April 1993 New York's Community Affairs News Magazine $ 2 .

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T H E R E F O R M A T I O N A T H U D 0 C H I N E S E W O R K E R S F I G H T B A C K
T U B E R C U L O S I S S T R I K E S T H E A S I A N - A M E R I C A N C O M M U N I T Y
City Lintits
Volume XVID Number 4
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2/APRll..1993/CITY UMITS
Stopping the Flood
C
hip Raymond, the commissioner-designate for the city' s proposed
new agency for overseeing homeless shelters and services, has on
his wall some numbers gathered at the Manhattan Emergency
Assistance Unit, where families go to request placement in a
shelter. They show that on one February day, 326 families asked for help,
while on another only 70 showed up. Across them, he's written "WHY?"
"I just don't understand what is regulating the system," says Raymond.
To get the shelter system under control, he adds, the city has to even out
these numbers. "The issue is how you queue people up so that you can
keep it running smoothly." From a manager's perspective his point makes
sense, and that's part of the reason why the city is creating new five-day
assessment centers where families stay before being placed in a shelter.
That way, the city has a control valve at the entrance.
But simply controlling the flow at the entrance to the shelters is like
fixing a collapsed ceiling without repairing the broken pipes that did the
damage in the first place.
One of the biggest problems has been the number of homeless families
who return to the shelters again and again because they can't get decent
housing or services in their communities.
Our feature article this month, "Home Improvement," explains how
diverse community groups help formerly homeless families adjust to
permanent homes in unfamiliar neighborhoods, and keep them from
returning to the shelters for another stay. Many of the programs have had
remarkable success.
But the families that get this kind of help are the lucky-and persis-
tent-ones. They are among the minority of shelter families that have
found a new apartment with the help of the city or a nonprofit. In fact,
most of the families that leave the shelters each month leave on their own,
without any apartment to move into. Studies find that most of them
crowd in with friends and relatives. A study by the Citizens Committee
for Children last year found that more than half of these families ended
up back in the shelters within seven months.
Clearly, these are the families that need the most help adjusting to
difficult living situations and finding decent homes once they are out of
the shelters. The city's new "diversion teams," set up at welfare offices to
help prevent people from becoming homeless, are the Band-Aid short-
term solution pointing to a much larger need: access to well-coordinated
social services and housing assistance in the communities where people
live, so that they can get help over the long haul without coming into the
shelters. If it seems like a tall order, think how much the city spends-as
much as $35,000 a year per family-to shelter the same families over and
over and over again. 0
Cover photograph by Suzanne Tobias.
. ' ~ ' j ' . ' .
FEATURE
Home Improvement:
Community groups help families adjust from shelter life
to home life. 14
DEPARl'MENlS
Editorial
Stopping the Flood .................................................. 2
Briefs
Agarwal Goes AWOL ............................................... 4
Brighton Beach Suit ................................................. 4
Still Burning ............................................................. 5
Profile
Battling the Bosses ................................................... 6
Pipelines
The New HOD Shapes Up ....................................... 9
Taking Tenants for a Ride ..................................... 10
No Breathing Room ................................................ 20
Cityview
Jobs for the Future .................................................. 22
Review
Miracle in East New York ...................................... 23
Letters ...................... .............. .................................... 24
Job AdsIClassifieds ......................... ............. .............. 26
Battling/Page 6
= - - : = - ~ -
Home/Page 14
-.--,."....,.....,.-,:-,.-----,....,.."....,
Breathing Room/Page 20
CITY UMM/ APRIL 1993/3
AGARWAL GOES
AWOL
Notorious slumlord Anil
Agarwal reportedly skipped
town recently after the Manhat-
tan District Attorney won a
conviction against him in state
court for refUsing to cooperate
with the eviction of drug dealers
from his building at 945 St.
Nicholas Avenue in Washington
Heights. Agarwal was slapped
a $30,000 in the case.
He has since lost control of
the property through a fore-
closure action. The Federal
Home Loan Mortgage Corp-
oration (Freddie Mac) now
owns the 22-unit building.
"I had to go in and kick
down the doors," says Michael
Medford, who manages the
building for Freddie Mac. II I had
to mop up after Agarwal. ...
There were six or seven
apartments occupied by dealers
When I took over."
could not be reached for
comment.
Irwin Hirsch, who heads the
narcotics eviction pragram at
the DA's office, says j( s unusual
for a landlord to refuse to
cooperate in the eviction of
known drug dealers. IIClose to
100 percent of the landlords
bring the cases when we ask
them to," he says.
If a landlord ignores
by the DA's office
advising him to bring eviction
proceedings against the tenant
of an apartment where drugs
are being sold, stored or
manufactured, the DA can seek
sanctions of $5,000 for each
apartment plus the cost of
attorney's fees in state court.
This was used for the
time in March, 1992, and has
since been used against only a
handful of landlords in upper
Manhatton.
Agarwal, who was
in City Limits' 1991 "Shame of
the City" investigation of bad
landlords, has Oeen sued
repeatedly by the city for failing
to make necessary repairs in
several of his buildings, and for
removing the boiler at 945 St.
Nicholas Avenue in an attempt
to cut heating costs.
Tenants in the building and
neighborhood residents say that
the drug dealing activity
4/APRIL 1993/CITY UMIR
GraIIp SIIar. Fifty members of the Artists 8' Homeless Collaborative-half of them women from the Park
Avenue Annory Shelter and teens from the Regent Family Residence-display their work at the Henry
Street Settlement's Louis Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side.
decreased markedly after
Agarwal lost the property.
"Twelve apartments were selling
drugs befOre," says one tenant
who refused to be identified for
fear of repercussions from
dealers still in the neighbor-
hood. "There were shootings,
twa killings. We were all
robbed," she says.
Officer Sol Maniscalco of
the 34th Precinct that
drug activity is now rare in the
builaing. He odds that it was out
of control before the property
changed hands.
But some lawyers who
represent tenants in eviction
cases are critical of the District
Attorney's eviction policies, and
argue fflat simple police arrests
ana prosecutions are more
effective and more fair than
evictions. Martha Rayner, on
attorney at the Neigliborhood
Defenders Service of Harlem,
says that leaseholders of apart-
ments are often mothers, grand-
mothers, orjirlfriends of drug
dealers, on are not criminals.
They become the victims of the
DA's efforts, she says.
Rayner odds that since
tenants do not have the legal
right to a lawyer in housing
court, they are at a disadvan-
tage in drug eviction cases. 0
au ... ..,.,...
BRIGHTON
BEACH SUIT
In a last ditch effort to block
a high-rise development slated
for Brighton Beach, the project's
opponents recently filed a
lawsuit in state Supreme Court
charging that the city didn't
properlY consider the environ-
mental costs when it approved
the plan last year.
The 1 ,500 unit Brighton-by-
the-Sea complex-four build-
ings between 24 and 28 stories
tall-won approvals from the
City Planning Commission and
the City Council last year. The
lawsuit charges that the city's
environmental impact statement
underestimated amount of
traffic the project will Q!?nerate
and glossed over the effects of
the more than 500,000 gallons
of sewage it will dump into the
overburdened Coney Island
water treatment plant every day.
It also alleges that the city
illegally granted permits to
developer Alexander Muss &
Sons.
"We're optimistic," says
Judith Baron, head of the
Committee to Preserve Brighton
Beach and Manhatton Beach,
the lead plaintiff in the suit. "We
think the city hasn't touched all
the boses they were supposed
to."
Brighton Beach City Council-
man Samuel Horwitz and
Community Boord 13 District
Manager Herb Eisenberg, both
long-time supporters of the
development project, say they
are the lawsuit will be
defeated. Eisenberg delivers a
loud Bronx cheer into the phone
when asked about the lawsuit.
"They've lost three times and
they're going to lose again," he
says, referring to project
opponents' earlier defeats in the
city's land-use review process.
City attorney Teri Sasanow
contends that the courts have
upheld challenges to environ-
mental impact statements only
when the city completely
ignored significant issues.
"The issue is whether the city
agencies took a sufficiently hard
look and hod a rational basis
for their conclusion," she says.
The only similar case the city
has lost, she says, was in 1986
when the Court of Appeals
blocked a Chinalown high-rise
on the grounds that the city hod
failed to consider displacement
of low income neighborhood
residents.
The primary issue in the
lawsuit is whether or not the
sewage treatment plant will be
overburdened by the project.
Sasanow argues that it will not
be because it is currently not
operating above capacity.
But city Department of
Environmental Protection figures
show that the rlant ran well
above its lega capacity during
the last six months of 1992,
averaging 13 million gallons
above the permitted 100 million
gallons per day. The city has
applied to increase its legal
capacity to 110 million gallons
per day.
Kit Kenne<!Y of the Natural
Resaurces Defense Council, a
plaintiff in the suit, says the
impact statement "basically
admitted the project would
exacerbate sewage violations"
at the sewage plant. Yet the city
did not require Muss to build an
on-site sewage treatment plant
or storage tanks to temporarily
hold excess waste. If the plant
can't handle the intake, the
excess is dumped untreated into
the harbar.
The city will file its response
to the suit in May, Sasanow
says, 'and Justice Lewis
Friedman may rule on it this
summer. 0 Steve WI"'n"
STILL BURNING
Opponents of garbage
incineration are wagin9
campaigns on several fronts in
Brooklyn, proving that the
decade-long effOrt to prevent
construction of the planned
Brooklyn Navy Yard incinerator
isn't over yet.
The latest salvo was fired at
the end of February, when a
coolition of environmental
activists from Williamsburg and
Greenpoint filed a lawsuit in
state Supreme Court charging
that the city overlooked the Fair
Share requirements of the City
Charter When it issued its solid
waste management plan last
summer.
~ e are asking the court to
throw out a nasty anti-Brooklyn
political deal," says Wayne
Saitto of Brooklyn ~ a l
Services, attorney for the
alliance.
"Simple logic says that you
don' t put all tflree of the city's
incinerators in one borough. It
will have a devastating im?Jct
on Brooklyn residents, N adds
Foster Maar, also of legal
services.
The revised City Charter's
Fair Share clause was intended
to force the government to
distribute unwelcome facilities
evenly across the city. But in the
two years since it took effect, it
has had little impact on the
placement of facilities beyond
provoking lawsuits and
community board challenges.
Martin Brennan, an orga-
nizer at the New York Puolic
Interest Group, says the lawsuit
will be an important delaying
action while further community
and political pressure against
the incinerator is mabilized. The
city denies that the Fair Share
criteria were violated, but
Corporation Counsel attorney
Elizabeth St. Clair would not
comment.
Environmental activists were
encouraged by a recent
decision to shut down the 43-
year-old Betts Avenue incinera-
tor in Maspeth, Queens, two
years befOre it was slated to
close. The Dinkins administra-
tion included no funding for the
incinerator's upkeep in its
preliminary bUdget for next
year. Anne Canty, spokes-
woman for the city's Department
of Sanitation, says that fiscal
prudence, not politics, motivated
the decision to close the
incinerator early.
"Since we were going to
close it anyway, doing it earlier
just helps us to meet our budget
objectives," she says.
Meanwhile, hundreds of
Sauthwest Brooklyn residents
protested the planned reopening
and expansion of the 33-year-
old Bensonhurst incinerator at
hearings in the neighborhood
last month. The incinerator was
closed for repairs two years
ago. At one point during the
raucous series of hearings,
residents roundly booed local
City Councilman Nooch Dear,
who voted in favor of the city's
waste management plan last
year. O ...... F .........
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CITY UMITS/APRll..199311
By Christopher Zurawsky
BaUling the Bosses
The Chinese Staff and Workers Association
confronts the exploitation of immigrants
in the garment industry.
Open the door expecting an office,
and instead you'll find an air shaft
criss-crossed above and below by fire
escapes and catwalks. The office is on
the other side, to the left and down
another staircase. It's a tortuous path
through an ancient Chinatown
tenement-but to the workers who
regularly find their way to CSWA
headquarters, it's a convivial home
S
ix years ago, Haiyan Wu and in an East Village apartment building. away from home, as much a club-
her two children left their home And just three months ago, after a long house as a place of business.
in the Chinese coastal city of battle against a prominent Chinatown On a recent Sunday, eight women,
Guangzhou, headed for nonprofit organization, CSWA won a a few men and a handful of children
America and the promise of a better long-awaiteddecisioninfederalcourt congregated there to alternately talk,
life. They landed in New York, where ruling that the Chinese American Plan- eat, strategize and play. Sunday is a
Wu found a job in a Chinatown ningCouncil owed 30 formerconstruc- busy dayforCSWA; there are planning
garment factory working 11 hours a tion employees more than half a sessions for staff members from 8:30
day, Monday through Saturday, and million dollars in back wages for to 10:30, followed by English classes
sometimes on Sundays. taught by volunteer
After two years, she be- teachers at nearby St.
came a shop forewoman James Church. Citizen-
earning $400 weekly- ship classes and home-
very good money com- work help for children
pared to most of her co- are offered as well. To-
workers' earnings. The day, though, the women
only problem was, she are sitting around a table
fre:quently didn't get sharing pastries, plan-
prud. ning their activities for
One day she read a International Women's
newspaper article men- Day and discussing
tioningtheChineseStaff CSWA's latest target,
and Workers Associa- CET Fashions and
tion (CSWA), a commu- Thomas Tam, the factory
nity group organizing z ownerwhoowesHaiyan
garment workers whose ~ Wu and 12 of her co-
bosses weren't paying ~ workers more than
them their full wages. ________ ---' $50,000, according to
She gave them a call. SIrtet ActIon: Rhoda Wong and other members of the Chinese Staff and claims filed by the
Haiyan Wu and doz- Workers Association organize on the streets of Chinatown, gathering support workers with federal
ens of her colleagues are for their campaign against employers who don't pay fair wages. authorities and the state
now part of a campaign Department of Labor.
led by CSWA to help thousands of violations offederallabor laws. Through an interpreter, Wu ex-
immigrant workers retrieve money In recent years, CSWA has also plains that she has been out of work
owed them by their employers. The represented nearly 200 Chinese since filing a complaint against Tam.
group is challenging restaurant and workers in non-payment cases across She was nervous at first about not
factory owners, construction firms, the city, convincing employers like being able to find work, and she says
national garment manufacturers and Chan Ming Construction Corporation that she has experienced some reper-
even the established labor movement and the Fortune Garden Restaurant to cussions from her action. One day,
in an effort to ensure the basic rights fork over upwards of a quarter of a while waiting for a friend to finish
of Chinese workers-most imp or- million dollars in unpaid wages. There work at another garment factory, the
tantly, their rights to fair pay and are many more cases underway-and shop owner made her leave; he had
decent working conditions. Haiyan Wu, who has been out of work seen Wu's picture in a Chinatown
The campaign is the latest in a since December, is hoping hers will newspaper reporting on the case. Now
string of successful organizing efforts be one of the successful ones. she won't let journalists take her
by the 13-year-old association, which photograph. Still, she says she's sure
boasts 700 members, most of them Convivial Clubhouse she did the right thing.
employed in the garment, restaurant There's a grimy glass door at 15 "It's a question mark whether we
and construction industries. In 1980, Catherine Street'lartially hidden will get our money back, but you have
CSWA helped form the 318 Restau- behind the stacke crates of a fish to go for it and try," she says.
rant Workers Union, the firstindepen- market. Inside, past a scuffed, dimly-
dent union representing Chinese lit foyer and two steep staircases,
restaurant workers. In 1986, the group there's a sign with CSWA's name
began organizing a homesteading printed in English and Chinese, and
project for low income Chinese tenants an arrow pointing to a steel door.
8/APRll..1993/CITY UMITS
Swanky Operator
Tam once ran Swanky Fashions, a
now-defunct Chinatown garment
factory on Mulberry Street, and,
according to the workers, he didn't
pay them their full wages starting in
1991. Tam closed Swanky Fashions
in December, 1992, and moved his
equipment to another space just blocks
away on Lafayette Street. There, he
opened a new factory under a differ-
entname.
Three months ago, after several
dozen workers picketed the Lafayette
Street shop, they learned Tam had
sold the factory. In an interview with
The Daily News, Tam said he sold the
business to payoff a debt, and
estimated that he owed his former
employees no more than $15,000. He
could not be reached for further com-
ment.
So the workers turned their
attention to CET Fashions, a dress
manufacturer based in the midtown
garment district. Tam was a subcon-
tractor for CET: of the 64,000 garments
his workers sewed in 1992, 57,000
carried the Kate Warner label, a brand
manufactured by CET. In February,
CSWA and Tam's former employees
picketed the company.
Joanne Lum of CSWA charges that
CET continued to contract work with
Tam-and pay for his services-even
as Tam was relocating his factory.
Gerard Lazer, president of CET, says
that the company took its work away
from Tam in January, when he learned
of the complaints about nonpayment
of wages. Additionally, CET avoided
prosecution for selling garments
manufactured by people earning less
than the minimum wage-"stolen"
merchandise according to federal la-
bor law-by paying $10,500 to the
former Swanky workers.
Lazer says the money is being paid
as a goodwill gesture, not as a result
of legal responsibility. But Rhoda
Wong, head of CSWA's Women's
Program, asserts the payment is a
"token gesture" showing that CET
acknowledges its responsibility.
Tam remains the target of a state
investigation, and CSWA is helping
the Department of Labor put together
its case against him. The association's
organizing efforts have made gather-
ing statements and evidence much
easier, says Thomas Glubiak, the
chief investigator for the state labor
department's Apparel Industry Task
Force.
"We're developing a very good
working relationship with them,"
Glubiakadds, despite complaints from
CSW A that the labor department has
been lax in enforcement.
Not a Traditional Union
While CSW A is critical of the
Department of Labor, it also accuses
the established labor movement of
failing to protect workers' rights. The
"The traditional
unions were not
effective in
addressing the
needs of workers."
International Ladies Garment Workers
Union "does not have the interest or
the will to enforce its contracts or to
protect its workers," says Lum.
"The traditional trade unions were
not being effective in addressing the
needs of workers," she explains. The
vast array of programs coordinated
and run by the CSWA illustrate her
point that workers' needs go well
beyond the workplace. Immigration
issues, language, education, and
racism are all topics addressed by the
association in one way or another.
The group also plans to open a new
organizing office and meeting place
in a storefront in the East Village, well
north of Chinatown, to reach out to
Latinos and other workers. "Our model
of organizing is to bring workers to-
gether across gender and trade."
The problem with the traditional
single-industry unions, according to
association members, is that they
become secure in their own achieve-
ments, and see little value in reaching
out to workers in other industries who
are having problems with manage-
ment. Besides, the traditional unions
have become allied too closely with
employers, says CSWA Executive
Director Wing Lam. "The [ILGWUl
doesn't want the multinational cor-
porations to be adversaries, they want
them more as a partner," he says.
"The union thinks that the only way
to get the corporations to stay [in this
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country] is to let them make more
profits, but once it buys into that way
of thinking , that's the end ofit. It's like
a person stranded in the desert who
drinks poison to quench his thirst."
Susan Cowell, a vice president of
the ILGWU, responds that one of her
union's priorities is to help local firms
compete with foreign companies. She
says her union does challenge New
York garment manufacturers who fail
to stick to state labor laws, but such
work has its limits. "If all you did was
enforce [New York Statel standards

City Limits probes the misguided public policies and inefficient
bureaucracies besetting New York. But we don't think it's good
enough just to bighllght the muck. City Limits looks for
We uncover the stories of activists and local organ-
izers fighting to save their neighborhoods. That's why City
Limits has won seven maJor journa.lism awards. Isn't it time
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without addressing trade issues and
the global economy, all you would do
is promote jobs moving overseas," she
says. "We have to address all these
things simultaneously."
Lam sees it differently. "The very
nature of the union as an organization
was to fight for some improvement,
but now they don't talk about im-
provement, just maintaining some
lousy jobs here," he says. "It's a re-
gressive attitude."
Longing for Home
While the big issues are hashed out
in courtrooms and board rooms,
Haiyan Wu continues to search for
work. She is 46 years old now, and
although she came to this country
primarily for her two children's
education, she misses the job she held
in her native country training school
teachers. She also misses the free time
she used to have for fun and friends.
"In China, work was much more
comfortable," she says. "An eight hour
day was an eight hour day, and we got
to sleep for an hour and eat lunch for
an hour. Here," she sighs, "it's just
work." O
Christopher Zurowsky is a freelance-
writer based in Manhattan.
IIIWYDIlK " RlU. Of JIfOIII.I
WHO DISaVI A &Or AIOIII GIfDI'f'
I'IIAII "'Ern.,11 GlrDIIG.
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1
By Jon Gertner
The New HUD Shapes Up
Outsiders take the helm at the federal
housing department.
R
ecent appointments to top
positions at the Department of
Housing and Urban Develop-
ment have piqued the ironic
sensibilities of many longtime activists
and advocates for low income hous-
ing: the last decade's vocal outsiders
are now being tapped to manage the
powerful but troubled agency from
the inside.
But the expected nomination of
Barry Zigas, director of the National
Low Income Housing Coalition, to the
top policy development position at
HUD was scuttled in early March
because of a "Zoe Baird problem"
with unpaid social security taxes
uncovered in a background check,
according to several sources in Wash-
ington advocacy and congressional
circles. They add that sniping by home
builder and mortgage banking groups
helped undermine the Zigas appoint-
ment.
Of the 13 assistant-level positions
that require Senate confirmation,
seven had been filled as City Limits
went to press. None have yet won
Senate approval.
In Zigas' place, HUD Secretary
Henry Cisneros has named Michael
Stegman, a professor of city planning
at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, as head of policy
development and research. Stegman
worked at HUD during the Carter
administration, and is well known in
New York City for his work authoring
the triennial Housing and Vacancy
Survey.
"He has a strong sense of New York's
problems, and most importantly he
has an urban sensibility," says Victor
Bach of the Community Service
Society of New York.
Zigas, who led lobbying efforts in
support of low income housing
development and rental subsidies
during the Reagan and Bush years, is
reportedly still under consideration
for a lower-ranking HUD position that
does not require Senate approval.
Shuldiner at Public Housing
The most prominent New Yorker
appointed to HUD is Andrew Cuomo,
the governor's son and founder of the
largest homeless shelter provider in
New York State. He will be in charge
of community development.
But Clinton chose a lesser known
former city official to take charge of
public housing programs. Joseph
Shuldiner, currently the executive
director of the Los Angeles Housing
Authority, was general manager of the
New York City Housing Authority
under Mayor Edward Koch. Before
that, he served in various positions in
the Department of Housing Preserva-
tion and Development from 1978 to
1986.
Supporters of/ublic housing say
they are thrille with Shuldiner's
appointment. After David Dinkins
became mayor in 1989, a coalition of
Shuldiner is likely
to lead a reversal
of privatization
efforts, some say.
local housing advocates recom-
mended Shuldiner for the housing
commissioner's slot, but he was passed
over. They say he is likely to lead a
reversal of Republican privatization
efforts in his new post. "Instead of
feeding into the frenzy for priva-
tization in a lot of cities, he'll turn that
around and give people the housing
they deserve," speculates Harold
DeRienzo, director of the Consumer-
Farmer Foundation. DeRienzo and
others add that Shuldiner supported
experimentation in the early stages of
the community housing movement
when he was in charge of the housing
department's Office of Property
Management.
Roberta Achtenberg of San Fran-
cisco is Clinton's nominee as assistant
secretary in charge of housing rights
and equal opportunity programs. She
is the first openly lesbian official
named by the new administration-
and apparently the first in United
States history at such a high govern-
ment rank. Achtenberg, a San Fran-
cisco councilwoman, has been stung
by criticism from some established
civil rights groups that her background
is not strong enough to merit the
appointment. But others are support-
ive. "She has exactly the right
sympathies," says Chester Hartman,
executive director of the Poverty &
Race Research Action Council in
Washington, D.C.
Nicolas Retsinas will be assistant
secretary for housing and commis-
sioner of the Federal Housing Admin-
istration (FHA). Before his appoint-
ment, Retsinas was executive director
of the Rhode Island Housing and
Mortgage and Finance Corporation, a
quasi-public agency that acts as that
state's housing department. He was
lauded in Providence for his efforts to
clean up what had been a scandal-
ridden bureaucracy there, experience
that could prove useful at the FHA,
which recently reported billions of
dollars in losses in its mortgage insur-
ance programs.
Some Rhode Island advocates are
enthusiastic, but Ray Neirinckx, a
coordinator for the Rhode Island
Community Reinvestment Associa-
tion, a low income housing coalition,
is less positive. "Clearly he turned the
agency here around," Neirinckx says.
"But I think some of the accolades
bestowed upon him were more for the
style and the public relations cam-
paign than actual performance."
Public Housing Official
Terry Duvernay is the nominee for
the post of deputy director, the second
highest position at HUD. Like
Stegman, Duvernay served in the
department during the Carter admin-
istration. From 1983 to 1991, he was
executive director of the Michigan
Housing Authority. Since then,
Duvernay has been in charge of
Georgia's Housing and Finance
Authority and an advisor to Governor
Zell Miller, a close confidant of
Clinton.
But nominees in line with housing
advocates' agendas may not be enough.
"It's a wonderful set of appointments,"
says Hartman, "but there's going to be
some limits on what they can do. The
fact is that it's quite a mess there at
HUD." O
CITY UMRSI APRIL 1993/8
By Lisa Glazer
The Trolley Musuem of New York:
Taking Tenants For A Ride?
I
n search of innovative ways to raise money, an upstate trolley
and rail museum has been wheeling and dealing in New York
City real estate-and now it is the target of a lawsuit charging
that it is riding recklessly over the rights of tenants.
Brought by the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York,
the lawsuit claims that museum officials and others illegally
attempted to evict tenants in a string of eight dilapidated brown-
stone buildings on Dean Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
The city is seeking $1 million in that the trolley museum has been in-
punitive damages, arguingthattenants volved in real estate transactions in at
have repeatedly gone without heat, least 35 separate properties since 1982.
hot water and cooking gas, and have Among the mortgages listed, two
been harassed with rent overcharges, are in the name of Keith Outram, a
illegal evictions and threats of
violence. The buildings cur-
rently have more than 1,000
housing code violations.
"The conduct of the owners
and the circumstances are so
outrageous," says Lawrence
Spielberg, a city attorney work-
ing on the case.
But Frank Voyticky, the
chairman of the Trolley
Museum of New York's Board
of trustees, counters that the
city's claims are "spurious." He
argues that the museum in
Kingston has had limited
involvement in the buildings and
adds, "We will vigorously fight the
city's claims against us."
Nonetheless, in a separate investi-
gation, the state Attorney General's
office is looking into the operations of
the trolley museum. "I will confirm
we have an inquiry," says spokes-
person Richard Barr, who refuses to
comment further on the nature of the
investigation.
The spotlight on the trolley museum
illuminates more than the specific
occurrences on Dean Street. It also
raises larger questions about the lack
of accountability within some non-
profit organizations and offers an
unusual glimpse into the internecine
world of real estate transactions in
New York.
Recent tax documents provided to
City Limits by the trolley museum list
considerable assets) including more
than $850,000 in 16 mortgages. And
the New York City Register documents
10jAPRll..1993jCITY UMrrs
Brooklyn landlord who was fined
$498,985 for civil contempt in 1991
after failing to correct hundreds of
housing code violations in a building
he owns. Outram was profiled in
"Shame of the City," City Limits'
investigation of some of New York's
worst landlords of 1992.
Yet two of the trolley museum's
top officials-Evan Jennings, the
president of the board, and Roy Ickes,
the museum's executive director-say
they know next to nothing about the
museum's real estate investments.
And museum treasurer Henry Galler
responded to information about the
museum's real estate activities with a
lengthy pause, saying finally, "This is
news to me."
Tax Write-oft'
Board chairman Frank Voyticky,
however, knows the details. Voyticky
works full time as a math teacher at
Brooklyn Technical High School. But
he is also vice president of the Maral
Funding Corporation, a mortgage
lending company, chairman of the
Citizens Bank of Appleton City,
Missouri, and a shareholder in
Abstract Enterprises, a real estate title
search company. All three companies
have had financial ties with the
museum, according to documents.
According to Voyticky, the trolley
museum often receives property and
mortgages as donations from his
friends, neighbors and associates. As
he explains, the donations have a
double benefit: the museum can build
up its assets to eventually buy new
trolley and rail exhibits and the
donor gets a tax write-off. "Our
purpose is to further the opera-
tions of our museum," he says.
Voyticky was an early mem-
ber of the trolley museum,
which was started in 1955 to
save old trolleys and restore
rail memorabilia. Attempts to
secure a New York City site for
the museum were unsuccess-
ful, and in 1983, the museum
found a permanent home in
Kingston, New York.
The museum is now well
established and its exhibits in-
cludeaBelgian trolley built in 1910, a
1907 BMT subway car and a diesel
locomotive train. One of the museum's
prime attractions is a one-and-a-half
mile excursion from downtown
Kingston to picnic grounds on the
shore of the Hudson River.
Dean Street Buildings
The ride from Kingston to Bedford-
Stuyvesant is considerably longer,
about 100 miles, but it could be a
universe away, considering the
different ways the trolley museum is
perceived. Upstate it's seen as a place
of educational opportunities. Down-
state, many tenants on Dean Street say
they see the museum as just one more
lousy landlord.
The buildings targeted in the city's
lawsuit-1207, 1209, 1237, 1239,
1241, 1243, 1247 and 1249 Dean
Street-are on a well-restored, tree-
lined Brooklyn block. With broken
window panes, rusty gates and crum-
bling exteriors, they stand in
stark contrast to the carefully
tended brownstones across
the street and to either side.
"We found that there was
no gas service in the building
for heat, hot water and cook-
ing and that there was ex-
posed wiring, non-working
outlets, peeling paint, broken
bathroom fixtures, cracked
plaster, walls and floors with
holes in them, inoperative
windows and water leaks
throughout the building. Mr.
Voyticky seemed quite an-
noyed at the scope of work we
requested he perform at the
premises. After inspecting
1207 Dean Street, Mr. Voyticki
left unannounced."
The remaining participants
then inspected some of the
other buildings and found
similar conditions, according
to the lawsuit. Then they went
to 1239 Dean Street, a vacant
While many of the build-
ings used to be under the con-
trol of the trolley museum,
some have now been trans-
ferred to new owners. But the
museum still owns 1243 Dean
Street, and tenant Charlen
Patrick says the only reason
the heat is on is because the
city's paying the bills. Her
neighbor, Wanda Tripp, of
1247 Dean Street, adds that
tenants in her building are
paying their own light bills
and taking care of mainte-
nance themselves, unsure of
who the true owner is. "It's
terrible," she says. "We have
no landlord that we know of-
although several people are
claiming to be in charge-[in-
cluding] Frank Voyticky and
Joe Zirino," who works as a
managing agent for Voytickr'
The situation is weI -
known to tenant advocacy
groups in the neighborhood.
Dr. Dee Moody of the Park-
way-Stuyvesant Community
lit IIId Run: The Trolley Museum of New York's current and
former tenants on Dean Street complain in court documents of
harassment and neglect. From left to right: Joyce Webster,
Clinton Grant, Johnny McCoy, Joyce Potts, Emsee Lewis, and
Jimmie Thomas.
~ rooming house where Zirino
~ said he was fixing up the
~ building and planning to live.
~ When he was told that he
u: needed building permits and
a certificate of no harassment
of tenants before he could
begin construction, he too
stormed out, according to the
and Housing Council says that
Voyticky and Zirino "have figured
out how to manipulate tenants." Adds
Deborah Aiken from the Urban League,
"This could be a wonderful brown-
stone block but it's not. People feel
like they don't know if they're going
to go out and come back and find their
things on the street. They're not able
to get straight answers."
Voyticky says the trolley museum
can't be held responsible for the ac-
tions of new landlords or people that
Maral Funding provided mortgages
for. Indeed, the city's lawsuit casts a
wide net, targeting not just the trolley
museum, but new and former owners,
managing agents and others going back
to 1988.
That was when Victoria Meek
became the landlord of all eight prop-
erties by acquiring a first mortgage
from Mijal Equities. and another
mortgage from Larry Berman and
Maral Funding (where Frank Voyticky
is vice president).
In a phone interview, Meek says
she had no money for renovations or
basic services, adding, "It was such a
nightmare. I went in there with my
big, open heart but the tenants didn't
want me."
Court records show that while she
was in charge of the properties, Meek
failed to provide heat, hot water and
basic services. The situation was so
bad that the city's Department of
Housing Preservation and Develop-
ment took her to court to try and force
her to make repairs.
Unable to fix the buildings or meet
mortgage payments, Meek lost control
of the properties by 1991, after the
buildings were foreclosed. According
to Voyticky, Larry Berman donated
his portion of the mortgage to the
trolley museum. After the foreclosure,
he says, the buildings were put up for
sale but there weren't any buyers-so
the properties remained in the hands
of the trolley museum.
Decaying Homes
After the trolley museum took
charge, officials from the city's hous-
ing department requested a meeting
with Voyticky, Zirino and others to
detail the necessary repair work. In an
affidavit included in the lawsuit,
Lamont Headley from the Department
of Housing Preservation and Devel-
opment describes a visit to 1207 Dean
Street:
lawsuit.
In later months. Headley
notes, he was contacted by two tenants
of 1207 Dean Street, Johnny McCoy
and Emsee Lewis, who told him that
Zirino had threatened them with
violence if they didn't move out of
their apartments. On another occa-
sion, Headley says, a tenant told him
that electrical wires were being run
from 1237 Dean Street to the electrical
box in 1239 Dean Street, the vacant
rooming house. What's more, the Con
Edison bill had gone up-and Zirino
had been seen entering the building
with other people at night and
"construction-like" sounds were
heard. Headley later visited the build-
ing and photographed the electrical
wire running from 1237 to 1239 Dean
Street.
Today, a number of the buildings
are no longer under direct trolley
museum control. 1237 Dean Street is
now owned by Zirino; 1207 Dean
Street has been leased by the trolley
museum to Michael Herry; the
museum has signed a mortgage note
for 1209 Dean Street with Wayne
Gresham; Elspeth King has bought
1241 Dean Street; and some tenants in
1243 Dean Street are negotiating with
the museum to purchase the building.
CITY UMITS/APRIL 1993/11
But new ownership doesn't mean
that problems have stopped. In an
affidavit,DaphneBlackman,a65-year-
old tenant at 1241 Dean Street, states
that she received notices from her
new landlords, Elspeth and Robert
King, that her rent jumped $188 to
$960 per month. Later, Blackman came
home and found her possessions in
the hallway and had to get an order
from housing court before they were
returned-minus her VCR and
jewelry.
The Kings have an unlisted phone
number in Long Island and could not
be reached. Bret Fertig, a lawyer who
worked briefly for the Kings and wrote
a letter to Blackman detailing the rent
increase, declined to comment.
At 1243 Dean Street, which is still
owned by the trolley museum, base-
ment tenant Magalene Wilkins has
received an eviction notice explain-
ing that the trolley museum needs her
apartment for "personal use." Mimi
Rosenberg, the Legal Aid lawyer rep-
resenting Wilkins, quips, "How many
trolley museums do you know of that
reproduce and take up apartment
spaces?"
Frank Voyticky admits that the
eviction attempt is "ridiculous," and
says it was drafted by a lawyer for one
of the tenants trying to buy the build-
ing.
Rosenberg observes that events on
DeanStreetfitacommonpattemwhen
Puzzling real
estate transactions
and financial
interconnections
rents are low and mortgage payments
high. "This is one of the most beauti-
ful blocks in Bedford-Stuyvesant. If
they can get the rent-stabilized people
out, then they are free to spend money
on the building and put new tenants
Now we meet more
insurance needs than ever
for groups
like yours ..
12/APRIL 1993/CITY UMn5
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Your community housing insurance professionals
in at higher rents," she explains. "The
quality of the housing makes it ripe
for this type of action."
The Bigger Picture
The Dean Street buildings are just a
few of the scores of properties that the
trolley museum has been involved in.
Documents from the New York City
Register show that there are many
occasions where transactions have
occurred between the trolley museum,
Maral Funding and the Citizens Bank
of Appleton City.
In addition, the trolley museum's
tax documents show that at one point
Abstract Enterprises and the trolley
museum were involved jointly in real
estate transactions.
Frank Voyticky is adamant that
these myriad interconnections are
entirely legal. Regarding transactions
between the various institutions he is
connected with, he says, "There is not
a conflict of interest because these are
not transactions of substance."
Questioned about the trolley
museum's mortgages with Outram,
who was listed in City Limits' 1992
tally of bad landlords, Voyticky says
he is currently battling Outram in
court because he stopped paying his
mortgage.
In a separate instance, Maral Fund-
ing provided a $250,000 mortgage for
Outram at 588 Park Place, a 21-unit
building in Crown Heights. Outram
failed to make repairs to the property
and ended up with a $498,985 judg-
ment against him for civil contempt.
He failed to keep up with mortgage
payments-but Maral' s mortgage had
an interest rate of 24 percent, just one
percent below the maximum rate
allowable by law.
Legal experts say the trolley
museum's real estate transactions and
the financial interconnections be-
tween Voyticky's various businesses
and the trolley museum may be
puzzling-but until further details are
revealed they appear to be legal.
Still, that's not to say that others
aren't taken aback. "The involvement
of a nonprofit educational corporation
in these kinds of activities is very
unusual-I'm not saying there's
something wrong, but it raises ques-
tions," says Dan Kurtz, the former
director of the charities bureau of the
state Attorney General's office. "I can
assure you, much larger museums
don't make loans to small landlords
in Brooklyn. My antennae would be
raised." 0
1
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CITY UMITS/APRIL 1993/13
Homf mprOVfmfnt
Out of th. sh.lt.fS and into th. flit: Lift in th. n.iCJhborhoods isn't always .asy
for form.rly hom.l.ss famili.s. But for 10m., th.It's h.lp around th. com.r.
BY ANDREW WHITE
A
few days after Debbie Gibson moved out of a home-
less shelter and into a run-down apartment build-
ing on West 116th Street, someone banged on her
door.
"I thought I was in trouble. I said I didn't do
nothing," she says now, laughing at her misplaced fear.
"But they were here to help. They made sure I kept food in
the house. They took my kids shopping. They got my kids
some coats. My daughter still has that coat."
She's been in her apartment now for nearly two years,
and she expects to be there a while, partly thanks to the
local community group that knocked on her door in 1991.
After all, it's often the little things that keep a family on
solid ground.
Around.the city, there are at least two dozen programs
designed to help families adjust to new homes in unfamil-
iar neighborhoods as they move from homeless shelters to
permanent housing. The programs, run by a handful of
community groups, deal with far more daunting tasks
than shopping for clothes and groceries, such as straight-
14/APRIL 1993/CITY UMITS
ening out garbled public assistance cases, counseling
victims of domestic abuse or battling the drug dealers who
sometimes control city-owned buildings where many
formerly homeless families live.
The goal is to prevent families from returning to the
homeless shelters once they've left. It's far cheaper to
provide services in the home than to pay for room, board,
day care, security and all the other expenses of sheltering
a homeless family.
Yet there are only enough programs to help a fraction of
the families that leave the homeless shelters and welfare
hotels every month. Most of them are funded by the state,
or by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. Others
cobble together funding from a wide range of government
agencies and foundations, or they use rental income from
apartments they manage.
That's set to change now. The city is currently negoti-
ating $5 million in contracts with several community
groups in a plan to help every family that leaves the
shelters and moves into permanent housing.
"Finally the city is recognizing that they have to look
beyond the shelters," says Elizabeth Darguste of the Citi-
No .... a.dI: Neighborhood Gold in Harlem meshes its program for formerly homeless families with tenant organizing in an effort to make
run-down, city-owned buildings livable. Above, Joel Thervil and Letraicia Frazier outside her home on West 116th Street.
zens Committee for Children. "At this point, it's better late
than never."
Discussion among policy makers is focusing on what
kinds of programs can best help these families learn their
way around their new neighborhoods, find social services
and fight for their rights as tenants. No one is sure yet
which programs work best. "Are we able to stabilize
families in the time we work with them?" asks Sarah
Greenblatt of the Center for the Research of Family Policy
at Hunter College. "Will they stay out of the shelters? Can
CITY UMITS/APRIL 1993/U
we connect them with health care from a clinic, not from
an emergency room? Can we keep their kids out of foster
care? They're all lofty goals. But they all speak to cost
savings in the long run," she says.
It's a complicated task. A large number of formerly
homeless families live in decrepit buildings and in neigh-
borhoods traumatized by drugs and violence. They often
have small children and health prob-
lems, or speak a different language
into a wide variety of housing-some public, some pri-
vate, some owned by community groups and some in the
worst city-owned apartment buildings. In many places,
like the city's housing projects, they find no social services
at all.
Essentially, there are four different routes to housing:
~ The Emergency Assistance Rehousing Program
(EARP) is the fastest -growing housing
program for homeless families .
than their neighbors. Many of them
have never had their own home before,
and have no idea how to get help for
the most basic repairs.
Yet at the same time, "many of
them have been social-worked to
death," adds Greenblatt. It's a difficult
combination. Creativity is often the
key to getting it right. As the profiles
on these pages illustrate, some of the
groups approach their work with the
"Finally, the city
is recognizing they
have to look beyond
the shelters."
Through EARP, the city gives hefty
bonuses to landlords for signing a
homeless family with a federal rent
subsidy to a 32-month lease. The city
plans to place at least 2,600 families
in private apartments through the pro-
gram this year. Many of them will be
referred to community groups for
social services.
families like community organizers;
others try politicized education about rights and respon-
sibilities, and still others take a therapy-style approach.
There are many types of programs, and many different
philosophies.
Moving On
Each month, on average, nearly 900 families leave the
shelter system according to the city. About 60 percent of
them leave on their own, disappearing into the streets to
stay with friends, relatives or in transient hotels. Many of
them return to the shelters eventually.
But the other 40 percent move into permanent apart-
ments found by the city or by nonprofit groups. They move
18/APRll..1993/CITY UMITS
~ In recent years, the most common
placement for homeless families has
been in city-owned, in rem apartment
buildings-that is, buildings that landlords abandoned, or
that the city claimed in place of unpaid property taxes.
More than 7,000 homeless families have been placed in
city-owned buildings since mid-1990. While the indi-
vidual apartments are often fixed up before they move in,
many of the buildings are in terrible shape and have
problems with drug dealers. Social services can be hard to
find for many of these families, but during the last year and
a half the city has referred the most troubled families to
community groups for help.
~ Hundreds of homeless families have been placed
each year in completely rehabilitated, city-owned build-
ings. For the most part, these buildings are managed by
community groups who are ing in from the shelters by
usually required to provide about 400 a year. The au-
social services to their ten- thority also started check-
ants. The community ing families' backgrounds,
groups tend to do exten- screening out anyone with
sive interviews and back- a criminal record, a current
ground checks before al- drug problem, or question-
lowing homeless families able problems with prior
into their apartments. landlords.
Early on, some of the But those who make it
buildings were filled ex- into public housing find
elusively with homeless little help from the city in
families. Others ineluded adjusting to their new
a mix of people. Since homes. The Housing Au-
1991, the number ofapart- thority has only 16 social
ments open to shelter fami- workers to serve its 592,000
lies in these buildings has tenants ,says AminaAbdur-
been reduced because of Rahman, a deputy general
attempts to provide homes manager at the authority,
for families doubled up and they are only available
with friends and relatives. for crisis situations. While
~ About 4,200 families some of the formerly home-
have moved into public l2 less families in the housing
housing from the shelters Q projects participate in state-
since mid-1990. Last year, ~ funded programs run by
tenants in public housing :5 neighborhood groups, for
raised complaints about :IIlIiQO""::':"'.oJ U most of them there's never
I h I f I
s.r. ... Sec:we: Sylvia Viera (center), a tenant of the rehabilitated b h I all h
former y orne ess ami ies buildings run by the Mid Bronx Senior Citizens Council in Highbridge. een any e p at . T e
using drugs and failing to The community group did extensive interviews and background checks reason for the void in assis-
control their children in before renting each apartment. tance programs, Rahman
the projects. Advocates for explains, is that the federal
the homeless argued that the families were becoming government, which provides most of the authority's budget,
scapegoats for all the ills of public housing, but the outcry "has had very rigid rules about not spending its funds on
was so vehement that Housing Authority chairwoman social services."
Sally Hernandez-Pinero cut the number of families mov-
Help On The Way
At most, only about one-third of the families leaving the
shelters and moving into permanent apartments get out-
side help dealing with whatever problems arise in their
new homes, whetherit's finding health care or day care for
a child, combatting drug dealers or getting basic repairs for
a run-down apartment.
Research in the late 1980s showed that about 10 percent
of the families moving into permanent housing from the
shelters ended up back in the shelters "roughly within a
year," says Beth Weitzman, a professor at New York
University who does research on homeless families.
To try and reduce that number, the city now writes a
report on almost every family moving into an apartment
from the homeless shelters, checking computer records on
their welfare cases and speaking with shelter workers.
Based on that report, they decide what kind of services the
family might need. If there's a community group that's in
a position to serve them, the city sends them the report.
The main funder for the various community groups is
the state's Homeless Rehousing Assistance Program, run
by the Department of Social Services (DSS). The agency
spends about $1.6 million a year to fund 18 different
nonprofit organizations, many of them based in the South
Bronx, Harlem and Central Brooklyn, where most shelter
families find apartments. The groups work with families
for a year, helping them get children enrolled in school,
transfer their welfare cases, and deal with more serious
problems like domestic violence. "The idea is to get
families stabilized and acclimated within a new commu-
CITY UMITS/APRIL 1993/17
nity," says Kathy Napoli
ofDSS.
families. It will cost
roughly $1,400 per fam-
ily-half the cost of
housing a family for one
month in many shelters
and hotels. Combined
with the existing pro-
grams, that should cover
every family leaving the
shelters and moving into
permanent housing.
The Other 60 Percent
A much smaller pro-
gram, Intensive Case
Management, is over-
seen by the Center for
the Research of Family
Policy at Hunter College
and funded with
$962,000 from the Edna
McConnell Clark Foun-
dation and the state Of-
fice of Mental Health.
Four community groups
take part-two in Har-
lem, one in the Bronx
and one on the Lower
Still, all ofthese pro-
TI"OIIbIed ....... John Weed of the Citizens Advice Bureau with a tenant grams may only make a
outside one offour Hunts Point buildings, where hundreds offormerly small dent l'n the num-
homeless families have lived since 1989.
ber of families returning
to the shelters again and again. That's because there's a
much larger group of homeless families-about 500 fami-
lies each month-who leave the shelter system on their
own without finding permanent apartments. When re-
searchers from the Citizens Committee for Children set
out to find what happens to these families, they discov-
ered that most "were confined to single rooms or over-
crowded, substandard apartments," doubled up with other
families or staying in transient hotels. More than half were
back in the shelters within seven months.
East Side. They target only those families at highest risk of
returning to the shelters. "We wanted to show you could
have an impact even on families with many problems and
many needs," says Sarah Greenblatt, the project director.
Because of the new contracts, there should be more
programs ready to take the city's referrals starting July 1,
according to Kenneth Murphy, assistant commissioner of
Crisis Intervention Services in the Human Resources
Administration (HRA), the agency that runs the shelter
system. Some will offer six months of casework and help
people with basic services. Others will try a more inten-
sive approach for families who have major problems.
Murphy says the city-funded programs will reach 3,500
18/APRIL 1993/CITY UMIfS
So far, the assistance programs funded by the state and
foundations are unable to reach them, and few of the
foundations or agencies involved are looking for a way to
KnowInI5nIIe: At the Forest Hills Community House, Betty Bailey (left) learned how to fight for her rights as a tenant.
do it. The answer, advocates say, may be a redesign of the
way the city's social services agency provides its services.
A growing group of advocates and former city officials has
signed on to a rough concept paper, called the HRA
Roundtable, that would establish a network of neighbor-
hood assistance offices run by the city. Every family on
public assistance in New York, all 286 ,2 36 of them, would
have a locally-based worker who could coordinate what-
ever services they need.
Some of the nonprofit-run programs described in the
profiles here may represent a first step toward that kind of
system. Altogether, they describe the legacy of the last few
years of homelessness and housing policy in New York-
and shed some light on what's to come. D
CITY UMITSI APRIL 1993/1.
By Farhan Haq and Steve Mitra
No Breathing Room
The Asian-American Community Struggles with TB.
A
s New York City struggles with
an outbreak ofHIV-related and
drug-resistant tuberculosis, the
disease in its more traditional
form is making rapid inroads in an
unexpected corner: the Asian-
American community. The
number of cases among
Asians in New York City
jumped by more than 55 per-
cent last year-the highest
for any ethnic group.
Unlike other groups hard
hit by TB-young and
middle-aged New Yorkers-
most Asian-Americans com-
ing down with the disease
are elderly. "We're seeing
more and more of that," says
Dr. Grace Wang of the China-
town Health Clinic. "The
highest numbers are among
the elderly."
City health officials say
they are concerned, but no
one is certain what the num-
bers mean. "The numbers re-
lating to the increase are im-
pressive," says Dr. Thomas
Frieden, director of the
Department of Health's TB
bureau. "Why [the numbers]
would have increased, I don't
know."
disease as those 65 years old or older.
The reverse is true for Asians.
The Lower East Side, where a large
portion of the city's Asians live, has
the second highest rate of tuberculo-
sis in the city, according to the health
Ethnic Incubator
Some of the clues to the sharp in-
crease in TB among Asian-Americans
can be found in Chinatown. During
the 1980s, about 26,000 immigrants
from China came to the neighborhood.
Even as these immigrants became part
of the cultural mosaic of New York,
they also may have carried tuberculo-
sis here with them.
"The rate ofTB in Asia is far greater
than the rest of the world. That's what
makes a difference," says Ron Bayer,
professor of public health at
Columbia-Presbyterian Hos-
pital. Statistics released by
the World Health Organiza-
tion show that Asia accounts
for 69 percent of all TB cases
worldwide.
Bayer points out that
people can be infected with
TB for years without becom-
ing sick. In fact, a person
carrying the TB bacteria has
only a one-in-ten chance of
ever getting sick from the
disease. But as people age,
Bayer explains, their im-
mune systems often break
down. That'swhenmanytu-
berculosis carriers become
ill. Just like younger people
with the HIV virus, the eld-
erly can sometimes no longer
fight off the infection. It used
to be the most frequent pat-
tern ofTB, before new AIDS-
related cases appeared.
Experts say there are
clues, however, including
the explosive increase of
tuberculosis in Asia itself.
The frequency with which
elderly Asian-Americans are
getting the disease-though
still low in actual numbers
of cases-indicates that
many of them may have
carried the infection from
their homelands overseas.
A survey done by the
International Ladies Gar-
ment Workers Union in the
summer of 1992 in
Chinatown backs up Bayer's
theory: the study found that
two-fifths of all garment
workers-a high percentage
of them Chinese-carry the
____ '--______ --'v tuberculosis bacteria. That
Linlnc Up: Last year, tuberculosis cases jumped 55 percent among d' h '11
Asian-Americans-the highest for any ethnic group. Above, recent oesn t mean t ey WI
immigrants wait their turn at the crowded Chinatown Health Clinic. spread the disease. Tuber-
The crowded living conditions in
Chinatown and other Asian neighbor-
hoods add another element of con-
cern, pointing to a classic pattern of
exposure.
Among other ethnic groups in New
York, TB is most common in the age
groups most susceptible to HIV,
homelessness and drug-use. Among
African -Americans, for instance, men
and women aged 35 to 44 are more
than four times as likely to have the
2O/APRIL 1993/CITY UMITS
department. But reports of the
disease's growth within the Asian
community have been fairly quiet, in
part because the actual number of
cases remains relatively low compared
to other ethnic groups. In 1991, the
most recent year for which data is
available, there were 249 TB cases
reported among Asian residents, up
from 160 the year before. That same
year, there were more than 2,000 cases
among African-Americans.
culosis can be spread only
by someone who is already
symptomatic, and even then, healthy
people are susceptible only after
prolonged exposure.
Uncomfortably Close
Once the infection breaks out, how-
ever, it's easy for it to spread in
Chinatown, where apartments and
working conditions are overcrowded,
experts say. After the massive influx
of immigrants during the 1980s, the
district had the second highest per-
centage of overcrowded housing in
Manhattan after Washington Heights,
according to the 1990 census.
"It's hard to keep sanitary living
conditions when you're living with
three other families and people are
living with strangers," says Florence
Eng ofIt's Time, a housing and advo-
cacy organization on the Lower East
Side.
Chinatown activists say unscrupu-
lous landlords sometimes take advan-
tage of the lack of affordable housing
in the neighborhood and divide up
apartments into dormitories, in which
several people live in one or more
rooms and share a common bathroom
and kitchen.
"In Chinatown, there is no land
that is not developed," adds Elaine
Chan of the Lower East Side Joint
Planning Council. "Some [landlords]
even rent out basements, where there
is no light and air doesn't circulate
very we1l."
It's not just living conditions that
are deficient. A large part of the neigh-
borhood's workforce is employed in
the area's restaurants or in the garment
industry. "They are all pretty much
crowded in small spaces and work
close to each other, so the contagion
may spread," says Giray Vuptala of
the Health Systems Agency, an inde-
pendent health research organization.
"That's a large exacerbating factor,
when you consider that many people
work all day and into the night."
And even when residents of
Chinatown get sick, Wang at the
Chinatown Health Clinic says that
they don't rush to get treated. "We're
talking about people who really have
to work to get a roof over their heads,"
she says.
Debbie Leung, an organizer who
has worked with It's Time in
Chinatown since 1977, agrees. She
says immigrants to the area follow a
fairly standard pattern. When they
first become permanent residents,
their incomes are usually very low,
and they aren't eligible for any gov-
ernment benefits for three years. So,
regardless of their age, they work
between 12 and 15 hours a day in poor
conditions to make ends meet.
As a result, "many (residents) have
no time to go to a doctor," she says.
"When would they go? They are work-
ing all the time."
No Mobilization
The last time New York dealt with
a tuberculosis epidemic was in the
1960s, and the city had the benefit of
a nationwide mobilization against the
disease. With help from the federal
government, 1,000 hospital beds were
set aside in municipal hospitals and
22 full-time clinics tested for and
treated the disease. But today, there
are only 85 beds in Bellevue Hospital
Some landlords
even rent out
basements where
there is no light
and air doesn't
circulate.
Center and 10 chest clinics citywide,
and the federal government spends
less on TB in the entire nation than
the city government does locally.
These losses complicate an already
difficult situation: containing a disease
as troublesome as TB, which requires
taking drugs for a year or more to get
rid of the infection. When patients
don't complete their treatment, the
bacteria in their bodies mutate to form
drug resistant strains that are
expensive to treat.
Currently one of the main priorities
of the city's Health Department is ex-
panding a costly, labor-intensive pro-
M@:
gram called Directly Observed
Therapy-in which employees based
at the city's 10 clinics go out to TB
patients' homes every day for several
months and watch them take their
medicine. Elaborate as it sounds, Peter
Lynn of the Health Department says
this method "is the most cost effective
solution for the city-even one hospi-
talization costs thousands of dollars."
The city is in the process of expanding
the number of workers from 70 to 220.
In addition, the city's Health and
Hospitals Corporation plans to have
295 more beds for TB patients by the
end of 1994.
But few of the city's efforts are
directed specifically at the Asian-
American community. Only three of
the city's Directly Observed Therapy
staff speak Cantonese: two are based
in lower Manhattan; one is based in
Flushing. For Chinatown residents,
the nearest city health clinic equipped
to test for and treat TB is located in
Chelsea. For them, the treatment
center of choice remains the
Chinatown Health Clinic-which had
40,000 visits last year-and private
doctors in Chinatown.
"That's a resource problem," says
Peter Lynn of the Department of
Health. "We're trying to build an
infrastructure that was allowed to
deteriorate. "
But Dominic Yip of the Chinese-
American Planning Council warns
that as young immigrants age, the
number of cases could increase
significantly. "This kind of thing is
hidden now," he says. "Butitcouldbe
a real problem .... As more and more
people grow older, more and more
will be facing the disease." 0
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(212) 222-9946
CITY UMIfS/ APRIL 1993/21
By Josephine Nieves
Jobs for the Future
T
he recession has many victims,
but few who have been hit as
hard as teenagers trying to find
jobs in New York City.
The odds of finding work are low
when you are 16 and you lack experi-
ence and skills; they plummet when
double-digit
unemployment
rates pit you
against skilled,
laid-off work-
ers who are
competing for a
shrinking pool
of jobs.
But this
summer, we
hope to change
that. President
Clinton has
proposed a vast
expansion of
the federally
funded Summer Youth Employment
Program (SYEP), and if Congress
approves the plan, New York City
stands to receive enough funding to
employ as many as 65,000 young
people before school opens again next
September.
Sisyphean Task
New York teens, who know that
finding a summer job is a Sisyphean
task, can certainly use the opportuni-
ties. In 1992, only 15.3 percent of all
New York City teenagers aged 16to 19
had jobs of any kind, full-time or part-
time, at some point during the year.
For African-American youth, that
number shrinks to only 9.5 percent.
With our 16- to 19-year-old popula-
tion numbering about 412,000, that
leaves hundreds of thousands of young
New Yorkers jobless.
A chorus of conservative critics are
especially vehement in their denun-
ciations of the SYEP program this
year because of the expected funding
increase. They dispute whether
government-funded summer jobs have
any impact on young people's future
job prospects, or that the program has
City View is a forum for opinion
and does not necessarily reflect
the views of City Limits.
22/APRIL 1993/CITY UMITS
long-term benefits for society as a
whole. It's a point of view I disagree
with strongly.
Last year, my agency-the Depart-
ment of Employment -clearly saw the
enormity of teenage unemployment.
After filling 30,000 positions though
SYEP, we still had more than 18,000
eager-to-work young people on our
waiting list. The federal emergency
urban aid bill, approved in the wake
of the Los Angeles riots, gave us the
money we needed to employ them
all-and more. But without the emer-
gency funds, most of these young
people would have had a long, jobless
summer.
Conservative Critics
I've talked with many of these
young people, and I've heard the des-
peration in their voices when they ask
for help in finding work. I know they
would be incredulous at some of the
outlandish statements bandied about
by conservative critics who oppose
President Clinton's plan.
James Bovard, writing in the Wall
Street Journal, charges that the sum-
If we don't help
young people
enter the work-
force, we all pay.
mer jobs programs" sabotage the work
ethic"; another pundit alleges that
summer youth workers "get such a
strong message of cynicism and
corruption that it cannot fail to carry
over into their attitude about work,
crime and society."
But how can you sustain a work
ethic if you can't find a job? Unemploy-
ment rates among teens prove that the
private sector can't put enough of them
to work. For many of our young people,
the option is federally sponsored
jobs-or just another summer on the
streets.
If we don't help our young men and
women enter the workforce, we all
pay for it. One study by INTERFACE,
an independent research group, found
that in one year the city spent $214
million on welfare for unemployed
16- to 21-year-olds, and lost another
$300 million in tax revenues and other
economic benefits.
Contrary to the naysayers, summer
jobs do prepare young people for
careers. As one University of Chicago
study pointed out, part-time work
during high school has a strong im-
pact on future wage-earning ability.
The researchers traced 23,000 young
men and women as they entered the
work force in the late 1970s, finding
that high school jobs helped boost
future wages by as much as 30 to 35
percent.
And here's what the real experts
have to say on the subject: in a survey
of youths who worked in our summer
jobs program, most cited the primary
benefits as learning a skill, develop-
ing good work habits and learning to
work with others. They also saw first-
hand the connection between educa-
tion and the ability to move ahead in
a job.
Forging a Link
Again this summer, our young
people will be working in govern-
ment offices, hospitals, museums and
day care centers. They will tutor in
literacy programs, help new immi-
grants apply for citizenship and per-
form hundreds of other worthwhile
jobs.
Moreover, they will help forge an
important link between government
and communities. Critics decry the
federal summer jobs program as a giant
bureaucracy, but our program is oper-
ated by a network of more than 66
community-based, nonprofit agencies.
These groups enroll kids in every
neighborhood in New York City and
find them well-supervised jobs-
usually in their own communities.
For young people, working with
neighborhood groups helps ease the
transition to the working world. Just
as important, it strengthens their ties
to their neighborhoods and encour-
ages them to become active citizens
and advocates.
If the private sector could employ
every teenager in a "character-
building" job, we wouldn't need this
injection of emergency funding. But
the unhappy fact is that our
recessionary economy has hit low in-
come urban youth below the belt. 0
By Eric Weinstock
Miracle in East New York
"Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a
Black Church," by Samuel G. Freed-
man, Harper Collins Publishers, 1993,
373 pages, $22.50, hardcover.
R
eligion is the foundry that has
forged many African-American
leaders, from Martin Luther
King,Jr.,andMalcolrnXtoJesse
Jackson and Al Sharpton. But this
source of strength has weakened over
the years in communities ravaged by
crime, drugs, and neglect. "Upon This
Rock: The M i r a c l ~ of a Black Church"
chronicles the struggle against these
odds by Reverend Johnny Ray
Youngblood, pastor of the Saint Paul
Community Baptist Church in East
New York, Brooklyn, as he reinterprets
the gospel to make it relevant to the
lives of his congregants.
Samuel G. Freedman, a former
reporter for The New York Times,
spent a year with the minister, and his
book gives us an in depth portrait of
th13 demons, drives and desires of one
of New York's most important leaders.
By managing to build a community
of strength in a neighborhood where
random gunfire claims childrens 'lives
with horrible regularity, Youngblood
has provided a safe haven for hun-
dreds of youngsters involved in church
activities and attending its schools
and has helped send numerous chil-
dren to college.
The biggest undertaking of Y oung-
blood's career has been his leadership
in the Nehemiah plan to build single
family homes for low- and moderate-
income people in Brownsville and
East New York. The housing plan has
long been the chieffocus of East Brook-
lyn Congregations (EBC), a group of
churches and one synagogue that is
an offshoot of the Chicago-based
Industrial Areas Foundation. Young-
blood joined the fledgling EBC in 1980,
and, after community residents de-
cided that housing was their number
one priority, the Nehemiah plan was
born.
Overcoming Indifference
But before it got off the ground,
EBC had to overcome the indifference
of politicians. Freedman writes about
a meeting in 1981 between 20 EBC
ministers and Brooklyn BoroughPresi-
dent Howard Golden. At the start of
the meeting, Reverend Youngblood
asked Golden, "What is your vision
for Brooklyn?" Golden, unable to
respond, said, "You want to talk about
services? .. You want some garbage
cans?" Youngblood asked his question
again. This time Golden answered: "I
don't have a vision." The ministers
stood up and left. Despite such poor
relationships with elected officials-
including then-Mayor Edward Koch,
EBC prevailed. Today, 2,300 homes
have been built under the Nehemiah
plan.
But there are many aspects of the
housing program that Freedman fails
to explore, reflecting a general lack of
A portrait of the
demons, drives
and desires of
one of New York's
most important
leaders.
analysis throughout the book. Advo-
cates who favored similar housing
efforts have found fault with Nehe-
miah's poor construction quality,
EBC's willingness to displace current
residents of otherwise dismal blocks,
and the organization's general high-
handedness. Freedman does not
discuss these issues at any length, and
avoids discussing the political impli-
cations of many of Youngblood's
actions. Elected officials and right-
wing conservatives who had opposed
the plan claimed credit for the success
of the Nehemiah housing. To the right,
it represents a win for the virtues of
private property ownership and
church values, a judgment which has
caused the left to view it with distrust.
Conspiracy Theories
Freedman's writing style is to take
his first-hand experiences, combine
them with stories told by others, and
weave them into novelistic prose. He
leaves himself and his reactions
entirely out of the picture. For
instance, the author downplays the
racial tensions he encountered while
wo:rking on the book. At one fund-
raising meeting he hears a church
leader say: "The war goes on. Because
there is an ongoing conspiracy to
destroy black people in this country,
starting with children." Yet Freed-
man does not comment on or explore
this troubling statement.
In an attempt to address the lack of
church-going and community involve-
ment among African-American men,
Youngblood's church is ruled by an
all-male board of elders. At one point,
Youngblood even has a potential
sexual molestation case tried by this
all-male board under the rubric of a
community court. Would we tolerate
such exclusion in a cause not as
worthy? Clearly, Youngblood's con-
cern for African -American males and
father-son relationships is heartfelt.
But are father-daughter relationships
any less important in the African-
American community, or any other?
Since Youngblood's actions defy
political typecasting, and Freedman
declines to give a clear frame of
reference or analysis, "Upon this
Rock" is in some ways a frustrating
book. Yet, despite the book's flaws
and any shortcomings Reverend
Youngblood might have, one begins
to wish that the man was not so
extraordinary. One wishes that our
city, state and nation had many more
leaders of his caliber. D
Eric Weinstock is an economist and a
former city housing official.
CITY UMITS/ APRll.. 1993/23
Commend and CorTeCt
To the Editor:
I want to commend you for your
article (UNo Vacancy") in the February
1993 issue. The article is an excellent
description of the shocking problem
of homeless ness amongst persons with
AIDS in New York City. I commend
you for your thorough treatment of
the subject.
I have one question about your
article's reference to "53 beds in
congregate facilities." This count must
not have included the Highbridge-
Woodycrest Center and St. Mary's
Center, which together have 140 beds
in congregate, home-like settings.
These residences, licensed as Resi-
dential Health Care Facilities, are
transitional treatment residences
offering on-site primary health care,
substance abuse treatment, indepen-
dent skills training, and a host of other
services. Our goal with both of these
centers is to help the residents stabilize
their health so that they may return to
independent living in the commu-
nity.
Claire Haaga
President, Housing and Services, Inc.
Manhattan
Community Control?!
To the Editor:
I read with great interest your ar-
ticle "Making Connections" (February
1993) covering the work carried out in
the Bronx by the SurdnaFoundation's
CCRP (Comprehensive Community
Revitalization Program).
The Fordham Bedford Housing
Corporation (FBHC) was the only
CCRP finalist in January, 1992, not to
receive funding. We were first
approached by Anita Miller of Surdna
in the spring of 1991, as were several
other Northwest Bronx community-
based organizations. We explained
many of our community and organi-
zational needs and provided exten-
sive information on our work. These
numbers were used to develop the
concept paper that served as the basis
for obtaining the $6 million CCRP
eventually had to play with.
However, the application process
described in the concept paper disap-
peared, and CCRP hand-picked the
groups in late 1991. A phone call got
us back in the running but further
discussions still left us with many
questions about what CCRP was going
to mean for our organization and
neighborhood. We had apparently
been selected for the program when
Anita Miller asked us for a "100 per-
cent commitment" to what was still a
very vague concept. When we contin-
ued to express concerns, we were
quickly and quietly removed. As we
wrote to Ed Skloot at the time, the
rejection actually came as a relief.
The entire process was an extremely
disturbing one which needed further
examination in your article. Through-
out the process, community groups in
the Bronx were looked on as "lost
souls" too busy and confused to think
for ourselves. It was as though the
great successes in our Bronx neigh-
borhoods during the past decade had
been a series of fortunate accidents.
This attitude was tough to bear,
because our programs are very well
thought-out and our current objec-
tives are quite clear. The Bronx is our
home. It is not a laboratory of social
ills to be experimented with. Our pro-
grams and activities were designed by
our own community to meet its own
needs and not primarily those of our
funders. But when we told CCRP that
we had very well defined goals and
objectives and would like additional
financial resources to help carry them
out, it was clear we were not going to .
be selected.
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24jAPRIL 1993jCITY UMITS
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Applications Available by Calling:
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n Bankers'Jioust
UlCompany
As you stated in your article, foun-
dations can and will fund whom they
please for whatever reasons they
select. It is a terrible injustice, how-
ever, to dangle funds in front of orga-
nizations desperately trying to finance
programs and then dictate terms. It
can lead organizations to change
missions, methods, and ultimately fail
to meet their community'S needs.
The selection process was not the
only problem with CCRP. While we
are community based, an organiza-
tion such as ours is not-and should
not be-a community organizing
effort. While we are fortunate to have
a number of people on our staff with
strong community organizing back-
grounds, we know all too well the
difference between community orga-
nizing and community improvements.
There are times when the two can
come into direct conflict and one
organization should not try to do both.
Writing to you now may sound like
sour grapes and could ultimately
jeopardize future funding from other
foundations. There are however,
important issues that need to be
e ~ a m i n e d by funders and the funded
alike. Foundations should be wary of
joining up with "model concepts"
simply because they are large and will
generate interesting reports afterward.
Community organizations should not
be asked to change their activities at
the whim of funders. They should not
be pitted against one another in order
to show a foundation who is ready to
cooperate the most. We should be
funded to do the work our community
needs done, and be treated as equal
partners in the process.
The top-down approach is tempt-
ing and we see it more and more
frequently as outside experts decide
what kind of help we receive. Miller
stated, "If someone wants to design
something where they raise $6 million
and give it to community groups to
decide where it goes, well, I wish
them luck." Community control over
resources? What a concept!
John M. Reilly
Executive Director, FBHC
The Bronx
Wony and Confusion
To the Editor:
I was dismayed by your article
entitled "St. Luke's Lawsuit" (Briefs,
January 1993) in which City Limits
needlessly adds to the worry and
confusion surrounding this issue.
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital
Center is committed-and has been
for decades-to serving the entire
Harlem and northern Manhattan
community. We have never "refused
to invite the community to the negoti-
ating table" as stated in your article,
but, quite to the contrary, it has been
the community representatives who
have refused to accept our invitation
to engage in an open, constructive
dialogue to resolve this difficult situ-
ation. We have always welcomed the
opportunity to work together with all
members of our community.
This hospital has never discrimi-
nated in the provision of health care
services. We are the largest voluntary
health care provider to Medicaid and
AIDS patients in New York State. In
fact, over the past several years we
have provided over $60 million annu-
ally in care to the medically indigent,
of which only approximately 40 per-
cent was reimbursed by New York
State's Bad Debt and Charity Pool.
The community coalition charges
that St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital
Center plans to leave the residents of
Harlem "without essential hospital
services for pregnant women." They
are perpetuating a harmful mistruth.
I cannot emphasize enough that
any woman who wishes to deliver her
baby at the St. Luke's Hospital will be
able to do so. Prenatal care services
and outpatient pediatric services,
including primary and emergency
pediatric services will be expanded at
St. Luke's.
Gary Gambuti.
President
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital
SPACE FOR RENT. Nonprofit organization
in downtown Jamaica, Queens, has up to 11,000
square feet for rent in recently acquired office building
at competitive rates. The available space includes
the ground floor which has its own separate street
entrance. Please call Mark Kleiman of Community
Mediation Services at (718) 523-6868 for further
information.
Management
& Community
Developmenl
INSTITUTE
June 5 - June 11, 1993
Lincoln Fllene Center
Tufts University,
Medford, Massachusetts 02155
(617) 627-3549
Professional training for
people active in:
* Economic development
* Affordable housing
* Fundraising * Management
* Community Organizing
and more I
CITY UMIJS/ APRIL 1993/25
PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
ASHOKMENON
Attorney at Law
Representation of HDFC Coop Boards
Commercial Leases. Coop, Condo & House Closings
Purchase & Sale of Business. Non-Profit Corporations
Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning
875 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 800
New York, NY 10001
Tel: (212) 695-2929 Fax: (212) 695-1489
DEBRA BECHTEL - Attorney
Concentrating in Real Estate & Non-Proftt Law
Title and loan closings 0 All city housing programs
Mutual housing associations 0 Cooperative conversions
Advice to low income co-op boards of directors
100 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, (718) 624-6850
*GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING*
We print mailing labels for free by charging you
at most what we save you with postal discounts.
UPSS CASS FORM PROVIDED
Interested? Call us.
Talk is not only cheap but free.
212-741-2365
LAWRENCE H. McGAUGHEY
Attorney at Law
Meeting the challenges of affordable housing for 20 years.
Providing legal services in the areas of General Real Estate,
Business, Trust & Estates, and Elder Law.
217 Broadway. Suite 610
New York. NY 10007
(212) 5 1 3 ~ 0 9 8 1
WILLIAM JACOBS
CERnFIED PUBUC ACCOUNTANT
O."r 20 ,'lIrs ,xper/,nc,. Sp,clllllzing In nonprofit bouslng &
community d,.,,/opm,nt oTfllnlzlltions.
Certlflld Annual Audits Compilation" Rlvllw SlrvlcI.
Manalllmlnt Advisory SlrvlcI. Tal Consultation" Preparation
CllII todll, for "', cOlI$ultlltion
77 QUAKER RIDGE ROAD, SUITE 215
NEW ROCHELLE, NY 10804
914-6335095 FAX914-6335097
HI APRIL 1993/CITY UMII'S
TURF COMPANIES
Building Management/Consultants
Specializing in management & development
services to low income housing cooperatives,
community organizations and co-op
boards of directors
230 Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11217
John Touhey
718/857-0468
a project 01 the Lawyers Alliance k.r New Yorl<, a ~ orgooization
Real Estate, Corporate and Tax Legal Representation to Organizations
Tax Syndications Mutual Housing Associations
Homeless Housing Economic Development
HDFCs Not-for-profit corporations
Community Development Credit Unions and Loan Funds
99 Hudson Street, 14th Fir., NYC, 10013 (212) 219-1800
COMPUTER SERVICES
Hardware Sales: Software Sales:
286/386/486 Computers Data Base
Super VGA Monitors Accounting
Okidata Laser Printers Utilities/Network
Okidata Dot Matrix Printers Word Processing
Services: Network/Hardware/Software Installation,
Training, Custom Software, Hand Holding
Clients Include: Acorn, ANHD, MHANY, NHS, UHAB
Morris Kornbluth 7188579157
David H. Grumer
Certified Public Accountant
25 West 45th Street, Suite 1401, New York, New York 10036
(212) 354 1770
Financial Audits Compilation and Review Services
Management Advisory Consulting
Tax Return Preparation & Advice.
Over a decade of service to community and nonprofit organizations.
COMPUTER-EASE
Got MAC Files but a PC Computer?
Got PC Files but a MAC Computer?
CITY LIMITS Can Solve Your Problems!
Just $10 to Convert a File
Many Programs Available - Quick Turnaround
Call CITY LIMITS: 212/925-9820
PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
lliANHAUSER & ESTERSON
ARC HIT E C T S P. C.
Specializing in Pre-lease, Space Planning and Architectural Services
to the Non-Profit community with significant experience in mv
Day Treatment Centers and Certificate of Need submissions.
95 Flfth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10003
(2U) 929-3699 Fax (212) 929-9718
LAW FIRM OF BARRY K. MALLIN
Specializing in HDFC Co-Ops and Not-far-Profits
HPDIDHCRIHUD Closings 0 Tax Credit Projects
Assistance in Preparing New Co-Op Re-Sale, Subletting,
Primary Residency, Inheritance Policies
Dedicated Service-Se Habla Espanol
72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012, (212) 334-9393
Pl ' BLICITY PLl 'S
CONTRACTS TRAINING FINANCING PROMOTION
SELF HELP MATERIALS
Valerie White
PO Box 265 Huntington Station, NY 11746
718 279 5196
Planning .Ind \nhill' lIl1rt' for I Ill' "IIIl'rofil ( ' 0111111111111\
Specializing in
Feasibility Studies, Zoning Analysis &: Design 01
Housing, Health Care and Educational Projects
Magnus Magnusson, AlA
MAGNUSSON ARCHITECTS
10 EAst 40th Street, 39th Floor, New Yorlc, NY 10016
Facsimik 2124813768 Telephone 212 683 5977
JOB ADS
AIDS GRAIT/FUIDlIG RESOURCES COORDIIATOR. Extensive back-
ground in grant-writing and funding for housing programs w/
experience in health services or HIV/AIDS programming area. Top
writing and communication skills; ability to work collaboratively with
service provider agencies. Salary: $32K-$35K. Resume to: Miami
Coalition for the Homeless, 227 NE 17 St. Miami FL 33132. Fax:
(305) 539 9212.
POUCY AllALYST/RAIIIZER. Analyze and critique housing policies
and legislation, do research, recommend reforms, work in coalitions,
etc. Strong writing and policy analysis skills necessary. Experience
wi organizing and publicspeaking. Housing knowledge and bilingual
a plus. Salary commensurate with experience, good benefits.
Cover letter and resume to: Associate Director, ANHD, 236 W. 27th
St, 2nd Floor, NYC 10001.
PROPERTY IUIAGER. Manage 150 units, scattered-site, low-income
housing projects. Min. 2 yr. expo with NFP housing management.
Strong building management and supervisory skills; self-starter,
organized and detailed; Chinese/Spanish speaking a plus. Resume/
cover letter w/ salary req: AAFE Management Co., 180 Eldridge St.,
NY, NY 10002. Attn: PM
SOCIAL WOIIIERICASE WORKER for LES/Chinatown CBO. Develop
intervention strategies, pro\9de ongoing support to ensure integra-
tion of formerly homeless individuals into our hotlsing community.
Responsibilities: Advocate for SRO tenants with various agencies;
work with management company; hold workshops. Requirements:
BS or MSW; min. one year's experience working with homeless
and/or substance abuse elderly individuals; organized, detailed,
patient. Salary commens w/ experience. Excellent health benefits.
EOE. resume/cover letter: AAFE, 176-180 Eldridge St., New York,
NY 10002. Attn: SW Search.
EXEGUnVE DIRECTOR. North Star Fund, a small foundation funding
NYC grass roots groups working for progressive social change.
Responsibilities: administration, fundraising, development, pro-
gramming, staff supervision. EOE. Send cover letter and resume
to: North Star Fund, 666 Broadway, Fifth Floor, New York, NY
10012. Attn: Search Committee.
IIOUSIIG PUllER. To coordinate citywide nonprofit development of
transitional and permanent housing for special needs populations,
including victims of domestic violence. Will serve as project manager
for specific projects. Responsibilities include financial packaging,
developing social service programs, supervising construction,
coordinating rent-up. M.A. in urban planning, public policy, or
related field and at least one year related experience or equivalent.
Salary mid 20s-mid 30s. EOE. Send resume and cover letter
indicating position to Personnel Box 400, Victim Services, 2 Lafayette
St., NYC 10007.
CLASSIFIEDS
VISIOIS OF HOllE. Women & men in 50s & 60s for discussion/action
group focusing on reasonably-priced housing in cities. Meetings
coming up in NYC/D.C.fBaltimore. For particulars, send stamped,
self-addressed envelope (include your ideas) to: Visions of Home,
P.O. Box 65336, Baltimore, MD 21209.
SI-.usE. Office space available for $2,000 a month, no extras.
Great location in downtown Manhattan near Pace, City Hall, all
subways. Three private offices, reception area, plus a large room
that could be a conference room or 4th large office. Three rooms
with a view. For information, call Ollie at (212) 791 3660.
CITY UMITS/ APRIL 1993/27
The American Instibde of Architects
New York Chapter Housing Committee presents:
.HOUSING NEW YORK:
Supportive And Affordable Solutions
~ How does affordable housing in New York City get built?
~ What programs and processes work?
~ How does innovative architectural design benefit the project?
Two evenings of panel discussions about the development, finance,
and design of supportive and affordable housing. Panels represent-
ing the non-profit developer, the funding agency, and the architect
will present each project.
Monday, April 12 at 6 pm
Supportive Housing by Design
Case Studies: Brooklyn Gardens and West H.E.L.P. Greenburgh
Wednesday, April 21 at 6 pm
Affordable Housing by Design
Case Studies: Highbridge Heights Unity Apartments
and Melrose Court
The American Institute of Architects
New York Chapter Office
200 Lexington Avenue, 16th Floor
(between 32nd and 33rd Street)
An admission of $5 will be charged at the door.
For more infonnation, call (212) 683-0023