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EDITORIAL

HELP WANTED:
CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP
Looking at my desk, I see the following tips
from my sources over the past month. The fed-
eral banking agencies are moving to exempt
smaller fmancial insrirurions from the Commu-
nity Reinvesrment Act, which requires them to
lend in communiries where they take deposits.
They are also moving to preempt state banking
laws (including those curbing predatory lend-
ing). Housing cutbacks proposed in the new
federal budget haven't kicked in yet, and already
families in homeless shelters are being told not
to expect vouchers for new aparrments anytime
soon. Auctions of subsidized housing develop-
ments are plowing ahead (see page 16). And
even as New York City fmally opens a few
workforce centers where employers can find
trained job-seekers, the Bush administration is
indicaring it wants to defund them.
No doubt I've overlooked many other exam-
ples. But there's a consistent theme: Washing-
ton is methodically dismantling incentives for
the private sector to invest in enterprises that
benefit the public. These and other federal pro-
grams established a minimal role for govern-
ment, and they've successfully mobilized entre-
preneurs to address social needs profitably. This
is even true for the housing voucher program,
since New York City has become adept at using
those dollars to help developers finance new
affordable housing. Meanwhile, industries from
energy to pharmaceuticals and, of course, war
receive generous incenrives, subsidies and con-
tracts. To the extent these invesrments advance
the narional interest, they do so with mind-
boggling inefficiency: with little oversight or
evidence of economic gains.
No matter who's in the White House next
January, most of the program cuts will be a
done deal. And what isn't accomplished legisla-
tively will be realized via ballooning budget
deficits. Advocates have focused on fighting
the rollbacks, and they shouldn't give that up.
But we need to figure out some other way to
get the work done-fast. These federal pro-
grams were developed to promote two basic
things-jobs and homes. With federal policy
now promoting a schism between the wealthy
and poor, many people will conrinue to lack
one or both.
The Bloomberg administration has been
forward-thinking in its efforts to upscale the
city's taX base, enhancing New York City's
standing as a magnet for global wealth. Increas-
ingly, we live in a city-state that seeks to control
its own economic destiny. The mayor is also
grappling with widespread homelessness and
unemployment. But he srill needs to confront
the fact that one set of goals makes it hard to
accomplish the other. New housing develop-
ment draws professionals, helping make New
York City more attracrive to corporarions that
employ them. But it doesn't improve poor peo-
ple's access to decent quarters. And it hikes the
already high price of real estate, which discour-
ages the growth of independent businesses.
Unless it wants to systematically export
poor people, the Bloomberg administrarion
must be more open to crearive, market-orient-
ed solurions to social needs-solutions now
being forsaken by Washington. Like their wan-
ing federal counterparts, the administration
needs to offer businesses smart incentives-
such as wning bonuses allowing denser real
estate development-to build affordable hous-
ing and expand their payrolls.
Early in his term, Mayor Bloomberg
pitched New York City to corporations as a
"luxury" locarion, worth spending extra on.
Good idea. Let Enron have Houston and Wal-
Mart have Little Rock. New York is ready for a
new kind of corporate cirizenship.
-Alyssa Katz
Editor
Cover photograph by Angela Jimenez. Foster child Marisol Torres, 12, went on TV this spring promoting herself to prospective new parents.
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CONTENTS
16 CITY FOR SALE
For years, tenants in federally subsidized buildings complained of
crummy conditions. Now the Bush administration is doing something
about it: auctioning its real estate to high-rolling speculators.
By Robert Neuwirth
21 THE SELLING OF TEEN ADOPTION
Pressed to ensure a bright future for young people growing out of
foster care, New York is trying to find them brand-new parents. Is
adoption the answer for mistreated adolescents-or another ordeal?
By Kendra Hurley
28 RETURN ADDRESS
In its two years welcoming men and women back from
prison, the Fortune Academy has proven that careful
resettlement makes all the difference. Now what will
it take to create more housing like it?
By Sasha Abramsky
5 FRONTLI N ES: MELROSE GARDENS UP A TREE ... CLEARING THE AIR ABOUT LEAD
PAINT ... OLYMPICS GROUP MAKES NET FRIENDS ... AIDE, ATTENDANT-WHAT'S THE DIFF? ...
LOOKING FOR JOB ONE ... CREDIT UNIONS' RISING INTEREST
11 THE TALKING CURE
While other hospitals resist mandates to treat patients in their own lan-
guages, Lutheran Medical Center makes interpretation core to its care.
Here's how.
By Matthew Schuerman
2 EDITORIAL
39 JOB ADS
41 PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
46 OFFICE OF THE CITY VISIONARY
JUNE 2004
33 THE BIG IDEA: JOBS 2004
When companies go global, how do we keep jobs rooted in
New York City? It wouldn't hurt to invest economic development
dollars in worker-owned co-ops.
By James DeFilippis
35 CITY LIT
Dark Age Ahead, By Jane Jacobs
Reviewed by Alyssa Katz
3
LETTERS
NEW YORK'S ZONING MADNESS
Just a bit of insight to add to the excellent
article on NYC rezoning ["Who Shapes New
York?" April 20041:
Most cities and towns consider their zoning
and master plans as living, interrelated docu-
ments. Most urbanized states have municipal
land use laws that require communities to have
a master plan and natural-resource inventory,
and to update it periodically-typically every 5
years. The zoning ordinance has to be based on
the master plan. If the zoning and the plan are
different, the burden of proof is on the town to
defend against a developer's rezoning request in
court. If the zoning and master plan are con-
gruent, the burden of proof is on the developer.
New York City stands all this on its head.
The current master plan dates to 1969 and is
considered brain-dead. It is highly, insanely
Manhattan-centric. It replaced a master plan
from 1909, which itself predated the city's zon-
ing ordinance. (In fact, the power of munici-
palities to zone was not recognized by the
courts until the 1920s, in an Ohio case.) The
city rezones (and spot zones) without a real
master plan at all!
Thus, we get rules that developed ad
hoc ... and big box stores on Broadway with no
truck loading bays ... and boards that can only
react to developers' ideas rather than try to
shape them.
Where's the vision for a new master plan?
The Olympics? Arrgh!
By the way, if the city was "built out" to
what current zoning actually allows, we'd have
dwelling units for about 40 million. What
might the subways and raods be like? Clearly,
there's a lot of thinking that has to be done.
Steve Ross
Associate Professor of Professional Practice
Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University
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FRONT LINES
Gardeners'
Last Stand
CELEB TREEHOUSE ARCHITECT Roderick Romero-his
handiwork graces rock star Sting's estate in Tus-
cany-had already nailed beams into trees at the
Courrlandt Avenue community garden when
activists discovered a fatal glitch. An envelope from
Housing Preservation and Development, though sent
to the wrong address, would soon arrive, with an
eviction notice for the garden.
Similar notices were en route to other nearby
community gardens, all death knells.
With the evictions, HPD is effectively ending
years of often contentious back and forth between
community gardening and housing development in
the Melrose section of the South Bronx. In 1993,
the community group Nos Quedamos (Spanish for
"We're Staying") thwarted a city plan to replace low-
income apartment dwellers with a mid-rise, middle-
income, gated community. In response, Nos
Quedamos developed an alternative plan for afford-
able housing-but its income range, $35,000 to
$72,000, is still out of reach for residents, whose
median income is $16,000. Community gardeners
also felt excluded, since Nos Quedamos' proposal
called for razing their plots.
Recenrly, a coalition called the South Bronx
United Gardens (SBUG), circulated a revised hous-
ing plan that would preserve 11 of the neighbor-
hood's 20 gardens.
In an about-face over the past year, Nos Quedamos staned meeting
with gardeners, trying to incorporate their concerns. And in January, the
organization signed on to SBUG's proposal. There's just one hitch: Nos
Quedamos doesn't own this land-the city does. And HPD served evic-
tions on four gardens in March alone.
As a last-ditch effort, activists have been meeting with politicos and
the AG's office. The Bronx Borough President's Office and Council
Member Jose Serrano have long tacitly approved of the gardens, and of
a 2002 ruling by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to permanenrly pre-
serve 193 of them, give 198 to the Parks Department or other restora-
tionists, demolish 38, and encourage developers and gardeners to
JUNE 2004
joinrly review the fate of 114 others. For that review to move forward
in Melrose, Bronx Community Board 1 needs to agree to take part in
it. At a meeting in April, the board's subcommittee opted out of the
review and nixed the SBUG/Nos Quedamos proposal.
Now politicos, including Councilmember Serrano, are supporting
the land-use subcommittee's decision.
Some garden groups are throwing in the towel. But some in the
Couttlandt Avenue contingent plan to camp in Romero's tree art to defY
the bulldozers. No matter how the drama ends, says SBUG activist
Marty Rogers, "We continue to play our parts. "
-Amy Zimmer
5
FRONT llNES
Peeling Back the Layers
Housing groups sue to stop
the new lead paint law. Do
they have a case?
By Cassi Feldman
and Christine Lagorio
ON THE EVE of the City Council's February vote to
approve a strict new lead poisoning law, 27 non-
profit housing groups ran a giant ad in the New
York Times, Daily News, AmsterdAm News and El
Diario: "Unintended Consequences: Lead Paint
Bill Jeopardizes Affordable Housing." In April,
nine of those groups went even further, filing a
lawsuit to block implementation of the law.
Led by the Community Preservation Cor-
poration, a housing finance group, the plain-
tiffs argue that the legislation makes it nearly
impossible to rehab older buildings without
risking a slew of frivolous lawsuits and a spike
in insurance costs. "This is a major deterrent
for a good landlord to take over [a dilapidated
building] and turn it around, " says John
McCarthy, executive vice president of Cpe.
But the law's defenders say just the opposite:
While the law imposes stricter standards for
inspection and clean-up, responsible landlords
have no reason to worty. "The new law talks
about 'reasonableness. ' All a landlord needs to do
6
is act reasonably," argues Matthew Chachere, an
anorney with the Northern Manhanan improve-
ment Corporation, who helped drafr the bill.
Are tenant advocates n:iive? Are developers
overreacting? With the law set to kick in this
August, it's still anybody's guess. City officials,
advocates and housing developers are busy hashing
out regulations that will govern the law's imple-
mentation-and could ultimately satisfY both
sides. There may be room for compromise on:
Liability
THE LAW SAYS: "In any multiple dwelling erected
prior to January 1, 1960, it shall be presumed that
the paint or other similar surface-coating material
in any dwelling unit where a child of applicable
age resides is lead-based paint." And "an owner
shall take action to prevent the reasonably fore-
seeable occurrence of a [lead hazard] ."
OPPONENTS SAY: The law greatly broadens the
grounds for tenants to sue housing providers by
operating on the presumption that all paint in
pre-I960 buildings is lead-based, until proven
otherwise. If a child tests positive for lead, parents
will be able to blame the landlord, whether or not
the child was actually poisoned in the home-
and housing groups note they have to pay their
lawyers even when cases turn out to be frivolous.
PROPONENTS SAY: The law is no different from its
predecessors: Tenants won't win lawsuits unless
they can prove that their apartments did, in fact,
contain lead and their landlords could or should
have known about the danger. Besides, the pre-
sumption isn't far off. A 2004 City Planning
report estimates that 90 percent of occupied
apartments built prior to 1947 contain at least
some lead-based paint, as do 69 percent of those
constructed between 1947 and 1959. Without
the presumption, there would be no incentive
for landlords to regularly inspect for lead.
WIGGLE ROOM: There isn't a whole lot the regula-
tions can do on the liability issue. The best bet for
nervous landlords is to hire a professional testing
firm, for roughly $500 per two-bedroom unit.
Insurance
THE LAW SAYS: Nada.
OPPONENTS SAY: It's already difficult to find insur-
ers willing to cover affordable housing-and this
could make it impossible. Several companies are
exempting lead liability from their coverage,
leaving developers to shoulder the risk. Others,
anticipating a surge in litigation, are raising their
deductibles. All this will deter housing develop-
ers from rehabilitating buildings that may have
even the slightest chance of containing lead.
PROPONENTS SAY: Insurance companies excluded
lead long before this bill was even on the table.
Public health should not be compromised to
accommodate the industry's fiscal concerns.
WIGGLE ROOM: Both sides are starting to lobby
state legislators to change industry rules. The
State Insurance Department could, for exam-
ple, mandate a certain level of coverage or
require discounted rates for buildings certified
as "lead-free."
Inspection
THE LAW SAYS: "The owner shall cause an inves-
tigation to be made for peeling paint, chew-
able surfaces, deteriorated subsurfaces, fric-
tion surfaces [such as window sills and door
frames] and impact surfaces. Such investiga-
tion shall be undertaken once a year and more
ofren if necessary ... "
OPPONENTS SAY: In order to protect themselves
from litigation, owners would have to perform
near-obsessive inspections. For instance, since
lead dust is now considered a hazard, landlords
need to inspect and test any area with a poten-
tial for dust, and they have to find a pro to do
the job.
PROPONENTS SAY: Owners were already mandated
to inspect once a year. Requiring them to check
more often "if necessary" gives renants a tool to
protect themselves; landlords can no longer
CITY LIMITS
claim not to have known about potential threats. Land-
lords who suspect lead can do simple swipe-tests that cost
less than $10 a pop.
WIGGLE ROOM: Once a building is certified as "lead-free," its
owner is off the hook when it comes to yearly inspec-
tions. The regulations could extend that provision to
entire groups of buildings (such as ones that have been
gut-rehabilitated) if appropriate.
Clean-Up
THE LAW SAYS: "' Remediation' ... shall mean the reduction
or elimination of a lead-based paint hazard through the
wet scraping and repainting, removal, encapsulation,
enclosure or replacement of lead-based paint ... " and
"Such rules shall provide for temporary relocation pro-
vided by the owner of the occupants of a dwelling ... when
work cannot be performed safely."
OPPONENTS SAY: Owners may not be able to find certified
workers within the 21-day correction window. And who
decides whether or not the work can be performed safely?
A suict interpretation could require tenants to be relo-
cated during simple plumbing or repair work. Similarly,
a provision requiring the removal or covering of lead-
based paint on friction surfaces when an apartment is
vacated could add thousands of dollars to a renovation.
PROPONENTS SAY: Because the law requires certified profes-
sionals to address both hazards and violations, children
will be better protected. Lead dust testing would be per-
formed upon completion of the work, making it easy to
prove that the job was done right.
WIGGLE ROOM: The law already allows an exemption for
emergency repairs. Regulations should clarify when ten-
ants would need to be relocated and how the owner
should proceed if they refuse. Regulations written for
the original Local Law 1 of 1982 proposed, for instance,
that a family could stay in place as long as the work was
contained and the family had access to the dwelling's
kitchen, bathroom and exits.
Timeframes
THE LAW SAYS: "When the deparunent serves a notice of vio-
lation.. . the notice of violation shall specify the date by
which the violation shall be corrected, which shall be
twenty-one days after service of the notice of violation."
OPPONENTS SAY: The deadlines are unrealistic. If major
work needs to be done to correct an underlying defect
such as a leaky pipe, for instance, it can't necessarily be
done within three weeks. Tenants sometimes don't even
allow access to their aparunents on demand.
PROPONENTS SAY: The new law uses the same timeframes
that have been in place for decades, which allow two
postponements of 14 days each. It does require stricter
adherence to this schedule, but that's the only way to get
landlords to act quickly.
WIGGLE ROOM: The law already allows an additional post-
ponement to be granted at the city's discretion if the land-
lord can demonstrate reasonable efforts to get the work
done. The regulations could help clarify circumstances that
would constitute fair grounds for postponement .
JUNE 2004
FRONTLINES
F I RST HAN D
Where's the Work?
I'll BE 16 LATER THIS YEAR and I go to the School for International Studies, in Brooklyn.
School finishes June 17, and I want to buy stuff on my own instead of asking my mother. Clothes,
sneakers, things for my little sister. And saving for college. I wanted all that a year ago, too. I
wanted a summer job.
Last spring I went to the Boys and Girls Club on Bedford and Flatbush to get a city job work-
ing with kids. I had to fill out a form and go to the doctor for an exam, but I still didn't get hired.
I went to my little sister's school and filled out an application, but they said my mother makes
too much money (she doesn't-she works at a factory) . Then I went to stores on Flatbush, like
Hair Factory and Old Navy and Rainbow. They said I was too young.
So I went to summer school for math even though I didn't have to because I'm good at
math. And I swam at my auntie's house in New Jersey. I didn't feel OK, because my friends
had summer jobs.
This year I got my Student General Employment Certificate: It's this little card that lets you
work a lot of hours during vacation. I went to Dunkin' Donuts and filled out an application.
They said I was too young.
So I went on the Internet. I typed "Youth," "Job," "Employment" and "Brooklyn." About
10,000 jobs came up. I spent three days, from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. or midnight, sending appli-
cations on the computer. Out of those 10,000, all I heard back from was Party City and
Wendy's. They said they'd email me if anything came up. They didn't.
I went to downtown Brooklyn and got work forms from the Department of Labor. I'm sup-
posed to hear from them. Sometimes they never call back.
The city should give out more money for jobs and make the standards easier. It's not fair
that some kids get jobs and others don't! Everybody should be treated equal.
I want a job so bad! When you have money, you feel like you own the world. I want to feel
grown up. I'll be talking to myself and asking God, "Can you give me a job?" My mother looks
at me like I'm crazy. -Egypt Parsons, as told to Debbie Nathan
7
FRONT LINES
===H 0-00 I N G=-==
Landlords Dump
Voucher Tenants
SCORES OF NEW YORK City tenants with Sec-
tion 8 rental vouchers are facing eviction fol-
lowing state court decisions that allowed land-
lords to exit the subsidy program.
In the past, tenants using the vouchers to
pay for rent-stabilized apartments could stay
in their apartments indefinitely. New York
State law requires that whenever a stabilized
lease is renewed, it carries all the same terms
and conditions. As long as a tenant was still
eligible for Section 8, the landlord would have
to accept it.
But many landlords want out of that obli-
gation so they can seek higher rents or simply
avoid administrative burdens. And they may
now have the law on their side.
In 2002, two Westchester court cases found
that once a tenant's lease was up, his or her
landlord has no obligation to accept the vouch-
ers. The state Division of Housing and Com-
munity Renewal agreed.
Credit Unions
Seek a Deal
JAMAICA, QUEENS, recently became home to the
first banking development district in Queens
(ninth in the city overall). The program offers
banks financial benefits from the government
in exchange for opening branches in a low-
income, historically red-lined neighborhood.
But while such districts are great for small
banks, they are cause for consternation among
another important group of lenders: New York
City's 143 credit unions. Although these
lenders often serve poor areas, they are
excluded from the program.
Banking development districts (BDDs)
were created in 1998 to combat the statewide
problem of banks refusing to operate in poor
neighborhoods. To lure them back to under-
served areas, the state offered property tax relief
and access to municipal deposits. Carver Fed-
eral Savings Bank, for instance, will get a
deposit of $10 million in city funds in
8
Since then, local lawyers say, a growing
number of landlords have tried to evict Sec-
tion 8 tenants as their leases expire. Nancy
Duran, a single mother of three, received a
letter from her landlord, Moses Podolski, last
April that stated simply: "Dear Tenant, Please
be advised that the landlord, pursuant to the
law, has chosen not to renew your current
Section 8 lease."
Duran, who had lived in her Bronx apart-
ment for 18 years, was despondent. Her only
income comes from her son, who pays her to
care for his toddler. She pays $91 out of the
total $736 rent; her voucher covers the differ-
ence. Without it, she says, she couldn't pay the
rent-and she couldn't afford a comparable
apartment elsewhere.
"I never created any problems for him,
never not paid him rent," she says. "He has no
reason to do what he's doing now." Despite her
pleas, Podolski rejected the Section 8 pay-
ments, and moved to evict her.
"He doesn't need a why," says Podolksi's
lawyer, Andrea Zinno. "The law changed and
he's following it." This case, and many like it,
are now pending in Housing Court.
Mitchell Posilkin, general counsel for the
Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord
exchange for opening a Jamaica branch.
The New York City Banking Commission
didn't adopt the BDD program until last year,
but since then the city has selected nine banks to
operate in designated parts of areas like East New
York, South Central Harlem and the Bronx.
As the number of BDDs has risen, so has
the ire of credit union leaders. "We have been
discriminated against by being excluded from
that program," says Lillian Bent, manager of
the Union Settlement Federal Credit Union in
East Harlem. She and others argue that BDDs
should not be used solely to entice banks to
work in neighborhoods they once fled, but also
to reward credit unions for years of staying put.
And credit unions need the help. Since Sep-
tember 11, economic instability, low interest
rates and high housing costs have conspired
against them, says Cliff Rosenthal, executive
director of the National Federation of Com-
munity Development Credit Unions.
Bethex Federal Credit Union is a stark
example. Founded in 1970 by a small group
of women, by 2000 Bethex had grown into a
five-branch powerhouse with a reputation for
being among the most creative and successful
credit unions in the city. However, after 9111,
Bethex was hit so hard by the double
group, says members are fed up with Section 8.
"We want to see this program work," he says.
"It's only because the bureaucracy in place has
been so burdensome and costly that owners
feel that they have to walk away."
The New York City Housing Authority,
which oversees most of the city's 88,000 Sec-
tion 8 households, considers these evictions
illegal, according to a July 2003 memo from
Leased Housing Department Director Gregory
Kern. "Section 8 landlords in New York City
are not entitled to follow the DHCR and
Westchester court opinions," he wrote.
City Councilmember Bill deBlasio agrees.
He introduced legislation on February 26 ban-
ning discrimination against tenants based on
source of income, and expects to hold hearings
on the bill by June.
Meanwhile, Judith Goldiner, a staff attor-
ney with the Legal Aid Society, has flied a fed-
eral court case to enforce a 1995 ruling that
tenants could not be held responsible for
NYCHA's portion of their rent. "I feel like we
have a great argument," she says. "We're right
on the law, we're right on the facts, we're right
morally. We should win-but that doesn't
always happen."
-Cassi Feldman
whammy of fewer personal loans and fewer
foundation dollars, it had to close three
branches and retrench.
Hoping to offer credit unions like Bethex a
lifr, Queens Assemblymember Ivan Lafayette
recently introduced legislation that would allow
credit unions in designated BDDs to apply for
the same financial benefits as banks. It won't be
an easy sell: Lafayette has sponsored a similar bill
for the past three years, and each year it has been
blocked in the State Senate.
The New York State Bankers Association, a
powerful lobby, argues that credit unions
already get government help, and should not
get access to BDDs unless they are required to
pay the same corporate income taxes as banks.
Still, credit unions hope to win the BDD
fight this year. They have an ally in Senator
Hugh Farley who chairs the Senate Banking
Committee and introduced legislation in the
Senate on April 13 to expand the BDDs to
credit unions.
We need to have more state and federal sup-
port," says Pablo DeFilippi, CEO of the Lower
East Side People's Federal Credit Union. "Pro-
viding services to low-income people is an
expensive proposition."
-Elizabeth Cady Brown
CITY LIMITS
-===N 0 N ~ 0 F1 T ' 5 ~ =
Global Networking
for 2012 Olympics
DOZENS OF ETHNIC nonprofit organizations are
finally entering the internet age-in exchange
for helping New York City secure the 2012
Olympics.
NYC2012, the nonprofit organization pursu-
ing New York's Olympic bid, arranged for free
web site design and training for the organizations,
which are all members of a project it calls the
Nations of New York. A recruiting lener urges
member groups to "help to reach out around the
world to explain why Olympic Games should be
held in New York." Ranging from Asian Ameri-
can Communications to the Flatbush Haitian
Center, they represent 75 countries.
The first 26 web sites have just been fin-
ished and are scheduled to be launched this
spring. All of the sites will be linked to the
NYC2012 homepage, in an effort to demon-
strate the diversity of New York City. "The
purpose is not only to aid these organizations,"
says Justin Carr, manager of the Nations of
Commitment is
New York. "Ir is to display support from the
international communities. "
Through an agreement with the bid com-
mittee, last summer students at Pace University
started to help design web sites for member
organizations that wanted them. Pace created a
course called "Website Design for Non-Profit
Organizations," allowing students to create the
sites as part of their class work-then give the
sites free of charge to the community groups,
along with training in how to maintain the sites.
Nations of New York is continuing to recruit
local groups and expects the web site design proj-
ect to last at least until next July, when the win-
ning Olympic city will be announced, according
to Dennis Anderson, the Associate Dean at Pace
University who oversees the project. At least one-
third of the 375 Nations of New York member
organizations currendy lack their own web sites.
With deadlines approaching, these organi-
zations' support could be crucial next month.
The International Olympic Committee (lOC),
which consists of 125 members from 80 coun-
tries, will choose some or all of the nine appli-
cant cities for the final list of candidates.
''There is nowhere in the world as diverse as
New York, " says Carr. "The network provides
an access point." NYC2012 has made it clear
FRONT LINES
that, according to IOC rules, the bid's interna-
tional promotion cannot start until this
November, and lobbying IOC members in the
name of the committee is also prohibited. But
that doesn't stop individual organizations from
doing things on their own. "They can help
through word of mouth," says Lazaro Benitez,
a spokesman for NYC2012. "And we hope the
message goes back home to invigorate the
[IOC] members over there. "
For some organizations, the effort is broader
than word of mouth. "I have met 50 ambassa-
dors in the past year," says Danny Esquilin,
Vice President of the Hispanic-American
Sports Coalition, an umbrella organization
representing more than 300 sports leagues.
"Now I am helping through the Friendship
Games," which his organization is sponsoring.
Each year from now through 2008, Esquilin
explains, the Friendship Games will coordinate
with different countries to bring children from
every continent to New York City to compete in
games with local kids. The first event, starting
this September, will be held with China, a coun-
try Esquilin says he thinks has "big influence
with the lOC." Adds Esquilin, ''The program is
about creating friendship, which is the key to get-
ting the Olympics." -Xiaoqing Rong
Tomorrovv starts today
Deutsche Bank's commitment to
global corporate citizenship recognizes a
responsibility to improve and enrich the com-
munities throughout the world in
which we conduct business.
With a focused strategy of support for com-
munity development, the arts and the envi-
ronment, Deutsche Bank partners with local
organizations to build a brighter future.
leading to results
Our commitment to a better tomorrow
sta rts today.
Deutsche Bank ILl
JUNE 2004 9
FRONT llNES
= = ~ ~ A B = O R ~ = =
Health Aides Fight Back
THE TITLES ARE VIRTUALLY identical: home
health aide and home health attendant. And so
are some of their tasks; both groups help the
city's elderly and chronically ill with bathing,
preparing food and taking medications. But, as
any aide will tell you, there is one major differ-
ence: Because aides do not conuact with the
city, they lack the standardized wages and ben-
efits of anendants.
At an April rally, roughly 5,000 of the city's
home health aides, almost all black and His-
panic women, gathered at the Midtown Hilton
Hotel and voted to approve a possible strike.
Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "Invisible
No More," the name of their campaign, the
caretakers watched as a parade of politicians,
including City Council Speaker Gifford Miller,
took to the podium to pledge support for the
group's efforts to pressure their agencies to
increase wages by reducing adminisuative costs.
Though aides and anendants have similar
duties, aides also perform simple medical tasks,
such as monitoring blood pressure and dressing
2004
wounds, which require additional training and
separate certification. "We take care of sick
people, but when we get sick we have nothing
to fall back on, " says Joyce Bryant, 53, who
earns about $8 an hour working for Alliance
for Health, a Brooklyn agency. Many agencies
do not provide health insurance.
The walkout is part of a campaign by the
home care division of the Service Employee
International Union local 1199, which repre-
sents 23,000 home health aides like Bryant, to
force agencies across the five boroughs to raise
wages to $10 an hour by 2006. Workers are also
asking for paid sick and vacation days.
Home health attenddnts work for agencies
that contract with the Human Resources Admin-
istration, and are thus covered by the city's living
wage legislation. But home health aides have no
such luck. Because their agencies don't hold con-
tracts with the city, they currently earn close to
$7 an hour, while attendants earn about $9.
Some agencies say they would pay more if
they could. "The notion that any money is
misdirected to unnecessary administrative costs
is simply not uue," says Lyle Churchill, vice
president for marketing, communications and
development for the Visiting Nurse Service of
New York, an organization that contracts with
more than a dozen agencies that provide home
health aides. In addition to paying wages, state
reimbursements for at-home care must cover a
host of other expenses, including training,
billing and oversight, Churchill says. Without
more money from the state, he says, increasing
wages is impossible.
Despite the wage disparity, some aides say
they prefer their work to that of anendants
because of the additional duties involved. Typ-
ically, aides care for clients that are more med-
ically fragile than those served by anendants.
"This piece of health care industry cross-sub-
sidizes other aspects of the health care industry, "
says Kevin Finnegan, assistant director of SEIU
New York State Council. Hospitals reduce costs
when patients recover at home, he says.
If a strike occurs, agencies will likely try to
shuffle available aides to clients most in need.
Other clients would have to depend on family
members and neighbors. For families who live
far from their loved ones, the labor dispute is
particularly unsettling.
Duane Balfield of Philadelphia worries
about his sister. Paralyzed, she lives in Manhat-
tan and depends on home care 24 houts a day.
"If they strike," Balfield wonders, "what's going
to happen to my sister?"
-Elizabeth Siovic
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CITY LIMITS
INSIDE TRACK
The Talking Cure
As the health care industry pleads poverty, one hospital finds
success speaks many languages. By Matthew Schuerman
At Brooklyn's Lutheran Medical Center, translator Anna Ha helps patient Zhang Oeng
fill out an English-language form.
IN A CONVERTED East Flatbush storefront, at
the end of a row of fruit stands, about 50 peo-
ple are packed into the waiting room of a com-
munity health clinic, chatting in a cacophony
of languages. "Mondays are always heavy
days, " explains Dr. David John, the medical
director. "People get sick over the weekend and
have to wait until we open." Many are walk-
ins: the clinic, run by Lutheran HealthCare,
only books two-thirds of its appointment slots
ahead of time, to leave room for those with
sudden illnesses.
Patients who speak Creole have been
assigned to one of three Creole-speaking doc-
tors. Those who speak Spanish will see one of
four part-time MDs who speak Spanish. Eng-
lish-speakers have a choice of all seven. "When
we opened in 1998, that first year, we had
5,000 visits," says Dr. John. "In 2003, we had
JUNE 2004
20,000. " To accommodate the burgeoning
demand, Lutheran purchased the vacant
restaurant next door and plans to use the space
to offer more gynecological services and more
free pregnancy and HN testing. Meanwhile,
Dr. John travels to his home country of
Trinidad once a month to set up a $3.4 million,
four-year program to train health care workers
in anti-retroviral therapies. "We have a lot of
immigrants who actually live here for six
months and go back for six months," Dr. John
explains. "We see ourselves as taking care of
them on this side and on that."
The Caribbean-American Health Center is
one of nine clinics that Lutheran runs in south-
west Brooklyn. Founded in 1883 by a Norwe-
gian nurse, Lutheran has seen its Sunset Park
neighborhood change from Scandinavian to
Puerto Rican to the melange of ethnicities it is
today: Arab and Russian to the southeast,
Chinese in the south, and Latino allover.
The health care system has picked up the
languages of its clients along the way. "From
a pure business point of view, Lutheran
Medical Center had to respond to its com-
munity needs if it wanted to remain a
health and social institution," says Execu-
tive Vice-President Jim Stiles. "Our neigh-
borhood was changing. We had to change. "
Lutheran expanded its geographic reach,
too-satellite clinics stretch to Park Slope,
Fort Hamilton, and East Flatbush. Some of
Lutheran's clinics tread on territory once
claimed by other hospitals' outpatient units.
Yet Lutheran's financial backers were confi-
dent it could attract patients-clients other
health care providers were ignoring.
Brooklynites who don't speak English
were among those underserved groups. The
numbet of inpatient and outpatient visits
by Chinese, Arab, Latino and Russian
patients doubled to 79,000 annually
between 1999 and 2003. Somehow,
Lutheran has made it all work: it speaks the
local language, treats the poor and unin-
sured, and has run surpluses in each of the
past four years.
HEALTH CARE INSTITUTIONS in New York City
are finally beginning to speak to their patients
in their own languages-something they're
supposed to have done all along. The mandate
stretches back to the clause in the Civil Rights
Act prohibiting discrimination because of
national origin in programs receiving federal
funds. An executive order by President Clinton
in 2000 stipulated that the act guaranteed
"meaningful access" to federal programs by
people with limited English skills. Since then,
the Department of Health and Human Ser-
vices has drafted and redrafted its regulations
three times, most recently stating that health
institutions must extend language access for
"critical services while not imposing undue
burdens" on the institutions.
Immigrant advocates say a more rigorous
mandate is needed. "The health care system is
11
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in denial," says Adam Gurvitch, director of
health policy at the New York Immigration
Coalition. "If they needed a new CAT scan
machine they would find the money. Language
access is an essential service. Why can't they find
the money?"
Even as the regulators hash our the rules, local
medical centers are making some important
strides. At Gouverneur and Bellevue hospitals in
Manhattan, the New York City Health and Hos-
pitals Corporation is testing a high-tech audio
network: A doctor and patient in the examina-
tion room are hooked up to an interpreter at a
translation center elsewhere on campus.
Bur New York hospitals still lobby against
new legal requirements for translation. Last
November, the New York State Assembly held a
hearing on a bill that would require hospitals
to file an annual report documenting their
patients' language needs and what services are
available. Susan Waltman, general counsel of
the Greater New York Hospital Association
called the legislation an unfunded mandate.
Private medical centers, Waltman testified, "are
simply unable to undertake additional efforts
on any front without significant infusions of
funding, not just for the specific purposes tar-
geted but in order to keep them operating for
the benefit of everyone."
New York hospitals do already have a legal
obligation to provide interpretation and transla-
tion of important forms and oral instructions.
They don't always comply with it. Last year, the
state Attorney General's office negotiated agree-
ments with four hospitals that had been the sub-
ject of complaints they had failed to provide
translation services, including Wyckoff Heights
Medical Center and Woodhull Hospital, both in
Bushwick. The Brooklyn agreements, which
came about under pressure from the advocacy
group Make the Road by Walking, required the
hospitals to hire language coordinators and tap
into the language skills of their entire staffs.
The problems identified at those hospitals
don't appear to be isolated. In a survey of patients
from four hospitals last year, the New York
Immigration Coalition found that two-fifths
didn't receive services in a language they knew,
and one-fifth did not understand their diagnosis
or treatment. One in 10 said they had medical
decisions made without their consent.
IT IS HARD TO SAY just how well Lutheran
HealthCare meets patients' language needs com-
pared with other health systems in the city, but
local leaders in Sunset Park say they are satisfied
with what they're getting. "Our perception is
CITY LIMITS
..
that it's a real community hospital," says Eliza-
beth Yeampierre, executive director of the Unit-
ed Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park. "It
has a culturally sensitive bilingual staff." More
than half of Lutheran's 3,000 employees speak a
second language .
Lutheran's policy, established three years ago,
is to start by asking new patients their language
preferences. A patient is assigned a staff member,
usually one trained in medical translation at the
New York University Center for Immigrant
Health, to act as interpreter. A patient's child
cannot serve as translator-a traumatic event
should the parent be diagnosed with serious ill-
ness. Nor can an adult relative.
Each day, a staff of 10 bilingual patient repre-
Lutheran asks all
patients their
language
preferences and
assigns trained
translators-never
family members.
sentatives-speaking Spanish, Arabic, Russian,
Cantonese and Mandarin-receives a list of
patients who are scheduled to come in the fol-
lowing day. They call each one and ask, in their
own language: Do you know how to get here,
and where to enter? Any questions? The rep then
greets the patients when they arrive for their
appointments. The patient representatives spend
about three-quarters of their time interpreting
and the rest giving patients general assistance.
Outlying clinics are able to serve language
needs even more directly. The entire medical staff
at the Brooklyn Chinese Center speaks Man-
darin and Cantonese. One doctor at the Park
Ridge Center speaks Arabic, two Spanish, three
Hindu and Urdu and another Mandarin. A last
resort is a commercial telephone link that con-
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nects doctor and patient through medical inter-
preters located off campus.
Virginia Tong, Lutheran's vice president for
cultural competence, acknowledges that the
system can appear confusing, since each patient
is accommodated in different ways depending
on the circumstance. The only Arabic-speaking
patient representative serves both clinic and
hospital, which keeps her running back and
forth. But Tong says the bottom line is that the
hospital can guarantee that all patients are
served in their own languages. "Communica-
tion is the crux of health care," says Tong, who
knows three Chinese dialects, understands a
fourth and speaks some Spanish. "Even if you
are bilingual, when you are talking aboU(
health care, when you are talking about your
body, only in your native tongue do you really
feel comfortable. "
Still, more than half of all immigrants in
New York City don't have health insurance.
How does Lutheran provide these translation
services and still survive financially? The answer
lies in savvy grant-seeking and prescient deci-
sions about managed care. Almost four decades
ago, the hospital opened a community health
center-now one of 26 federally certified cen-
ters in New York City and the only one allied
with a hospital. The center must serve uninsured
patients and charge a sliding fee based on
income. Health centers' mission to serve their
communities also encompasses language servic-
es-from translators to multilingual signage-
monitored through site visits by HHS person-
nel. Lutheran receives an annual grant to reim-
burse the cost of those services-$7.7 million
this year, out of the health center network's $100
million budget.
The experience that the federal grant gave
Lutheran among the underserved also gave it a
track record attractive to foundations, which,
together with competitive federal grants, con-
tribute about $17 million annually. "We would
go out and get grants that would help us take
care of the at-risk and uninsured," recounts
Stiles. "Very few hospitals have gone after grants
for this purpose. They go after grants for med-
ical research. "
The medical center began to set up satellite
clinics, by teaming up with local community
organizations. These clinics have a distinct com-
petitive advantage. Medicaid reimburses at gen-
erous rates for hospital inpatient care and servic-
es at federally certified clinics. By contrast, satel-
lite clinics run by Lutheran's competitors are
considered outpatient arms of hospitals and
therefore are stuck under a punishing reimburse-
ment rate set during the 1980s.
CITY LIMITS
In addition, Lutheran had the foresight in
1984 to set up a Medicaid managed care pro-
gram of its own, Health Plus. Many poor immi-
grants qualifY for government-sponsored health
care coverage, including all children and preg-
nant women, regardless of legal status. Undocu-
mented adult immigrants can at the very least get
emergency room bills paid. Medicaid brought in
$115 million a year to the entire system in 2001,
which, counting the hospital, had a budget of
$280 million. The Lutheran health system thus
has an incentive to enroll as many of its own
patients as possible in HealthPlus, including
those who don't speak English.
Lutheran does not break out a budget for
how much it spends on interpretation, but ana-
lysts elsewhere have sought to come up with
estimates of what it costs a hospital to translate.
The federal Office of Management and Budget
found it would add 0.5 percent to the cost of
treating a patient. Immigrant advocates and
health care experts agree that substantial pools of
public and private money have yet to be tapped.
"It is probably not enough to cover all language
services all over the country at this time," says
Mara Youdelman, staff attorney at the National
Health Law Project, "but there are sources of
money out there. "
Two are Medicaid and the State Children's
Health Insurance Program, through which the
federal government can match each state dollar
spent on interpretive services for enrolled
patients with between 50 and 65 cents of its
own. Ten states are doing this. But with the
governor and state legislature hustling to slash
rising state and local Medicaid costs, New York
is unlikely to join them. New York administers
other grant programs that hospitals could draw
on, among them the $250-miIIIion-a-year
Community Healthcare Conversion Demon-
stration Project.
The cost of offering language access also has
to be balanced with the cost of not providing it.
Five years ago, a county health official in Cali-
fornia asked a Laotian woman with tuberculosis
why she had stopped taking her medication. A
Hmong man cried to interpret, but since he
spoke no Lao, she thought he was asking if she
felt like she was going to die. She did-the side
effects were what made her stop taking the med-
ication. But the interpreter thought the woman
was threatening to kill herself, and the patient
was put in jail for 10 months on suicide watch.
The county paid $l.2 million in damages. An
interpreter costs about $40 an hour.
Matthew Schuerman is a Brooklyn-based freelance
writer.
JUNE 2004
CITY LIMITS
wants you.
Gain news experience.
Build character.
Intern for City Limits
Don't just run the photocopier.
Work as a journalist.
Assist sen ior staff with reporti ng
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Mail or email a resume, three clips and a cover letter detailing why you
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15
16
A real estate investor checks
prospect: the federally subs
re Nadiyah Abdullah
Morris live.
speculatorS N01
Wanted
hen tenants have a
it doesn't involve
CITY LIMITS
Tenants and city officials are
teaming up to fight the feds'
mass auctions of subsidized
housing. But can they compete
with speculators seeking the real
estate bargain of the decade?
BY ROBERT NEUWIRTH
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEl BERMAN
JUNE 2004
T
he Gates-Patchen apartments are
nothing fancy-just two unassuming
buildings on a quiet block in Bed-
Stuy. They've got none of the up-mar-
ket appeal of their high-buttoned
brownstone neighbors. They're prosaic, proletar-
ian, hardly even noticeable. So why are specula-
tors sniffing around the twin-building complex?
The answer is that the buildings at 940 and
950 Gates Avenue may soon be foreclosed
upon and auctioned off to private bidders at a
fire-sale price--courtesy of the federal govern-
ment. At press time, the auction was scheduled
for May 5.
"It feels like an invasion," says Nadiyah
Abdullah, a social worker in the public schools
who has lived in Gates-Patchen for 24 years.
''I've invested too much rime here for them to
treat me like this. It's just not fair."
If the 104-unit complex is sold, it will be a
dispiriting portent of the fate that could befall
tenants in 70 other ciry buildings that were
built or renovated under the federal Section 8
subsidy program and have been cited for dete-
riorating conditions.
Fourteen buildings around the five bor-
oughs have failed inspections and have been
scheduled for some sort of enforcement action
by the Department of Housing and Urban
Development-the federal agency that insures
the mortgages on these buildings and provides
housing subsidies. Foreclosure for them may be
imminent. Another 56 buildings are border-
line-meaning that conditions there are trou-
bling and, though the buildings are not sched-
uled for foreclosure, they may be headed that
way if their owners and managers don't clean
up their acts.
Tenants in these 70 buildings-more than
10,000 families-are at risk oflosing their homes
and potentially their rent subsidies if the foreclo-
sure and auction process continues unabated.
That's because in a real estate market like
New York's, where demand far outstrips supply,
there's no shortage of speculators willing to
wager that they can take control of neglected
buildings-and pay HUD handsomely for the
privilege. HUD has made it clear that it will
take the money from the highest bidder, with or
without guarantees that their tenants can stay.
"These actions should punish landlords,
not tenants," says Anne Lessy, director of New
York Ciry organizing for Tenants & Neigh-
bors, who has been working with tenants in
many endangered project-based Section 8
buildings. "Foreclosure can be an excellent
tool with which to remove neglectful land-
lords. But the solution could turn out to be
worse than the problem."
Some observers suggest that HUD bureau-
crats are using the foreclosure and auction
process to get speculators to simply take these
deteriorating buildings off the agency's hands.
"Their real goal is to reduce their portfolio,
which they believe loses them money," says Jon
Sheiner, a former high ranking HUD staffer
who is now chief legislative aide for New York
Ciry Congressman Charles Rangel.
Nonsense, responds HUD's New York
spokesperson, Adam Glantz. "We're trying to
do the right thing," he says-fIX the buildings
and get them into good hands, without violat-
ing what he calls HUD's "obligation to the
taxpayers. "
W
hen the twin Strucrures at 940 and 950
Gates Avenue were constructed in the early
1970s, they offered tenants a sense of affordable
luxury: brand-new apartments with elevators
and balconies, securiry intercoms at the front
doors, and the guarantee of a federal rent sub-
sidy that seemed like it would last forever.
They were built as part of a federal program
known as project-based Section 8, which
offered developers two important financial
incentives to encourage them to build or sub-
stantially renovate affordable rental housing.
Landlords who participated were given 40-year
federally insured mortgages; the long time
period ensured that monthly payments were
relatively low, thus boosting likely profit mar-
gins. And after the buildings were finished, all
apartments were guaranteed Section 8 rental
assistance for at least 20 years.
Under Section 8, tenants pay one-third of
their income in rent, and the government pays
the landlord the difference between that and
market rent. This meant that owners could
build qualiry buildings in difficult areas and
sriU recoup a decent profit.
Project-based Section 8 was a successful
program. Between 1974, when it commenced,
and 1983, when it was phased our, 394 build-
ings in New York Ciry were built or renovated
using its formula, and 54,665 families ar any
given time got the opportuniry to have decent
affordable homes.
Gates-Patchen was a good building for
much of its existence. The decline started in
earnest about five years ago, when managers
who had taken an active interest in the building
were replaced by folks who didn't seem to care.
Tenants report that one live-in superintendent
was more inreresred in running a carpentry
17
business out of the basement than in making
repairs. Now, years of deferred maintenance and
neglect have left the building in a hole. It needs
a massive infusion of capital- as much as $6
million, according to federal estimates.
"Every apartment in here leaks, from the
roof on down, " says Delores Morris, who
knows the problems intimately from her 13
years as a Gates-Patchen tenant. "And jfit rains
hard, it leaks in the hallways, too. "
Morris, Adbullah and other tenant leaders
battled to stop the slow dearh of the Gates-
Patchen complex. They repeatedly requested
that the management company make repairs.
They blocked one resident manager who was
trying to take money under rhe table to move
people into vacant apartments. They even
complained to the federal agency that adminis-
ters rhe rental assistance for the buildings.
But last year, when rhe elevators broke and
no one was prepared to fIx them, it became
starkly clear that rheir attempts to work within
rhe system had failed. The tenants went public,
inviting WCBS-TV newsman Arnold Diaz to
expose rhe problems. Prodded by Diaz' "Shame
on You" segment, rhe management company
fInally restored elevator service. But orher
repairs languished.
Now, months later, HUD, which holds the
mortgage on Gates-Patchen, has finally
responded to rhe building's deterioration. But rhe
action rhe feds propose may be much more dan-
gerous for tenants than the crumbling conditions.
HUD has decided to foreclose and immedi-
ately resell rhe buildings to the highest bidder.
If this happens, Gates-Patchen will lose its
guaranteed Section 8 rental subsidy, and ten-
ants will have to apply individually for what are
called Section 8 vouchers. "Anyone rhat is
income-eligible will be getting a voucher, "
promises Glantz, the HUD spokesman.
Though this offers tenants a measure of
protection, it may still leave rhem in a precar-
ious position. That's because the vouchers will
be valid at Gates-Patchen only if rhe buildings
pass a code inspection-which may be diffi-
cult because HUD already considers them
seriously deteriorated. Tenants could move
elsewhere using their vouchers, but that would
force rhem to fInd a new apartment in a very
tight private market.
In addition, the vouchers may be a temporary
fix. The Bush administration is seeking to chop
29 percent ftom the Section 8 budget by 2009.
New regulations tying local spending to previous
years' levels may further restrict the number of
vouchers available. Glantz insists, however, that
18
qualifYing Gates-Patchen tenants will get vouchers
irrespective of any future budget cuts.
And there's anorher complicating factor-
the fate of rhe vacant apartments in the com-
plex. Currently, 17 of Gates-Patchen's 104
apartments are empty, and once rhe foreclosure
sale is complete, those apartments could rent at
market rates. Glantz promises HUD will fund
enough vouchers for these apartments, but it
would be left to rhe new landlord's discretion
whether to accept Section 8 tenants or instead
rent the apartments on rhe open market, for
which it could charge a higher price.
According to the information package
HUD has handed to prospective bidders,
whoever buys the building may be able to raise
rents by as much as 50 percent on vacant units
after the sale goes through. HUD estimates
that an owner could make a profIt of better
A former HUD
official contends
the agency's "real
goal is to reduce
their portfOlio" of
affordable housing.
rhan $600,000 a year.
The tenants, working with the Urban
Homesteading Assistance Board, have offered a
different proposal: "Let us own and manage rhe
building. Let us do what we know we can do--
manage it justly and fairly," says tenant activist
Abdullah. (In rhe interest of full disclosure:
UHAB is a sponsor of City Limits, its executive
director is on rhe board of rhe magazine's par-
ent organization, and the two groups share
office space.) To rhat end, the tenants propose
that Gates-Patchen be turned into a low-
income cooperative.
F
oreclosures and auctions aren't necessarily
bad, for they can be used to wrest control of
buildings from neglectful or unscrupulous
owners and put into rhe hands of better ones.
Since HUD rules allow localities a so-called
"right of fIrst refusal" on these buildings, HUD
has sometimes been able to work wirh cities to
find ways to bar speculators from taking the
buildings. In the waning years of rhe Clinton
Administration, for instance, the city of Dallas
successfully acquired a building in an effort to
keep tenants in their homes. Similarly, in
Newark, HUD worked wirh tenants (including
mayoral candidate Cory Booker) to salvage a
project-based Section 8 complex that was
slated for foreclosure and demolition.
Here in New York, there are precedents for
tenant takeovers. They have typically been ini-
tiated via legal action on behalf of tenants that
force HUD, as rhe mortgage-holder, to gain
legal possession of the properties. In 2002,
HUD handed the Medgar Evers Houses, just
down the road from Gates-Patchen, to a con-
sortium involving the tenants and several non-
profIts-fInally ending the decades-long
odyssey of horror that had made their homes
unfit and unsafe.
Of course, market conditions have changed
since rhese deals were cut. Property values in
New York are skyrocketing, and rents are also
ramping up. Many of the 14 project-based Sec-
tion 8 buildings that now face foreclosure and
auction have low mortgages and are in neigh-
borhoods where rhey can command high
rents-and this may make rhem particularly
appealing to speculators.
Whatever its reasons, HUD has seemed
resistant to rhe city's recent attempts to negoti-
ate a future for these buildings that is favorable
for low-income tenants. An impressive array of
community groups, elected officials, and city
bureaucrats have lined up behind the co-op
plan outlined by Abdullah. Pols like Senator
Chuck Schumer and Congressman Ed Towns,
among others, have been prodding rhe federal
agency to transfer the buildings to rhe city,
which has promised to work wirh the tenants
to make rheir dream of homeownership a real-
ity. As of late April, rhough, HUD has only
made one move to address tenants' concerns
about rhe upcoming auction. After initially
judging that repairs on rhe apartment complex
will cost about $2.9 million, HUD has now
doubled its estimate, and projects rehab costs
to be closer to $6 million-somerhing would-
be buyers will have to take heed of.
The clock is ticking. "We have to negotiate a
deal before May 5th," says Harold Shultz, spe-
cial counsel for the City's Department of Hous-
ing Preservation and Development (HPD) .
As rhe slated auction date approached, ten-
ants discovered rhey may have more arnmuni-
CITY LIMITS
tion than they thought. The organization that
owns the buildings, Gates-Patchen HDFC,
reportedly sought to sell the properties to an
investor, George Fakaris. Investigating the pro-
posed sale, UHAB and HPD discovered that
Gates-Patchen sits in an urban renewal wne,
governed by a decades-old agreement that
appears to give the city the power to approve or
nix any sale of the buildings. What's more, to the
residents' amazement, a second provision awards
tenants the right to decide whether or not they
want to take over and run Gates-Patchen as a co-
op. At press time, it still wasn't clear how these
legal covenants might affect the auction plans.
HUD insists the auction is moving forward as
planned.
Since it was common for Section 8 buildings
to be erected in urban renewal wnes, more build-
ings facing the auction block may also have such
protections. But most tenants have no hope of a
fairy-rale ending. Last year, HUD foreclosed on
a Bronx complex, Pueblo de Mayaguez. On its
face, the building seemed a good candidate for
foreclosure. Things were so bad under the old
owner that life had become surreal: Drug deal-
ers had moved couches into the hallways and
were running a comfortable drug supermarket
right inside. Tenants organized to take control
of the building themselves.
But HUD's auction was surreal, too: It was
an outdoor event on the steps of the Bronx
courthouse. "The bidding went from $100,000
to $4.9 million in about thirty seconds," says
Dina Levy, an organizer with the Urban Home-
steading Assistance Board, which was working
with the tenants to turn their building into a
low-income cooperative. The final bid-by a
Queens-based developer who owns other prop-
erties rife with housing code violations-was far
in excess of the price UHAB's analysts believed
the rents could support.
After the sale, the federal agency started
pouring extra money into the building, paying
the landlord rents that are 20 to 25 percent
higher than the Section 8 program typically
allows. According to Legal Aid staff anorney
Ellen Davidson, the new rents for the building's
75 apartments range from $1,050 for a studio
apartment to $1,600 for a 3-bedroom. "These
are high rents for the Bronx," she says. HUD's
Glantz denies that the agency is overpaying the
new owner and insists that rents are within nor-
mal Section 8 guidelines.
W
hy are so many HUD-subsidized buildings
suffering such extensive physical distress
simultaneously? In part, it appears to be a
JUNE 2004
PRIME PROPERTY AVAILABLE
940 AND 950 GATES AVENUE, BROOKLYN
Outstanding mortgage: $1.4 million. Number of units: 104
Estimated repair costs: $6 million
Year built: early 1970s
Status: auction scheduled for May 5.
51 WADSWORTH TERRACE, MANHATTAN
Outstanding mortgage: $2.3 million. Number of units: 49
Estimated repair costs: unknown. Year built: 1920
Status: owner plans to payoff debts
and stop renting to subsidized tenants.
480 ST. NICHOLAS AVENUE, MANHATTAN
Outstanding mortgage: $5.5 million in 2003
Estimated repair costs: unknown . Number of units: 269
.Year built 1975
Status: owner plans to payoff debts and repair aparbnents-
but tenants wonder how the will last
HUD's Housing Stock Options
Gates-Patchen is headed toward foreclosure because the complex failed several recent code inspec-
tions mandated by HUD. If a building scores extremely low on the inspections, or if it fails two inspections
in a row, it is referred for what HUD calls "enforcement. " That's the status of the 14 buildings immediately
on the line in New York City right now. HUD can foreclose on the current owner and sell the building in an
immediate public auction.
But there are also 56 buildings on the bubble-they've done poorly on inspections, but not so poorly
as to be referred for enforcement. In those cases, HUD has two other options. It can work with the current
building owner to restructure the debt, make necessary repairs, and even put money into rehabilitation. In
theory, that can help protect tenants. But this path, too, is fraught with dangers.
In Harlem, tenants of St. Phillips on the Park, a 260-unit project-based Section 8 complex at 134th
Street and Eighth Avenue, spent much of the winter with no heat. Right around Christmas, they heard
that the building's owner had fallen behind on mortgage payments and was in danger of foreclosure.
Selina Robinson, who has lived in St. Phillips since 1974 and is the corresponding secretary of the ten-
ants association, turns to black humor to describe how she and her neighbors felt when they learned
that they could lose their homes: "People hung themselves and started using heroin," she says. "Seri-
ously, it's a very bad feeling. It was not a good holiday season."
HUD has apparently backed off from the foreclosure threat. The owner has paid the back debt and
promised to address maintenance issues, and to meet with tenants every month to offer a progress
report. But Robinson and her neighbors remain wary. Even with a new HUD deal, the owner could still
fail to make necessary repairs.
And there's no guarantee that the owners will stick with the subsidy program in the long run. That's
because all owners of these project-based Section 8 properties can payoff the remainder of their mort-
gages and get out entirely from their obligations to house subsidized tenants. It's an attractive option
for owners in a newly hot neighborhood, who can renovate buildings and then make a profit by rent-
ing or selling on the private market.
This may be the fate awaiting Renaissance Court, at 51 Wadsworth Terrace in Washington Heights.
This 49-apartment building is in an extremely valuable area. Though landlord Louis Evangelista, Jr., is
behind in his mortgage payments, he has told tenant organizers that he wants to payoff the govern-
ment and drop his federal rent subsidies, which are set to expire in August. Evangelista did not return
phone calls seeking comment. If he follows through on his plan, tenants could be forced out of the
building this year. -RN
19
delayed reaction to changes to the federal tax
codes more than 15 years ago.
As long as no major repairs were needed,
these buildings continued to make modest
profits for their owners. But, as the buildings
aged, big-ticket items-like elevators and boil-
ers-began to need work, and the profit mar-
gins weren't giving landlords enough to pay for
repairs on these major systems. In the past,
owners could use the structures as lucrative tax
shelters, reaping enhanced depreciation bene-
fits for any major investments. The buildings
now have to pay for themselves out of the
rental stream. "There's not a lot of cash flow,"
explains Rangel staffer Jon Sheiner. "So it's
easy for a landlord to say, 'I ain't making any
money, so why should I put money into my
building.' Even if the landlord's a nice guy, it's
a tough job. And if he's an indifferent bastard,
it's a real problem."
The concerns over project-based Section 8
buildings accelerated during the last days of the
Clinton Administration, when then-HUD
Secretary Andrew Cuomo vowed to inspect all
HUD buildings to ensure they were being well-
managed. The new administration has contin-
ued this policy. In itself, this is a good thing.
"Previously, HUD had been lax in enforcing
physical standards," says HPD's Shultz. "The
Bush administration is actually addressing
this-which should be an applause line. "
But when buildings fail their inspections,
HUD often acts precipitously, without
informing tenants. A year ago, HUD allowed
Section 8 assistance for one building in Boston
to lapse, but never told the tenants. New rents
there could range from $1,400 a month to
$ 1, 8 OO-well beyond what Section 8 vouchers
will pay. "HUD really screwed up," charges
Michael Kane, executive director of the
National Alliance of HUD Tenants, which is
based in Massachusetts. "Now the city could
lose 80 units. "
While buildings that fail inspection are most
immediately at risk, tenants in buildings that
pass inspections also are vulnerable. The Section
8 rental assistance contracts on many of these
buildings must be renewed in the near future-
and owners are allowed to forego the subsidy if
they think they can do better on the private
market. The prospect of owners opting out of
the program is a growing threat for tenants.
One study showed that 56 buildings in Con-
gressman Rangel's Upper Manhattan district
alone, containing more than 6,000 apartments,
have their Section 8 contracts up for renewal
this year and next.
20
Some elected officials and community groups
are working to find ways of protecting tenants
when federally and state-subsidized buildings-
including those under the middle-income
Mitchell Lama program-go market-rate.
Alan Gerson, who represents Lower Man-
hattan on the New York City Council, has
introduced a bill to help protect tenants. Build-
ing on precedents from other cities, the pro-
posal would give tenants advance notice when
their buildings are at risk of going market rent,
and make it city policy for the landlord to face
a simple choice: accept a tenant-inspired offer
to buy the building or remain in the subsidy
program. Gerson also hopes to create a trust
fund to pay for the purchase and renovation of
buildings (though he has not yet identified spe-
cific sources of support) . Says Gerson, "If we
lose these tens of thousands of units citywide,
we'll never recreate them. And we'll lose an
incredible amount of diversity in our city." Ger-
son adds that he is trying to line up support
from the real estate industry and Mayor
Michael Bloomberg. "We're trying to come up
with a win-win-win scenario. Win for the ten-
ants. Win for the owners. And win for the city."
But he concedes that it's not clear that the city
has the power to tie HUD's hands if the agency
is determined to auction off its buildings.
Back at Gates-Patchen, the tenants are hop-
ing against hope that HUD will negotiate with
them. They have petitioned the agency to buy
the building in the foreclosure action, and then
turn it over to the city for a nominal price. The
city, in rum, has promised to flip the building
to the tenants.
Getting HUD to buy the property, however,
is a long shot. While the agency can bid to buy
the Gates-Patchen complex, the agency asserts it
is legally limited to spending only the amount
that remains on the mortgage plus the value of
any capital improvements the government may
have financed over the years. There's only $1.4
million remaining on the Gates-Patchen mort-
gage, and HUD has spent very little money on
the building. Levy, the UHAB organizer who
has been working with the tenants, notes sadly
that this would be a bargain-basement price in
the overheated New York City market. ''Any-
body in their right mind will bid more than
that, " she says.
If buying the building outright is impossi-
ble, the tenants are pushing HUD to add a
series .of restrictive covenants to the sale. One
would stipulate that the buildings must be con-
verted into a low-income cooperative within
five years, irrespective of who buys them. This,
tenants argue, would ward off speculators. In
case all else fails, organizers are simply petition-
ing HUD to postpone the auction. HUD
spokesman Adam Glantz confirms that negoti-
ations are underway.
The tenants know the city doesn't have
enough money ro go up against a determined
speculator. "I feel like a sitting duck," says
Nadiyah Abdullah. "We wish we didn't have to
go through this process. We still don't under-
stand HUD's motives." Her neighbor Delores
Morris believes in the power of positive think-
ing. "We can't panic just yet," she says. But she
vows that if HUD sells the tenants out, the
agency will feel her wrath. "If they do jerk us
around, we are going to raise hell. We may be
at the mercy of the developer. But not without
a fight."
So the future remains cloudy for Gates-
Patchen. Only this much is clear: If HUD
doesn't change its mind or revamp its rules,
Abdullah, Morris and other tenants may wind
up being little more than spectators, con-
demned to stand on the steps of the Kings
County Courthouse on May 5 and watch as
their homes and futures are auctioned away .
CITY LIMITS
a private adoption agency specializing in the curi-
ous business of marketing adolescents like
Marisol to families. You Gom Believe! branding
includes perky slogans like, "If you adopt a teen,
there are no diapers to change!"
To witness this peculiar event, I have
brought with me Natasha Santos and Pauline
Gordon. Both are 16 and.writers for Represent,
the magazine produced by teens in foster care
that I edit. Pauline has just finished taking
Marisol off to the side for an interview-hear-
ing Marisol's story of how she aches to leave
foster care and find a real family. Now, Pauline
and Natasha are impatient for the performance
to begin. They're rooting for Marisol.
The cameras roll. At first, Marisol deftly whit-
tles the complications of her life to a few charm-
ing facts. She lives in a group home. She doesn't
Natasha and Pauline look at each other, eye-
brows raised. They know that Marisol's display
of bravado is risky. Her insouciance could be
interpreted as endearing. But it might also be
condemned as bratty.
Then everything goes wrong. Asked to
describe her day, Marisol answers like a robot.
"Go to school," she says, staring dully ahead.
"School boring. Bored. Teacher? Hmmm.
Can't stand her. Come home. Do my home-
work. Eat dinner. Good food."
At this, Pamela, a sophisticated-looking
and composed older teen flanking Marisol,
calmly explains that she's never bored at school.
Moreover, she loves books and reading. She
volunteers in her school's library. She always
follows her elders' advice. And unlike the other
girls in her group home who listen to hip hop,
After the young man on her left
admits that sometimes he "destroys things"
to feel better, Marisol follows suit.
"I'm always depressed,"
she blurts, dropping her head.
For a split second, silence hangs.
like exercise. She loves to eat. She loves eating so
much, she explains shyly, that she looks forward
to dinner all day. Oxtail with rice is among her
favorite foods. She'd like an adoptive mother to
make that dish for her. And she'd like a family
"who loves me, family that will treat me nice. "
The audience members murmur apprecia-
tively. Emboldened, Marisol warms up and
takes a risk. Asked what she likes about school,
she shrugs.
"Nothing," she smirks.
"At all?" urges the moderator, a former fos-
ter child herself
"No."
Previous page: Twelve-year-old Mari sol
Torres is in foster care-and going
through the stressful process of
fi nding someone to adopt her.
22
Pamela says, ''I'm really not into that. . . I know
I'm unique. "
Further, Pamela's requirements for happi-
ness are far less needy than Marisol's. Pamela
doesn't expect a family to love her, she says.
Only to appreciate her. At this, Marisol looks
flummoxed, like she knows she's messed up.
Then Marisol drops a true lead balloon.
After the young man on her left admits that
sometimes he "destroys things" to feel better,
Marisol follows suit.
"I'm always depressed," she blurts, dropping
her head. For a split-second, silence hangs.
"She's not always depressed!" interrupts
Pamela, trying to rescue Marisol and the
moment. But it's too late. The moderator
politely smiles and plows on.
During question-and-answer time, after the
taping has finished, no one from the audience
addresses Marisol. Instead, one woman wants to
know how tall the "girl in white" is. 'Tm five-
nine," Pamela answers, sounding confused.
Later the woman-who already has some
adopted children-says that those kids tease
her for being too short. "So I'm not taking any-
one taller than me," she says. She's laughing,
but she sounds like she means it.
Walter A. Jones III, also in the audience, has
no interest in Marisol either. At last week's You
Gotta Believe! training, he wore a tie-dyed tee and
silver hoop earrings and peered through John
Lennon-style sunglasses while flipping through an
album of older kids and teens up for adoption.
"I want me twins. Triplets would be better,"
he explained, pausing periodically at a photo
that piqued his interest. Then he earnestly
turned to the page describing the child and
penned notes in the journal he reserves for
tracking kids he might want. "Boys. Boys
only, " said Walter. "I hate girls. "
T
hree years ago, the Administration for
Children's Services entered into a con-
tract with You Gotta Believe! The
arrangement is part of ACS' ever-intensi1}ring
efforts to connect teens with adults who might
offer stability to adolescents who are "aging
out" of the foster-care system and facing the
prospect of life on their own.
This year, ACS began requiring the private
foster care agencies it oversees to help every
teen link up with adults whQ---{)ut of the
goodness of their hearts-will support these
kids after they leave foster care. The link could
involve moving a teen out of a group home and
into a private foster family. It could mean
hooking a kid up with a "mentor. " Or it could
mean arranging an adoption--even for a 20-
year-old. Of all these options, adoption is pre-
ferred. As an ACS training manual on the sub-
ject explains, "Legal ties do bind. "
"Just occasionally we hear of kids who age out
of care to the street or shelter system," explains
ACS' Deputy Commissioner of Foster Care and
Preventive Services, Lisa Parrish, diplomatically. In
fact, a 2000 study by the Citizens' Commirtee for
Children of New York, Inc. found that about 17
percent of the "age-outs" at one New York City
agency went directly into homeless shelters. In
1999, Covenant House discovered about a third of
the young adults in its homeless shelter had once
lived in foster care. Parrish says homelessness won't
happen "if you have caring adults in your life. "
And even if teens resist cozying up to adults,
foster care agencies must now urge them to
reconsider. Beginning last July, teens could no
longer reject the general prospect of adop-
tion-though they could still refuse to be taken
CITY LIMITS
by specific families.
Child welfare workers agree that adoption
and adult connections for teens sound like noble
goals. But many doubt that pursuing them is the
best use of their caseworkers' limited time and
resources. Further, they fear that the policy will
raise teens' hopes for family without delivering.
And when kids are adopted, that takes them out
of the realm of state oversight and into private,
unsupervised families. As a result, teens who are
adopted may stop receiving services that they
need, like therapy. Worse, as the notorious Jack-
son family case in New Jersey underscores, they
may suffer neglect or abuse.
And there's always the risk-substantial, as
it turns out-that the "connection" between
the teen and the nurturing adult may go bad,
especially if the grown-up's ideas about men-
toring and adoption are based more on fantasy
than on a realistic grasp of the problems
attending such relationships.
It may seem commonsensical that linking
teens to caring adults can bolster their chances in
life after they leave foster care, but that outcome
has not been proven. Few studies have explored
the long-term effects of adoption or mentoring
JUNE 2004
on youth. "It's risky to be putting all your
resources in one model and not know what the
outcomes are," says Harriet Mauer, Director of
Social Service at Good Shepherd Services. Mauer
and other members of the Council of Families
and Child Caring Agencies (COFCCA), which
represents the city's private foster care agencies,
asked ACS for proof that the adoption and men-
toring policy really helps teens leaving care. If
ACS could not come up with such evidence, the
agencies had other models to offer: Inwood
House raises about $350,000 a year to continue
supporting about 65 of its teens once they leave
Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, states
receive a bounty for every adoption above the
total they achieved the year before. Now, for
the first time ever, nearly half of the kids in fos-
ter care are adolescents. So for ACS to increase
adoption rates, it must try to get teens adopt-
ed. Yet it is extraordinarily difficult to fmd fos-
ter homes for teens, never mind adoptive ones.
Meanwhile, child welfare systems almost
never get good press unless it's about their
adoption efforts-which are right up in the
public eye with apple pie and (biological)
motherhood. As a result, says Gladys Carrion a
Pat O'Brien, left, puts teens on TV to help them find new parents. Pamela, Marisol
and Jose explain why they're good kids.
care; Children's Village pairs boys leaving its resi-
dential treatment center with supervised, profes-
sional mentors who stay in touch not only out of
the goodness of their hearts, but because doing so
is their paid job.
ACS has yet to provide the goods, and some
child welfare experts have begun wondering
whether teen adoption is simply the city's way
of abdicating responsibility for its youngsters.
After all, adoptions cost the city far less than
does keeping a kid in care, and, under the
COFCCA member and the executive director
of Inwood House, agencies are afraid to utter a
peep against adoption. If they do criticize, she
says, "You almost have to preface it with, 'I
believe in adoption, but I understand that it's
not a panacea and it's not going to work for
every young person .. .. All of us have to devote
all this time and energy into writing case plans
about the efforts we're making to find adoptive
homes for teens, when in reality that's going to
be an option for a very small number of teens
23
in the system. Hello! It's not the real world."
Some child welfare experts warn that agency
workers have their own motives for keeping
kids in foster care, however. As ACS has pushed
a policy of moving teens from group homes to
private foster families, which happen to be less
expensive, agencies have had to shut down the
homes and layoff caseworkers. Losing teens to
adoption means even more cuts.
Undeterred by these counterforces, ACS
continues trying to persuade agencies that
families who want teens really do exist, and
finding them is worth the effort. "This isn't
just turning the Titanic, " admits Alexandra
Lowe, ACS' Special Council to the Deputy
Commissioner for Foster Care and Preventive
some of the best available for people who do
end up adopting.
ACS also arranges agency classes with adop-
tion guru and trainer Bob Lewis. After running
an adoption agency in Massachusetts for twen-
ty years, Lewis wrote the current manual that
ACS uses to train its personnel in how to pro-
mote teen adoption. His staunch belief that
teens can and should be adopted is reflected in
the manual, which is replete with child welfare
jargon and catch phrases, some of which are
dated. (Lewis himself is a master of this
melange, as in his vow to "make permanence as
intuitive as steak. ")
ACS wouldn't tell me how much it pays
Lewis or You Gotta Believe! But according to
Walter Jones III wants to adopt teens, but like many parents, he's picky.
Jones' goal: twins or triplets-and boys only.
Services. "It's turning 50 Titanics."
To push the effort, ACS urges agencies to
refer teens and preadolescents to You Gotta
Believe! The non-profit, which is based in a
storefront office in Coney Island, is run by
Brooklyn native and former social worker Pat
O' Brien. Besides trying to find adoptive homes
for older children, he conducts training sessions
for adults who are considering adopting or have
already done so. At the sessions, he warns his
audiences that reversing an adoption because
the child misbehaves is just as bad as child
abuse. If that sounds dramatic, child welfare
advocates nevertheless praise O'Brien's classes as
24
the city's contracts office, You Gotta Believe!
has received $527,000 from ACS since 1997,
with almost the entire amount given out since
2001-the year that ACS began to promote
teen adoptions. The contract office does not
have copies of Lewis' dealings with ACS,
apparently because he is subcontracted by an
entity with another name. But like You Gotta
Believe!, Lewis has profited from private agen-
cies' exasperation over their new mandates.
Since 2001, Lewis has lectured to five thou-
sand child welfare workers on the importance
of getting teens adopted. And You Gotta
Believe! has seen a marked increase in the
number of teens that the agencies refer to the
organization. During the last three years, agen-
cies have sent You Gotta Believe! about 80
older children they hope will be adopted. The
rate of kids referred has nearly doubled since
ACS enacted its new policy.
You Gotta Believe's strategies for fmding
adoptive parents for these teens range from the
practical-asking kids which adults they
already feel close to-to the frankly desperate.
Like church missionaries aiming to touch
hearts through exaggerated displays of humili-
ty, You Gotta Believe! asks volunteers to bag
groceries-and spread the word of the agency
while they do it. Volunteers are also encouraged
to serve as "parking angels," putting coins in
expired meters before tucking agency fliers
under offending cars' windshield wipers.
Tonight, You Gotta Believe! director Pat
O' Brien hopes that folks in the audience and
viewers of their cable-access show will take an
interest in the teens, like Marisol , that foster
care agencies are parading before them.
T
he involvement of my writers, Pauline
and Natasha, in this event is not merely
professional.
Three years ago, at age 13, Pauline was
expecting to be adopted by an aunt. Like
almost all of the adults in the family, this aunt
had a history of mental illness, but she had
remained stable for a few years. Then she
relapsed. After quitting her job and being hos-
pitalized for schiwphrenia, Pauline remembers,
her aunt "would roam around the house like a
wmbie." Pauline's hopes for adoption went
down the drain and she became depressed and
angry. "I felt betrayed," Pauline wrote.
Natasha's fate was different. A year ago, she
did find a new family, one willing to put up
with the kind of complications that short-cir-
cuit many adoptions of teens. Natasha had
spent years in foster care watching Family Mat-
ters and The Cosby Show, imagining that if she
were adopted she would live like the kids on
TV Then, Natasha reasoned, she would be free
of her childhood-the humiliation of hearing
neighbors call her mother a "basehead," her
sense of being utterly alone.
Natasha is a thoughtful, studious young
woman with glasses and a love of words that no
one in her class understands-"parasitic,"
which she uses to describe how too many foster
parents view their charges, is now among her
favorites. Natasha was smart enough ro excel at
becoming the perfect foster child. She got good
grades, minded her manners, and maintained a
CITY LIMITS
cheery demeanor. When she was 12, she asked
her foster mother to adopt her. "OK," her fos-
ter mother said, so "nonchalantly" that Natasha
didn't believe her.
But soon after, Natasha's law guardian told
her she really would be adopted. Natasha asked
her foster mother for confirmation. "She said,
'Yeah, if that's what you want,'" Natasha
remembers. Natasha was disappointed. "I
thought it'd be more dramatic like, 'We're plan-
ning to adopt you! Bring out the champagne!'
Bur she's a very quiet person. She's not into the
poetic charm of the situation."
That was Natasha's first indication that
her fantasies of family might be very different
from the prosaic task of becoming some-
body's daughter.
In the next few months, her behavior began
to change. She brought pornographic pictures to
school and stole small change from her foster
home. She did it partly as a test, to see if her fos-
ter mother would throw her out if she misbe-
haved, as she had Natasha's older sister soon after
Natasha moved into the home. Indeed, nearly
half of all teen adoptions fail before or soon after
the adoption is finalized. Adoptions of teen girls
are especially likely to go bad.
But Natasha was also struggling with the
inevitable-the realization that even after join-
ing a family, the pain of her past might endure.
"I had always thought about getting adopted in
this naive way," she remembers. "I thought all
my past memories wouldn't matter, they would
be irrelevant, but now I still have to deal with
them. And I thought I would have a complete
change of personality. But it wasn't that. It was
still me, which in a way sucks."
As her adoption neared, Natasha grew
depressed. On the day the proceeding was to be
finalized in court, she dawdled getting dressed,
spending what felt like hours putting on sheer
brown stockings. "If you don't want to do this
we don't have to, " said Natasha's foster mother,
fed up. In the courtroom, Natasha's cheeks
burned. "It was so embarrassing for me," she
remembers, "just the formality of it. " She went
home to live with her newly adopted family,
but continued feeling disappointed that noth-
ing seemed different.
During the months that followed, memo-
ries of her first family, and especially her bio-
logical mother who was now in the hospital,
dying, began haunting her. Natasha's grades
plummeted. She failed two classes. When her
new mother took her biological daughter to
college, Natasha broke everything in sight.
Some days she would come into the office at
JUNE 2004
Represent and sit in her editor's cubicle sobbing.
Natasha rarely discussed her feelings with
her adoptive mother, who somehow under-
stood anyway. Unlike so many new adoptive
parents of teens who act out, she kept Natasha.
And when the Represent writers reconvened the
fall after she'd been adopted, Natasha proudly
told them all about her exciting day in court.
She never mentioned the anger, sadness, and
confusion. "It was the best day of my life," she
said, beaming. And she meant it.
I
n the six years I have edited Represent,
Natasha is the only writer I have known to
be adopted as a teen. However, during the
past few years more and more of my writers
adoptions to today's rate of about a quarter of
the total. Even so, last year, less than 6 percent
of ACS' charges that age were adopted.
It often takes years to arrange an adoption,
and the process typically starts long before the
teen years. That means that the odds of getting
adopted are even slimmer for a child who first
enters foster care during adolescence: only one
in 250, says Fred Wulczyn, a consultant for the
Administration for Children's Services. Even if
ACS doubled those chances, Wulczyn points
out, the likelihood of adoption for these chil-
dren would remain less than 1 percent.
Child welfare experts worry that overeager-
ness to free teens from their biological parents
so they can be adopted will create significantly
Represent! writer Pauline Gordon (left) wasn't adopted, but her colleague
Natasha Santos was.
have been asked to consider adoption, though
a willing family rarely exists. Many of my writ-
ers roll their eyes at the notion that teens can
actually get adopted.
They have good reason to be skeptical. Ado-
lescent adoptions are so rare that in 2001, of all
national adoptions from foster care, 70 percent
were of kids 10 and younger-and most
adoptees were younger than five years old.
Only 16 percent of adoptions were of kids
between 11 and 15; just 2 percent were of kids
16 and older. Since the mid-1990s, ACS has
increased the adoption rate of foster children
ages 12 and older from under 18 percent of
more "legal orphans," the term given to kids
with no legal ties to their birth parents and no
adoptive family. Between 1998 and 2001, says
Richard Wexler, about 92,000 more kids
became legal orphans when their parents' rights
got terminated than were adopted.
And agencies fear that for teens who've
already been effectively abandoned by their
biological families, pushing them toward adop-
tion without actual homes available sets them
up for severe disappointment. "I can't tell
someone to be a dancer if they can't dance,"
says Inwood House's Carrion. "I can't tell
someone to get adopted if there aren't homes.
25
It's this false kind of hope for young people."
Carrion's worry is reasonable. I have had
writers who continued believing they might be
adopted right up to the date they left foster care.
Each time my former writer Charlene took
a trip with her group home-to the movies or
an amusement park-she was instructed by her
social worker to write an essay about the event,
to place in the album families peruse to learn
about kids available for adoption. For six years,
Charlene complied, right up to her twenty-first
birthday. Essay after essay made no difference.
In one of the last pieces she wrote for Repre-
sent, Charlene was disillusioned and biner. "This
idea to get kids adopted may work bener for
young babies," she noted, "but it is a cruel expe-
rience for me to go through because I am older
and more aware of what's going on around me. "
Yet the thick ACS manual that trains foster
care agencies to connect teens with adults-it's
over 200 pages-addresses the risk of disap-
whether that connection led to an actual adop-
tion-except for O'Brien of You Gorra Believe!
Last year, he used the funding he received from
ACf) to effect 18 placements. While that number
might sound trifling, it's still a half dozen more
than the 12 that ACf) required as a minimum.
ACS, Lewis and COFCCA all suggested I
speak with Good Shepherd Services, an agency
they said had embraced the new policy with
results. But Good Shepherd personnel told me
that in that agency's last three years of promot-
ing teen adoptions, only 20 of the nearly 450
adolescents they work with had been adopted.
The only teen adopted from their congregate
care program was adopted by an agency staff
member-a highly controversial undertaking,
and not only because it creates competition
among the youth. Agencies are supposed to
help birth parents reunifY with their kids, not
adopt the kids themselves.
The ACS training manual hardly acknowl-
"I felt like they were trying to buy me,"
says Natalie of the childless
couple that courted her with
expensive gifts, dinners and jewelery.
"The whole thing made me feel strange."
pointment only twice, both times brushing it
aside it with New Age-y chatter.
One section labeled "Staff Barriers" to
adoption recognizes that "caring professionals
do not wish to cause more pain for a child who
has already suffered multiple losses, or to
unreasonably raise the child's expectations."
This barrier, the manual demurs, is nothing
more than a personal bias that staff must over-
come in order to get teens adopted. And even
if the kids never reach that goal, the mere
"hope" of being adopted is a "positive, trans-
formative force" that "conveys its own healing
and strength, its own connection," according
to the manual. "There may even be magic in
that hope ... . When there's some reason to
believe that a family is possible, it is."
In the interviews I conducted with advocates
of the new ACf) policy, I heard story after story of
hopeful teens who had "connected" with adults
who might adopt them. But no one could say
26
edges the danger of creating more rejection for
already distrusrful teens. But it puts considerable
effort into teaching agencies to "unpack the no,"
which means convincing a teen wary of adop-
tion to reconsider. Lewis even trains law
guardians, who represent teens' interest in court,
to challenge clients' resistance to adoption.
''The least acceptable reason for not pursu-
ing an adoption/permanent family plan is an
adolescent's own ambivalence or negativiry," the
manual asserts. After all, "The initial reaction of
most adolescents in care to any idea is negative. "
When I ask Represent writers to articulate their
uncertainty about adoption, their ambivalence is
far more nuanced than the manual suggests.
"Every six months the girls in my group
home are given a document which asks if they
would like to be adopted," Aquellah Mahdi,
16, wrote. "The paper makes you feel so damn
sick. You're like a lost piece in a puzzle, and
you have to find a new match. But what if you
don't find that match? Then you just linger
around, never to be claimed."
Natalie, who is one of the only 3 percent of
white teens in New York Ciry's foster care sys-
tem, twice had the opportuniry to be adopted
as an adolescent. The thought upset her, and
not only because without her permission
Natalie's social worker "took pictures of me and
put them in a book as if I were a product they
were trying to sell."
The first childless couple who stepped for-
ward lived upstate. They courted Natalie with
expensive gifrs and dinners. She rarely wore jew-
elry, but they gave her a 14-karat gold chain
with a real sapphire and earrings to match. They
wanted to take her to Maine for the summer.
Natalie had never been out of the tri-state area.
"The whole thing made me feel strange,"
Natalie wrote in her Story "Could I Be Anoth-
er Mother's Daughter?" "I felt like they were
trying to buy me."
Natalie's social worker urged her to accept
their offer. Natalie felt unsure. She feared mov-
ing away from the friends who knew her from
when her mother was still alive. She was also
afraid of no longer having a social worker
assigned to her case. What if she were abused or
neglected in her new home? And if she stayed
in foster care, the state would pay for Natalie's
college education. She could not be sure the
couple upstate would do that.
But mostly, Natalie thought it was too late
for her to become someone else's idea of a
daughter. "I felt I had to be the way they
expected me to be or else they wouldn't like or
accept me," she wrote.
Indeed, for teens at the age when they're
forging identities separate from adults, it can be
hard to fuse with a new family. And a teen's act-
ing out threatens a parenr far more than a
younger child's. ExpertS estimate that anywhere
from 15 to 20 percent of children placed in
adopted homes return to foster care before the
adoption is completed. For teens, that number
is significantly higher.
It is hard to say just how many finalized
adoptions ultimately fail. There is a dearth of
research on the subject. Part of this is logisti-
cal-when kids gets adopted, their birth cer-
tificates change as do their Medicaid numbers,
which agencies use to track them. But Leroy
Pelton, a professor of social work at the Uni-
versiry of Nevada in Las Vegas, doubts the lack
of information is accidental. "I don't think peo-
ple have looked hard enough at this problem,
because it's sort of a myth they want to main-
tain that the kids who go into adoption live
CITY LIMITS
happily ever after," he says. "And that's certain-
ly not true when we talk about teens."
"No one knows how well these kids
are doing, and we see a lot of them coming back"
into care, says Mauer of Good Shepherd Services.
Natalie's concerns that a new family might
not accept her for herself were, on a subcon-
scious level, fueled by a very legitimate con-
cern: Two years after rejecting adoption, Natal-
ie realized she was gay.
}J
the You Gotta Believe! training, Wal-
ter A. Jones III, tonight sporting a spiffy
eige jogging suit, rises from his seat to
address a young woman in foster care who
wants to become a model and actress.
Would you want a single father to adopt
you? Walter asks with theatrical intensity. To
love you forever? To support you in your dreams
and ambitions?
"Yes," answers the teen without hesitation.
Her eyes lock with Walter's. It is a magical
moment, electrifYing. Like phone numbers
exchanged bar-side, never to be dialed, it
intoxicates with possibility, this strange inter-
section where fantasies of teens and adults
JUNE 2004
meet in an alternate universe of happily ever
after. Minutes later Walter will tell me he's still
holding out for boy rwins or triplets. But for
now, Pauline, Natasha, and I are carried away.
When You Gotta Believe! director O'Brien
asks us to talk about our magazine on fUm,
we blush, arrange our hair, take seats before
the camera.
In front of the green banner listing the You
Gotta Believe! phone number, O'Brien-who
seems unconvinced that Pauline doesn't want to
make her own case for adoption-asks what I
can tell viewers about my young writers. "Well,
they're wonderful!" I gush, then feel silly. My
extra perk, he adds, 25 to 40 percent are
"matched" with someone in the audience.
Most matches, he later concedes, fail to lead to
adoption (that's often because the teens' foster
care agencies are leery of the qualifications or
intentions of the interested adults).
Earlier, Pauline, who is still grappling with
the fact that her aunt won't be adopting her, not
this year, not next year, not ever, pulled Marisol
aside. "Do you really feel you'll get adopted
because of tonight?" Pauline wanted to know.
"Yes, " Marisol said.
"How do you know?" Pauline asked.
"My social worker said I would. "
To entice adults to adopt. You Gotta Believe! distributes books with photos and
word portraits of teenagers seeking homes.
heart swells when Pauline shows offher reporting
prowess by remembering why we're really there.
Point blank, she asks O' Brien if he might be set-
ting kids up for disappointment and humiliation
by showing them aching for families on TV
O'Brien is unruffled. The teens aren't there
to get adopted, he calmly explains. They are
fllmed as paid consultants who receive $25 for
their time spent talking about foster care. As an
"Well, how will you feel if you never find
family?" Pauline delicately ventured.
Looking at Pauline like she was crazy,
Marisol had a ready answer:
''I'll get adopted if! behave. "
Kendra Hurley is an editor at New York City-
based Represent!, a magazine produced by and
for teem in foster care.
27
e urn
Law enforcement and social workers alike say the Fortune
Academy is a model for sending prisoners back home safely.
So why is it still one of a kind? By Sasha Abramsky
ATTICA, SING SING, MARCY. Spend 10 years in these prisons,
like James did on a weapons charge, and you experience rhe hardest of
hard time. But when he got out of prison last August, life on the outside
presented its own extreme challenges. On the one hand, James feared he
would be discriminated against---doors would be closed and opportuni-
ties denied. "Coming out of jail after years is like going to one of rhose
Third World countries where everyone is anti-American," says James,
who's 38 years old. "The way I perceived it, everyone was anti-Me. "
Yet freedom also reminded him that he didn't just have other people
to fear-James believed he was at risk of falling back into rhe same life
rhat had landed him in so much trouble in rhe first place. And so when
he was released from prison last August, James took rhe advice of his
parole officer and applied for a spot at the Fortune Academy. At rhis
West Harlem residence, he would be provided wirh a structured living
environment while he got his life back togerher. (At Fortune's request,
rhis article uses first names only for Academy residents.) "I know
myself," James explains. "I've been there, done the drugs. I didn't trust
myself wirh that amount of freedom. I didn't feel comfortable with it. I
felt, for myself, rhis was the best place for me to be-a controlled envi-
ronment. Are you familiar wirh Pavlov's dogs? I've been conditioned to
accept a restricted environment for so long that coming out and not hav-
ing any restrictions would have been very uncomfortable for me."
The Fortune Academy is owned and operated by rhe Fortune Sociery,
a private nonprofit organization working wirh ex-prisoners. Housed in
an imposing stone building on the norrheast corner of 140rh Street and
Riverside Drive--everyone calls it "the Castle"-rhe Academy serves as
a way station on rhe parh out of prison. At any given time, five dozen ex-
prisoners live there while rhey readjust to rhe outside world.
It is a rigorous environment. James can't have guests in his bedroom,
sexual contact with other residents, or drugs or alcohol. He and his
neighbors must spend at least 35 hours a week in meetings for drug
treatment, anger management, and education, or doing various chores.
In a cupboard at the back of rhe TV room stands a PassPoint biometric
machine rhat tests for drugs by scanning residents' eyes.
But for James, all this structure promises an incredible amount of
freedom. Most important to him, he can let his guard down. "When I
Photographs by Amy Bolger
got here, I liked rhe place," says James. "It was relaxed. If I was feeling
apprehensive, I could come back here and breathe."
James' parole officer, Charles Bellamy, likes rhe Castle too. Alrhough
he works down at rhe State Parole Department's 40rh Street office, most
of rhe Academy's residents are on his caseload, and he finds that on the
whole they are more responsive rhan other clients he's dealt wirh in his
six years as a parole officer. "We know where they're at, and we know
where rhey're supposed to be at," notes Bellamy. "There are curfews. We
have better controls." He gets to talk to rhe Academy's staff, who can let
him know about any problems a resident might be having, before they
escalate and get rhe parolee sent back to prison.
Parole knows its clients are in an environment that's not just sup-
portive, but closely monitored, helping them avoid spiraling into the
kind of self-destructive cycles that lead to crime, arrest and reincarcera-
tion. Each monrh in New York State, about 1,200 prisoners get released
to parole-and nearly 500 parolees get sent back to prison for violations.
Though he says it's too early to tell for sure--he's been working wirh
Castle residents for abour a year-Bellamy suspects his Academy clients
are less likely rhan orhers to end up violating parole and getting sent back
to prison. "I think it is less," says Bellamy. "I rhink we will see in rhe
future rhat rhere are programs rhat can work better to reduce recividism."
Mary Ellen Flynn, director of operations for rhe state Parole Department,
is also a fan. "It's a win-win for rhe public, parole, parolee and agency," says
Flynn. 'There's a need for transitional housing in New York City. I don't
know anybody in criminal justice who would tell you any differently."
Yet two years after it opened, rhe Academy still remains a one-of-a-
kind model. Last year, more than 20,000 men and women were released
from New York State prisons. They are more likely than ever to end up
homeless, judging simply by the rapid growrh of single adults in shelters:
up 18 percent in the last four years. When the Vera Institute of Justice
recently sought to help a group of men released from prison find places
to live, just half of rhem succeeded.
On their way our of prison, few ever have rhat chance to brearhe.
MUCH LIKE OTHER supportive housing, which combines a resi-
dence and specialized social services in one place, rhe Castle is the prod-
Opposite: "The Castle" is a temporary home for five dozen men and women looking t o leave prison permanently.
JUNE 2004
29
uct of persistent, entrepreneurial effort. It was inspired by research sug-
gesting that between one-third and one-half of state parolees were being
released into homelessness and were rapidly returning to crime and
drugs. These men and women simply moved from prison to the Big
Apple's violence-prone and overcrowded shelter system.
So in 1996, Fortune pulled together a planning team to look into buy-
ing a building to house an alternative. They looked at 22 sites before finding
the 140th Street building-an abandoned school that hit bottom as a crack
house in the 1980s. The organization bought the building in 1998, for
$1.28 million, using a combination of cash it had on hand and a mortgage
from Fleet Bank. The organization had never developed a residence before.
From the beginning, Fortune Executive Director JoAnne Page and
her colleagues worked hard to make sure no one in West Harlem would
balk at the idea of criminals moving in next door. Fortune had vowed to
locate in a friendly neighborhood, where residents would support its goal
of successfully reintegrating residents into the free world. Whether it was
neighborhood groups, Community Board 9 or local police, "We were
there; we didn't miss meetings. We took all the ridicule," recalls Edmund
Taylor, an ex-drug dealer and prisoner from Harlem who is now a senior
Fortune Society Executive Director JoAnne Page, here
with Academy resident Gerald, asks, "How do you creat e
an envi ronment that supports deep human change?"
staff member at Fortune. "Church and block parties, Harlem Week ... we
had raffles, literature, we got out and had teams up there, and stopped
people and engaged them. And we never, ever sold them a dream. "
Most skeptical were residents of a nearby housing complex on River-
side. "We had an overabundance of these facilities," says one initial oppo-
nent, L. Ann Rocker, of the locally based North River Community Envi-
ronment Review Board. "They keep putting them here-facilities come
into the neighborhood and take prime property. We wanted housing,
some condominiums or something. That's what should have gone there."
But in the two years the building has been open, Rocker has been molli-
fied by the good behavior of the program's residents. "If we have any kind
of problem, we repon it to them and they take care of it immediately,"
she says. "One of the provisos before they came here was 'no violence.' No
violence, no trashing of the community. Get your act together and go
30
about your business. They have an excellent program there."
Page helps set the tone. A lawyer by training, she has a remarkable abil-
ity to generate good will and optimism-most of all among her beleaguered
clients. Page makes residents feel respected, important, meaningfUl on the
human stage. She is on a quest to remake their vety understanding of them-
selves in the world. "How do you create an environment that supports deep
human change?" she asks. First, Page says, answering her own question, one
has to accept the idea that "change isn't linear, that people work in spirals,
that you don't get silver bullets for long-term, deep-seated stuff. A lot of the
clients here either have burned their bridges or don't have any bridges."
Page was determined to open her program to any released prisoner
who showed the motivation to stick with it. That took some doing.
Aside ftom a few state programs for small halfWay houses, there are no
public funds designated for housing ex-offenders. Page also decided not
to take money from the state parole or corrections departments, since
any relationship with the policing agencies might make clients feel
coerced into participating. Taking dollars from parole would also have
barred Fonune from its practice of hiring former parolees to counsel cur-
rent ones. "We deliberately don't take funding that influences how we
Last year, more than 20, 000
men and women were released
from New York State prisons.
The odds are great that they will
end up homeless or back behind
bars on parole violations.
run the program," Page explains.
There's other money out there for supportive housing: money for
people with AIDS; for people with disabilities, for drug addicts; for
homeless people. Page obtained some of each, along with low-income
housing tax credits and historic preservation funds to restore the build-
ing. "We cross-funded the hell out of this, " Page states proudly. "That's
why we're able to take in everyone we want. "
Clients stay in the program for several months, sometimes more than a
year, always working toward an exit. The goal: to rent an apartment, paid
for by money earned from a job. On the top floor, 19 emergency beds are
available, dorm-style, to men and women fresh out of prison and looking
to be admitted to the program. On the floors below, another 43 beds, in
smaller, more cornfonable, shared rooms, house long-term residents, who
will live at the Academy from six to 18 months. Living here, in these
shared rooms, say residents, is a crucial part of their return to society.
Always, staff are taught to treat residents with respect. When new
clients come to be interviewed, no matter how ratty they look, no mat-
ter how down-and-out their manner, Page heartily welcomes them, looks
CITY LIMITS
them in the eye, asks if they have any questions, and, at the conclusion
of the interview, holds out her hand to give them a handshake. Her body
language is clear: You're valuable; you're among equals here.
ACROSS THE COUNTRY, there's a growing understanding
among government officials that more needs to be done to help ex-
offenders reintegrate successfUlly into the community and economy.
Those views are changing largely because incarcerating the same people
over and over again is extremely expensive. Even President Bush says he's
on board: In his State of the Union address, he promised his adminis-
tration would commit $300 million to help ex-prisoners reenter society.
That has yet to translate into an expansion of supportive housing for
ex-offenders. Bush's pledge is a game of musical chairs: $25 million is
being taken from existing funding for housing for the homeless. The
small government funds already designated for reentry have tended to be
spent not on housing but on other pressing needs, like job searches and
drug treatment. The Serious Violent Offender Re-entry Initiative, begun
by the Department of Justice in 2001 with funding from the Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services, provides about $2 million in
grants to each state, to help reintegrate violent offenders into their com-
munities; however, few states have chosen to make housing part of their
programs. "It's considered an afterthought," says Richard Cho, a policy
analyst with the Corporation for Supportive Housing. Cho notes that
other sources of federal funding could be more successfully tapped for
housing dollars, including the Violent Offender Truth in Sentencing Act
and the Edward J. Byrne Memorial Fund.
New York officials are at least talking about what to do with their own
budgets. Last year, the state commissioner of criminal justice, Chauncey
Parker, convened a task force with officials from correction, parole, hous-
ing, addiction, labor, welfare, mental health and other agencies, and they
are looking at a broad range of ways to help prisoners reenter communi-
ties, including pooling funds to create and maintain transitional housing.
Actual facilities, however, appear to be far off. "There have been reports
written, there have been agreements reached," says Flynn of the parole
department. "There are no bricks and mortar yet. The expectation is that
those things are going to come. And 'the hope' is a better way to put it."
Elsewhere in state government, a few dollars are already flowing
(though significantly fewer than the more than $2 billion New York State
spent on operating its prisons last year). The state welfare agency cur-
rently funds seven projects, housing 164 people, and recently approved
$8.8 million to cover start-up costs for six more projects intended to
house another 168 ex-offenders coming out of the state's prisons. Most
are in New York City. And five years ago, the state and New York City
also agreed to begin a High Service Needs Initiative that would ultimate-
ly provide $90 million in funding for about 800 units, dotted around the
state, and house mentally ill individuals leaving psychiatric institutions
and prisons. So far, however, these are all still in development.
Page and many policy advocates would like to see aggressive "justice rein-
vestment" to create new sources of funding to house and help ex-offenders.
Money could be raised by issuing bonds-that's how the prison-constrUc-
cion binge of the 1990s was financed-or diverted from budgets for correc-
tions, courts and homeless shelters. This would, they point out, be an
extremely cost-effective investment: A 2002 study commissioned by the
Corporation for Supportive Housing found that homeless adults cost taX-
payers $40,500 a year-much of this related to criminal justice costs. (Page
claims a year at the Academy adds up to "about what a shelter bed costs.")
It's not outright impossible to replicate the Academy. Page says she's had
about 20 organizations visit to take a close look at the operation, two or
JUNE 2004
three of which are reportedly "not far at all" from launching their own
transitional housing facilities. And in New York, a couple of smaller pro-
jects both house and help ex-offenders remake their lives. In East New
York, Hogan's Residence provides shelter to 17 men over the age of 28. It's
run on a shoestring budget by recovering addict and one-time military jail
inmate Phillip Hogan, who was arrested for petty larceny while serving in
the armed forces. "Many men are coming back into a community they are
not familiar with, into an environment that has changed," says Hogan.
"They need a supportive environment to give them empathy and support,
to transition from a correctional institution to mainstream society." Hogan
used his own savings to buy the house and set up the program.
"I came to Hogan's after being in detox, coming to rehab," says 58-
year-old long-time heroin addict Rigoberto Diaz, sitting in a small
room. "This is the longest I've been clean. I've been at Hogan's about 17
months. No drug relapse, no nothing. What I've done here, I haven't
been able to accomplish in the past on my own."
On the Lower East Side, the Women's Prison Association works with
women who are seeking to reunite with their children. Like the Academy, it
houses clients for about a year and halfbefore they move into their own apart-
After Attica, Sing Sing and Marcy prisons, James found
the Academy's balance of structure and support
helped him adjust to the jolt of coming home.
ments. Unlike the Academy, this facility isn't geared to treat addiction: resi-
dents must be drug-free for at least six months before moving in.
And in the South Bronx, the organization CASES has broken ground
on housing specifically for mentally ill offenders. Mentally ill people make
up an estimated 16 percent of state prison inmates nationwide, and, says
CASES executive director Joel Copperman, benefit noticeably from care-
ful support following their release. "We know from our program experi-
ence that the rate at which people commit crime once they are in a pro-
gram, the re-arrest of our clients, is dramatically lower than it is for these
same clients a year earlier, before they came into our program." The pro-
gram is the Nathaniel Project, which helps mentally ill ex-offenders find
housing and provides intensive supervision. An evaluation found that as a
group, the participants were arrested a total of 101 times in the year before
continued on page 38
31
32
@
1 979 2004
A Time to Celebrate (and we will!)
PLEASE JOIN US
Monday,June 14,2004
5:30 - 8:30 pm
The Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street
as we have the opportunity to honor
HILDY SIMMONS
(former Managing Director, Global Foundations Groups, JP Morgan Private Bank)
for her inspired philanthropic leadership and visionary grant making
and
Celebrate 25 years of CRE making
community-based organizations stronger
TICKET OPPORTUNITIES $250 to $2,500
($100 TICKETS - exclusively for community-based organizations - are available.)
COMMEMORATIVE JOURNAL $75 to $600.
Interested in sponsoring the event? Buying tickets?
Placing a message in the commemorative journal? Making a contribution?
For details, contact Danny McGlone at (212) 894-8059 or dmcglone@crenyc.org
CITY LIMITS
\
Meet the
New Boss
Why worker-ownership is the
ultimate strategy for keeping
jobs in New York.
By James DeFilippis
All politics is local, it is often said. But what
about economics? Politics in this country, Ameri-
cam like to believe, are participatory and democ-
ratic. But what about economics?
--Berkshire Eagle, 1992
ON THE DOMESTIC FRONT, the lack of job cre-
ation and the movement of economic activity
beyond our national borders have become driv-
ing issues this election year. Decrying "Bene-
dict Arnold CEOs," the country is resuming
the long-truncated conversation about the
effects of the global economy on people's lives.
So is New York City, where unemployment
stands at 8 percent and serious economic hard-
ship persists. Half of working-age black men,
the Community Service Society recently
found, are without jobs. Some sectors of the
economy have taken hard blows from global-
ization: In 2002, the city's employment in
apparel manufacturing was only 36 percent of
what it was in 1990.
New York is awash in plans that promise to
bring jobs-or on the flip side, threaten to push
out businesses and their employees. Neighbor-
hoods from Long Island City and Williams-
burgiGreenpoint to the West Side are seeing pro-
posals to significantly alter their economic and
residential landscapes.
Policy discussions about jobs in New York
City typically center on either footloose corpo-
rations or the potential of urban redevelop-
ment to promote job growth. But what we
haven't yet heard is a serious conversation that
brings the two together-and asks what we can
do as a city to shape our own economic envi-
ronment. To that end, there is one course of
JUNE 2004
THE BIG IDEA
JOBS 2004
How to Keep New York Working
action that deserves serious consideration:
Investing in enterprises that truly belong to
New York City because they are owned and run
by New Yorkers themselves.
New York's economic development policies
have long assumed that companies are likely to
pick up and move their operations elsewhere.
From the Koch to Giuliani administrations,
government has responded to companies' will-
ingness to flee by subsidizing nnance, media
and other big-dollar sectors through "corporate
retention deals" or large-scale developments
(think Metrotech). Compared to its predeces-
sors, the Bloomberg administration has
decreased the number of giveaways to large cor-
porations, but it has launched ambitious land-
development projects, including significant
office and retail space, in Fort Greene, the West
Side and elsewhere.
Yet despite these forms of corporate welfare,
the city's economy has not kept pace with the
nation's over the past quarter century. To some
extent, New York's economic development poli-
cies are structurally self-defeating. If the public
sector, rather than individual businesses,
absorbs the costs of locating in the city, then
individual businesses will have invested less
here-which makes them much more willing
and able to move. Through policies designed to
deal with capital mobility, we are actually creat-
ing the conditions for flight. We are enabling a
self-fulfilling prophecy.
Criticism of existing economic development
policies has been mounting-most notably
from Good Jobs New York, Pratt Institute Cen-
ter for Community and Environmental Devel-
opment and the Center for an Urban Future
(City Limits' affiliated policy organization). But
even some of this productive criticism fails to
fully come to grips with the implications of New
York City's place in the global economy. The cri-
tiques have largely focused on creating economic
development policies that enhance diversity in
the economic functions carried out in the city.
But this does not go far enough. The deeper
issue is that our economic policies are still orga-
33
THE BIG IDEA
NEW REPORTS
This overview of joblessness in the U.S. leads
with a sobering statistic: Long-term unemploy-
ment has nearly tripled since 2000. Workers
without a job for six months or more now make
up nearly a quarter of the unemployed, the high-
est rate in 20 years. Former manufacturing
workers now represent 19 percent of the long-
term unemploymed, but only 13 percent of the
total. Percentage-wise, older workers have been
the hardest hit, representing 35 percent of the
long-term unemployed but only 26 percent of
the total.
Educated. Experienced and Out of Work
Economic Policy Institute
202-775-8810 or www.epinetorg
A resounding retort to the assertion that shifting
consumer demand and increased productivity
have driven manufacturing job loss, this brief
report persuasively argues instead that interna-
tional trade agreements are to blame. Today,
American manufacturing meets 76 percent of
domestic demand, nearly 14 percent less than
the average between 1987 and 1997. That drop,
argues this study, accounts for 58 percent of the
loss of manufacturing jobs since 1998: about
1.78 million jobs.
Shifting Blame for Manufacturing Job loss
Economic Policy Institute
202-775-8810 or www.epinetorg
34
Think homeownership, retirement accounts and
savings are a route out of poverty? Not if federal
policy has anything to say about it. This report
shows that federal "asset-building" policy pri-
marily aids the affluent, not the poor. The richest
20 percent of households claimed 84 percent of
the feds' spending in this area, while the bottom
quintile scraped by with one-tenth of 1 percent.
Why? Programs for low- and middle-income
families, largely funded through direct govern-
ment spending, have budgets in the millions.
Meanwhile, tax incentives-the primary public
source of asset-building for the affluent-
stretch into the billions.
Hidden in Plain Sight:
A look at the $335 Billion Asset-Building Budget
Corporation for Enterprise Development
202408-9788 or www.cfed.org
nized around doing what's good for corpora-
tions. Debates are reduced to questions of which
policies make the city most attractive for entre-
preneurs. We are left tethered to the principles
and objectives of those businesses, rather than to
a broader definition of civic priorities.
As we tackle the problem of persistent unem-
ployment, we have a precious opportunity to ask
what kind of city we want to live in, and what
forces should be shaping the character of our
neighborhoods. And we absolutely have to ask if
there are better ways to keep local economic activ-
ity anchored, and growing, in New York City.
How do we create businesses that are not
prone to pick up and leave? One way is
through ownership by a place-defined entity,
such as a municipal government or commu-
nity-based organization. These entities might
shift locations slightly or expand their turf. But
they are not going to relocate to the
maquiladoras or China.
A second option is collective ownership. For
while individual owners may relocate, retire or
die, a collective of owners is much less likely to
do so. Collective ownership alters the eco-
supermarkets in Florida-most are small enti-
ties. A classic example is Marland Mold, a plas-
tic mold-making plant (very "old economy") in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which was slated to
be closed in the early 1990s by its multina-
tional corporate owner. The town rallied to
help the workers buy the plant, and it has been
growing ever since. The local newspaper led the
charge (its comments are the opening remarks
in this essay). Nationwide, groups such as Pol-
icyLink, the Grassroots Globalization Net-
work, Institute for Community Economics,
Industrial Cooperatives Association, and many
others, offer technical assistance-and in some
cases a revolving loan pool-to make these col-
lectives possible.
While the cost of land may make some of
these forms of ownership difficult to realize in
New York, many of them are already here-
especially in the realm of cooperatively owned
housing. The city is home to most of the lim-
ited equity co-ops in existence in the country,
and the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
and other local organizations have no shortage
of know-how. [Note: UHAB is a sponsoring
Collective ownership is a growing
phenomenon, from Publix supermarkets
to New York City co-ops.
nomic calculus of decision-making in firms.
That's because there is a difference between
being profitable and profitable enough. The
former is required to remain in business. The
latter is needed to satisfY the investment deci-
sions of larger, multi-plant firms. A local col-
lective simply needs to be profitable.
Collective ownership would also broaden
the range of owners of wealth in the city. New
York City has a breathtakingly unequal distri-
bution of wealth-even by American stan-
dards. Collective ownership would begin to
address this unsustainable situation. Along
with broadening wealth comes a broadening
of control. Worker-owners have much greater
say over the decisions that effect their daily
lives than do regular employees.
This is not some bizarre, quixotic idea. Col-
lective ownership is a growing phenomenon in
the United States, and worker-owned firms are
now an integral part of the American economic
landscape. While a few of these are large,
multi-plant corporations-such as Publix
organization of City Limits.] We also have one
of the best models of worker co-ops in the
country: Cooperative Home Care Associates in
the South Bronx.
Collective ownership is hardly a panacea. Like
all businesses, these enterprises can fail, and even
when they are healthy, tensions between workers
and management sometimes mirror those in
more mainstream businesses (and creating
unions in such firms is important). But in the
end, these are viable ways for us to create a city
that's connected to the global economy-and
which can transform those connections. How we
understand "the economy" and "the city" would
itself be changed-in ways that open much
greater space for community, democracy, and an
equitable distribution of wealth .
James DeFilippis is author of Unmaking
Goliath: Community Control in the Face of
Global Capital, just published by Routledge, and
assistant professor of Black and Hispanic Studies
at Baruch College.
CITY LIMITS
The Grassroots Apocalypse
Could the loss of democracy and community seal our doom?
By Alyssa Katz
Dark Age Ahead
By Jane Jacobs
Random House, $23.95
THE VERY TITlE of Jane Jacobs' provocative new
book, Dark Age Ahead, will seem to many
browsers like hyperbole.
Sure, we're going through some tough times
right now, and not just because of the double-
whammy of global war and domestic disinvest-
ment. Professions we depend on to keep society
functioning no longer maintain their codes of
conduct or ethics. The sciences forge ahead, but
research is often premised on unchecked and
flat-out wrong assumptions about the world
outside the lab, making results useless at best
and pernicious at worst. Our universities are
devoted to ensuring young people have eco-
nomically competitive credentials, nor a mean-
ingful transfer of knowledge between genera-
tions. Basic public services are not functioning
because we send our taxes to stare capitals and
Washington, which cruelly diverr them from
actual local needs. And families are stretched to
breaking by rising costs of living and the
demands of a car-commuter economy.
All these terrible developments exact great
human cost. But do they portend an end to
Enlightenment society as we know ir? Are we
North Americans about to replay the post-Roman
Empire era of mass misety and cultural break-
down, when dirty rags were the height of fashion?
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CITY LIT
According to Jacobs, the answer lies some-
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She identifies the five areas listed above-the
professions, science and technology, higher
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JUNE 2004
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35
CITY
NOW READ THIS
The Almighty Latin King and Queen
Nation: Street Politics and the
Transformation of a New York City Gang
By David C. Brotherton and Luis Barrios,
Columbia University Press, $24.50
For a few years in the 1990s, the notorious Latin
Kings gang opened its meetings to the public,
condemned drug dealing, monitored younger
members' schoolwork, eschewed thuggery, and
started doing community work like AIDS
activism. Not what you'd expect from a gang-
or would you? Read this book to explore the con-
structive potential of street organizations like
the Kings, and to find out what's since hap-
pened to them.
Sleepaway School:
Stories from a Boy's life
By Lee Stringer, Seven Stories Press, $21.95
Lee Stringer already wrote Grand Central Winter,
about his days as an addict and NYC street person.
Now he reviSITS his teen years in the early 1960s at
Hawthorne Cedar Knolls, a Westchester County
boarding school for troubled boys. Stringer's trouble
was growing up poor and black in largely whITe,
affluent Mamaroneck. But Hawthorne was also
dominated by rich whITe kids and officialdom. The
memoir is a bITtersweet account of sepa-
ration, assimilation, and coming of age.
love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the
limits of Religious Tolerance
By Janet R. Jakobsen and Ann Pelligrini,
Beacon Press, $17
36
From "In God We Trust" on dollars to state partici-
pation in the marriage sacrament to the historic
lineup of presidents: America is a Christian
nation. As a result, anything disapproved of by
Christianity is merely tolerated-and that's espe-
cially true for sex. But tolerance doesn't create
freedom; instead, it engenders violence against
people like Muslims and gays. The authors say it's
time to truly disestablish religion, since freedom
and the morality that comes with freedom will only
flower when all First Amendment expression is
celebrated-sexuality included.
education, responsive government and com-
munity and family-as "pillars of our culture
that we depend on to stand firm." Now, she
warns, these institutions "are in process of
becoming irrelevant, and so are dangerously
close to the brink of lost memory and cultural
uselessness." Her book is an extended essay
that she deliberately designed to maintain some
hope. It aims to identify "downward spirals,"
and to serve as a call to brake descent before it
becomes irreversible.
Jacobs has set a mighty high bar, even by her
own standards. In her four decades of observ-
ing, philosophizing and leading activism to
shape livable human environments-starting
with the landmark 1962 book The Death and
Life of Great American Cities-she has always
been a bold and persuasive polemicist. She is a
popular intellectual of the most extraordinary
kind, building force-
ful insights out of rig-
orous observation of
borhoods such as South Lawndale in Chicago,
where dozens of poor, elderly people died in a
heat wave because they didn't even have a cor-
ner drug store to go to for refuge. Second, she
repeatedly decries the loss of opportunities for
young people to learn organically from contact
with adults bearing diverse experiences and
expertise. And Jacobs reserves much of her ink
for that most intractable of man-made night-
mares, the American car monoculture,
which-with an assist from housing policies
that promote property values over access to
shelter-traps families in an unsustainable spi-
ral of work and debt.
Still, we've lived with commercial greed, bad
ideas, and toxic environments for eternities. So
why decide now that our culture and economy
could soon fall apart in a spasm of collective
amnesia? Here Jacobs does a bit of a bait-and-
switch: In the end, she
demurs, we may all
come out alive, but
the world as it actu-
ally functions. Jacobs,
who started out as a
journalist, had the
courage to assume
that her own conclu-
sions and intuitions
are more valid than
all the institutional
authority of urban
planners, economists,
and other men of
power whose work
she has Ii terally
Riffing on societies
long gone, Jacobs
wants us to
remember what
may happen to us.
dumber, poorer, more
brutal. Yet she does
seize on some power-
ful historical examples
of societies that have
made "wrong turns"
that proved fatal-and
not just Rome. Riffing
openly on Jared Dia-
mond's popular his-
tory Guns, Germs and
Steel, Jacobs points to
a 15th Century Chi-
sought to tear down.
She has not lost
that force of conviction or her powers of obser-
vation. In one poignant moment in Dark Age
Ahead, Jacobs confesses that she can't walk as
well these days as she used to, so instead of
prowling city streets on foot, she does her work
from the back of a taxi-which itself leads to
fresh observations about traffic jams, and the
myopia of poorly trained highway planners.
Contrary to a half-century of evidence, she
points out, there's an unshakeable credo in
North America that highways improve a city's
speed of transportation. In itself, that faith is
perhaps not disastrous. But as she observes
repeatedly (and has throughout her career),
everyrhing is interconnected. That's why bad
planning deserves as much opprobrium now as
it did when Jacobs first started writing about it
so long ago.
In Dark Age Ahead, Jacobs documents at
least three such consequences. One is the utter
social and economic depletion of urban neigh-
nese war minister's
decision to ban inter-
national trade, which
single-handedly eliminated whole realms of
practical knowledge from the culture, and
ancient Sumer's headlong plunge into the
cement business, which destroyed the land of
the Fertile Crescent, as historical warnings. If
nothing else, she wants us to remember what
may happen to us if we don't pay attention.
Jacobs' associative reasoning style some-
times leaps awfully far and fast. In one doozy, a
passage about En ron's accounting crimes
careens into another about the potential of
using accounting science to calculate the exact
cash value of recovered materials extracted
from recycled scrap products.
But throughout her guided and somewhat
arbitrary tour of institutional decay, much of it
gleaned from the pages of major newspapers,
Jacobs holds fast to the one polestar faith she
has always had: the power of grassroots eco-
nomics. She is true believer in small-scale capi-
talism, and she observes its nuances with the
CITY LIMITS
all-encompassing attention a naturalist brings
to organic ecosystems.
For example, to understand the prospects
for fighting the scourge of suburban sprawl, she
draws on her own experience as a New York
City renter in the 1930s and 1940s. In the
Depression, simply by earning $15 a week
when millions of her neighbors were unem-
ployed, she had her pick of20 or 30 apartments
to rent (their former residents, she knew, had
left, destitute, and doubled up in new quarters
elsewhere). Yet during wartime a decade later,
with housing production halted even as
demand increased sharply, she and her husband
had to take in boarders just to make the rent.
She sees the big green backyards of today's
suburbs as similarly pliable under economic
pressures (and throughout this book, she
points to mass action as the only way to kick
toxic cultural and political habits). Zoning
laws that keep densities so low that towns can't
sustain public transportation could buckle and
give way, she posits, if homeowners become
strapped for cash and turn to creative ways to
maximize the value of their property-for
instance, by building and renting out bunga-
lows in their backyards. If the suburbs are to
become denser and more urbanized, she
thinks, it will happen out of necessity and
ingenuity like that, and not by some decree or
master plan.
In the final pages of the book (written, one
suspects, as the American war in Iraq heated
up), Jacobs gingerly addresses the divide that
more directly preoccupies most Western intel-
lectuals writing nowadays about the future of
our culture: the rift between fundamentalist
thinking and critical reasoning. Though she
never says it outright, she implies that Western
fundamentalism is primarily a symptom of
breakdown of the five beleaguered systems
she's focused on.
Indeed, probably the most valuable contri-
bution of Dark Age Ahead is that it avoids get-
ting bogged in the mighty distraction provided
by the Bush crusades and instead focuses us on
matters much more central to our problems as a
society, as well as on possibilities for reversing
them. No matter who's in the White House, we
all share responsibility for those institutions.
And many of us have the power ourselves to do
something about them .
CITY LIT
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Return
ADDRESS
continued from page 31
they started with CASES-and only seven in the year following.
Part of the difficulty in getting housing for ex-offenders off the
ground is that federal funding is in large part only available to people
coming out of the homeless shelters. A major federal funding program,
Shelter Plus Care, provides grants for housing and treating homeless peo-
ple with disabilities, bur only if they are' already living in a shelter. So
most supportive housing doesn't work exclusively with ex-offenders and
typically recruits clients from public shelters rather than prisons.
To Page, restrictions like those are not acceptable. Precisely because it
is in those first weeks and months after prison that a person is most at
risk of returning to drugs and getting caught up in a cycle of recidivism
and reimprisonment, the Castle works to move people directly from
prison to the supportive environment and focuses immediately on deal-
ing with urgent needs-like breaking down barriers to employment and
navigating parole. Page's group "has the most flexibility of anybody out
there," says Richard Cho. "Fortune has control over their own housing."
Fortune is just now starting to take Shelter Plus Care dollars, and Page
admits she's still not sure how to handle the restrictions. "We'll probably
need to talk" with HUD officials, she says. "We're hoping to work our
way through it. And if not, just find some other source" of funding.
It's not every director of a supportive housing facility who is willing
to boldly declare she'll walk away from a major funding opportuniry
rather than compromise her vision. "We are, " says Page, "inventing it as
we go along-and we don't need to be safe politically. We have so much
freedom. We have people half a minute after they get out of prison. We
put people in internships. We hug people."
TO THE FRUSTRATION of those who would like to see more
money out there for transitional housing, no one so far has produced hard
data showing the benefits of the Academy. While the Parole Department
is not alone in suspecting that clients commit fewer crimes and other
parole violations, Fortune has not invested any of its scarce dollars in
commissioning stats and srudies.
Instead, it has testimonials like this one to offer. "This place is like a
home. It's a nice, beautiful place," says Dejuan, who is 21 and lives at the
Academy. Originally from South Carolina, Dejuan came to the Fortune
program after being convicted of anempted robbery, flunking out of a
mandated drug-treatment program and ending up homeless on the streets
of New York. "I didn't really have a family. I had a family, bur I was by
myself I got a lot of ignoral from my family. One of the reasons I did the
things I did, I felt no kind of love or sympathy or nothing. I felt that
nobody cares. I had a mother and father, bur I didn't feel they were my
mother and father-they weren't talking to me, asking me about school,
how I'm doing. Those are things I'd like to hear but never got. Here, it
just feels good to hear someone say 'Dejuan, man, how was your day? Did
you do everything you wanted to accomplish?' It feels good."
As he says these words, Dejuan shuts his eyes and sighs. "We share the
house. It's the first place I even been into like this. And the thing abour
it is all of us have been incarcerated-and the three months I've been
here, I just don't see half of these people doing years and years in jail.
Everybody does what they're supposed to."
Sasha Abramsky is a Sacramento-based fteeumce writer and author ofHard
Time Blues: How America Built a Prison Nation. Research funding pro-
vided by the Open Society Imtitute, in support of a Housing and Criminal
Justice Policy roundtable hosted by the Center for Urban Research and Pol-
icy at Columbia University.
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CITY LIMITS
ADVERTISE IN
CITY
LIMITS!
To place a classified ad in
City Limits, e-mail your ad to
advertise@citylimits.org or fax
your ad to 212-479-3339. The
ad will run in the City Limits
Weekly and City Limits mag-
azine and on the City Limits
web site. Rates are $1.46 per
word, minimum 40 words.
Special event and professional
directory advertising rates are
also available. For more infor-
mation, check out the Jobs
section of www.citylimits.org
or call Associate Publisher
Susan Harris at
212-479-3345.
RENTAL SPACE
SPACE AVAILABLE - 2 private offices (up to 3
people), can also include 1 workstation in
common area; share conference room, pantry,
copier, DSL; $1000/month; location is City Hall
area; Contact: Anne Seifried @ NYIRN, 718-
624-6800 ext 13.
SPACE AVAILABLE - Community Develop-
ment Organization in Harlem has two modern
work stations plus lobby area available to
share. Work stations include computer, inter-
netlDSL, copier, fax and telephone wi voice-
mail ($900/$500 for one). Call 212 222-0328
ext 209.
SPACE AVAILABLE - LlC Queens Non-Pmfit
has 3,500 square feet and under will
divide/also storefronts 300 square feet to 800
square feet. Reasonable Space Available/
Street Level in Long Island City, Queens. Blocks
from all transportation and 59th Street Bridge.
Contact 917-686-5707.
SPACE AVAILABLE - Not-for-profit office,
program and classroom space available in
Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Various sizes
located throughout many community districts,
including present availabilities and future
construction. For further information, please
phone Lee Allen of Arc Advisors, Inc. at 212-
447-1576 or emaillee.allen7@verizon.net.
SPACE AVAILABLE - Shared office space
available. Small youth activist program and
JUNE 2004
family foundation seek partners to share office
space. Great Columbus Circle location. 24hr
access. Ideal for small non-profit or organiza-
tion. Get your project off your kitchen table and
onto a desk! Contact: The Ya-Ya Network, 212-
581-6922 or 917-531-9862.
SPACE AVAILABLE - SoHo. One large, sunny,
private office (good for up to three comfort-
ably) plus space in common area (one to two
additional people) available for small not-for-
profit to share with existing tenant. Copier, fax,
DSL and conference room available for use by
the co-tenant as well. $1,000 per month. Ten-
ant must be a 501(c}(3}. Call 212-966-6477
ext. 307.
SPACE AVAILABLE - Street Level on Northern
Blvd. in the Northern Queens area. Large space
with several private offices. Includes an addi-
tional 2,000 sq. ft. of storage space in the
basement. Ideal for non-profits or medical
facilities. If interested contact Bob Drake at
212-926-8000 ext.41.
SPACE AVAILABLE - One office and up to 8
workstations available West 29th Street!7th
Ave. Rent includes phone, voicemail , shared
pantry, copier, fax, scheduled use of conf
rooms. $3000 per month, (negotiable) Avail
July 1st. Contact Victoria_Yang@nycares.org,
212-228-5000 xl12
JOB ADS
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT- The Doe Fund
is a non-profit organization empowers that
people to break the cycles of homelessness,
welfare dependency and incarceration through
innovative work and housing programs. We
seek an Administrative Assistant who has a
strong connection to the spirit of our mission.
Candidate must possess excellent interper-
sonal , communication and phone etiquette
skills, great organization abilities and is a
multi -tasking self-starter. Ideal candidate
must have 1-2 years office experience, excel-
lent writing ski ll s, flexibility and at least a
moderate knowledge of Raisers Edge data-
base software. Working knowledge of all MS
software a must. Salary, upper 20's with com-
prehensive benefits package. Please forward
resume and cover letter to Human Resources,
The Doe Fund, Inc., 341 East 79th Street, NY,
NY 10021; fax to (212) 570-6706 or e-mail to
hr@doe.org. EOE. Deadline for submitting
resume is ASAP.
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT, MEMBER SER-
VICES DEPARTMENT (Emergency Assistance
Program) - The Administrative Assistant is
responsible for all clerical and support activi-
ties for the Emergency Assistance Program.
The AA handles all project correspondence,
maintains program files, data and data bases,
prepares reports and mailings, sets up for
meetings and provides any other support ser-
vices needed by the program. The AA keeps
abreast of Member Services Department prior-
ities and assists the Department in meeting
its goals. The AA handles some direct requests
for assistance from clients and workers; con-
ducts assessments of eligibility for FPWA's
program and provides information and referral
to other programs. Qualifications: High School
diploma required. BAlAA and secretarial train-
ing preferred. Knowledge of computer pro-
grams including WORD, ACCESS, EXCEL.
Detail -oriented; demonstrated initiative, abili-
ty to work with colleagues in various functions;
ability to handle confidential information;
good communication skills with clients; ability
to empathize and set limits. Ability to speak
Spanish a plus. Hiring Guidelines: Salary com-
mensurate with experience. Excellent benefits
package. To apply, please submit a cover letter
and resume to: Emma Guzman, F.PWA., Per-
sonnel , 281 Park Avenue South, New York, NY
10010, Fax 212-533-8792, E-mail :
eguzman@fpwa.org FPWA is an Equal Oppor-
tunity Employer.
ADULT HOME COMMUNITY ORGANIZER -
Non-profit advocacy organization of adult
home/nursing home residents seeks commu-
nity organizer to strengthen resident councils;
conduct training programs; handle com-
plaints; and assist in policy activities. Strong
organizing, public speaking, and writing skills
and ability to work independently/collabora-
tively. Experience with people with psychiatric
disabilities helpful. Send cover letter, resume
by maille-mail to CIAO, 425 East 25th Street,
New York, NY 10010, ciadny@aol.com
ASSISTANT PROGRAM DIRECTOR - As a
member of the program's management staff,
supervise two direct service teams providing
case management to tenants, fulfill adminis-
trative responsibilities, reports to program
director. Reqs: CSW and 4 years related post
MSW clinical and supervisory experience.
Salary: $52,787. Benefits: comp benefits
include $65/month transit checks. Send
resume and cover letter to: Karen Oser,
CUCSmmes Square, 255 W. 43rd Street, New
York, NY 10036. Fax: 212-391-5991 EEO.
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - Organization repre-
senting the interests of Long Island, Metro-
North and NYC Transit users seeks experienced
individual with knowledge of planning and
transportation. Good communication, organi-
zational , quantitative, research, writing and
advanced computer skills a must. Send
resume to: Permanent Citizens Advisory Com-
mittee to the MTA, 347 Madison Avenue, 8th
Floor, New York, N.Y. 10017. Resume may also
be sent by fax: 212-878-7461 or email :
mail@pcac.org
BUILDING SUPERINTENDENT - Coalition for
the Homeless, one of the nation's oldest and
most progressive agencies serving homeless
persons, seeks an experienced Building Super-
intendent for a 38-unit, homeless/low income
project on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The
Superintendent will provide maintenance and
janitorial services, including maintenance and
FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE JOB PoSTINGS, GO TO WWW.CITYLIMITS.oRG
JOB ADS
operation of building systems and equipment.
Must live on-site, maintain an "on-call " sta-
tus, and respond to all tenant requests for
assistance. Will also provide basic carpentry,
plumbing, electrical , and other apartment
repair services. HS Diploma/GED required;
AAlAS preferred. 4 to 6 yrs. expo in building
maintenance/construction required. Boiler
operations and maintenance certification pre-
ferred. NYS driver's license required. $24K per
year salary with free housing and excellent
benefits. Send RESUME with COVER LETTER to
HR, Coalition for the Homeless, via EMAIL to
jbwyker@cfthomeless or FAX to 212-964-
1303. No telephone inquiries please. Persons
of color and formerly homeless individuals are
encouraged to apply. EOE
CASE MANAGER BI-LiNGUAL
(ENGLISHISPANISH) Provide case manage-
ment services at a large Manhattan SRO in the
Grammercy Park Area. Ideal candidate will
have a BA and at least 3 years experience
working with low-income people with physical
and mental disabilities, substance abuse
issues, and medical problems. Good organiza-
tional skills, computer literacy, and a creative
approach to problem solving required. Knowl-
edge of area resources a plus. Comprehensive
benefit package. Salary based on experience.
Please submit cover letter, resume and salary
requirements to:H.S.I.,461 Park Avenue South,
6th Floor New York, NY 10016, Attn:K-CM
CL,Fax number 212-252-9319 EOE
CASE MANAGER - Responsible for all
aspects of assigned caseload. Work with
clients. Facilitate various types of therapeutic
groups under the direction of the Program
Coordinator. Liaison with clinical staff in other
BRC or off site programs with regard to clients.
Supervise urine samples tests for drug use.
Significant experience working with the home-
less and formerly incarcerated; entitlements
and work readiness programs required. Good
writing and oral communication skills. Ability
to work in a high stress/volume environment.
BA preferred, HS Diploma/GEO required.
Knowledge of addictions and recovery process.
Computer literacy required. Sal : $29,641
Please e-mail resume to
JGraham@bowrescom.org
CASE MANAGER - Women's Housing and
Economic Development Corporation (WHED-
CO), a multi -service agency in the South
Bronx, seeks a Case Manager for our housing
assistance program. Case Manager will pro-
vide supportive and case management ser-
vices to these formerly homeless families.
Home visits required. Bilingual (EnglishlSpan-
ish) preferred as well as experience in housing
and working with families in crisis. WHEDCO
offers competitive salaries and excellent ben-
efits. For more information see
www.whedco.org E-mail cover letter and
resume to bzerzan@Whedco.org
CASE MANAGER - HELP USA, a nationally
recognized leader in the provisions of transi -
39
JOB ADS
tional housing, residential & social services,
has a position avail for a Case Manager to pro-
vide case management services & community
linkages to families residing in a domestic vio-
lence shelter as they relocate & transition to
permanent housing. Will provide information &
referral services as needed & develop individ-
ual service plans with families to assist in
meeting goals. BSW or BA Degree a must;
Master's Degree a plus. Proficiency in comput-
ers & Windows based software necessary.
Bilingual skills (English/Spanish) are a plus.
Organizational skills & the knowledge &
understanding of issues specific to domestic
violence & homeless ness & the ability to
multi-task are essential. Negotiation of service
delivery system of social services with fami-
lies, ensuring the receipt of all entitlements is
necessary. Salary: starts at mid $20s & is
based on experience. Send resume to: HELP
USA, PO Box 641, NY, NY 10037, Attn: Ted
McCourtney, Fax: 212-862-4376 or via email:
tmccourtney@helpusa.org. EOE. A Drug Free
Workplace.
CASE WORKER (ADOLESCENT uNin - Job
Summary: Provide comprehensive casework
services for both young people and their fami-
lies. Engage both youth and families in a prob-
lem solving process that leads to an appropri-
ate plan of permanency. Monitors foster homes
to ensure youth are being properly cared for.
Develops community relationships in order to
utilize local resources on behalf of families.
Participates in interdisciplinary team model
practice, which will involve Substance Abuse
Specialist, Health Services, VoclEd Specialist
and Independent Living Assistant. There will
be a main focus on permanency planning, per-
manent family connections and life skills
development. Major Duties: Maintain mini-
mum monthly contact with youth, and with
their foster and regular contact with birth fam-
ilies as needed. Gather social history, to assess
family strengths and weaknesses, and to
assess existing problems. Work with family
and youth to develop the most appropriate per-
manency plan with emphasis on lasting fami-
ly connections, which can be, improved family
relationship, adoption, mentor etc. Coordinate
visits between family and child. Work with the
Adolescent Unit team for the comprehensive
service planning for each child, including edu-
cation, employment and other IL skills. Locate
resources and make referrals as needed. Mon-
itor foster parents in terms of their ability to
meet the needs of the child in their home, and
make recommendations regarding future use
of the home, in conjunction with the re-certifi-
cation Worker. Support and counsel foster par-
ents in their efforts to care for the child, and
include them in the development of the goals
and tasks. Complete all necessary ACS and
Court reports. Make court appearances and
testify as needed. Keep case records up-to-
date with the status of case activity, including
progress notes on all contacts. Attend all nec-
essary meetings, functions, workshop, etc. as
required by the agency. Collaborate closely
with team members. Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications: BSW or BA degree in a field
40
related to Human Services required. Must be
able to establish working relationships with
clients in need of counseling and supportive
services. Good written and verbal skills neces-
sary. Must enjoy working with adolescents.
Must have a commitment to work from a
strength based and/or youth development per-
spective. Interested and qualified parties
should forward their resume to: D.Padilla,
Good Shepherd Services, 7 West Burnside
Avenue, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10453 or Fax:
718-561-3839 or Email :
hr@goodshepherds.org
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER - COO for lead-
ing nonprofit housing org., $9 million budget
and 105 staff. Oversight of lending, education,
marketing, real estate and community devel-
opment programs. Must be team builder,
proven management experience required.
Advance degree preferred with 5 plus years
similar experience. EOE. Fax resume with
salary requirements to: Search COO 212-242-
6680/email: resume@nhsnyc.org.
CHILDCARE AIDUl - HELP USA, a nationally
recognized leader in the provisions of transi-
tional housing, residential & social services,
has a position avail for a Child Care Aide. As
part of an interdisciplinary team, the Aide will
supervise children, ages eight (8) weeks
through five (5) years old. Will conduct the ini-
tial family evaluations of child day care needs
& assist in the development of lesson plans &
educational goals for children & their families.
An Associate's Degree in Early Childhood Edu-
cation is a must. Experience working with pre-
school children & proficiency in computers &
Windows based software are required. Bilin-
gual skills (Spanish/English) is a plus. Salary:
high teens to low twenties commensurate with
experience. Resumes for this position can be
sent to: Barbara Moses, PO Box 641, NY, NY
10037, Fax: 212-283-6231 or email:
bmoses@helpusa.org. EOE. A Drug Free Work-
place
CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER - HELP USA, a
nationally recognized leader in the provision of
transitional housing, residential & social ser-
vices, has a position available for a Clinical
Social Worker. As part of the interdisciplinary
team, the Clinician will provide assessment,
short & long term counseling, as well as crisis
intervention for individuals, families & groups,
including children, currently residing in a shel-
ter for survivors of domestic violence & their
families. Clinician will also facilitate referrals
for services to support those offered on-site &
to continue with post placement. MSW or relat-
ed degree will only be considered. Excellent oral
communication, as well as clinical skills are
necessary. Proficiency in computers & Windows
based software required. Bilingual skills
(SpanishlEnglish) are highly preferred. NYS
driver's license (unrestricted) also necessary.
Salary: starts in the low to mid $30s but com-
mensurate with experience. Send resumes to:
Ted McCourtney, Team Leader, PO Box 641, NY,
NY 10037, fax: 212-862-4376, email:
tmccourtney@helpusa.org. EOE. A Drug Free
Workplace.
COMMUNITY FOOD EDUCATOR - Just Food, a
NYC based non-profit organization that
addresses regional food and farm issues,
seeks Community Food Educator to promote
improved nutrition and cooking skills through
our Community Supported Agriculture Pro-
gram. 16 hours per week. See full job descrip-
tion at www.justfood.org
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER - Picture the
Homeless, a membership led grass roots orga-
nization, is seeking an experienced organizer
to launch and develop our Housing Campaign.
Ideal candidate will have experience in out-
reach, base building, leadership development,
campaign development, and some policy and
media work. English/Spani sh fluency, comput-
er ski ll s, creativity, flexibility and personal
experience with homelessness preferred. PTH
is an equal opportunity employer committed to
a diverse, multicultural work environment.
Email resumes and cover letter to
Iynn@picturethehomeless.org ASAP.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER - The Community
Organizer coordinates Advocacy campaigns of
the Coalition. The Community Organizer devel-
ops, identifies and coordinates external part-
nerships with community groups and congre-
gations, advancing CFTH agenda, participates
in shelter activities, monitoring inspections, is
spokesperson for media. BA required, gradu-
ate preferred, 5 years related
experience, Spanish fluency a plus.
www.coalitionforthehomeless.org 212-772-
2062
COMMUNITY RELATIONS SPECIALIST - Mon-
tefiore Medical Center, one of the largest
health-care systems in the nation, is seeking
an individual who will be responsible for com-
munity outreach, facilitation of social and pri-
mary care internal medicine resident projects,
community participation, and coordination
and development of community medicine cur-
riculum. Requires an advanced degree prefer-
ably, a MPH in health education with experi-
ence in bridging academic and community
environments. Must be able to work flexible
hours. Bilingual EnglishlSpanish preferred. We
offer a competitive salary and comprehensive
benefits package. Please send your resume
with current salary to: Montefiore Medical Cen-
ter, Career Services, III East 210th Street, Job
Code TRCRS-04013, Bronx, NY 10467. Fax
718-882-7173. Email:
trivera@montefiore.org. EOE. MONTEFIORE
MEDICAL CENTER www.montefiore.org
COMPLIANCE COORDINATOR - This position
provides a wide range of compliance services
to the Brooklyn Community-Based Program
staff. The job objective is to ensure that all
mandates of regulatory and evaluation bodies
are met. This position will interface with the
agency's Quality Improvement and Develop-
ment Departments and will also include
FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE JOB POSTINGS, GO TO WWW.CITYLIMITS.ORG
ideas/input into program data collection and
improvement plans. The position requires reg-
ular travel to all Brooklyn Program sites. Con-
duct regular process analysis on how informa-
tion is collected, stored and reported on in all
Community-Based programs. Troubleshoot
barriers to data collection, input and reporting.
Develop plans for improving information flow
and ensuring timely input and reporting of
data. Track and ensure submission of monthly
data reports from each program. Collect and
maintain a centralized file of required out-
comes for all programs. Research standard-
ized tests for assessment and evaluation pur-
poses. Responsible for database utilization
analyses. Work in collaboration with the Devel-
opment and Quality Improvement Depart-
ments to ensure that outcomes data is collect-
ed, verified and reported in a timely manner.
Assist with data entry functions as needed.
Other duties as assigned to meet the job
objective. Qualifications: Bachelor's degree
required. MSW or related Master's degree pre-
ferred. Two years social services experience
required. Strong expertise in Word, Excel, &
Access. Must have superior organizational and
analytical skills, and excellent verbal and writ-
ten communication skills. Must be able to work
independently and manage multiple tasks in a
fast paced environment. Ability to work collab-
oratively with a variety of people, as well as an
aptitude for teamwork, are essential. Interest-
ed and qualified parties should forward their
resume to: RJorsyth, Good Shepherd Services,
441 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215 Fax:
718-965-0365 Email: hr@goodshepherds.org
COORDINATOR, LIFE SKIUS PROGRAM -
Leading Westchester domestic violence agency
seeks Coordinator of Life Skills Program, help-
ing victims learn skills and (re) enter work-
force. Develop job placement and retention
component; recruit and train workshop facili-
tators; provide participant support during ses-
sions; oversee one-year follow-up for gradu-
ates. BA or Masters, min. 2 yrs. job develop-
ment expo wlindividuals that are low-income
or face barriers to employment. Bilingual
SpanlEng a plus. Salary to $45K dep. on expe-
rience. Resume/cover letter to:
asiniscalchi@mysistersplaceny.org or fax
914-683-1599. No calls please.
DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT - NYC office of
nat'l org. dedicated to helping low-income
communities find creative solutions to prob-
lems of affordable housing seeking Develop-
ment Assistant to provide technical support -
producing reports, managing databases, col-
lecting and assembling information. Will also
work on events and provide clerical support to
the Fundraising and PR department. Requires
three yrs administrative exp, or an associates
or bachelors degree and one to two years of
non- profit experience. Details at www.Enter-
prisefoundation.org. Forward resume with
cover letter and salary requirements to fax
410-772-2702, e-mail hr@enterprisefounda-
tion.org (with HRlDA-NYC in subject line) or
mail to: The Enterprise Foundation, ATTN: HR /
CITY LIMITS
DA NYC, 10227 Wincopin Circle; Suite 500,
Columbia, MD 21044. EOE MlFNIH
DEVElOPMENT ASSOCIATE - LlSC seeks
highly motivated individual to assist in
fundraising and donor reports. Needs excep-
tional writing and verbal communication skills
to write grant proposals and manage
fundraising administration. Details at
www.lisc.org/nyc. Forward resume with cover
letter to kparker@lisc.org.
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR - Fifth Avenue
Committee, a non-profit developer, organizing
entity and service provider committed to social
and economic justice, seeks full-time Develop-
ment Director. The Director supervises four
staff raising $3 million annually from govern-
ment, foundation, corporate and individual
sources. Work with grants, donors, publica-
tions, website, and special events. Must have
held a senior position and had 4+ years' expe-
rience in development field. Supervisory expe-
rience required. Commitment to mission,
excellent communication skills a must. Com-
munity development and organizing fundrais-
ing background preferred. Experience with
diverse communities, South Brooklyn a plus.
Salary commensurate with experience; good
benefits. Full posting at www.fifthave.org.
Resume, cover letter w/ salary history, writing
sample, to: devsearch@fifthave.org, or Fifth
Avenue Committee, 141 Fifth Avenue, Brook-
lyn, NY 11217; Attn: Michelle de la Uz. Fax 718-
857-4322. Phone inquiries welcome: Call Tracy
Anderson, Assistant to the Director, 718-857-
2990 x43. EOE. People of color strongly encour-
aged to apply.
DIRECT CARE WORKERSIBROOKLYN (FIT AND
PIT) - FEGS is one of the largest not-for-prof-
it health and hurnan service organizations in
the country with an operating budget in excess
of $170 million, 3500+ staff, 12 subsidiary
corporations and a diverse service delivery
network including operations in over 250 loca-
tions throughout the metropolitan New York
area. Our Developmental Disabilities Division
is seeking experienced applicants to care for
individuals with disabilities in our residential
settings located in Brooklyn. Seeking Direct
Care Workers - Brooklyn FIT and PIT: Imple-
ment service plans, assist consumers' with life
management skills and monitor progress.
HS/GEO and 1 year experience. NYS driver's
license required. We offer a competitive salary
and benefits package (4 weeks vacation). If
you are interested, please send resume and
cover letter indicating specific position of
interest and salary requirements to our HR
Consultants: HR Dynamics, Inc. (Dept. DD/ss)
161 William Street, 4th Floor, New York, New
York 10038 or fax to 212-366-8555 or email
sgsmalls@hr-dynamics.com.
DIRECTOR EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION
CENTER - Graham Windham, the nation's
oldest non-sectarian child care agency serv-
ing New York children and families since
1806, seeks a Director for its Harlem Child
Care Center. Responsible for the daily opera-
tion of the center including hiring and super-
vision of staff, liaison with community agen-
cies and community School District 5. MS in
Early Childhood is preferred. The Center pro-
vides early childhood education to 140 chil-
dren ages 2.5 to 12 and includes Universal
Pre-K programs and after school center. MS in
Early Childhood is preferred. BA in Early
Childhood Education with NYS certification in
nursery, kindergarten and grades 1-6 is
required. Knowledge of ACD and HRA regula-
tions a plus. Minimum three years of early
childhood teaching experience and one-year
supervisory and training experience is
required. Graham Windham is committed to
rewarding performance excellence with high-
ly competitive compensation, generous bene-
fits, and a merit-based reward system. Gra-
ham Windham encourages a diverse work-
force. AAlEOE Send resume and salary
requirements to: Graham Windham 33 Irving
Place, 7th Floor New York, NY 10003 Att:
Pablo Molgora Fax: 212-358-1724
hr-general@graham-windham.org
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT - Avodah is a
year-long Jewish Service Corps program com-
bining front-line anti-poverty work, Jewish
study and community building. With an annu-
al budget of one million dollars, Avodah seeks
a full-time director of development to bui ld on
the organization's successful grantsmanship
efforts and establish a robust, multi- faceted
individual giving program. This dynamic posi-
tion requires a skilled professional with at
least seven to ten years of successful
fundraising experience and the entrepreneur-
ial ability to develop and implement diversified
fund raising strategies. Firsthand knowledge of
major gifts and annual giving is required,
JOB ADS
along with strong verbal/written communica-
tion skills and an ability to manage and moti-
vate staff, peers and lead volunteers. The ideal
candidate will be familiar with the Jewish
funding community, have a working knowledge
of special events, corporate and foundation
fund raising and board development as well as
a strong commitment to social justice and
team work. Bachelor's degree required;
advanced degree preferred. Salary is $60k -
$70k (DOE) + benefits. To apply, please email
cover letter, resume, one-page writing sample
and salary history to DOD@avodah.net No
calls please.
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AND GOVERN-
MENT AFFAIRS - Civic Builders is the pre-
ferred nonprofit real estate developer of char-
ter school facilities in New York City. The Direc-
tor of Development and Government Affairs
will work wi th the CEO to raise $25M in capital
funds over the next three years. Responsibili-
ties Include: 1) Creating and executing strate-
gic capital fund raising plan; 2) leveraging
existing foundation relationships; 3) creating
new relationships with target foundations; 4)
creating and executing lobbying strategy for
city and state government officials; 5) prepar-
ing federal grant applications; and 6)
researching new funding opportunities. Quali-
fications: College degree. Minimum 6-8 years
fund raising experience. Familiarity with NYC
public and private funding environment a
plus. Graduate degrees encouraged. To apply:
hr@civicbuilders.org
DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT GRANTS -The
PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
SPECIALIZING IN REAL ESTATE
J-51 Tax Abatement/Exemption 421A and 421B
Applications 501 (c) (3) FederaJ Tax Exemptions All forms
of government-assisted housing, including LISC/Enterprise,
Section 202, State Turnkey and NYC Partnership Homes
KOURAKOS & KOURAKOS
Attorneys at Law
Eastchester, N.Y.
Phone:
Advertise

In this
space!
212.479.3345
' I
.JULIA REICH GRAPHIC DESIGN
212 . 721. 9 764
oJ R EICH 2 @EARTHLINK.NET
WWW. CREA TIVEHOTLlST. COM/oJ REICH
ADS, ANNUAL REPORTS , BOOK DESIGN, BROCHURES, CATALOGS,
Social Policy Research Design and Evaluation
Valnlont Consulting LLC
Mary Eustace Valmont, Ph.D.
Phone: 7187888435 Fax: 7187880135
Email: valmont-consulting@earthlink.net
FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE JOB POSTINGS, GO TO WWW.CITYLIMITS.ORG
JUNE 2004
41
JOBADS
Educational Alliance, 197 East Broadway NY
NY 10002, Fax 212-228-1178, Email :
jobs@edalliance.org, Apply online: www.edal -
liance.org. Responsible for developing and
maintaining funding; preparing proposals, re-
submissions and progress reports; meeting
with government officials, trade associations,
program staff; attending bidders conferences;
researching opportunities. Qualifications: BA,
five years related experience. Knowledge of
Federal , State and City agencies. Experience
and demonstrated success in identifying gov-
ernment funding and executing contracts,
especially children's programming, mental
health and eldercare. Ability to speak effec-
tively before groups. Highly organized, self-
motivated, with excellent interpersonal , orga-
nizational , computer skills. Proficiency with
Raiser's Edge a plus. Highly effective writing
ability.
DIRECTOR OF HOUSING MANAGEMENT -
Southside United HDFC's subsidiary Los Sures
Management Co. is searching for a dynamic
person to manage the Real Estate portfolio of
approximately 1200 units. The organization is
looking for a person that is able to communi-
cate with staff, suppliers, agencies and ten-
ants. Salary - $50,000+ (commensurate with
experience). Real Estate Brokers license a
plus. Knowledge of Spanish as well as govern-
mental agencies requirements is important.
This is an opportunity for a motivated individ-
ual to lead a team of office and field staff and
shape organizational development. Resume or
CV should be sent to Southside HDFC, c/o
Administrator, 213 South 4th Street, Brooklyn,
NY 11211 or you could fax to 718-387-4683 or
email toddpagan@aol.com.
DIRECTOR OF HOUSING OPERATIONS -
Westchester Social Service Agency has open-
ing for a person to plan, organize and direct all
property management, maintenance and
security functions in its Housing Programs
Division. This highly visible position supervis-
es a staff of 40 and reports to the VP of Hous-
ing. A Bachelor's Degree with 5 years of expe-
rience in property management/maintenance,
housing program administration, real estate or
facilities is required. Must have excellent
oral/writtenlinterpersonal skills and be com-
puter literate. We offer excellent
benefits/salary and a company paid retirement
plan. Send letter/resume with salary require-
ments to Director of Human Resources, West-
hab 85 Executive Blvd, Elmsford, NY 10523.
Fax 914-345-3139. EOE.
DIRECTOR OF LA BODEGA DE LA FAMILIA -
Seeking a leader with strong managerial skills
to oversee the day-to-day operations of an
award winning direct service program on the
Lower East Side. La Bodega works in partner-
ship with government to offer a family systems
and strengths-based approach to helping
families struggling with addiction and/or
mental illness and involved in the criminal
justice system. The Director will provide man-
agement and supervision for staff in addition
42
to cultivating an ongoing relationship between
learning and practice. Qualifications include:
advanced degree in social work, criminal jus-
tice, social policy, or law, or 10 years expo in
related criminal justice/social justice advoca-
cy and support. Extensive experience with
criminal justice system, community- based
supports for offenders or ex-offenders. Mini -
mum 5 years supervisory experience and
senior management level experi ence. Fluency
in Spanish a plus. Mail , fax or e-mail resume
and cover letter to Managing Director of Prac-
tice, Family Justice, 625 Broadway, New York,
NY 10012 fax: 212-475-1765, e-mail
arudin@familyjusticeinc.org. No phone calls
please. Family Justice values diversity and is
an equal opportunity employer.
DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS - Dynamic, grow-
ing Bronx organization seeks experienced
Director of Programs to oversee staff and
implement multigenerational programs with a
strong youth component. Substantial experi-
ence managing professional staff, fundrais-
ing, and program development necessary.
Background in education, community develop-
ment, or elder services. Excellent communica-
tion and critical thinking skills required.
Salary is highly competitive. Please
submit cover letter and resume via e-mail to
dpcandidatesearch@yahoo.com.
DIRECTOR OF REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT
INITIATIVES - The Community League of the
Heights, Inc. (CLOTH) a multi-service CDC in
Southern Washington Heights seeks a Director
of Real Estate Development Initiatives.
Responsibilities include: Leadership and exe-
cution of all aspects of neighborhood plan-
ning; pre-development, construction, and
completion of real estate development pro-
jects; identification of new development pro-
jects; and project feasibility analysis. Other
responsibilities include supervision of property
management and tenant services staff and
oversight of existing housing portfolio. Qualifi-
cations: Proven ability to multi-task and to
work with community residents and leaders,
contractors, funders, elected officials and
State and city agency representatives. Ability
to take initiative and work collaboratively with
a team. Excellent written and verbal communi-
cation skills. Bachelors degree required; mas-
ter's degree in urban planning or related field
preferned; three- to five-years' prior project
management experience with residential
and/or commercial developments; knowledge
of real estate finance; demonstrated commit-
ment to the mission of the organization and
ability to interact with diverse constituencies.
Salary $50-651{, depending on experience. For
full job description, please contact Connie Lee,
Director of Operations 500 West 159th Street
New York, NY 10032 Fax: 212-740-5037
Email: cmlee@clothI59.org
DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL SERVICES - HELP
USA, a nationally recognized leader in the pro-
vision of transitional housing, residential &
social services, has an opportunity available
for a Director of Social Servi ces to be responsi-
ble for the supervision of team leaders, case
managers & housing specialists, in delivering
a comprehensive program of social services
including recruitment, assessment, counsel-
ing & linkage with entitlement, health, educa-
tional , vocational & housing programs. These
programs are provided in order to stabilize the
displaced families living at the facility &
improve their independent living skills. Will
also oversee the successful & expeditious
placement of families into permanent housing
& meeting all monthly housing quotas. MSW,
MPA or a Master's Degree in Psychology or
Counseling is required. A thorough knowledge
of casework practice & strategies, as well as
proven supervisory & staff development skills
is necessary. Proficiency in computers & Win-
dows based software required. Knowledge of
subsidized housing programs is preferred.
Valid US driver's license required. Salary:
starts from the mid $40s. Resumes for this
position should be forwarded to: HELP 1, 515
Blake Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11207, Attn: Gena
Watson, Asst Executive Director, Fax: 718-485-
5916 or email: gwatson@helpusa.org EOE. A
Drug Free Workplace.
DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVEJl.EGISLATIVE AIDE
- Active Brooklyn City Council Member seeks
District Representative/Legislative Aide.
Duties include constituent service, policy
development, & outreach to the community.
Strong interpersonal & writing skills, & ability
to attend some night & weekends
events/meetings, req'd. Knowledge of policy
issues a plus. Must drive & have a car.
Please email resume & cover letter to:
bknycouncil@aol.com orfax to 212-788-7769.
Salary commensurate w/experience.
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT - A New York State
Senator seeks an assistant to maintain the
schedule; handle requests for events/meet-
ings; arrange logistics/advance for events;
manage office correspondence; maintain the
office database. Qualifications: Detail orient-
ed; strong communication and organizational
skills; fluency in Spanish. Salary in the $30s
plus benefits. Email: dronyc@aol.com.
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT - The Executive
Assistant will work closely with and support
the Executive Director on agency related mat-
ters. Major Duties: Provide administrative sup-
port to the Executive Director. Provide adminis-
trative support to the Development Depart-
ment as needed. Draft and prepare correspon-
dence including meeting follow-up, correspon-
dence with funders, advocacy land thank-you
letters. Prepare and coordinate reports and
surveys. Organize and prepare for and follow-
up on board meetings and other meetings
including communicating with attendees,
preparing distributing agendas and meeting
minutes, as well as ordering supplies, setting
up room and arranging refreshments. Sort,
distribute and follow up on correspondence for
executive and development office. Answer
phone for executive office, take and deliver
FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE JOB POSTINGS, GO TO WWW.CITYLIMITS.ORG
messages and respond to inquiries. Read,
highlight and summarize specified reports and
documents as requested. Take minutes at
Administrative Team and Senior Leadership
Group meetings. Assist in Development tasks
including corporate outreach. Coordinate
Office Management in conjunction with Devel-
opment staff. Maintain Executive Director's
files. Supervise Switchboard Operator and
Administrative Assistant and work with her to
maintain Executive Director's calendar. Main-
tain petty cash for Executive Director and
Development Department, track bills and com-
plete check requests. Perform miscellaneous
clerical functions as needed. Undertake spe-
cial projects as needed. Qualifications: Mini -
mum BA degree or 3 years experience in
administrative role. Must have excellent com-
puter skills including MS Word, Excel. Power
Point, database and desktop publishing. Must
type 65 wpm. Familiarity with office systems
and procedures required. Must have excellent
writing skills. Must be highly organized, effi-
cient, able to work under pressure, and able to
adhere to deadlines. Must be a self-starter.
Must be able to multi-task, prioritize and work
in a fast-paced environment. Must have excel-
lent interpersonal skills, gracious and courte-
ous telephone skills and ability to work as part
of a team in the executive and development
suite. Must be able to keep accurate records.
Must have a commitment to work from a
strength based and/or youth development per-
spective. Interested and qualified parties
should forward their resume to: D.Patasaw,
Good Shepherd Services, 305 7th Avenue, 9th
Floor, New York, NY 10001 or Fax: 212-627-
9472 or Email : hr@goodshepherds.org
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - For Washingtonville
Housing Alliance, a 23 year-old, affordable
housing non-profit in Mamaroneck. Primary
duties include Real Estate development,
fund raising and PRo Excellent communication
skills and proven fundraising record required.
Affordable housing experience a plus.
Resumes and salary requirements to WHA, P.
O. Box 809, Mamaroneck, NY 10543 or fax to
914-698-9697. No phone calls, please.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR -Inquilinos Boricuas
En Accion (lBA), a Boston-based community
action organization, is seeking a new Executive
Director. Founded in 1968, IBA is one of the
country's most innovative and successful com-
munity development organizations. Its mission
is to increase the social and economic power of
individuals and families through education,
economic development, technology and arts
programming that builds safe, vibrant and
culturally diverse affordable housing commu-
nities. This position requires a person who
combines a passionate commitment to social
and economic justice, a sensitivity to commu-
nity needs and strong management and
fundraising skills to lead an organization that
occupies a uniquely important position in the
Latino community of Boston. A proven record of
success managing a complex organization
that has developed and managed real estate
and delivered programs in a fiscally sound
CITY LIMITS
manner. To apply contact: Donna Cramer,
Senior Associate, Isaacson Miller, 334 Boylston
Street, Suite 500, Boston, MA 02116 Tele-
phone: 617 -262-6500 email:
dcramer@imsearch.com
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT - Maintaining the
schedule and making confirmation calls; han-
dling requests for events/meetings; arranging
logistics/advance for events; managing office
correspondence; maintaining the office data-
base. Detailed oriented; strong communication
and organizational skills; fluency in Spanish.
Salary in the $30s plus benefits. Email
dronyc@aol.com.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - Small consumer
advocacy organization (www.fria.org) dedicat-
ed to high quality long term care in NY seeks
dynamic committed leader with passion for
advocacy. Administrative and management
experience, demonstrated success in fundrais-
ing and obtaining grants, strong written and
oral communication skills, and computer liter-
acy required. Experience in health or aging
advocacy and/or media, public relations, mar-
keting desirable. Resume and cover letter to
beaclo@optonline.netor FRIA Search Commit-
tee, 40 Lakeview Rd, Ossining, NY 10562
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - Sought to set agen-
da, act as spokesperson, raise money, manage
staff, board and financial matters for NELP, a
non-profit that advocates for working
poor, including immigrant workers,
contingent workers, welfare recipients
and the unemployed. Qualifications: Success-
ful track record in developing/implementing
effective policy/legal advocacy strategies;
raising foundation dollars; commun-
icating externally/internally; managing
complex budget matters/staff. Law
degree not required; background in
related policy/practice fields expected. Longer
description, application instructions:
www.NonprofitProfessionals.com/NELP.htm
AAlEE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - The Board of the
Resource Center, Inc. seeks a dynamic, vision-
ary leader to serve as Executive Director. This
peer-run, non-profit provides education, train-
ing and technical assistance across NY State
on issues affecting recipients of mental health
services. The E.D. will work closely with the
Board to conceive and implement strategic,
programmatic and organizational develop-
ment, including all program activities, com-
munications and fundraising. Qualifications
include: Bachelors, Masters preferred, mini-
mum three years experience managing pro-
grams or operations in non-profits, experience
in leadership capacity; or equivalent combina-
tion of education and experience, demonstrat-
ed record of community-based achievement,
and successful track record in fund-raising.
The successful candidate will have personal
knowledge of the consumer/survivor/ex-
patient movement, strong fiscal manage-
ment/budget skills, excellent speaking, writ-
JUNE 2004
ing, marketing, and public relations skills, and
the ability to maintain effective working rela-
tionships with the board, staff, donors and
agency funding sources. Excellent salary and
benefits provided. Position available immedi-
ately. For a detailed job description, visit our
web site at www.peer-resource.org. To apply,
please submit resume and cover letter to
resource@nycap.rr.com or fax to 518-463-
9264 or mail letters to Board President,
Resource Center, Inc., 291 Hudson Avenue,
Albany, NY 12210. No phone calls. Current or
former recipients of mental health services are
encouraged to apply.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - The Montessori Day
School of Brooklyn (MDS) seeks a creative
Executive Director with vision, energy and
experience in management, staff supervision
and development, budgeting and fundraising.
The MDS is recently independent from the
YWCA and offers a learning environment that
is diverse, child-centered and has high parent
involvement. QUALIFICATIONS: Five (5) years of
successful management experience; evidence
of an entrepreneurial approach to business;
demonstrated success in supervision and
relationship-building. Preferred: Two (2) years
teaching experience (preferably Montessori -
based) ; NYS Early Childhood Education certifi-
cation or Masters Degree in early childhood
development, or equivalent. Competitive
salary and benefits. EEO employer. NO PHONE
CALLS. Deadline for applications is ASAP. Send
resume, cover letter and salary history to: KW
Murnion, Montessori Search, Nonprofit Con-
nection, One Hanson Place - Ste. 2504 Brook-
lyn, NY ll243
FACILITIES ADMINISTRATOR - Large non-
profit, low-income housing development and
management company is seeking a Facilities
Administrator to establish and oversee facili-
ties management plan for numerous apart-
ment buildings in Brooklyn & Queens. Building
systems, equipment, design and maintenance
standards to be prepared and implemented
with assistance from agency staff. Minimum
five years exp & professional credentials in
Architecture or Engineering pref'd. Send
resume: POP Development Housing Office, 191
Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, fax:
718-722-6045 or email:kjimenez@ccbq.org
EOEIM.
FAMILY SOCIAL WORKER - Seeking commit-
ted professional for new, small-scale, perma-
nent supportive housing in So. Bronx. Respon-
sibilities: case management, group work, ser-
vice planning, parenting, children's needs.
Must have: MSW and experience with HIV,
mental health, substance abuse, ACS;
patience and energy; excellent communica-
tion, writing, computer skills. Bi -lingual a +.
$35K + benefits. Fax cover letter/resume to:
212-781-6193. EOE.
FAMILY SUPPORT WORKERS SUPERVISOR -
Non-for-profit social services agency seeks
bilingual MSW with clinical and community
organizing skills to lead an innovative project
in the areas of child abuse and neglect in the
South Bronx. The project is a collaborative
between Highbridge parents and CBO's that
promotes the strengthening of families with-
out the involvement of regulatory agencies
such as ACS. The MSW would supervised six
part-time outreach workers; conduct trainings'
conduct assessments of family functioning;
led outreach efforts; develop and maintain
working relationships with community organi-
zations, agencies and school. Please send your
resume to: 979 Ogden Avenue, Bronx, NY
10452. Attn: Personnel orfax 718-681-4137
FIELD ASSOCIATE - Non-partisan voter
turnout org working in low income and minor-
ity communities. Provide headquarters support
for national field operations. Good entry-level
admin position to learn nuts and bolts of polit-
ical work. Salary in the low 20's, with benefits.
Email resume and cover letter to
vrnat@acorn.org or fax 718-246-7939. To be
filled immediately; reply ASAP Women and
people of color are strongly encouraged to
apply.
GROUP LEADER/ACTIVITY SPECIALIST - The
Group Leader is responsible for the overall
groups' development, management, organiza-
tion and planning. In addition, the group
leader is responsible for the supervision of all
staff assigned to the group. The position is
available from June 2004-August 2004. Major
Duties: Maintain 85% group attendance.
Attend all staff meetings and mandatory
trainings. Develop and maintain an atmos-
phere of consistency and fairness in which
both children and staff cooperate. Plan and
implement activities each day. Supervise sup-
port staff assigned to your group. Maintain
strict adherence to policies and procedures at
all times. Maintain program space. Act as both
a supervisor and role model. Provide direction,
supervision and guidance at all times. Main-
tain all required records for your group. Engage
in outreach activities to ensure attendance
and participation. Engage in interaction with
parents and guardians in a professional, fair
and gentle manner. Discuss behavior prob-
lems and situations with supervisor. Resolve
conflict within your group while seeking assis-
tance from other staff, supervisors and direc-
tors when necessary. Inspect all facilities,
equipment, and supplies and be sure all are
locked away securely at the end of each day.
Participate in staff orientation as well as on
going development activities. Perform all other
duties as assigned. Qualifications: At least
one year of college and 2 years related experi-
ence in youth development programs pre-
ferred. Must be able to lead and participate in-
group activities. A commitment to working
with youth from a variety of backgrounds,
while providing high quality services. Must be
able to work evening and weekend hours as
required. A commitment to work from a
strength based and/or youth development per-
spective. Interested and qualified individuals
should forward their resumes to: R. Abbot Good
Shepherd Services 173 Conover Street Brook-
FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE JOB POSTINGS, GO TO WWW.CITYLIMITS.ORG
JOBADS
Iyn, New York ll231 Fax: 718-422-1926 or
Email: hr@goodshepherds.org
GROUP TEACHER (EARLY CARE AND EDUCA-
TION CENTER) - Graham Windham, the
nation's oldest non-sectarian child care
agency serving New York children and families
since 1806, seeks a group Teacher for its
Williamsburg Child Care Center. Responsible
for the daily operation of the center including
supervision of assistant teachers. The Center
provides early childhood education to 60 chil-
dren ages 2.5 t05 and includes Universal Pre-
K programs. MS in Early Childhood is pre-
ferred. BA in Early Childhood Education with
NYS certification in nursery, kindergarten and
grades 1-6 is required and must be willing to
enroll in a program leading to MS in Early
Childhood Education. Graham Windham is
committed to rewarding performance excel-
lence with highly competitive compensation,
generous benefits, and a merit-based reward
system. Graham Windham encourages a
diverse workforce. AAlEOE. Send resume and
salary requirements to: Graham Windham 33
Irving Place, 7th FI., New York, NY 10003. Att:
Pablo Molgora or fax: 212-358-1724 or email
hr-general@graham-windham.org
HOUSING ADVOCACY TEAM LEADER - Brook-
lyn CBO seeks Housing Advocacy Team Leader
to: lead eviction prevention cases & tenant
rights workshops; respond to community
needs (displacement, apartment-finding,
immigrant rights, etc.); manage intake & out-
reach; build on referral network; write case
studies, collect/analyze data. Supervise orga-
nizer & junior advocate. Requires: 5+ years
related experience; fluent Spanish & English;
superior writing, speaking & computer skills.
Social work or law degree a big +. Good salary,
great benefits, equal opportunity. Email :
dpcandidatesearch@lycos.com
HOUSING DEVELOPER - The Floating Hospi-
tal, a non-profit healthcare provider is seeking
an individual to find suitable apts for program
participants, in accordance with program and
HRA guidelines. You will establish & maintain
strong relationships with housing brokers,
landlords and other housing providers. Must
be thoroughly committed to assisting home-
less people. Experience locating apts in the
Bronx for HRA clients and HS Diploma or GED
required. BA, prior Real Estate experience and
Spanish speaking preferred. Please send/fax
resume w/cover letter, stating position (a
must) to: The Floating Hospital, HR Dept, 90
William Street, Ste. 1402, NYC 10038. Fax
212-482-8911. EOE.
HOUSING DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT - The
employee must have a commitment to devel-
oping low-income housing project in the
Southside of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Tasks
range from obtaining government and private
financing, monitoring, construction and help-
ing tenants purchase their buildings; to create
a mandatory affordable housing campaign as
part of a coalition concerned with maintaining
43
JOBADS
economic diversity that is being threatened by
a rapidly gentrifying market aided by a rezon-
ing plan for the for the Williamsburg-Green-
point waterfront and upland areas. Qualifica-
tions: Urban Planning degree or equivalent
education. Work experience and some knowl-
edge of Spanish a plus. Fax/email resume to:
Ms. Aminta Hernandez at 718-387-4683 /
southsideu@aol.com
HOUSING DEVELOPMENT PROJECT MANAGER
- The Hudson Planning Group (HPG) is a non-
profit consulting firm working with communi-
ty-based organizations (CBOs) in areas that
include: supportive housing, managed care
readiness, the development of health care ser-
vices and network development. HPG is seek-
ing a Project Manager to join the consulting
team to provide technical assistance to not-
for-profits. The Project Manager will work with
clients on all aspects of the housing and facil-
ity development process. The Project Manager
will oversee the entire development process,
including, project feasibility and identification
of new development projects, pre-development
financing, securing government approvals and
licensure, obtaining public and private fund-
ing, and construction monitoring. Qualifica-
tions: Master's degree in related field or under-
graduate degree with at least 4 years experi-
ence working in the field of housing or facility
development. Strong financial/underwriting
skills and experience in real estate finance and
low-income housing development. To apply,
please fax resume and cover letter to the
attention of Hamid Razik at 212-968-9110.
HOUSING PLACEMENT SPECIALIST - Bailey
House, Inc is committed to empowering people
living with HIV/AIDS, their loved ones and the
communities and agencies that serve them to
operate at their fullest potential through the
development and provision of housing and
supportive services. The Housing Placement
Specialist assists homeless people living
HIV/AIDS in obtaining appropriate housing.
This position provides services to consumers
enrolled in the Bailey House East Harlem ser-
vice programs and homeless PWA's (individu-
als and families) referred by other community
based organizations or local hospitals or AIDS
service programs that lack housing placement
services. The Housing Placement Specialist
acts as the liaison between consumers, AIDS
housing programs and if need be, realty com-
panies. BA in social services or related field
plus three years experience in housing place-
ment assistance or AIDS housing programs.
Extensive knowledge of local housing
resources including HASAlHRA rental assis-
tance programs, AIDS permanent and transi-
tional housing programs, section 8 public
housing, the Sustainable Living Fund and NYC
real estate brokers required. Must be Microsoft
computer literate and able to travel to all five
boroughs. Ability to speak Spanish and
estate experience, helpful. If interested in
this position send resume, cover letter to
hr@baileyhouse.org or fax: 212-414-1431.
EOE
44
HOUSING SPECIALIST - Coordinate and
facilitate discharge planning for clients from
VIP's residential programs to independent liv-
ing. Complete housing assessment on new
admissions in the residential programs
through identification of appropriate subsidy
programs and facilitate the application and
qualification process. Develop and maintain
data bank of resources for housing referrals
and implement workshops on independent liv-
ing skills, the application process and proce-
dures, policies of governmental housing pro-
grams and services. Develop and facilitate
support groups to assist the residents in
adjusting to living independently. Participate
in case conferences as well as follow-up and
after care treatment process with the clinical
team. Qualifications: Bachelor Degree from an
accredited institution. Two years experience,
preferably in a residential treatment program.
Excellent verbal and written communication
skills. Proficient in Excel and Microsoft Word.
Ability to handle multiple tasks and responsi-
bilities. Ability to speak, read and write Span-
ish a plus. We offer a competitive salary, excel-
lent benefits package and a progressive work
environment. Please send cover letter w/
resume and salary history to: Donna Thomas,
VIP Community Services, 1910 Arthur Avenue-
4th fl., Bronx, N.Y. 10457. Fax: 718-299-1386.
E-mail: dlthomasvipl@aol.com
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER (pm - Per-
manent part-time, 3-days per week position,
includes benefits. Reports to the Chief Operat-
ing Officer/Deputy Executive Director. Position
scope: Responsible for developing, implement-
ing and monitoring the policies and programs
covering compensation, benefits, performance
management, employee relations, recruitment
and compliance with all applicable federal ,
state and local laws. The HR Manager is a
member of the management team and pro-
vides strategic management planning. Quali-
fications :Minimum of 7 years' human
resources generalist experience, experience in
employee relations, compensation, benefits,
training recruitment, performance evalua-
tions, personnel manuals, legal issues and
trends. Bachelors degree in personnel man-
agement, psychology, education, public
administration or related field required. Mas-
ter's degree a plus. To apply, please submit a
cover letter and resume to: Emma Guzman,
EPW.A., Personnel, 281 Park Avenue South,
New York, NY 10010. Fax to: 212-533-8792. E-
mail: eguzman@fpwa.org
JOB DEVELOPER - Seeking experienced,
committed, consumer-centered vocational
rehabilitation professional with excellent inter-
personal skills for an award winning individu-
alized placement and support (IPS) model pro-
gram in the Bronx. Market supported employ-
ment program(s)/participants to the business
community. Develop individualized job place-
ments for adults in recovery from psychiatric
and/or co-occurring disabilities. Must be able
to develop jobs through cold calling if needed.
BAIS strongly preferred, ability to function as
part of a team necessary. Knowledge of psy-
chiatric rehabilitation and ability to lead
employment skills groups required. Bi-lingual
a plus. Having current referral/job bank
strongly preferred. Fax/email cover
letterlresume to: Mary Burton, Bronx Fast Track
Program Director 718-292-8248;
MBurton@mhaofnyc.org
LEGAL DIRECTOR - The Professional Staff
Congress, AFT Local 2334, a progressive union
representing 20,000 faculty and staff at the
City University of New York, seeks to hire a
Legal Director to strengthen union effective-
ness in contract enforcement, negotiations
and organizing. At least 5 years experience in
labor and employment law required. Salary
schedule is $76,820 to $102,970; appoint-
ment rate depends on experience. Comprehen-
sive benefit package. The Professional Staff
Congress is an equal opportunity employer.
Women and people of color are strongly
encouraged to apply. Application deadline:
May 31, 2004. Send cover letter and resume to:
Barbara Gabriel Professional Staff Congress,
25 West 43rd Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY
10036. Tel : 212-354-1252. Fax: 212-302-7815
LICENSED PRACTICAL NURSE/BROOKLYN
(pm - FEGS is one of the largest not-for-
profit health and human service organizations
in the country with an operating budget in
excess of $170 million, 3500+ staff, 12 sub-
sidiary corporations and a diverse service
delivery network including operations in over
250 locations throughout the metropolitan
New York area. Our Developmental Disabilities
Division is seeking experienced applicants to
care for individuals with disabilities in our res-
idential settings located in Brooklyn. Seeking
LICENSED PRACTICAL NURSE (pm: Candidate
must have experience with medication admin-
istration, gastrostomy tube feeding, and gen-
eral direct care duties including ADL skills.
NYS driver's license preferred. New York State
license required. Minimum of 2 years experi-
ence and prior experience working with adult
developmentally disabled individuals pre-
ferred. We offer a competitive salary and ben-
efits package (4 weeks vacation). If you are
interested, please send resume and cover let-
ter indicating specific position of interest
and salary requirements to our HR Consul-
tants: HR Dynamics, Inc. (Dept. DD/SS) 161
William Street, 4th Floor, New York, New
York 10038 or fax to 212-366-8555 or email
sgsmalls@hr-dynamics.com.
MANAGER - The Lower East Side People's
Federal Credit Union, a nationally-recognized,
full-service community development credit
union with $13 million in assets, seeks a Man-
ager. We have achieved tremendous growth in
recent years and seek a dynamic administra-
tor to lead our expansion and membership
growth plans. Ideal candidate will have Bach-
elor's degree and 5+ years of operations and
financial management experience at a bank or
credit union; commitment to community devel-
opment; excellent communication, strategic
planning and supervisory skills; and ability to
FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE JOB PoSTINGS, GO TO WWW.CITYLIMITS.oRG
implement the institution's ambitious vision
and goals. Bilingual Spanish strongly desired.
Salary commensurate with experience.
LESPFCU is an equal opportunity employer. See
httpJ/www.lespfcu.org/jobs for more informa-
tion. Send cover letter and resume to P.O. Box
20443, Tompkins Square Station, NY, NY
10009; or search@lespfcu.org. No calls
please.
MANAGER - Women's Housing and Economic
Development Corporation (WHEDCO), a multi-
service agency in the South Bronx, seeks a
Manager for our housing assistance program.
Manager will manage staff and oversee pro-
gram providing supportive and case manage-
ment services to families newly relocated from
the shelter system. Home visits required. BA
required, Master's preferred. Staff supervision
experience a must. Good writing and verbal
communication skills. Interest in policy advo-
cacy. Bilingual (English/Spanish) preferred as
well as experience in housing and working with
families in crisis. WHEDCO offers competitive
salaries and excellent benefits. For more infor-
mation see www.whedco.org. E-mail cover let-
ter and resume to bzerzan@whedco.org
MANAGER, BLENDED CASE MANAGEMENT -
Mental health agency located in Harlem has a
full time opening for a Manager, Blend Case
Management Program. Candidate will be
responsible for the management and direction
of Transitional Living Community program.
Ensures that program maintain full capacity
throughout the fiscal year. Ensures that all
consumers receive quality clinical services.
Actively participates in the development and
implementation of program policies and pro-
cedures ensuring contract compliance with
standards established by agency. Oversee
petty cash and monitor all transactions. MSW
Degree with three or more years of progressive
supervisory and/or management experience.
Computer literate. Excellent communication
and writing skills. Bi- lingual Spanish a plus.
Fax resume to Attn: HR, 212-316- 9618
MSW-CLINICAL SUPERVISOR - To serve two
programs: an established job readiness and
training program for women and a rental
assistance housing program for individuals
and families. Perform clinical supervision for
interdisciplinary staff of 10, client/family
assessment counselors, therapy/support
groups, referral services, supervise client men-
toring, and development programs. Salary
$50-$55K1year. MSW and 3 years of experience
required. Knowledge of women's issues, hous-
ing, counseling and clinical supervision
required. Strongly prefer experience with
homeless/poverty issues, shelters, city agen-
cies and public benefits. Prior administra-
tion/supervision experience and Spanish profi-
ciencya plus. Excellent benefits. Send resume
with cover letter to HR, Coalition for the Home-
less, via email to prai@cfthomeless.org or FAX
to 212-964-1303. No telephone inquiries
please. Persons of color and formerly homeless
encouraged to apply. EOE.
CITY LIMITS
OFFICE ASSISTANT - Progressive, social
issues PR firm seeks SHARP, smart, organized
and motivated assistant. PR experience help-
ful but not necessary. Excellent computer skills
(including Internet) a must. Quickbooks expe-
rience helpful but not necessary. Excellent
written and verbal communications a must.
Duties include general office work including
assisting the Office Manager, assisting publi-
cists as needed, research, bookkeeping (will
provide training), projects as assigned, etc.
Salary commensurate with experience.
Resumes MUST be accompanied by a cover
letter to be considered. Send resume and cover
letter to atrent@promediacomm.com. No
phone calls, please.
OFFICE MANAGER - Graham Windham, the
nation's oldest non-sectarian child care
agency serving New York's children and fami-
lies since 1806, seeks an Administrative Ser-
vices Manager/Office Manager. Oirect Admin-
istrative Services Department including facili-
ty maintenance, purchasing, security, trans-
portation, telecommunications, office services,
insurance and related areas. BAIBS or equiva-
lent of education and/or experience. Minimum
three years experience in administrative oper-
ations and office management required.
Excellent computer skills, strong organization-
al ability, good work ethics and hands-on
experience required. Graham Windham is com-
mitted to rewarding periormance excellence
with highly competitive compensation, gener-
ous benefits, and a merit-based reward sys-
tem. Graham Windham encourages a diverse
workforce. AA/EOE. Send resume and salary
requirements to: Graham Windham 33 Irving
Place, 7th Floor New York, NY 10003 Attn:
Pablo Molgora Fax: 212-358-1724 E-mail:
hr-general@graham-windham.org.
PART-TIME TENANT LIAISON/CONSULTANT -
Conducts tenants meetings, counsels, pre-
pares reports, conducts annual re-certifica-
tions, monitors public shelter allowance, Sec-
tion8 rent subsidies, maintains tenants' case
records, attends administrative meetings, and
maintains communication with management.
Bachelor's, 1-yr related expo Salary negotiable.
Send resume to: mcortes@stjohnsplace.org.
PROGRAM COMPLIANCE SPECIALIST - New
York Quadel is seeking a FIT Program Compli-
ance Specialist for our NYC Office. Responsi-
bilities include; conduct annual management
reviews of assigned properties, including
reviews of tenant file documents, rent calcula-
tions, FHEO and provide follow-up monitoring
of properties to ensure compliance with HUD
requirements. Conducts follow up inspections
of Section 8 project-based units referred by
HUD documenting conditions. Previous proper-
ty management experience working with
multi- family project based Section 8 proper-
ties. B.AJB.S. preferred, additional work expe-
rience may be considered in lieu of degree. Evi-
dence of training in Section 8 and/or housing
related certifications (CPM, AHM, etc.) pre-
ferred. Computer skills required. Some travel is
JUNE 2004
required. Excellent salary & benefits package.
Qualified applicants send resume & salary
requirements to: NY Quadel Consulting Corp.,
H.R. Admin, 217 Montgomery St. Suite 400,
Syracuse, NY 13202, fax 315-428-0088 or e-
mail TPoushter@NYQuadel.com EOE
PROGRAM DIRECTOR - Bronx nonprofit
seeks self starter with supervisory/managerial
and mental health experience to manage the
organization's first OMH supported housing
program. Responsibilities include staff
recruitment, supervision, orientation and in-
service training, and scheduling; timely intake
and admission; compliance with NYS OMH
Part 595; internal quality management; and
HIPAA compliance. The position is available
effective May 2004. The CR-SRO Candidates
will be ready for occupancy in July 2004 and
serve 45 New YorklNew York eligible individu-
als. Candidates must possess a Masters
Degree in Social Work, Counseling, Rehabilita-
tion, or Psychology; progressive supervisory
experience; and knowledge of psychiatric reha-
bilitation and restorative services. Experience
working in similar program and knowledge of
homelessness is helpful. Salary: low 50's. Good
fringe benefits. Equal Opportunity Employer.
Email resumestoMMSC163lMP@aol.com
PROGRAM DIRECTOR, CLIENT ADVOCACY
PROGRAM - To assist disabled and mentally
ill homeless persons obtain shelter/housing
and benefits. Will conduct assessments, visit
shelters, provide outreach and follow up ser-
vices and work with legal counsel to secure
benefits. Salary $40-$45K1year. MAIMS in rel-
evant field required. Resume/cover letters to:
pria@cfthomeless.org
PROGRAM SUPERVISOR - The Program
Supervisor is responsible for the provision of
the intensive preventive services to 30 families
through the Family Rehabilitation Program.
This program will address the needs of par-
ents/caretakers who have an identified sub-
stance and/or alcohol abuse issue to the
extent that their children are at imminent risk
of placement. Major Duties: Supervise up to 7
staff. Establish community outreach that
makes the community aware of the program
and develops linkages with needed resources.
Establish formal linkages with treatment
facilities in the community. Monitor and
implement formal assessment and program
protocols to address the alcohol and/or sub-
stance abuse treatment needs for partici-
pants. Conduct ongoing work with ACS to
meet contractual mandates and statistical
reporting, along with the Program Director.
Develop and implement training, along with
the Director of Training, for all staff. Evaluate
annual staff periormance reviews. Maintain
case records in accordance with State and City
regulations. Coordinate program space and
secretarial coverage. Qualifications: MSW
required; plus 3 to 5 years experience working
with families in a community-based setting.
Must have some supervisory experience. Must
be familiar with the addiction field. Must have
a commitment to work from a strength based
and/or youth development perspective. Inter-
ested and qualified parties should
forward their resume to: C.Barrios Good Shep-
herd Services 503 5th Avenue Brooklyn, New
York 11215 Fax: 718-965-4102 Email:
hr@goodshepherds.org
PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSOCIATE/COMMUNITY
AFFAIRS - Duties and responsibilities: Assist
in planning, organizing and coordinating com-
munity outreach efforts and function as a full
team member in the preparation of press rela-
tions materials and management of press.
Community organizing tasks involve working
with local community planning boards, com-
munity based organizations and the Library-
based Friends groups. Contact with elected
officials and staffs. Press duties include writ-
ing press releases, pitching stories, managing
press, proofreading and other editorial duties.
Recommend format and content of publicity
materials such as flyers and brochures for
library programs and events. Work with graph-
ic designers to create materials. Coordinate
publicity for special Library events. Research
alternate sources for publicity. Handle
inquiries and field complaints. Assist with
reviews of local daily newspapers for QBPL
mentions and participate in other departmen-
tal tasks such as press and community mail-
ings. Act as representative for QBPL at events
and public meetings as assigned. Write
speeches and statements. Periorm other
duties as required. Minimum qualifications:
Bachelors degree in Political Science, Market-
ing, Public Relations, Journalism, or equiva-
lent. Proven knowledge of the issues and peo-
ple of Queens. One year community organizing
and public relations experience. Able to utilize
word processing, spreadsheet, database, and
internet software. Able to proofread. Able to
apply management principles to complete
multiple projects with competing deadlines.
Must have a strong sense of detail and clear
and understandable written and communica-
tion skills. Salary range: $25,710- $41,265. All
applications must be received in Human
Resources ASAP. To Apply: Send resumes to
employment@queenslibrary.org An acknowl-
edgment will be made by letter or phone, to
confirm the receipt of your application.
RECEPTIONISTIHUMAN RESOURCES ASSIS-
TANT - Mental health agency located in
Harlem has a full time opening for a Recep-
tionisVHuman Resources Assistant. Candi-
date will answer telephones, greet and route
walk-in guests and periorms clerical duties to
support the daily business. Types routine cor-
respondences. Assist Human Resources
department as needed. Associate degree from
an accredited college or technical school; or
High School diploma and one year related
experience and/or training; or equivalent com-
bination of education and experience. Strong
verbal and interpersonal skills. Knowledge of
computer software. Must type 40-45 wpm.
Ability to use office equipment, such as com-
puter terminal , copier, calculator, fax machine
and multi-extension telephone. Bilingual
FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE JOB POSTINGS, GO TO WWW.CITYLIMITS.ORG
JOBADS
Spanish a plus. Fax resume to Attn: HR, 212-
316-9618
RE-ENTRY POLICY FELLOW - The New Jersey
Institute for Social Justice, a Newark-based
urban policy research and advocacy organiza-
tion, is seeking a motivated individual with
policy analysis and advocacy experience in the
criminal justice field to help drive the Insti-
tute's expanding Prisoner Reentry Project. The
Institute has recently completed a nationally
recognized statewide strategic planning
process addressing the reintegration of for-
mer prisoners in New Jersey, and the Reentry
Policy Fellow will assist in a newly funded
three-year initiative to advance a responsive
agenda of policy change and program innova-
tion. The qualified applicant will work with the
Senior Law & Policy Analyst and other Insti-
tute staff. Duties will include research and
writing policy briefs and other advocacy mate-
rials; coordinating and staffing conferences
and meetings with collaborative partners;
providing training and technical assistance to
community-based organizations; and assist-
ing in the development of demonstration pro-
jects. Candidates should have a graduate
degree in law, public policy or a related field,
excellent research, writing and communica-
tion skills, and at least two years of relevant
work experience. Experience in New Jersey
and/or with the criminal justice system a
plus. The position will carry a salary commen-
surate with experience and excellent benefits.
The New Jersey Institute for Socia I Justice is
an equal opportunity employer. Minority and
female candidates are actively encouraged to
apply. Applicants should submit a cover letter
with a resume, writing sample and a list of
significant achievements (e.g. cases, strate-
gic initiatives) as soon as possible. They
should be sent to: Nancy Fishman New Jersey
Institute for Social Justice 60 Park Place, Suite
511 Newark, New Jersey 07102
SCHEOULERISTAFF ASSI STANT - Full time
position available in a busy Congressional dis-
trict office in Manhattan. Position entails
maintaining Member's schedule, interacting
extensively with the public, answering a multi-
line phone system, sorting mail, supervising
interns, and providing administrative support.
Must be computer literate, have strong writing
and communications skills, and be well orga-
nized. B.A. or comparable work experience pre-
ferred. Bilingual a plus. Position begins June
7th. Please fax resume and cover letter to 212-
367-7356 or email to
leah.kane@mail.house.gov ASAP.
SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER - Neighborhood
Housing Services of NYC, Inc. to manage all
aspects of development- both rehab and new
construction- on 1-4 family homes in NYC. Pro-
ject managers are responsible for entire project
being completed on time and on budget.
Responsibilities include: sourcing sites, bud-
geting and scheduling, arranging financing,
oversight of design and scope, bidding to con-
tractors, oversight of construction, and sale to
45
JOBADS
46
I LLUSTRATED MEMOS
OrnCE OFTHE OIYVISIONARY:
.' .
Studies show the .average
public housing resident spends
as much as 96 hours a year
stuck on or waiting for slow,
inoperative public housing
elevators.
BROKEN-WINDOWS-BROKEN ELEVA7fJRS
PUBLIC HOUSING COMMUNITY SERVICE PlAN
NO. 96-H
Why not make all that
.down time a down payment on
the federal government's new
96-:hour community service
requirement?
,00<:,u Co) (.1 U C:, U Co; Col ",,'
, I
GOT AN IMPRACTICAL SOLUTION
TO AN INTRACTABLE PROBLEM?
SEND IN
OFFICE OF THE CITY VISIONA.RY
CITY u 'MiTS MAGAZINE
120 WALL ST., 20
T
H. FLOOR.NY NY 10005
ootcv@ citylimits.org
CITY LIMITS
owner occupants. Qualifications: Bachelor's
degree (graduate degree a plus), previous expe-
rience in real estate development, ability to work
independently, meet deadlines and juggle
numerous tasks, advanced Excel skills, com-
fortable in manipulating spreadsheets and
working with numbers, excellent communica-
tion and negotiation skills. Salary: commensu-
rate with experience, full benefits. E-mail cover
letter and resume to HsingDevPM@NHSNYC.org
or fax to Director of Housing Development 212-
675-7058 or mail to Director of Housing Devel-
opment, NHS of NYC, Inc., 307 West 36th Street
12th floor, New York, NY 10018.
SOCIAL WORKER - Responsibilities: Candi-
date must be experienced in inter-team coor-
dination and decision-making, possess excel-
lent clinical and case management skills,
proven experience providing services within a
community based setting. Proven capacity to
work with adolescent, grade school youth and
their families both individually and wi thin
group modalities. Qualifications: MSW pre-
ferred. Competent computer skills. Candidate
must be bilingual , English/Spanish. Salary
commensurate with credentials and experi-
ence. Comprehensive benefits package. Send
or fax cover letter and resume to: Keneca
Boyce, Senior Case Manager, Mount Hope
Housing Company, 2003-05 Walton Avenue
Bronx, New York 10453. Fax: 718-466-4788.
No phone calls.
SOCIAL WORKER - With clinical and/or Geri-
atric social work experience for Full lime posi-
tion in Brooklyn; be a part of an interdiscipli-
nary, mental health team, providing counsel-
ing to the homebound elderly, and their fami-
lies. Experience or interest in providing social
work field instruction-a plus. Resumes: Robin
Strauss, Mapleton Midwood Geriatric Services,
1083 McDonald Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y.l1230 or
Fax: 718-421-7229
SUPERINTENDENT - Non-profit agency seeks
2 full-time superintendent positions for build-
ings in Queens. Ability to work with senior cit-
izens and special needs tenants is critical.
Must have knowledge of all building systems
including boiler, sprinkler and fire alarm.
Salary low $20s with full benefits and 2-bed-
room apartment. Previous superintendent
experience required. Fax cover letter and
resume attention: "Queens Superintendent
Position" to 718-722-6045. EOElAA
SUPERVISOR (HOUSING OPTIONS) - Super-
vise housing placement for homeless people
w/mental ilinessIMlCA on Upper West side.
Supervise staff, some case management,
administrative responsibility, advocacy work.
Coordinate placement to transitional/perma-
nent housing and day programs, expedite
housing placement and guide client through
housing process. Supervise case manage-
ment of clients in scattersite housing. Rele-
vant MA or equivalent experience preferred,
bilingual a plus. Salary low $30's depending
on qualifications, excellent benefits.
JUNE 2004
Letter/resume: Mark Draxdorf, Safe
Havens/Goddard Riverside Community Center,
593 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10024.
Fax: 212-724-6035.
TELE-ORGANIZER - SEIU Communications
Center is a telemarketing center that supports
the work of labor unions and our allies. We
work on voter registration projects, mobiliza-
tion, political and issue campaigns, union
organizing, elected official transfer calls, and
public opinion polling. Seeking energetic indi-
viduals with flexible schedules for 10 to 40
hours week-some nights and weekend avail-
ability required. Join an exciting political envi-
ronment. Call 212-603-1148.
TENANT ORGANIZER - HCC Seeks Tenant
Organizer to preserve and defend TenantAsso-
ciations and individual tenants in maintaining
decent affordable housing in Hell's
Kitchen/Clinton. Flexible hours many evenings.
2-year commitment. EEOC. Salary $32,500
union position. Resume and cover letter ASAP
by email hepstein@hcc-nyc.org
VICE PRESIDENT OF PUBLIC POLICY - The
Municipal Art Society of New York, one of the
city's leading civic organizations, seeks a Vice
President of Public Policy who will have over-
sight of all MAS public policy and advocacy
activities dealing with planning and preserva-
tion. As one of five vice presidents reporting
directly to the President, this individual will
have the most senior policy role at MAS, and
must be ready to serve in the President's place
as spokesperson on all issues. Among the
responsibilities of this individual, he/she will :
work with the President and senior manage-
ment team to set the MAS policy agenda and
goals; oversee a Public Policy staff of about
10-12 individuals; ensure that each advocacy
issue or project MAS takes on has an opera-
tional strategy, media strategy and fund-rais-
ing strategy; liaise with board members in
engaging their involvement on particular pro-
jects; and manage annual budget for Public
Policy staff. Qualifications: Energetic and sea-
oJned professional with advanced degree in
Public Policy, Planning, Preservation, law or
Political Science (with strong background in
urban planning and preservation issues), and
a minimum of 10 years experience working in
the field of public policy. Must be a strategic
thinker and capable leader, with strong speak-
ing, writing and management skills. To apply
send a cover letter and resume to: Search
Committee, The Municipal Art Society of New
York, 457 Madison Avenue, New York, NY
10022. No faxes, phone calls or emails please.
Applications will be accepted until the position
is filled.
WEBMASTERIDATABASE ANALYST I - The
National Urban League seeks a Webmaster for
its National Headquarters. Responsible for all
aspects of the management and development
of the National Urban League's Website and
ancillary sites which supports a number of
priority initiatives including, promoting the
agency mission, increasing the agency visibil-
ity, and disseminating and communicating
information to key constituencies. Assists
Manager with database development and
data management tasks. Salary $45k - $50k.
Requirements - Bachelor's in computer sci-
ence or certification. Five to seven years expe-
rience in web and media production/develop-
ment. Demonstrated fluency in HTMl, DHTML,
XHTML Style Sheets and other interactive lan-
guages and technologies including Java,
JavaScript, ActiveX, Shockwave, ASp, SQl,
Cold fUSion, MS Access, MS Office, Abode
Acrobat and Flash, multimedia, graphic and
database development tools, applications
and production process. Online / Web content
development, Marketing and Raisers Edge
Database experience a plus. Excellent oral
and written communications, project man-
agement and organizational skills. To apply
submit resume to recruitment@nul.org.
Please mention you were referred by City lim-
its. The National Urban League is an Equal
Opportunity Employer.
WORKSITE LOCATOR - St.NicholasNPC seeks
a worksite locator to find worksites for 14-21
year olds. Requires excellent networking skills,
strong knowledge of Brooklyn neighbor-
hoods/agencies, willingness to travel through-
out the city and superior administrative skills.
This is a part-time, seasonal position.
Fax/email resumes to H.Loewecke at 718-302-
4414 or heloew8@yahoo.com.
YOUTH ASSISTANT (PITJ - Youth Assistant
Part lime (25 Hours Per Week) Responsibili-
ties: To staff and design educational and
recreational programs for children ages 6-10
years of age. Assist Youth Coordinator with
developing and scheduling lesson plans and
activities. Develop and execute daily lesson
plans to stimulate children's social , cognitive,
and motor skills. Supervise children through-
out daily activities, trips and assure safety and
comfort of children while providing encourage-
ment for positive and creative development.
Assist Youth Coordinator in the planning and
implementation of program activities. Inter-
face with parents in assessing the social ,
emotional, and physical needs of their child.
Qualifications: Proven experience working with
school-age children in an after school setting
for two (2) years or more. Minimum two (2)
years experience planning and executing
activities for school- age children. Experience
creating lesson plans for structured activities.
Bilingual (Spanish/English) is a plus and (!)
year of college preferred. Must be available
Monday through Friday, 1-6 pm. Send or Fax
Cover Letter and Resume to: Mrs. Evans Coor-
dinator of Program Operations Youth Services
Department Mount Hope Housing Company
2003-05 Wa Iton Avenue Bronx, New York
10453 Fax: 718-466-4788. No phone calls.
YOUTH OEVELOPMENT COUNSELOR (RELIEF)
- The primary role of this position is to estab-
lish a healthy relationship with each partici-
pant in the group. Act as a mature role model
FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE JOB POSTINGS, GO TO WWW.CITYLIMITS.ORG
JOB ADS
to enhance the overall therapeutic environ-
ment, and as assigned work closely with other
team members and as appropriate with com-
munity schools, families, and other communi-
ty resources where appropriate, using the
Family-to-Family Model. Work closely with
team members, participants and their family
to meet the goals mutually developed. Major
Duties: Plan the daily functioning of the group
life experience to include: a) Scheduling of
participants' family activities, i.e. school ,
tutoring, recreation, and maintenance of the
house as applicable. b) Scheduling special
activities for evenings and weekends as
applicable and integrating participants in
community activities as appropriate. c) Order-
ing supplies as necessary for maintaining the
house, material for activities, groceries, and
other supplies. Direct monitoring of partici-
pant's school performance. This will include:
a) Attendance at Teacher/Social Worker Update
Meetings. b) Homework assistance and tutor-
ing. c) Scheduling communication of partici-
pant's individual performance with social
workers. Direct supervision and recording of
participant's medical needs, and following up
on recommendations, etc. Maintain logs
including critical events, home visits, writing
quarterly reports for presentation at staff
meetings and attendance at appropriate
meetings/training. Direct line YDC to create a
therapeutic milieu in which each participant is
able to reach their potential and learn SOCially
appropriate behavior, homemaking skills and
develop their individual skills and abilities.
Help participants explore vocational options,
i.e. post High School training, preparation for
independent living, etc. Must be able to
engage people in a range of program activities
including recreational activities, which include
physical interaction. Must be able to engage in
a range of crisis intervention including conflict
resolution and physical restraint. Qual ifica-
tions: High School Diploma required. BA or AA
Degree plus experience preferred. Must have
excellent verbal and written communication
skills in order to maintain required documen-
tation. Ability to perform physical restraint of
youth, using approved restraint procedures.
Must be able to successfully complete State
Mandated crisis intervention training. NYS Dri-
ver's License preferred. Must have a commit-
ment to work from a strength based and/or
youth development perspective. Interested and
qualified parties should forward their
resume to: C.Chatman, Good Shepherd Ser-
vices, 120 West 60th Street, New York, NY
10023 Fax: (212) 397-1470 or Email:
hr@goodshepherds.org
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