have participation and control in
their buildings, and rents are afforda-
ble," said Joan Straussman, program
services officer for the Neighborhood
Reinvestment Corporation (NRC), a
congressionally-chartered nonprofit
agency that is developing the Lower
East Side project.
"It's not like living in public hous-
ing that is managed by a bureaucracy
downtown, but it's not as expensive
as apartments on the open market,"
said NRC research coordinator Todd
Bressi.
After the NRC started a successful
mutual housing model project in Bal-
timore, Manhattan Congressman Bill
Green asked the agency to create its
second demonstration project in the
Lower East Side. Green was instru-
mental in getting a $1 million approp-
riation from Congress to provide ini-
tial funding for the project.
According to Charles McLean, the
NRC's mutual housing association de-
velopment project manager, the
agency hopes to renovate about 50
l)nits of housing in the first phase of
the project. "We hope we would be
able to do a lot more down the line,"
he said, adding that as many as 440
new units could be developed in the
neighborhood. lf all goes smoothly,
McLean estimates that families
would be moving into the first units
within two-and-a-half years.
Plenty of Hurdles
The NRC has a lot of work to do
before the first moving van arrives at
its project. To start, community lead-
ers have to be convinced of the be-
nefits of mutual housing, since their
membership in the association is a
crucial part of the concept. If people
in the diversified Lower East Side
have a common trait, it is a fierce in-
dependence that makes them wary of
outsiders, and they have strong opin-
ions on how their community should
be developed. Convincing them' to
participate in the association may'not
be an easy task.
Second, city support must be won
to gain site control of the abandoned
buildings. The Koch administration,
often at odds with the Lower East
Side community, wants to sell its
buildings at top dollar to developers.
Some of the buildings the NRC is eye-
ing are slated for "cross subsidy," the
city's plan to sell to developers for
market rate housing, with a percen-
tage of profits going towards more af-
fordable units.
Finally, the NRC will have to raise
at least $2 million from private
sources to create its first-phase goals.
Some Lower Eastsiders are "open
and supportive; others are skeptical,"
NRC's Straussman said. Green noted
that the agency to develop ties
1
__ 1
Charle. McClean of the Neighborhood Reinvestment COFP..Oration:
He hope. to renovate 50 apartment. In the first pha .. 01 the mutual hov.ing
protect.
to community housing leaders in
1984 by giving small grants to a
number of housing groups. Included
among them, according to McLean,
were Cooper Square Committee,
Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES),
Adopt-A-Building, Lower East Side
Housing Coalition, Pueblo Nuevo
Housing and Development Associa-
tion, Chinatown Planning Council ,
and the United Jewish Council.
McLean has met with those groups,
the Joint Planning Council and mem-
bers of Community Board 3 to intro-
duce the idea of mutual housing. This
summer, interested community lead-
ers will be invited to a series of din-
ners as part of the process to develop
a governing association.
An Excellent Idea?
The generic idea [of mutual hous-
ing] is excellent for the Lower East
Side," said Carol Watson, board
member of the Lower East Side Cath-
olic Area Conference. She cautioned,
however, that she would need more
information on the project-such as
a timetable, development costs, and
resident control mechanisms - be-
fore giving it a stamp of approval. In
addition, Watson pointed out that
"there is a comprehensive plan for
the development of the Lower East
Side [designed by the Joint Planning
Council], and mutual housing would
have to work with it."
Val Orselli of Cooper Square
echoed Watson's sentiments. "We
liked the idea," he said, "but our
major concern is that the NRC not
come into the Lower East Side and
establish an alternative organization,
bypassing the existing agencies."
that's going to bring
more affordable housing will have the
backing of the community," added
Roberto Caballero of Pueblo Nuevo.
He assessed the concept as "great"
and said NRC's track record in Balti-
more gives him confidence in its abil-
ity.
To gain clout with city officials, the
NRC hired former Planning Commis-
sioner Don Elliott as its attorney. He
will be meeting with officials to dis-
cuss site control, McLean said.
"We will be talking with the city
and establishing their interest in sup-
porting this association," McLean
continued. "We are trying to get them
interested in doing something in
their best interest. One of the goals
August/September 1986 e CITY LIMITS e 21
A recent community workshop on mutual housing:
Sidney Baumgarten (Ioregl'Ound) 0' 'he East Side Chamber 0' Commerce 'i'I'en. '0 the plan.
of the Department of Housing Preser-
vation and Development is to main-
tain and provide affordable hous-
ing-I'm confident they will give
this a fair shot."
Charles Perkins, a spokesman for
HPD, said no decisions have been
made on whether the city would par-
ticipate in the mutual housing associ-
ation. "It's a very promising concept,
and we would like to hear more about
it," Perkins said. "But there are ques-
tions that still need to be resolved,
such as funding." He added that the
city itself has been exploring the idea
of developing a mutual housing pro-
ject on its own.
McLean has not yet begun a major
drive to interest the private sector,
which will be important to fundrais-
ing (in Baltimore. the USF&G insur-
ance company spearheaded fundrais-
ing). The $1 million allocated by Con-
gress and money raised through cor-
porate grants would be used as an
endowment to finance capital costs.
Residents would replenish the en-
dowment. recycling capital for more
housing.
Still to be worked out. too, are im-
portant issues such as the legal struc-
ture the project should take. Then,
McLean estimated, a workshop will
be held in late September or early
October to set up development com-
mittees for the association. At that
time, a nonprofit entity will be estab-
lished, operational issues and mem-
bership guidelines will be set up, and
a board will be organized. After staff
is hired and trained. the NRC is likely
to move out and on to other projects,
McLean explained.
The association itself will have the
job of setting criteria for residents, but
the residential membership fee typi-
cally is three to ten percent of de-
velopment costs. In the Baltimore
project. that came to a $21,000 to
$25,000 membership fee per apart-
ment. with rents starting at $270 for
a one-bedroom unit. The member-
ship fee is refunded when a family
moves from the apartment. McLean
projects that the Lower East Side pro-
ject will be affordable to residents
with income below $14.000.
The Neighborhood Reinvestment
Corporation still has a long way to go
before making this mutual housing
association a reality. But the impetus
is there and the pieces are slowly fal-
ling into place. Collective ownership
through a mutual housing associa-
tion is gaining the support of many
community leaders as an idea worth
trying.o
J
1
LETTERS
8umRap
1b the Editor:
The Queens Neighborhood Notes
column OunelJuly 1986) stated that
in 1980 landlord Michael Partridge
"secured $1.1 million in loans from
the Jamaica Apartment Improvement
Program and HPD ... " This statement
is incorrect and seriously misleading.
JAIP was established in 1983, three
years after the loan was issued.
JAIP shares the community's con-
cerns regarding the conditions of Mr.
Partridge's buildings, as clearly de-
monstrated by our actions. In Feb-
ruary 1984 we interceded, preventing
approval of a Participation Loan for
90-10 149th Street. We've met on
numerous occasions with owners
and tenant rerresentatives to discuss
conditions 0 all Partridge's proper-
ties. In March 1986 we wrote to HPD
and CPC requesting outside manage-
ment for Patridge's Jamaica buildings.
The JAIP has long been aware of
his management shortcomings and
has taken appropriate measures to im-
prove conditions for tenants.
Thomas Buckingham, President
Jamaica Apartment Improvement
Program
Queens
Irma Rodriguez replies: Essentially
Mr. Buckingham is correct. Confu-
sion results from the fact that JAIP
shares staff with the Jamaica Center
Housing Action Group, a division of
Greater Jamaica Development Corpo-
ration. These latter two organizations
did playa part in the Partridge loan,
which was secured from HPD.
Double Cross
To the Editor:
"False Promises" on the Neighbor-
hood Notes page brought back old,
but hardly fond memories of when
my former landlord applied for HPD
apartment improvement funds.
He got very, very low interest rate
loans, and help getting tenant ap-
proval. HPD sent staff to attend meet-
ings at which they told tenants rents
would increase by only $5-10 per
room per apartment. My brother and
I were sharing a five room apartment
renting at $280 per month (this was
in 1981 in South Brooklyn) . So, we
expected and were quite willing to
pay a rent increase of up to $50. When
the work was completed, HPD rubber
stamped 51 percent rent increases!
Our rent went up $135 a month, 270
percent over what they projected!
In examining HPD's files at their
downtown Manhattan offices, I found
rent history documentation that
showed the landlord was overcharg-
ing us according to Rent Stabilization
rules. I requested copies of these and
other documents , but HPD never sent
those important rent records. I never
did discover how they arrived at the
51 percent increase rate, and they
would not explain the discrepancy
between what they said and what
they did.
The moral of the story: When deal-
ing with landlords who are, in fact,
double dealing with HPD get it all in
writing or don't consent to the prop-
osed improvement program.
Charles Valenza
Brooklyn
Homeless Are Refugees
To the Editor:
1\vo years ago, a story in the
Bethany House (shelter for women
and children in Cincinnati, Ohio)
newsletter described homeless Amer-
icans as refugees from the United
States. The author described
similarities between Central Amer-
ican refugees and homeless Amer-
icans. Both are involuntarily home-
less, rejected by their governments.
They have been denied incomes by
economies which benefit the rich.
Both groups experience fear, persecu-
tion and an uncertain future. Both are
blamed for their situations-Presi-
dent Reagan states that the homeless
are on the streets by choice and that
Salvadoran refugees choose to leave
their country for economic reasons,
not for safety.
As both the shelter movement and
the sanctuary movement mature, it
becomes increasingly apparent that
the two must join efforts. The under-
lying political system which causes
homelessness in the U.S. also oppres-
ses Central American people. U.S.
dollars are drained from domestic
programs to prop up the illegitimate
governments in EI Salvador and
Guatemala and to overthrow the
legitimate government in Nicaragua.
Since Reagan took office, federal
spending for the poor has declined
16 percent while military spending
has increased by 38.5 percent. This
represents a transfer of $30 billion a
year from the poor to the Pentagon.
Homeless Americans and refugee's
are both caught in a web of domestic
policies and practices. Reagan cut-
backs in federal refugee aid programs
have increased homelessness among
refugees in Miami. Homeless Amer-
icans are run out of town by the citi-
zens of Santa Barbara, California.
People are being evicted from public
housing under a new federal policy
if they are not U.S. citizens or legal
immigrants. Homeless Americans are
frequently denied public welfare as-
sistance because they have no ad-
dress. Both groups face miles of red
tape and difficult paperwork as they
struggle for decent and safe housing,
adequate food and a stable income.
It is our hope that 1986 will be the
year that the sanctuary movement
and the shelter movement join to-
gether to increase local awareness
about the connection between
domestic homelessness and foreign
policy practices that create Central
American refugees.
Barbara Poppe-Smith
Buddy Gray, Chairs of the Greater
Cincinnati Coalition of the Homeless
Cincinnati, Ohio
The Tenant Movement in New York City. 1904-1984
Rllllflld l A"'-"CJfI, ('(lilt)r, wi,II Mark Ntli.s4>l1
)(XI pp. Il lustrated. Paper, SIS.IXI; Cluth, S'}S. IKI
This fi rst histor y uf dR' tl' 11 3 nt muvemcnt in Nl'W Yor k
City pI3(.'CS tcnant movcnn'nts ;It lhl' n,.'l1h.' f O( thl' history
urban gOVl'Tl1IlH.'l1t , 31".1 urban s()(.' ial movl'-
1l1ClltS. The nmtrihlltur!oll' X3 mi nl' thl' sO(' ial h3Sl.'S oft hl.'
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York, NY 10003.
REGIONAL ORGANIZER, NEWARK NEW JERSEY. New Jer-
sey Citizen Action is a statewide coalition of diverse community,
labor, minority, senior citizen, environmental, tenant, women's
and other grass-roots organizations that address a variety of
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DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT. Experienced person with solid
fundraising skills sought for community non-profit housing organi-
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RECYCLING PROGRAM DIRECTOR. Recycling company in
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TENANT ORGANIZER extensive field work, advise tenants of
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state agencies, help to develop tenants' associations, conduct
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Both positions are temporary but will be extended if lines are
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City Limits Magazine, August/September 1986 Issue

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City Limits Magazine, August/September 1986 Issue

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August/September 1986

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