NEW YORK'S URBAN AFFAIRS NEWS MAGAZINE $2.95 DECEMBER 2001 WTC REBUILDING 12 > NON PROFITS SUFFER FROM BAD BUSINESS THE BETRAYAL OF BROOKLYN o 74470 94460 7
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NEW YORK'S URBAN AFFAIRS NEWS MAGAZINE
5 DECEMBER 2001 W TC R EB U ILD IN G1 2 > N O N P R O F IT S SUFFER
FRO M BAD BUS INESS
TH E BETRA YA L
O F BR OO KLY N
o 74470 94460 7
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EDITORIAL
GIVING PAINS
DRIVING DOWN THE MAloR DEEGAN, the sight of the
towering "II" is hard to miss. A billboard for the
September 11 Fund-par t of the biggest burst
of charitable giving of all time, $1. 1 b illion in
aII--doesn't advertise anything other than its
own name and web site, and it doesn't have to.
It bom acknowledges and stirs our duty ro give,
to fight mose who would destroy lives , by
demonstrating our own concern for victims.
Welcome to the age of mass-market philan
mropy, where direct mail appeals are a dated
(and now, possibly deadly) habit. In meory,
popularizing charity-much as the stock boom
helped popularize wealm- means mere's more
good to spread around. No longer will egg
heads at the Ford Foundation (which is now
giving $11.2 mill ion to such painstakinglychosen recipients as WNYC radio and the
Legal Aid Society) or the Rockefeller Founda
tion ($5 million to groups working with Mus-
lims, Arabs and So uth Asians) monopolize
decis ions about what causes are worthy of
inves tment .
T he new marketplace for giving is being
driven by latter-day Fords and Rockefelle r s -
at las t count, corporations have contributed
more than $426 mill ion to relief charities.
While waiting for clarification on a plan for
federal benefits for victims' families, the private
sector has mobilized-the emphasis on private.
Two years ago, me Internal Revenue Service
decided mat contributions to funds for corporate
employees and meir families were part of benefit
packages, and merefore had to be taxed. No
longer. Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost hundreds
ofworkers in me calamity, received a waiver from
the IRS mat allows me company to raise money
tax-free. The company tells donors mat their
contributions may go to any victim of me disas
ter. But it's making no promises, and its funds
could be used for me exclusive benefit of its own
families. For now, Cantor Fitzgerald reports mat
"we're in me process of working out the details."Corporate philanthropy inevitably aligns with
the identity a company wants to project- and in
this case, the national fascination and grief over
the heroism of public servants has proven an
opportunity for an eerie kind of co-branding.
AOL Time Warner sells magazines commemo
rating New York's heroes-and makes a $5 mil-
lion contribution, most of it to uniformed of
cers' funds. Allstate, Bristol-Meyers, C igna, Ve
ron-these are just a few of the corporatio
pledging so lidarity with New York's dead firem
and police, more than $70 million of t. That's
percent of all their giving, targeted at a group th
accounts for about 8 percent of those who di
and an even smaller fract ion of total need.
wouldn't deny bereaved families a cent of it. B
companies aligning themselves with New Yor
bravest aren't especially heroic. For them, it's bu
ness as us ual .
T here's still time to make sure that givi
and getting reflect the values we 're supposed
be fighting for, for democracy and equity, and
sense that misfortune is something to be mi
gated, not exploited. The September 11 Fu
has been taking particular care to urge dono
to allow their do llars to go wherever they're ulmately most needed. But if the trend towa
giving from the gut is lefr unchecked the pub
outpouring will quickly sour into a reminder
how divided our society really is.
Cover photographs: eft: Linda Rosier (archive ); right: Gregory P. Mango. 866 Beck Street, now boarded up.
/ -Alyssa K
v - D Ed
CenteI or an
FUtroanu ure
The Center for an Urban Futurethe sister organization of City Limits
www.nycfuture.org
Not all of the influentia l writing about policy issues
in New York City today is comingfrom the Right.
Combining City Limits' zest for investigative reporting with thorough policy
analysis, the Center for an Urban Future is regularly influencing New York 's
decision makers with fact-driven studies about policy issues that are important to
all five boroughs and to New Yorkers of all socio-economic levels.
Go to ou r website or contact us to obtain any of our recent studies :
>I Building a Highway to Higher Ed : How Collaborative Efforts Are Changing Education in America (June 2001)
>I The Workforce Challenge: To Place is To Win (May 2001)
>I Payoffs fo r Layoffs: Designed to Save Jobs, New York City's Corporate Retention Deals Often Result in Job Cuts (Feb ruary 2001)
>I On a Wing and a Prayer: Highway Gridlock, Antiquated Cargo Facilities Keep New York's Airports Grounded (October 2000)
To obtain a report, get on our mailing list or sign up for our free e-mail policy updates,contact Research Director Jonathan Bowles at [email protected] or (212) 479-3347.
City Limits re lies on the generous support of its readers and advert isers, as well as the following funders : The Adco Foundation, The Robert Sterl ing Clark Foundation, The Child We lfare Fund , Th
Unitarian Universaist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, Open Society Institute , The Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, The Scherman Foundaton , he JPMorganChase, The Annie E. Casey Foundatio
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CONTENTS
Fi f U R ~ - 14 CHANGING WITH THE
TIMES SQUAREThe Times Square Hotel is a story of succesful evolution, going from
a hazardous horror show to amodel for supporting the formerly
homeless. But it may remain the exception, not the rule.
By Beverly Cheuvront
16 THIS SOLD HOUSEThe city's massive-and unexamined-tax lien sales program is
swelling the ranks of homeowners desperate to payoff tax debt,
creating perfect targets for predatory lenders.
By Matt Pacenza
20 CRUMBLE IN THE BRONXBefore Freddy, there wa s another force behind the South Bronx's
rebirth: community group Banana Kelly. Now, after amanagement
meltdown, the group will have to save itself-and make peace with
the people wh o were once its partners in progress.
By Robin Le Baron
5 FRONTLINES: RADIO REALISM, RIKERS-STYLE ....HOPE FOR HOPE Vi? ...
MAs COMIDA, S'IL VOUS PLAiT ... ORGANIZATIONAL IMPROViSATIONS....
GOTHAM'S SIBERIA....PRECLUDING THE PREDATORS
NSIO
11 CLASS MOBILITYCrumbling schools. Unskilled labor. In New Jersey, they're linking two
intractable problems with a$30 million plan to train the state's poorest
residents for construction jobs rebuilding their neediest schools.
By Linda Ocasio
2 EDITORIAL
32 JOB ADS
36 PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
38 OFFICE OF THE CITY VISIONARY
IN E t ~ I - G E N C E 24 THE BIG IDEA
Just recently, there was agrowing consensus that ahealthy city
economy included outer-borough development. On September 11, th
idea suddenly became grounds for ridicule.
By Keith Kloor
26 CITY LITThe Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to
Save New York, by Vincent J. Cannato.
Reviewed by Michael Hirsch
28 MAKING CHANGESeptember 11 starkly revealed that New York City can't function
without nonprofits. It also showed how tenuous their
finances are. Who will come to the rescue?
By Alyssa Katz
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NANCY HARDYInsurance Broker
Specializing in Community
Development Groups, HDFCs and
Non-Profits.
Low-Cost Insurance and Quality Service.
Over 20 Years of Experience.
270 North Avenue
New Rochelle, NY 10801
914-636-8455
Need a Lawyer Who
Understands Education?Quality public education is critical to the future of New
York City. Lawyers Alliance for New York provides
experienced legal services to nonprofit groups that are
engaged in innovative efforts to improve the city's pub
lic schools. Our clients range from groups partnering
with individual schools to those advocating system
wide reform. The staff attorneys at Lawyers Alliance
are specialists who understand the particular legal
challenges nonprofits face. Our volunteer attorneys
from leading law firms and corporations have out
standing experience in all areas ofbusiness law and
share our commitment to improving the public schools.
For more information about Lawyers Alliance for New
York's legal services to nonprofits working in education,
call 212-219-1800 ext. 232.
33 0 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10001
212 219-1800
www.lany.org
Lawyers Alliance
for New YorkBuilding a Better New York
CITY LIMITSVolume XXY Number 10
City Limits is published ten times per year, monthly except b
monthly issues in July/August and September/October, by th
City Limits Community Information Service, Inc., a non-prof
organization devoted to disseminating information concernin
neighborhood revitalization.
Publisher: Kim Nauer [email protected]
Associate Publisher: Anita Gutierrez [email protected] itor: Alyssa Katz [email protected]
Managing Editor: Tracie McMillan [email protected]
Senior Editor: Annia Ciezadlo [email protected]
Senior Editor: Jill Grossman [email protected]
Associate Editor: Matt Pacenza [email protected]
Contributing Editors : JamesBradley, Wendy Davis, Michael
Hirsch, Kemba Johnson ,Nora McCarthy
Robert Neuwirth
Design Direction: Hope Forstenzer
Proofreader : Sandy Soco lar
Photographers: Gregory P. Mango, Jake Pr ice, Smon Lee
Contributing Photo Editor: Joshua Zuckerman
Contributing Illustration Editor: Noah Sca lin
Intern : Mark Greer
General EMail Address: [email protected]
CENTER FOR AN URBAN FUTURE:
Director : Neil Kleiman [email protected]
Research Oirector: Jonathan Bowles jbowles@nycfuture .o
Project Director: David J. Fi sc her [email protected]
BOARD OF DIRECTORS'
Beverly Cheuvront, New York City Coalition Against Hun ger
Ken Emerson
Mark Winston Griffith, Central Brooklyn Partnership
Celia Irvine, Legal Ad Society
Francine Justa, Neighborhood Housing Services
Andrew Reicher, UHAB
Tom Robbins, Journalist
Ira Rubenstein , Emerging Industries AllianceMakani Themba-Nixon
Pete Williams, National Urban League
'Affiliations for identification only.
SPONSORS :
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and Environmental Development
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FRONT LINES
Andre Vaughn is piecing together a
radio show about the life that led him
to Rikers Island at 13.
IN ACHINATOWN LOFT, THREE PRODUCERS sit listening to a rough cut of a
radio documentary. From the tape comes the low, husky voice of a kid
called Dirty Redd. He grew up begging for food , or stealing it, when his
crack-addicted mother couldn't care for him. At 13 , he landed in Rikers
Island for theft. After his mother died, he went to jail upstate twice more
for armed robbery.
"They classified me as a violent prisoner," Andre Vaughn, now 21
and no longer sporting his nickname, narrates over the beat of a Dr.
Dre song. But thanks to his own drive and some tough discussions with
his supportive girlfriend, he's landed on his feet and in the production
studio, working on a documentary he hopes will help keep other teens
out of jail.
Andre's nine-minure audio snapshot is one of five recently produced by
Youth Porrraits, a collaboration between the Rikers-based Friends of Island
Academy, a job training and peer counseling program for recently incar
cerated youth, and Sound Portraits, an award-winning production compa
ny. The segments, to be aired on National Public Radio and Hot 97,
chronicle the life experiences of teens who've spent time in prison. Typi
cally, prospects for these kids are dismal: About 70 percent of prisoners
under 18 end up back behind bars, according to the Correctional Associ
ation of New York.
Despite a 25 percent drop in crimes by teens since 1994, nearly every
DECEMBER 2001
Jailhouse Docstate in the union has passed or amended laws making it easier to try k
as adults. Youth Portraits producer Stacy Abramson hopes her proj
will scale back these numbers and push policy-makers and radio listen
to get beyond their stereotypes of young people in jail. "For people w
don't ordinarily come into contact with these kids, when they hear th
stories, they know these are real people with real families who fall in lo
who struggle," she says . "It becomes harder for people to write them of
Abramson prodded her students, all of whom are peer counselors
the Academy, to ask their families and themselves some tough questio
"Those were some of the deepest and longest conversations I've had w
them. They said things they'd never said to me before," says Andre, w
interviewed his girlfriend, sister and foster father.
That tactic also worked for Ariel Corporan, who, as a teenag
belonged to a gang, dealt drugs and spent three months at Rikers. W
a microphone in hand, the 22-year-old says , "I asked my father why
walked out when I was eight months old, and I asked my mother h
she felt when my stepfather was beating me. "
Working among white-collar professionals in lofts full of comput
also offered some lessons. "They cared so much," says Andre, who n
uses digital recording software to record his own rhymes. "They co
have been our voice for us, bu t they showed us how to put it togethe
-Nora McCar
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FRONT l lNES
To save affordable
housing, Stamford
demands smart
demolition.
By Matthew Strozier
NO ONE DISAGREES THAT VIDAL COURT has prob
lems. Elevators in the low-to-moderate-income
complex in Stamford, Connecticut operate
sporadically; the stairwells smell of urine; lead
paint is chipping off the walls. The open-air
hallways are magnets for drug dealers. The
question is: How to fix them?
The local Housing Authority's proposed
solution: Demolish the 216-unit development
and replace it with smaller mixed-income town
houses and garden apartments. This strategy is
6
AHome for a Home
already underway elsewhere in Stamford and in
more than 100 other cities across the country as
part of or, in the case of Vidal, inspired by the
federal Homeownership and Opportunity for
People Everywhere, a.k.a. HOPE VI. While the
program provides tens of thousands of dollars to
spruce up public housing developments, Stam
ford tenants and labor officials say it does so at
the cost of losing hundreds of essential units of
affordable housing.
To turn that argument into action, the
city's legislature unanimously passed an ordi
nance on October 1 requiring that owners of
government-subsidized housing replace everyunit they demolish, or convert to market rate,
with an apartment renting for the same price .
The so-called "one-for-one" law, which
applies to tenants with incomes below 50 per
cent of the local median, is the first such law
passed anywhere in the country since 1995.
"This will ensure that demolition does not
occur for frivolous reasons, for profit , or for
political reasons that are not in the best interest
of the tenants and the city of Stamford as a
whole," says Shanon Jacovino, director of the
AFL-CIO Stamford Organizing Project, which,
along with a coalition of pub
housing tenants, first propo
the bill last spring.
The ordinance is a thro
back to a provision of the Ho
ing Act of 1937 that Congr
did away with six years ago.
that time, its opponents argu
the replacement requirem
was too costly and therefore d
couraged property owners fr
demolishing vacant drug- a
crime-infested apartments."In large urban areas, wh
you had a lot of these obso
units, the cost of the land was
prohibitive that you could
replace those units, " says Ju
Barreto, director of legislat
and program development
the National Association
Housing and Redevelopm
Officers (NAHRO), which su
ported the repeal. Once you
rid of that requirement,
argues, "then you gave hous
agencies more flexibility in pviding housing for people."
The Stamford Organizing Project argu
however, that "more flexibility" was too much
soon as the federal one-for-one rule was lifted
1995, the Stamford Housing Authority dem
ished several high-rises in Southfield Village
dilapidated public housing complex in the po
est neighborhood in the city. The agency quic
made the village its poster child for bring
HOPE VI to Stamford, arguing that the 19
buildings were drug-ridden and in need ofma
capital repairs. In October 1997, the age
received a $26.4 million HOPE VI grant
replace the remaining cluster of low-rise buings with handsome townhouses and gard
style apartments. This summer, the first tena
moved into Southwood Square, the new priva
ly owned complex, which includes a swimm
pool and fimess center.
No one disagrees that the new apartme
look much better, but the number of lo
income apartments lost does not look so go
The number dropped significantly, to 2
from the 502 that had been in Southfield V
lage. The Housing Authority insists that
HOPE VI grant did not cover replacing
CITY LIM
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256 apartments that were in the rowers it rore
down in 1995, and since more than 50 percent
of those units were vacant when the wrecking
ball hit, there was no need ro replace them.Ir's this very logic that some housing advo
cates say has contributed ro the shorrage of
affordable apartments over the last few years.
According ro the federal Department of Hous
ing and Urban Development, those new devel
opments on average cut the number of low
income units by 70 ro 75 percent.
At the very least, members of the Stamford
Organizing Project hope, the "one for one"
ordinance will ensure that the city's affordable
housing srock doesn't get any smaller. "Our
members, many of them residents of public
housing, are getting priced out of the market,"
says Jacovino. A city of 117,000, Stamford sitsin a section of Fairfield County with some of
the highest rents in the nation, third behind
San Francisco and San Jose, California. Despite
having the country's
highest median
tenants with the same low income levels as
those living in the old building.
In Stamford, while Mayor Dannell Ma lloy
supports the ordinance, he has his own set of
worries. If HU D does not increase funding
for replacement units and relax its ru les on
density, he says, developments like South
wood Square many not be possible in the
future . "The design of HOPE VI is to
encourage a decrease in density," Malloy says.
"It does not pay for all replacement units."
And with $44 million worth of renovations
needed on the city's three state-financed com
plexes, including Vidal Court, none of which
are eligible for HOPE VI funds, money is
already expected ro be tight.
Despite these challenges, the Housing
Authority insists it has creative funding plans to
make it work. Affordable housing development
in Stamford can rely on funds generated by
market-rate units in mixed-income develop-
ments , an approach
Richard Fox, executive
income-$I 09,800 for
a family of four-about
a quarter of residents in
Waterside, home to
Southwood Square, live
at or below the poverty
level. With virtually
every public housing
unit occupied, an
affordable apartment is
not easy to come by.
HOPE VI brought
$26.4 million-
and took away
217 low-cost
director of the Authori
ty, calls "Robin Hood."
"We are going to have
ro harness that thriving
economy to provide low
and moderate-income
housing," Fox says,
adding that available tax
credits and a booming
real estace market will
drive private financing to
affordable housing devel
opments. And if the
"I don't know any
one who wouldn't want
to live better," says
apartments.
Wendy Nelson, vice
president of the tenants' association at Vidal
Court, a state-subsidized complex. "But it's a
matter of if us low-income people will be able
to live in these nicer apartments they are ta lk-
ing about."
Of course, as other cities have discovered
over the years, making one-for-one viable is
not easy, in large part due ro costs the federal
government has not been willing to cover.
Hartford had a one-for-one replacement ordi
nance that required private developers ro pay
into a housing fund for every low-income
apartment they demolished or price-hiked. Six
yea rs ago, as Congress voted to do away with
its one-for-one provision, a newly elected
block of conservative legislarors in Hartford
guned their local law. In Seanle, the Housing
Authority recently signed a memorandum of
agreement to replace every unit in its most
recent Hope VI project, bu t not necessarily for
DECEMBER 2001
economy takes a nose
dive? Given Stamford's
proximity to New York City, says Fox, there will
always be a demand for housing there.
Malloy laments that if the ordinance
allowed new replacement units ro be sold
rather than rented-a possibility that had
been discussed-then the city would be able
to compete for state and federal funds slated
for homeownership.
Whatever the funding strategy, tenants and
union members hope the ordinance will head
off plans to demolish any more affordable housing. "It's obvious that there was a bigger plan
here," says Clay Smith, an organizer with the
Stamford Organizing Project. "I think people
wanted to get out of running from one place to
another purring out fires and come up with
solution that would preserve public housing." •
Matthew Strozier is a reporter for the Stamford
Advocate.
FRONT l lNES
== HOUSING==Flipping OutIT WAS THE CLASSIC REAL ESTATE scam:
cheap and resell fast at inflated prices. It was
foundation of the 203(k) scandal, in which s
ulators conspired to defraud homebuyers, l
ing to the abandonment of nearly 600 prope
in Harlem and Brooklyn. It's also helped
skyrocketing home foreclosure rates-a sta
which New York City leads the nation-as tr
ing borrowers buy overvalued homes wh
structural flaws have been covered up.
In September, the federal Departmen
Housing and Urban Development made a m
ro end this "ilipping," by proposing new r
withholding federal mortgage guarantees f
properties that have recently been resold. Un
these rules, a home must remain under the s
ownership for six months before it can qua
for Federal Housing Administration loans.
The change could not have come soo
Last year, FHA delinquency rates in the five
oughs jumped by more than 30 percent as
in 10 borrowers fell more than three mo
behind on their FHA mortgages. Reasons ra
from rising family debt to a slowing econo
but increasingly everyone, including HUD
blaming predatory lending-the pranice of
ing loans to low-income bortowers with ad
fees, high interest rates and hidden payment
Other new HUD rules aimed at figh
predarory lending include strengthening overs
of mortgage brokers: The agency says it wo
end its relationship with any lender whose def
rate is significan tly higher than local and natio
averages. And in mid-October, HUD Secre
Mel Martinez called for "full disclosure of all c
associated with obtaining a home loan."
Some activists are cautiously pleased. "A
thing the Secretary does ro srop foreclosu
and predarory practices is good," says Tr
Van Slyke of the National Training and In
mation Center, which promotes investmen
low-income communities. "But enforcing
rules is the most important thing."
Indeed, in New York City, requiring lend
ro check property transfer information fr
court dockets and county clerks' records bef
making a loan may be a tall order, given
record-updating in those offices is mon
behind. "T he six-month restriction is a jok
says Pamela Sah, an attorney with the fore
sure prevention division of South Brook
Legal Services. "The seller will JUSt wait
days and then flip them." -Matt Pace
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FRONT l lNES
Organizers tweakpriorities after
September 11ByHilaryRuss
"CALL US A LITTLE OFF our rockers, " says
Bryan Pu-Folkes, president of New Immigrant
Community Empowerment (NICE), "but we
try to do as much work as possible and get less
sleep. " He speaks into his cell phone above the
rhythmic whirring of exercycle spokes. After
his evening workout at the gym, it 's back to
the office for a night of strategizing on how to
bring different immigrant groups together in
the city's new atmosphere of economic shortfalls and racial paranoia.
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11,
grassroots community groups across the city
have been following similarly jam-packed sched
ules as they scramble to maintain their missions
while taking on new programs in response to
their neighborhoods' changing needs.
8
Planting New Roots
No one is quite sure how sustainable these
new efforts will be. Individual and corporate
donors are increasingly redirecting their philan
thropic contributions to relief efforts, and city
and state budgets are facing severe cuts. "We
can't really plan until we have a pulse," says Fran
Barrett of the Community Resource Exchange.
However, most foundations, Barrett adds,
have voiced an unwavering commitment to the
grassroots causes they have funded for years.
The North Star Fund, for one, has established
a 9.11 Activist Fund to give community organ
izing groups small grants for emergency needs
and sustained support for mid- to long-range
planning efforts. As of late October, the Fund
had doled out $2,500 in emergency grants
($500 to Women for Afghan Women and
$2,000 to Downtown Community Television
for its upcoming series "America at War, Then
and Now") . The foundation hoped to raise
another $50,000 at a November 8 fundraiser.
Meanwhile, community groups work to
keep up with the times.
• For more than a year, NICE has focused most
of its resources on coordinating the Govern
ment Access and Accountability Campaign, an
effort to get candidates for city office to commit
to holding regular town hall meetings, condu
ing surveys of their districts' needs and public
ing reports on how tax dollars are spent. O
Islamic fundamentalists were named as per
trators of the Trade Tower attacks, however,
all-volunteer organizing group began reach
out to young immigrants to help them d
with and combat the bias incidents that w
cropping up around the city.
"We decided that since we're an organizat
that 's about bringing communities toget
across racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural lin
there was a void to be filled," says Pu-FolkesFrom there, a new partnership was for
with the Council for Unity, a nonprofit t
teaches community and personal developm
in over 50 city schools. A quick application
funds to the Citizens Committ ee of New Y
produced $500 for a unity rally for teens
Flushing Park. Students from Newcomer H
School, the Academy for New Americans a
other immigrant-heavy schools read al
poems and letters, and painted a handful
six-by-nine-foot murals to hang in the s
capital and in fire and police departme
around the city.
More events, including a youth summit,
also in the works, but Pu-Folkes stresses t
none of this can happen without m
resources. Already short-handed, the group
now in search of funds to hire a muralist an
coordinator for future rallies. Some good ne
In late October, the NICE board brought
two new members and approved the gro
first office, a closet-sized space in Corona.
• Imani House, a small Park Slope-ba
group, offers support-from English and ad
literacy classes to a food pantry-to local L
no families. After September 11, the grou
staff worked with the Commission for Hum
Rights to develop and post flyers outlining h
to legally combat harassment. They reac
out to local Arab Americans and asked them
hang the posters in their shops and distrib
them at their mosques. "I've seen what eth
centricity can do to tear a country apart," s
Imani Executive Director Bisi Iderabdull
who lived through the evacuation of Libe
West Africa, in 1996. She has also shifted
focus of a collaborative program with the N
York Civil Liberties Union from juvenile jus
to race and policing after the terrorist attack
CITY LIM
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• Asociacion Tepeyac de Nueva York, a social service
group for newly arrived Mexican immigrants, suspended
its after-school, English, and computer classes as well as
its volunteer communiry organizer training for a monthfollowing September 11. The new focus: helping its
member families and employees-largely undocument
ed immigrants-who lost jobs or loved ones in the
attacks get the financial and emotional support they
need. Its staff posted photos and traveled to hospitals and
morgues to assist members searching for missing family.
"This is kind of a harvest," says Executive Director Joel
Magallan Reyes about the large numbers of people who
have come to them for assistance. To continue its efforts,
and increase its staff and phone line capaciry, the group
applied to the September 11 Fund and other founda
tions for support, but at press time had yet to receive
word. Meanwhile, the Asociaci6n has changed the
theme of its annual Dia del Muerte celebration, scheduled for November 1, to "invisible people."
• Jews for Racial and Economic Justice had been lob
bying the state legislature for a year to repeal the Rock
efeller drug laws when the events of September 11
bumped the issue aside and thwarted, at least temporar
ily, a three-year campaign to get more state money for
public schools. Now, the group has put off its biggest
annual fundraiser until March to devote "125 percent"
of its energies to peace rallies and outreach to main
stream Jewish communities, says Executive Director
Andrew Stetmer. The long-term base-building efforts to
draw Jews of color have been dropped for now, as has
JFREJ's role in the unionizing efforts at a kosher foodfactory in Williamsburg. Instead, a new partnership is
growing with Muslims Against Terrorism, a group
formed after September 11, and issues affecting Arab
and Muslim Americans have quickly become a center
piece. Unlike many other small groups, JFREJ's cash
flow seems ro be solid for the year: The Tides Founda
tion recently gave them a $10,000 emergency grant.
• SAKHI for South Asian Women connects victims of
domesric violence from New Jersey and the five bor
oughs with trained caseworker volunteers and offers
services like English and computer classes and legal aid.
Now, in addition to offering needs assessment to its
members, SAKHI is collaborating with the six-monthold nonprofit Women for Afghan Women to develop a
high-school curriculum on feminism and violence in
South Asian and Afghan communities. To fund these
new endeavors, the Third Wave Foundation has
chipped in $1,500 . Urgent Action donated $3,000,
and persuaded the Ms. Foundation to give SAKHI a
$5,000 grant. A scholarship program is also in the
works, to be established in the name of a longtime vol
unteer, Swarna Chalasani, who has not been heard
from since September 11. •
Hilary Russ isa Manhattan-based freelance writer.
DECEMBER 2001
FRONT l lNE
FIRSTHAND
On My OwnI'M A NATIVE NEW YORKER. I'm 47 . I have some emotional problems so I live on disabi
checks. A ew years ago, I was living in acheap hotel in Harlem and the owner wanted te
ants who paid more. So he to ld he police I was doing vandalism . He said I smashed elev
tor doors and threw paint down the stairs. He had me arrested three times for that and fin
ly kicked me out. First I ried a ew other SROs [single-room-occupancy hotels]. I was at o
on 112th Street that was really, really bad. There was active drug use , people always haning out in the lobby. The landlord brutalized residents. The building was kind of run down.
I ried looking around for another SRO, but there was nothing available. There just are
many left. There 'saconsensus in this city that they need to get rid of the SROs. They say th
bring down property values. But for guys like me , here 'snowhere else to go. It'seither this
homeless shelters or mental hospitals. And you don 't want to stay there: They're very scary
What's also happened is that the SROs that are left in Manhattan have been taken o
by organizations that provide special needs housing. Iwent to one of them that seemed ni
Awoman said , "Mr. Warner, you're not HIV positive, you're not a hardcore drug and alcoh
addict. You don 't fall in any of our categories. We can't help you."
It makes it very tough for someone who just wants acheap private room. Places that us
to be affordable, ike Washington Heights and Hamilton Heights, he prices have gone throu
the roof. And there 'snothing new and affordable being built: All new housing is lUXUry hou
ing. I'mon waiting lists for Mitchell-Lama housing and Section 8 vouchers , but it will be
long time. They're very hard to get into.
I finally found this room way out here in the Rockaways. It's the Siberia of New York C
I guess that's where they put people like me. I pay $533 a month for a private room with
shower and abath. It'sOK, but it could be better. The main thing is that the staff could do
lot more. This is supposed to be transitional housing, but they don't pay much attention to
I alk to some of the others here about making improvements, or about organizing the te
ants, but they won 't get involved .They're afraid of being out on the street. There 'snowhere e
to go. -Darryl Warner, as told to Matt Pacen
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FRONT l lNES
==WE t fARE==Universal BenefitsINOCENClA NOLASCO, a 59-year-old disabled
Dominican immigrant, applied for food stamps
to feed her grandchildren last year, but not one
caseworker at the ciry welfare office could walk
her through the process in Spanish. It took four
appointments before she finally got benefits.
Undercover work by the federal Department
of Health and Human Services in 1999 found
situacions like Nolasco's are aU too common. By
next year, however, it should be the excepcion.
In early October, the ciry settled a two-year legal
battle in Manhattan's federal court, agreeing to
provide translation and interpretacion services ataU of its 21 food stamp offices.
"This settlement marks a pretty much 180-
degree turn-around by the Giuliani administra
cion," says Andrew Friedman of Make the Road
by Walking, a Bushwick-based advocacy group
that filed the lawsuit in August 1999 with theNew York Legal Assistance Group and the Puer
to Rican Legal Defense and Educacion Fund.
The ciry estimates 100,000 low-income immi
grants will benefit from the agreement, a num-
ber advocates guess wiU be even higher.
Under the court mandate, the ciry's Human
Resources Administracion has unril February to
send our letters in 17 languages to every New
Yorker on food stamps, informing them of their
right to translators. After surveying aU of its
clients, the ciry will then be required to offer
services in two to five additional languages,
depending on need. And every job, income sup
port, and food stamp office must post notices inup to nine languages about the availabiliry of
translation services, and offer a hotline number
OPEN CITY
Timothy Fadek
Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Isand City
to caU if interpretacion is not provided.
The ciry says it has already signed contract
with translation companies to create forms and
documents in Spanish, Russian, Chinese and
Arabic, the ciry's most commonly spoken non
English languages. The first of those, in Russ
ian, were scheduled to be available in earl
November.
But irnplementacion is expected to be slow
parricularly as the mayor caUs for budget cut
from ciry agencies. "It's a monumental job," say
Friedman, nocing the ciry will need rime to asses
recipients' needs and staff capaciry. Whil
changes get underway for food stamp appli
cants, Medicaid recipients await word on a law
suit NYLAG and other groups filed in 1999 to
remedy similar situations in Medicaid offices
"Hopefully, this settlement wiU speed thingup," says NYLAG counsel Randal Jeffrey.
-Tracie McMilla
From www .journalism/fragileworlds, an online photo essay about a home for emotionally disturbed foster kids.
10 CITY LIMIT
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INSIDE TRACK
ClassMobilityNew Jersey's school building boom brings educationalopportunity
to young people trying to break into construction. 8y Linda Ocasio
LAST SPRING, ZAIRE JOHNSON FINAllY obtained
his high school diploma from a night school
program in Newark. Johnson, 23, had never
held a job. He lived wim his grandmother, and
he was ready to start his life: "Yo u gotta grow
up sometime, you gotta do someming," saysJohnson. "I want to try to be an electrician."
And so, on a humid evening in June, John
son sat in me un-air-conditioned auditorium of
Bloomfield Tech High School in New Jersey at
an orientation night for me Essex County Con
struction Careers (ECCC) Program, an eight
week pre-apprenticeship. Isa Mohammad, a
member of Ironworkers Local II , initiated
Johnson and 29 omers-chosen from 200
applicants-in me rights and responsibilities of
membership in a trade union. Mohammad
entered me trades when mere were few minori
ties, and he made no promises to mose assem-
For Calvin Russell , 19,
carpentry s a promising
alternative to college.
bled. "There's no guarantee, because mere are
no guarantees in life. But you have a great
opportunity," he told memo "You have to adopt
me attitude of a plumber, electrician, an iron
worker. You're part of a bromerhood."
The initiation is wide-ranging. Classes teachtrainees everyiliing from how to read blueprints
and use basic tools to the history of me trade
union movement and how to prepare for tests
and interviews. Students also visit construction
sites and receive a $100 weekly stipend. But
most importantly, mey get a precious chance to
break into lucrative trades and earn union wages.
ECCC is a pilot developed by me New Jersey
Institute for Social Justice, and funded largely
wim money from private foundations. Con
struction training programs like mis are not
unusual. In 1995, New York City's School Con
struction Aumority and omer public agencies
joined wim me Building Trades Counc
launch a similar training program, which is
run by me unions.
But New Jersey is on me brink of bui
someming much bigger: a statewide,
funded gateway into me construction bus
for young people who have historically
excluded from me field. The Institute has
advising state officials on the project, a
hoping that ECCC will be an important
ticipant in me training effort.
Last year, men-Governor Christine
Whitman signed into law me Educational F
ities Construction and Financing Act, com
ting an unprecedented $8.6 billion for s
construction and reconstruction. The law
aside one-halfof 1 percent of construction
for job training for minorities and women
The lion's share of me new constru
dollars, some $6 billion, will go to m
school districts covered under the New J
Supreme Court ruling in Abbott V. B
which ordered the state to fund poorer sc
districts at the same levels as school dis
whose property taxes pay for quality sch
Located in struggling cities like Newark
Camden, me so-called Abbott districts
chronically failing schools and high rat
unemployment and underemployment.
will see 100 percent of meir construction
covered by state-issued bonds.
As a result of the school construction
Abbott districts will receive about $30
lion for programs preparing residents for
struction jobs. The school buildingrebuilding itself will provide employmen
10 or 15 years.
It was an opportunity me Institute for S
Justice, a Newark-based advocacy group, cou
pass up. The Institute began discussions
me concept for ECCC last fall, and a new
sortium-involving school superintend
union representatives, building contra
foundations, and faim and community orga
tions from Essex County, which inc
Newark-met for me first time this past M
Their goal: To ensure mat this massive s
construction initiative-me largest public w
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INSIDE TRACK
program ever undertaken in New Jersey-recog
nized its potential as a communiry revitalization
rool. "The opporruniry inherent in rhe school
consrruction program ro benefit communitiesnot only educationally but as an economic devel
opment matter is exceptional," says Ken Zim
merman, rhe organization's executive direcror.
The steering committee resolved ro make rhe
training program part of a collective enterprise,
in which unions, schools and communiry organ
izations are critical players. "We're looking at
what rhe industry wants, what rhe needs are, and
where programs fall down," says Rebecca
Doggett, direcror of rheECCC program. "From
rhe trade perspective, rhey need members, and
contracts are awarded based in part on diversiry
of workforce. For rhe school districts, it's an
opportuniry ro hook students up wirh real jobs."Unions are losing workers as rheir workforce
ages, and rhe traditional handing down of jobs
is eroding as younger generations o pt for white
collar jobs. The program is borh a source of
new apprentices and an opportunity ro build
good relations with communities ro ensure rhat
school districts support rhe use of union labor.
Communiry-based groups, many of which
constantly struggle ro fmd jobs for people in rhe
neighborhood, were eager ro see local residents
benefit from school construction. Their parricipa
tion helped ensure rhat adults who never got a
break in rhe trades could try for one now.
Finally, Abbott districts need ro do better by
rheir students: Only 33 percent of Newark
high school students go to college, and many
others end up unemployed or underemployed.
Guidance counselors often don't know what
ro do for students who aren't heading off ro col
lege. Calvin Russell , 19 , was interested in car
pentry and plumbing, but it wasn't easy getting
information about training programs from his
guidance counselor at Arts High School in
Newark. "She kept trying ro get me ro apply for
college or ro a computer technology school,"
Russell says. She finally gave him information
about ECCC-tllree days before rhe deadline
ro apply.
"THIS IS ACOMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT project,
not just a school construction project," says
Mark Lohbauer, direcror of policy and com
munications for rhe New Jersey Economic
Development Authority, which is overseeing
rhe construction and rhe bond issue. "When
we identifY women and minorities in rhe
Abbott districts , we're targeting people who
need jobs the most. It will take 10 years to do
construction, and it will be a reliable source of
employment for years ro come."
12
It's no coincidence rhat Lohbauer is speaking
the same language as Doggett and Zimmerman.
He has met wirh rhem, and he says their efforr
"is rhe kind of program rhe state wants rofund. " In fact, he says, ECCC informed rhe way
the state proposal was put rogether. "In
researching a well-rounded program, we found
rhat it would need day care services, a conven
ient location, since most people in rhe program
won't have cars"-information he gleaned from
meeting wirh the Newark group.
In September, rhe New Jersey Deparrment
ofLabor entered into a memorandum of under
standing wirh rhe EDA to oversee development
of rhe training program, and issued a request for
proposals wirh a November 26 deadline. Brian
Peters, rhe direcror of rhe Division of Business
"This is a
community
development
project, not just a
school construction
project," says a
state official behind
the training effort.
Services of rhe Department of Labor, says me
initial round involves $1 million for programs
in Newark, Camden and Trenron. The scate will
issue a second RFP in January.
The state aims to draw applications from
community- and fairh-based groups, building
trades councils, employers, and vocational train
ing institutions; it's also asking applicants ro form
parmerships wirh sum groups. New Jersey's One
Srop Career Centers will be an imporrant parr of
rhe mix; rhey'L1 provide basic skill insrruction,
labor market information and fmancial support.
Even rhough a new governor will soon be
sworn in, borh Peters and Lohbauer insist the
construction initiative is not vulnerable ro polit
ical changes. But me Education Law Center,
which represented rhe students of New Jersey's
urban school districts in rhe Abbott case, wants
ro make sure me state fulfills its new legal o
gations. Joan M. Ponessa, director of resea
for rhe center, says rhe state has only gone
bond for $500 million so far-and $325 mlion of mat is going ro non-Abbott distric
Construction contracts rotaling $16 million
currently addressing health and safery vio
tions, but me state itself identified some $6
million in emergency healrh aI1d safery pr
lems, including leaky roofs, malfunction
boilers, and faulry plumbing.
Ponessa accuses EDA of dragging its f
"Those $16 million in healrh and safety contra
represent less rhan 2 percent of me $600 milli
and tlley were not made until August," Pone
says. Had rhey been made earlier, she adds, w
could have proceeded over rhe SUl1liller monr
when school was not in session: "It's not rocscience. People repair roofs all rhe time." (S
Lohbauer: "It's a fair criticism-we're not wh
we want ro be ." Screening contracrors, he sa
has been a particularly time-consuming proce
Still , Ponessa remains hopeful. The rec
downturn in the economy has only put press
on me state ro run effective job training effo
she observes: "This is a public works progra
a stimulus ro me economy."
MEANWHILE, ZIMMERMANAND DOG GETT are o
mistic that rheir prog= is already having
impact. Of rhe 26 ECCC participants who co
pleted rhe frrst pre-apprenticeship program,
have taken rhe test for rhe insularors local and t
are getting ready ro work wirh rhe ironwork
local. Two are already on me job, as a glazier a
an electrician, and an additional 10 are expec
ro be on rhe job come spring.
Zaire Johnson rhought the program w
"excellent ... It gave you the inside scoop on
unions," he says . Laid off in Ocrober from
warehouse job, he's getting his driver's lice
before he takes any union tests.
For Jamal Hollis, 30, who spent rhe last
years working as a glazier in his farher's sh
ECCC was rhe ticket ro membership in
glazier's union. Currently, he's working on
office construction site. Before a friend rold h
about ECCe, "I didn't know about connectio
ro get in, " says Hollis, who has a 9-year-
daughter. He counsels patience for orhers seek
ro break inro rhe trades: "Stay focused. If r
could sacrifice four years ro become a journ
man, rhey eventually could be making $60,00
year. You 're learning and you're getting benefYou can't beat rhat. " _
Linda Ocasio is an education and commun
development writer for severalpublications.
CITY LIMI
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With things looking U ~ i n the old' l ~ ~ - ~ ~ f ___has a few things
housing.
earn for the future of supporti
By 15everly CTiellv 0
Acient, in ill health and~ i ~ ~ t f q ~ : } ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ h e was afraid that:} she
left her room, she might never be allowed to return.
Fourteen years ago, when I first visited MraM and
the Times Hotel for Limits, it was ai r ~ ' " - " t - ~ ~ m ~ ~ t r r o c i m o « U j p i m ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ a t Avenue and 43rd Street where
fragile tenants, and less lucrative than the hotel's
foreigp tourist trade, were treated like second-clast cit-
izens by a management thareven tried to make them
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and similar agencies. It offered a cheap haven
to fragile New Yorkers---elderly people like
Mrs. M, mentally and physically disabled
adults and homeless people placed by social
service agencies.
By the mid 1980s, with Manhanan's real
estate market heating up again, the 735-room
Art Deco giant began to look very attractive to
speculators. So when Father Bruce Ritter and
Covenant House stepped forward in 1984 and
bought the Times Square for $17 million, ten
ants breathed a sigh of relief. Surely one of the
most prestigious charities in New York Ciry, a
charity that advertised the property as "a hotelwith a heart," would be a model landlord.
But Covenant House was blunt about its
intentions to resell the hotel and neighboring
properties for profit, hoping to create a tidyendowment for the charity. As evictions mount
ed and permanent tenants decreased by attri
tion, upset tenants began calling City Limits.
Housing advocates and community leaders
joined the outcry; Beth Gorrie of the Coalition
for the Homeless labeled Father Ritter "the
Simon Legree of nonprofit hotel management."
By 1985, Covenant House was bleeding
about $3 million a year. The charity began
packing the rooms with often-raucous students
from abroad-sometimes up to six to a room
-and homeless families.
Control of the hotel eventually went to bank
ruptcy court, which made the astonishing decision to appoint Tran Dinh Truong-the city's
most notorious SRO hotel landlord-to run the
Times Square. Truong wasted no time in raping
the hotel, packing more and more homeless
families-300 by 1990-into the hotel's tiny
single rooms. Predictably, mayhem ensued.
"It was inhuman," Gloria Senger remem
bers of the Truong years. "Gangs of children
roamed the hallways. They set fires in the halls,
they attacked people and tried to rob them.
People were injured and knocked down. The
kids would break the light bulbs so the hall
ways were quite dark. They ripped the phones
out. The elderly people really feared them, andthey wouldn't come out of their rooms."
During those terrible years, many tenants
fled, were forced out or died. No one knows
what became of Mrs. M.
In the early 19805, Rosanne Haggerty was
fresh out of college, volunteering with run
away teens at Covenant House. In those
days, Father Riner-lionized by President Rea
gan as an "unsung American hero"-was wide
ly revered. But Haggerty was troubled by the
charity. She left the organization, signed on
with Catholic Charities and began working on
her first housing project-turning a former
Catholic school into supportive SRO housing.
But her thoughts kept returning to the 15-
story, 735-room hotel at the corner of 43rd and
Eighth . The idea of creating a large-scale SRO
intrigued Haggerty, and she began brainstorm
ing with other housing developers and activists,
formulating ideas that could work in such a
large building. Their solution: a robust mix of
incomes, supportive services, good security,
commercial development and a high standard
of renovation.
When the Times Square went on the auction
block in 1988, Haggerty convinced New York
Times executives, the Shubert Organization,
Times Square Redevelopment leaders and local
community boards to give the project theirblessings. With community leaders eager to
support the redevelopment, she was able to pur
chase the hotel "in an amazingly quick period."
The next year was painful, as Haggerty
uncovered "Third World conditions" at the
Times Square Hotel. Of the remaining 200 or
so permanent tenants, a couple were home
bound and desperately in need of services.
"There were people whose ceilings had col
lapsed around them," she recalls. "There were
people with active TB, cancer sores, bedsores
infested with maggots."
To build trust, she immediately started pro
viding health care services. But it was a difficultperiod for many tenants, including the
Dwelling Place clients, as Common Ground
instituted monitoring practices-such as
guards and sign-in procedures-that some res-
idents found reassuring, and others, intrusive.
Gloria Senger admits to being skeptical
when Common Ground asked her to vacate
her studio so it could be repaired, and surprised
to find it freshly redone and ready for her. In
the bad old days, tenants often found such
promises were merely an excuse to get them
out of the room-and never let them back.
"Initially, people had trouble with the transi
tion. The trust level was very low," says SisterChiarello. "Common Ground had to work
hard in proving themselves."
In 1994, $32 million later, the hotel was
beautifully restored, right down to the
piano in the lobby. The Center for UrbanCommunity Services provides health and
social services. Rooms are comfortably fur
nished, with cooking facilities and private
baths. A Ben and Jerry's, a Papaya King and a
Starbucks provide both revenue and jobs fortenants. Amenities include a gym, darkroom,
art room, and lounges.
"The Times Square has an atmosphere tha
just and compassionate; it responds to the n
for low-income housing in a humane way," s
Sister Chiarello. She does offer one compla
Rooms at the Tunes Square Hotel are in h
demand, and "the vacancy rate is never that gr
We need more places like the Times Square."
But more places like the Times Square
erally couldn't be constructed today: Un
the city's building code, constructing new s
gle room occupancy hotels is against the l
Supportive housing must be carved out
existing buildings, or constructed in the fo
of small apartments, with their own ba
rooms, which translates into fewer units.
Of the small stock of large-scale SROs s
in existence, "they're all renting to tourissays Terry Poe of the Westside SRO Law P
ject, "and that's been the story of the la
hotels for the last nine years."
Only about 90 SROs ended up becom
supportive housing facilities like the Tim
Square; these now make up about half
total 183 supportive housing buildings in
city, estimates Maureen Friar of the Support
Housing Network. "What Common Grou
did was they combined special needs hous
with low-income housing, on a scale that h
previously not been thought possible," s
Friar, "and it worked!"
But what has been successful in the pdoesn't meet all of the needs of the future.
homeless shelters fill with record numbers
families, individual rooms with shared ba
rooms are not what they need. A better mod
say experts, are developments like the ju
begun Dorothy Day Apartments on 135th a
Riverside, a rehabilitated apartment build
that will house both single people and famili
If supportive housing for families is to thri
its builders will once again have to look to bu
ings that are no longer suitable for their origi
purpose--where, as in Times Square, a nei
borhood's desire to rid itself of a physical bli
outweighs any aversion to new residents wspecial needs. Poe, for one, points out that ab
200 buildings in Harlem languish in limbo
the wake of the HUD mortgage scandal.
"I t could be for-profit affordable housi
or public housing, but we have to go where
available housing stock is," says Friar. "T
great thing about supportive housing is t
it's an evolving model that can change with
times." •
Beverly Cheuvront was editor of City Lim
from 1987 to 1988.
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Homesteaders Federal
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DECEMBER 2001
THERE IS
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But there is free
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Not10r-profits, community groups
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I n the summer of 1998, more than 2,000
property owners in Bedford-Stuyvesant,
each at least three years behind on their
property taxes, gOt a nasty reminder of their
predicament: a letter saying the city would
soon sell their tax debt ro a private collection
agency. If they didn't payo ff their debts, the
clock to foreclosure would start ticking.
Homeowners' panic intensified when the
Daily News published a lengthy list of tax-delin
quent properties-including their homes. Del
uged by their nervous phone calls, local city coun
cilmember Annette Robinson hosted a commu
nity meeting, which drew about 600 people.
"It had put a real scare in a lot of Bed-Stuy
homeowners," remembers Deb Howard, direc
tor of homeowner services with the Pratt Area
Community Council, who was at the meeting.
"There were a lot of senior homeowners there.
A lot of widows there. "City officials tried to calm attendees, assur
ing them that they wouldn't immediately lose
their homes. They had several weeks to pay
back the city so that their tax debt, called a lien,
wouldn't be sold. Even if the lien were sold,
they would still have a year or more to pay back
the collection agency. But i f they couldn't come
up with the cash eventually, officials did warn,
the foreclosure process would begin.
How could these homeowners get cash in
16
time? The vast majority of attendees had built
up a tax debt because their monthly incomes
weren't enough to pay everything. Or they'd
been hit by a financial emergency, like medical
bills. Extra resources to pay thousands of dol
lars in tax debts didn't exist.
The answer, it turned out, was waiting for
them just our the front doors when the meet
ing ended. "Right outside, there must have
been 30 guys with quick-cash flyers waiting,"
remembers Howard. "It was like the sharks sur
rounding the fish."
The men were representatives of mortgage
companies that specialize in loaning money ro
low-income homeowners. Through a dizzying
array of added fees, high interest rates and hid
den payments-practices that add up to the
phenomenon known as predatory lending
many of these brokers profit by taking advantage
of desperate consumers. Homeowners facing thelo ss of their homes through an unyielding
process like tax lien sales are the perfect mark.
T he city began its tax lien sales program
in 1996, as a way to avoid the time-con
suming process of collecting debt and
the expensive route of taking over and running
the properties of owners who just won't, or
can't, pay up. The city now pools together all
the unpaid liens, and sells the debt to a private
trust. The trust's investors don't actually bu
the liens themselves. They buy bonds, whi
are paid back with interest as the debts are co
lected. And "tax liens" doesn't fully describe t
effort's scope; the liens include not only ba
property taxes but unpaid water and sewer bi
as well as charges for emergency sidewalk clea
ing, boiler repair and other city services.
The city and the private co llection agen
have only one mandate-getting the money
soon as possible. They've met that goal: Sin
1996, most liens have been paid off. "The pr
gram's been so successful," says John Chilson, t
managing director of JER Revenue Services, t
collection agency, in a recent interview. "No o
took us seriously at first, but now we can tell th
appreciate the sense of urgency." This innovati
approach-to this day, no other city in the wor
has a program that rivals the size or scope of Ne
York' s -has been a fiscal success, raising mothan $895 rnillion in the past six years.
Bur this huge enterprise has been anythin
but a boon for low-income homeowners. Th
city's new debt collection system treats all pro
erty owners the same-it's pay up, or face
foreclosure auction. As a way out, the eviden
suggests, the poorest property owners ha
sought quick cash.
"You have to ask who's won and who's lost
says Sarah Ludwig, executive director of th
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Neighborhood Economic Development Advo
cacy Project. ''A lot of money has been made
through the securitization, but that doesn't
help little old ladies. The city has to examine
the public policy implication for this program
on low-income seniors."Among the 31,000 liens sold, approximate
ly 7,500 come from small homes, each with
one to four families living in them. One of
those occupants is usually the owner. Their
debts usually range from just several thousand
dollars to as much as $25,000. For these thou
sands of homeowners, from Bushwick to
Jamaica to Cypress Hills and beyond, tax lien
sales have provided a shock just like the one
that scared those Bed-Stuy residents.
Homeowner cowlselors in those neighbor
hoods says that increasingly, the fear of tax fore-
closure is driving many of their clients to consid
er increasing their indebtedness, no matter whatthe terms. Already, the number of borrowers
more than three months behind on their Fed
eral Housing Administration mortgages-fed
erally guaranteed loans targeted at middle- and
low-income buyers-rose more than 30 per
cent last year to 10 percent of all mortgages in
New York City, the highest rate in the nation.
Last year, the city also saw a 10 percent jump
in the number of foreclosure proceedings initi
ated. In that light, homeowners' actions in the
face of tax lien troubles concern counselors.
"People are using their home's equity to payoff
their tax debts," observes Herman de Jesus, a
community organizer and homeowner counselorfor the Cypress Hill Development Corporation.
"It's the quickest way to get money, but they're
jeopardizing their homes."
As she counsels homeowners during her work
as an attorney with Legal Services for the Elderly
in Queens, Kim Madden has seen her clients fall
behind on their property taxes for many reasons.
One senior citizen client had been in and out of
the hospital for years, and couldn't pay a $5,000tax lien. Another client was disoriented by
Alzheimer's, and just ignored her tax bills. "These
are seniors who have lived in their homes for 40
or 50 years," observes Madden.
There's another reason, counselors say, thathomeowners can end up behind on their taxes:
They don't know they're supposed to pay them.
That's what happened to Margaret Bailey. The
widow had paid off her mortgage in the early
1990s, and, because most mortgages include
automatic tax payments, she then mistakenly
believed that she didn't need to start payingtaxes. As she stretched her budget thin helping
her grandchildren attend college, the St. Albans
resident ignored tax bills that began to arrive.
DECEMBER 2001
the time she realized she needed to pay, a
hen on her home was sold, in 1998, for about
$22,00? B o y ~ that high interest really got
everything ternbly out of place," says Bailey,
who gives her age as "over 80."
Bailey realized that she needed to get
together the cash or she would lose her home.
During this time, she says several aggressive
lenders approached her: "Some crooked guys
tried to lead me down the primrose path," Bai
ley remembers. "They saw an old lady they
could scam." The senior slammed the door on
the lenders because she knew to avoid predato
ry loans from volunteering with a local com
munity organization. Instead, she decided to
cash some stock she owned: "It was my retire
ment money," she says ruefully. "But I couldn't
lose my home, or I'd be a bag lady. What, am I
going to live in some SRO?"
"It was my
retirement
money," says
homeowner
Margaret Bailey.
"But I couldn't
lose my home,or I'd be a
bag lady."
Any small slip-up in tax payments can
become a big problem quickly. On a modest
two-family house in a poor neighborhood,
property taxes are about $1,200 to $1,500 per
year. But the city's 18 percent imerest, com
pounded daily, causes tax debt to balloon
quickly if unpaid-three years of unpaid
$1,500 tax bills, for example, grow to $6,519.
T he city's first tax lien sales, in 1996, didn't
touch homeowners. Nearly 4,500 liens
were sold, but all were either from apart
ment buildings, commercial properties or vacant
lots. With housing advocates and City Council
members skeptical of these new market-basedtax collection Strategies, city officials were better
off without stories of homeowners being booted.
''They didn't want to put little old ladies out of
their houses," says one knowledgeable observer
of the tax lien sales process. "Who knows i
was good policy or just public relations?"
The city stressed in the early stages of
tax hen sales program that the impact on re
dential properties would be minimal. The cdepartment of Housing Preservation a
Development would develop an "early wa
ing" system to make sure that vulnerable proerties were excluded from the process.
Despite these assurances, 2,356 liens we
sold on one- to four-family homes the follo
ing year. Thousands more would follow in su
sequent years. The city and JER have run eig
tax lien sales, each of which involves hundreof properties, since 1996.
At least two momhs before each sale, t
city compiles a list of those homes with at lea
three years' worth of debt (as opposed to o
year for larger apartment buildings or comme
cial properties) . When the liens are sold, ]ER
multibillion-dollar company specializing
managing ttoubled assets for government an
private industry, takes over debt collection. Th
company is paid through a 5 percent fee addewhen a lien is sold.
]ER first tries to convince a homeowner
pay at least the first six mon ths of interest o
their lien. If there is no payment or effort
set up a short-term installment plan in the fir
six months, the foreclosure process begin
That process lasts anywhere from one year
several, culminating in a court-supervise
property auction.
With that long timeline, the ultimate cosequence of many of the roughly 7,500 lie
sold on homes since 1996 is unknown. B
one thing is certain: Few properties have act
al ly been auctioned, just 24 homes, accordin
to ]ER. On the remainder of the propertie
about 40 percent of the liens had been pa
off as of August of last year, according
numbers compiled by the City Council. Th
remaining 59 percent were classified as "
collection," meaning that either the debt
being paid off, or the foreclosure process
ongoing or may soon begin.
Even when the homeowners are able
make the payments, troubling questioabound. No one knows how many took o
high-interest loans to payoff their liens, or ho
many of the thousands of liens still in colle
tion could ultimately end up in foreclosure.
What is clear is which neighborhoods w
live with the results of the city's initiative.
housing advocates' suspicions are correct, an
the tax lien sales squeeze is pushing homeow
ers to take out predatory loans, the cons
quences cou ld be apparent only yea rs fro
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now, with a wave of foreclosures in low
income neighborhoods.The Neighborhood Economic Develop
ment Advocacy Project has mapped where
homes have had liens that had entered inro theforeclosure process. "There's an overwhelming
concentration of tax liens in poor minority
neighborhoods, " observes Ludwig. "And
they're the same neighborhoods where we see
predatory loans flourish."
Predatory lending is just the ugly corner
of a huge market in lending to borrow
ers with less-than-perfect credit; what
the industry calls sub prime lending. From
1993 to 1998, the number of sub-prime home
loans grew by 760 percenr, compared with a 38
percent jump in regular home loans. Predatory
loans are sub-prime loans with particularly
high interest rates, hidden fees and unnecessary
charges that maximize ptofits for the lendingcompanies while swelling the loan payments of
the borrower.
Taking out predatory mortgages is often the
death knell for struggling homeowners. The
financial difficulties that led them to sub-prime
loans in the first place do not go away, and the
loan brings unnecessarily high mortgage pay
ments, crippling their budgets. Many mort
gage-ho lders miss paymenrs within JUSt a few
months, leading to the beginning of foreclosure.
18
The mortgage lending industry conrends
that predatory loans are an exaggerated prob
lem, sold only by renegade street-level b r o k e r ~ . That claim was significantly undermined earh
er this year, however, when an assistant branchmanager who worked for Citigroups's sub
prime division for more than five years ~ t l ~ d sworn affidavit in federal court. Gatl Kubllllecs
testimony detailed exactly how her firm sought
to add as many fees as possible to each loan,
regardless of the borrower's ability to pay back:
"I and other employees would often determine
how much insurance could be sold to a bor
rower based on the borrower's occupation, race,
age, and education level. If someone appeared
uneducated, inarticulate, was a minority, or
was particularly old or young, I would try to
include all the coverages CitiFinanciai offered. "
Those salesmen waiting outside the Bed
Stuy information meeting were engaging in the
classic predatory lending marketing technique:identifYing and targeting low-income home
owners who desperately need cash. Advocates
who counsel homeowners with tax liens tell of
numerous other tactics, not just blanketing
homeowners with mailings, phone calls and
aggressive door-to-door sales, but also offers of
premium gifts: Get a free color TV at the clos
ing of your new mortgage!
What makes tax lien sales ripe territory for
unscrupulous lenders is that this little-known
program is actually very public. ~ g r e s s i v elenders already make a habn of tracking pub
lished lists of foreclosures as a source for cus
tomers. Now, they do the same with tax lie
sales. When the city prepares to sell unpaid ta
liens to ]ER, a list of every property owing bac
taxes is published in the Daily News, and sever
al ethnic newspapers, not once, but twice. Tha
list is also downloadable from the city Depar
menr of Finance web site. Once JER initiate
the foreclosure process, the action shows up o
public real estate databases. "At every step i
tax lien sales," concludes Eduardo Canedo
until recently on staff at the Foreclosure Pr
vention Project at South Brooklyn Legal Se
vices, "unscrupulous lenders are informed of
great opportunity to take advantage of hom
owners in financial trouble."
T he inflammatory combination of homowners desperate to raise cash to payo
tax debts and a flourishing industry th
feeds off those fears has seemingly gone unn
ticed by those who run the tax lien sales pr
gram. When questions are raised to th
Department of Finance, which administers t
collection, they respond by pointing proudly
the informational office they've set up, call
[he tax lien sales ombudsman, and their wi
ingness to set up payment plans with indebte
homeowners. However, those mechanism
have proven to be woefully inadequate .
Last yea r, the tax lien ombudsman receiv
28,651 inquiries, 12,279 of which came frosenior citizens. The power of the ombudsman
office, however, is very limited-its main role
to make sure the taxpayer understands th
process. At most, they fix problems on the ra
occasions that a property owner is incorrect
billed. They can set up payment plans, b
those typically cover a year or two, rare
enough time for a cash-poor homeowner
payoff thousands in debt. They can't negotia
how much is owed, or even their interest rate
"Their program doesn't help anyone I'v
ever come across, because my homeowne
can't pay that large a payment," says Stor
Russell, the director of Jamaica HousinImprovement, Inc., which co unsels and hel
organize homeowners and tenants. "I f they d
have that kind of money, they wouldn't ha
fallen behind on their taxes in the first place.
Others have been less than impressed
Finance's ability to provide homeowners wi
the information they need to make soun
fmancial decisions. Madden tells of one despe
ate dienr who owed JER thousands of dollar
and who was on the verge of losing her home
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foreclosure. In the several years since the first
lien was sold, she had also accumulated thou
sands more in unpaid tax bills. The woman
went to Finance, which urged her to pay the
new taxbill-presumably
the only debtof
hers listed in the agency's computers. The
woman had a small savings, and she almost
used it to pay the newer debt. Madden was
able to stop her, and convince her to use her
few resources to payoff the older debt, the
JER lien, to avoid foreclosure. She still can't
believe that Finance didn't realize that the
woman was on the verge of losing her home.
"The city didn't even know the other lien had
been sold," says Madden. "She would have
paid a bill and still lost her house. "
Similarly, JER has little in place for home
owners with trouble paying back their debt.
They too tout their informational and payment plans, but, again, there's no negotiating
the amount of debt. OER will do installment
plans for up to three years, but most are short
er.) JER stresses that because it is contractual
ly obligated to the city to collect the debts, it
can't be more flexible. Still, many homeowners
try to negotiate. "They often want to," said
Chilson. "There's a lot of gamesmanship, a lot
of people trying to play the system."Madden says she's found it harder to talk to
JER on behalf of her clients t11an it is to nego
tiate with predatory lenders. "The servicer is
very inflexible," she says. "They really general
ly don't see any point in negotiating. It's hard
for me as an attorney to even know what to say
to them. At least wim predatory lenders,
mey're afraid oflawsuits and bad publicity."
With little flexibility from me debt collec
tors, even small lien amounts can be devastat
ing. Last year, de Jesus with the Cypress Hill
Development Corporation had a visit from a
senior citizen client who had a $6,000 tax lien
mat was about to be so ld to JER. The client
had paid off his mortgage, but lived on only
$200 a monm, so he couldn't afford his tax
bill. "They could have foreclosed on the
$200,000 property to get just $6,000 back,"
remembers de Jesus. "Luckily, we were able to
get him a loan through me Parodneck Foundation," which, wim support from HPD ,
helps bailout certain homeowners.
In theory, the most vulnerable housing
properties aren't even supposed to be in the tax
lien sales program. HPD pays neighborhood
groups to keep track of troubled properties in
their communities, including examining mecondition of buildings mat face tax lien sales,
to help the city decide whether the property
should be pulled out of the lien-sale list. One
DECEMBER 2001
of those groups is Jamaica Housing Improve
ment, Inc. Russell commends the city agency
for the level of sc rutiny they apply to the troubled buildings-"They're very much con
cerned with how we 're rating the properties .
seling, technical assistance and loans. "HP
supposed to develop a treatment plan, burnever seen one," says Russell, whose gr
counsels about 200 distressed homeown
each year. "Sometimes I'm not even sure w
Dangerous Intersection
Brooklyn is a hub for both tax debts and predatory lending, with several neighborhoods filled
mostly with low-income homeowners. When they have trouble making their tax payments,
predatory lenders descend, offering the homeowners quick cash but long-term headaches.
This map shows which neighborhoods- Bed -Stuy, Bushwick and Crown Heights-are the testing grounds for the city's grand tax lien experiment.
• Properties where a ax lien of less than $30,000 caused a foreclosure process to begin .
_ Ne ighborhoods where sub-prime endersmake more han half of all home ref inancing loans.
They are interested in any suggestions we cangive them to make meir program better."
we do the surveys. I have no idea whetherhelps the homeowner. "
However, Russell and participants from
other neighborhood groups are less impressed
wim what HPD does next. The agency claims
mat for excluded properties, it develops a
treatment plan, including homeowner coun-
It may take yea rs to figure out if tax li
sales can be an effective fiscal policy wi
out unnecessarily harming residents
Continued on page
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g~ W 1 / ; ~ ~ [ t J L " I I D n m ~ ~ ~ ~
CRUMBLE in the BRONXRecovering from a management meltdown, Banana Kelly faces its biggest challenge yet
Winning back the trust of the people it works for. By Robin Le Baron
Fve years ago, Sandra Addison and her three
children moved from a homeless shelter into
991 Union Avenue, a building owned by the
South Bronx community group Banana Kelly.
Addison liked her new home, with its spacious
living room and wood floors, and she painted the
walls with eggshell blue trim. She attended ten
ant meetings, and, with encouragement fromBanana Kelly staff, became a tenant leader, advo
cating for her neighbors and her building.
She had some very good experiences with
Banana Kelly. A counselor helped talk her
through a difficult period of her life. Another
worker organized parties and field trips for
children. At Christmas, she and her neighbors
competed with families on other floors to see
who could create the best-decorated hallway.
And yet, sitting at her dining room rabie,
20
Addison frowns as she talks about her experi
ence. She's had an intermittently functioning
boiler, a bedroom too cold for sleep in the win
ter, and her neighbors' stoves and fridges stood
broken for months. During a rainstorm , she
and the super deployed six garbage cans under
huge roof leaks in a vacant apartment ro keep
the water from pouring through the floor andonto the tenants living below. "You have an
apartment with half the ceiling falling down
and fungus growing on the walls," she recalls.
But it wasn't only the conditions in the build
ing that made her skeptical about the group that
owned it. She says that after working with
Banana Kelly for several years, she began to feel
they would start programs and make promises
that were never delivered, like opening commu
nity spaces and a laundry room in her building.
Eventually, she came to distrust their intention
"1 used to go to bat for Banana Kelly," sh
says. "I would have put my life on the line. B
now .." She falls silent. Although another com
munity group has assumed management respon
sibilities for her building, Addison says she
worried by the fact that Banana Kelly is still i
owner. Inspired by a cooperatively run buildinon the block, she says that she and some of h
neighbors are now trying to find some way t
rake over the building and run it themselves .
Addison is one of hundreds of residen
who have worked with Banana Kel
through the past 20 years to help them
selves and rebuild their Bronx neighborhood
Longwood. Formed by residents determined t
save their block from arson and abandonmen
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Banana Kelly came to symbolize the power of
ordinary people, with little but a collective
vision, to take control of their surtoundings and
remake them. Foundations and governmentsfrom around the world have praised the group
for its successes-not just in developing housing
and providing social services, but for bringing
residents together to rebuild a devastated area.
"We wanted to be owners. We wanted the
people always to have a say in what happened
in their buildings and what they did with their
lives and what happened in their community,"
says former executive director Yolanda Rivera,
who remains chair of the board. "I think the
organization has always kept to that vision."
Over the past few years, however, things have
gone seriously wrong for Banana Kelly. Its mar
quee economic development project-a paperrecycling mill projected to create hundreds of
jobs-fell apart. Key staff were fired amid a bit
ter public dispute and allegations of mismanage
ment. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in
unpaid property taxes and debts to vendors
attracted intense public scrutiny, including
inquiries by the FBI and the state attorney gen
eral. Early this year the Local Initiatives Support
Coporation (LISC), citing serious management
problems, assumed control of 14 buildings that
it had helped Banana Kelly develop.
The group is taking energetic steps to right
itself. This past March, it voluntarily transferred
responsibilities for running its remaining buildings to the South East Bronx Community Orga
nization (SEBCO) , a neighboring nonprofit
agency, which has agreed to manage them for a
five-year period. Now, it is attempting to trans
fer much of its energy to social services and
related programs. This October, it got $500,000
from the Department of Housing and Urban
Development for a program to train youth in
construction skills. "People in general want us to
survive and want us to win," says Rivera. She
says that over the past year, Banana Kelly has
been reaching out and talking with residents of
the neighborhood about the direction they
would like to see the organization take.But residents' reactions to recent events
appear more complicated. Many are grateful
for the housing and services, but they also voice
the sortS of concerns raised by Sandra Addison.
They say that they feel that Banana Kelly has
betrayed its trust with the community. "I start
ed out believing, and I became disillusioned,"
says Tina Graves, a resident of Banana Kelly's
building at 1297 Hoe Avenue, who worked in
the organization's property management divi
sion for about five years during the mid 1990s.
DECEMBER2001
"A lot of promises were made to the communi
ty, and none of them were ever delivered. "
"Banana Kelly doesn't represent us ," says
Ricky Flores, who lived at 788 Fox Street whenthe organization began working with his build
ing two decades ago. "I honestly don't know of
anyone who has a good word for them ."
But more than anything, it was housing con
ditions that drove a wedge between Banana Kelly
and local residents. After years of watching their
buildings deteriorate, many residents say they
distrust the group and its motives. Marta Rivera,
who lives in a Banana Kelly-owned building on
Home Street, says that water comes through the
walls of her building when it rains. 'There is a
huge roof leak and the walls of the stairwells are
crumbling, " she says. When contractors installed
her windows during a renovation, they left a holethat she could stick her hand through.
At 750 Bryant Avenue, anger at Banana
Anger reached such
a pitch that residents
flung eggs
at a property
manager's carwhen she visited.
Kelly reached such a pitch that the residents
flung eggs at the property manager's car when
she visited the building-and this was a man
ager whom tenants say they personally liked.
As Banana Kelly rebuilds, it now also faces the
challenge of reconstructing relations with com
munity residents. It may have a task ahead of it
every bit as challenging as its original effort to
reclaim the neighborhood. "Yolanda Rivera says:
'It's a new era, you're going to have to give me achance.' But Banana Kelly has been in transition
for a decade," says Marta Rivera. "You mention
Banana Kelly and people want to kill you."
Bnana Kelly was born during the late 1970s,
in the crucible of the South Bronx. Arson
and abandonment had laid waste to vast
swaths of the borough, and was still consuming
new buildings daily. By 1980, two-thUds of the
people who had been living in the Longwood area
a decade earlier had fled. Those who remained
struggled in a wne where the city governm
had effectively ceased providing services.
It soon became clear that if anything wa
be done they would have to do it themselvehandful of local residents and one commi
outsider started discussing ways to fight
destruction. Inspired by the efforts of a nea
sweat equity project, they decided to tr y to
their block of Kelly Street. They began
clearing a vegetable garden on a vacant lot.
draw in the community and build supp
they held block parties and other social eve
''At that time, Banana Kelly and the neighb
hood were one," recalls Felicia Colon, w
joined in the spring of 1978 as a bookkee
and remained with the organization for alm
13 years. "Our first Thanksgiving we had a
dinner. People of the neighborhood came aeverybody cooked something."
During these years, Banana Kelly was c
trolled by the community simply because alm
no one else was involved. The organization
on volunteer and minimally paid labor, und
taking only projects that those people-alm
all local residents-wanted to see accomplish
Their flfst major ambition was to rescue th
abandoned buildings on Kelly Street. Memb
poured their own labor into the project, hop
to eventually take title to the buildings and live
the apartments they were fixing as cooperat
owners. "It was like now with the World Tr
Center disaster--everyone was pitching in," sPearl White, who moved into one when th
were finished. ''At the end of the day we'd hav
potluck dinner and we'd all sit down togethe
the middle of the floor. It was lovable."
But after just a few years, the early spirit
cooperation began to succumb to other pr
sures. As it became clear that the effort to
cue the three abandoned buildings was s
ceeding, Banana Kelly gained public attenti
new support and more resources. Flush w
success, the fledgling organization tackled n
projects as fast as it could in a headlong rush
preserve and revive the neighborhood. It beg
fixing other buildings, spearheaded a driveconvert a large stretch of rubble into a pa
trained local youth in construction skills a
took on many other smaller tasks.
These myriad projects left Banana Kelly r
tively little time to carry out large-scale comm
nity organizing efforts or incorporate reside
into the organization in a systematic w
Instead, as the group took on increasingly co
plex endeavors, it became more hierarchical a
professional , relying more on paid staff and
on volunteer support. Within just five ye
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"our organizers had become our managers; our
vo lunteers had become our employees; our
members had become our clients," Harold
DeRienzo, the oganization's first executive direc
tor, later concluded in a City Limits op-ed piece.Under the leadership of its next director,
Getz Obstfeld, Banana Kelly grew to be one of
New York's preeminent community developers,
rehabilitating city-owned buildings, and later
redeveloping vacant buildings with federal hous
ing tax credit funds. By the end of the 1980s,
Banana Kelly had helped rehabilitate over 25
buildings, artracted services, including the first
new health clinic in decades, and provided sup
port and encouragement to hundreds of proper
ty owners, local employers and residents.
Colon and other staff believe the group
retained strong resident backing. "I would say 90
percent of the people supported Banana Kelly,"she says. Many locals who remember the organi
zation from a decade ago echo this sentiment.
"We liked Getz. He was on the money-he
worked with you," recalls Helen Linton, a tenant
at 850 Southern Boulevard who, with Banana
Kelly's help, turned her building into a co-op.
Much of the neighborhood support was nurtured by the group's organizing staff. "We
attempted to merge organizing and development
work," Obstfeld recalls. "We chose small projects
with big impacts." During the late 1980s,
Banana Kelly spearheaded a campaign against
the Transit Authority's plan to close the Intervale
Avenue train station.It
cleaned up some of theworst drug buildings in the neighborhood.
Others, however, felt that organizing was
already being subordinated to development.
"Banana Kelly's model was, 'Don't move,
improve,'" says New York ACORN executive
director Bertha Lewis, who worked at Banana
Kelly as an organizer during Obstfeld's years.
"It was to teach people to control their neigh
borhood. But the next thing, Banana Kelly was
holding the bag. More and more, Banana Kelly
became a sponsor. There were less and less
actions, and more and more development."
Over time, serious tensions developed. Obst
feld, like DeRienzo, was a white man ftom out
side the Bronx, and some people active in the
organization felt this was inappropriate. By late
1991, Obstfeld resigned-under pressure, many
observers believe, from the board of directors.Yolanda Rivera, chair of the board, took over
as executive director. Rivera had grown up in the
South Bronx and had years of experience as a
tenant advocate and housing administrator. She
assumed control of Banana Kelly's day-to-day
operations with the intent of returning the orga
nization to its community roots.
22
Rvera inherited not only the r e s ~ o n s i b i l i -ties of a large landlord, but fairly new
commitments as a social service provider.
During the late 1980s, with homelessness on
the rise through the city, Banana Kelly agreedto provide housing for a number of families
who had gone through the city's shelter system.
The new residents were very poor, and had no
ties to the neighborhood or longstanding loyal
ty to Banana Kelly. Some had serious substance
abuse problems. Integrating them into the
neighborhood was a formidable task.
Recognizing the potential problems, the
city and other funders began to offer Banana
Kelly and other community groups more
money for social programs-for Banana Kelly,
at least $6 million from the city alone starting
in 1991. By the time Rivera assumed control of
the agency that year, Banana Kelly had begunto develop a range of programs-in early child
hood education, drug counseling, immuniza
tion, assistance to families with developmental
ly disturbed children, and more.
More recently, about 60 tenants have been
receiving rent subsidies and counseling
through a federal program that helps them get
on their feet after periods of incarceration,
homelessness or substance abuse. After years
of struggling with drug addiction , domestic
violence, and homelessness, Luz Acevedo was
able to secure an apartment and rental sub
sidy. Says Acevedo, sitting on trim a red couch
in her sparkling apartment, "Banana Kellysaved my life."
Rivera chose to hire local residents who
could work with their neighbors as peers. The
strategy paid off-some staff forged close con
nections with residents. Banana Kelly 's commu
nity workers spent hours at tenants' kitchen
tables, charting and laughing, but also helping
with a range of serious issues-how to navigate
the city's welfare bureaucracy, where to find
help going to school, how to recover children
temporarily removed from their care, and so on.
"Wonderful things came out of Banana
Kelly, " says Mavelin Morales, a former director
of Banana Kelly's social service department,
who was responsible for developing several of
the agency's programs. "The agency was giving
to the community at a certain point. The peo
ple received case management, they received
support groups, they received recreationalactivities. There was child development, leader
ship training, housing." Hiring residents was a
contribution in its own right. "People from the
community were able to get jobs," Morales
says . "Banana Kelly did wonderful trainingsand sent the staff to get training. There was an
opportuni ty for community residents to gro
There's no question social services h
helped build ties between the organization a
local res idents. But by themselves, these eff
were not enough to make residents empowe
partners in rebuilding a neighborhood, or to g
them active influence within the organization
The steady dissolution of the ten
involvement that had been the organizatio
hallmark might have been reversed throu
efforts aimed at helping residents develop a c
lective voice. In the early 1990s, organizer C
los Permell received Rivera's go-ahead to
exactly that. His plan was to develop a ten
consortium that could act as a channel of co
munication between the organization and t
ants. Although he had first learned to organ
with the Industrial Areas Foundation, wh
taught him the confrontational tactics popu
ized by Saul Alinsky, Permell attempted a d
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and its tenants are
still standing despitetorrents of leaks and
intermittent heat.
ferent approach mis time. Permell says that he
wanted the consorrium ro work as a forum
where tenants and Banana Kelly could work
our problems rogemer and cooperate on pro
jects of imporrance ro me entire neighborhood.
"I t was not just about challenging management
but being me eyes and ears of me community,"
Permell says. "We had a few meetings and it
was going great-building contacts, talkingabout what's happening in the community."
But after several meetings, Banana Kelly
management backed away from me project.
Permell remembers Rivera and omer leaders
walking out of a meeting after being criticized
by residents over building conditions. After
mat, the consorrium project was shelved.
Over me following years, staff periodically
attempted ro build omer tenant associations.
But mese efforts never succeeded for long.
Banana Kelly leadership could never decide
DECEMBER 2001
whemer or how me associations should deal
with the maintenance problems mat were,
increasingly, tenants' central concern.
One place where residents might have
had a meaningful voice in Banana Kelly
was through its board of direcrors-a
mix of local residents and outside, usually pro
fessional, supporrers. But conversations withresidents of Banana Kelly-run buildings indicat
ed that many, probably most, had no knowl
edge abour me agency's board of direcrors. "I
never heard anyrhing about me board, never,"
one says emphatically. "I f1 had known, I would
have tried ro go ro see, because I as a person
would want ro know about what's going on."
Rivera says mat ro mis day, me board has
always remained strong and active. For meir
part, however, many board members, observers,
and former Staff say mat mey memselves had
little power or influence over the organizat
Pearl White, on me board from Obstf
days until very recently, says me changes
unmistakable. "When Getz was mere,"
White, "There were fmancial reports and bup for what was going on in me buildings.
talked about what was needed, and where
were." After Rivera assumed control, a
White, meetings became much less informat
and board comrnitrees were virtually inactiv
Omer board members voiced similar o
ions. "Nothing got done at mese so-called 'm
ings,' recalls one former member who reque
anonymity. "Noming ever got discussed. "
Julie Levine, who served as a board mem
for about half a year in me mid 1990s, resig
when asked ro vote for proposals ro incr
Rivera's salary and pay her taxes. She says
received the strong impression mat me bowas serving as a rubber stamp. Levine says
experience on me board radically changed
opinions about Banana Kelly. "When meyas
me ro be a board member I said I'd be honore
she says. "I really bought into all of it. " Bu
me time she resigned, she wanted noming m
ro do wim me organization. "Banana K
should not be a legend," she concludes.
The decline of organizing efforts and
board effectively weakened most local reside
voice within me agency. If Banana Kelly
been running trouble-free operations, m
might not have matrered. But instead, reside
lost influence at a time when me groupexperiencing increasingly serious troubles.
Bme mid 1990s, Banana Kelly was m
aging 41 properties scattered mrough
Longwood and Hunts Point-afforda
and in some cases very decent accommodati
for about a mousand households. But by me
was clear mat some buildings were experienc
serious maintenance problems. Tenants reco
a litany of horrors: recurrent leaks, buck
floors, boilers down for days or weeks du
me winter, public lights shut off and drug t
ficking. And mey agree mat it was extrem
difficult ro get Banana Kelly ro make repairs"We had a persistent leak where the to
was," recalls Flores, me former Fox Street t
ant. "I t was on and off for years. They wo
just make spot repairs, and mat was only if
continued ro call and complain. And the flo
were all warped because of water damage. T
was a typical experience there."
Anomer resident says mat me elevaror in
building would stay broken for weeks a
t ime-a great difficulty for me disabled peo
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Hedge CityBy Keith Kloor
WHEN TRAGEDY STRUCK the World Trade Cen
ter on September 11, elected officials, policy
makers and editorialists rallied for the rebuild
ing of Manhattan's financial district, urging as
one that Wall Street must be revived as the
engine ofNew York City's economy. "Anybody
who understands how integral financial ser
vices is to New York, anyone who understands
the way markets operate," said Public Advo
cate Mark Green before the Democratic may
oral runoff, "should know that you don't break
up Wall Street."
On September 10, however, Green and oth
ers-includingmany prominent business leaders-were singing a far different rune. Reduc
ing the city's dependence on Wall Street, they
warned, was essential to its long-term fiscal
health. In fact, it was the very capriciousness of
the stock market, with its boom and bust
cycles, that had municipal and real estate lead
ers alike cautioning in recent years to make itless "integral" to the city's fortunes.
To this end, it was only last June that the
Group of 35, an influential real estate and
business task force convened by Senator Chuck
Schumer, unveiled a carefully crafted blueprint
24
INTELLIGENCE
THE BIG IDEA
to create alternative business centers in Brook
lyn, Long Island City and midtown Manhat
tan's west side. And in 1999, Green was tout
ing his detailed 62-page plan to develop down
town Brooklyn as the metropolitan region's
third-largest central business district by 2015.So where does Green the Brooklyn-booster
stand today?When Ferrer proposed, during the
runoff campaign, to rebuild some of the office
space in other boroughs, Green assailed it as
"wrong and nalve."
Ferrer said only that "while Lower Manhat
tan must be rebuilt to have a critical mass of
finance and related industries, this is an oppor
tunity to pursue much-needed development
opportunities in the city outside Lower Man
hattan, including the other four boroughs."
But in the highly charged post-attack politi
cal climate, as Ferrer learned, it became verboten
to actually talk about steering displaced businesses to the outer boroughs. Somehow a con
sensus emerged--cutting across all political and
ideological boundaries-that Ferrer, as one
Daily News editorial put it, "would spread
downtown to other parts of the city . . . which
would evaporate the wealth, not spread it."
There's no disputing the economic fallout
from the WTC disaster, with the city facing a
potential loss of $100 billion and 100,000 jobs.
Wall Street alone accounts for 20 percent of the
city's total wages, according to the Fiscal Policy
Institute. "If we don't retain these jobs and the
tax revenue that comes from them," sa
Michael Schill, professor of law and urban po
cy at New York University, "the city w
encounter significant problems in the future. "
But when the reports by Green and t
Group of35 were unfurled, neither was billed
perceived as a means to "decentralize" W
Street-the charge that Green relentlessly h
Ferrer with during the Democratic mayor
runoff. Rather, they were meant to keep the c
from losing those vety same jobs. In recent yea
many Manhattan businesses have been fleeing
Jersey City and outlying suburbs, in search
larger office space and cheaper operating cos
All the big financial firms-such as Americ
Express, Morgan Stanley, and Chase-h
begun moving thousands of their workers out
the city well before September 11. To stem th
loss, Senator Schumer formed the Group of 3
and charged them with addressing New Yo
City's office shortage. Green's earlier study to
up the same concerns and focused on dow
town Brooklyn as a solution.
But that was a different rime and a differe
Mark Green. "I think it's fair to say that t
world changed on September 11," says Jerem
Ben-Ami, a Green spokesperson, "and that o
plans and strategies are now evolving to fit t
new reality."
SINCE THE FIRST WEEK of the World Tra
Center disaster, firms have been scramblingfind space in New Jersey, Long Islan
Westchester and elsewhere. While it's hard
tell where everyone will be once the cleanup
finished, a few facts had emerged by l
October. An October 22 analysis of long-te
leases taken by firms whose buildings w
damaged found that only 24 percent of t
total square footage was relocated to dow
town Manhattan; 26 percent was in Midtow
(most took space their companies alrea
leased or owned); and 25 percent of the to
square footage was either temporarily or p
manently rented in New Jersey, according
the real estate broker Tenanrwise.
Both Brooklyn and Queens captured
share of displaced businesses, but only a fe
says Tenanrwise CEO M. Myers Mermel. N
ther borough, to Mermel's knowledge, h
captured a single long-term tenant. "We
absorbing everything we can, but there 's a fu
damental difference berween us and Jers
City," says Kenneth Adams, president of t
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, alluding
the top-of-the-line office space that is mo
readily available across the Hudson.
A few firms haven't shied away from te
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porarily relocating to the boroughs. MetLife
started moving 962 Manhattan workers to
Queens a few weeks after September 11. But
MetLife was already working in Long IslandCity; the firm's plan to move anoth er 1,000
workers th ere in 2004 was in the works long
before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center. And compared to Brooklyn, Queens
In the
highly charged
post-attack
political climate ,as Ferrer
learned, it
became verboten
to talk about
steeringbusinesses
to the
outer boroughs.
was much better positioned and even more
open about courting displaced firms: Two days
after the destruction of the twin towers, the
official website of the Queens borough presi
dent, realtor-friendly Claire Shulman, wasposting an extensive list of Queens realtors for
businesses in need of immediate space, provid
ing contact information and the square-footage
available. "Our feeling is Long Island City is a
very good place to set up shop," MetLife
spokesman John Calagna told Newsday . "It's
convenient to public transportation and it 's in
New York City."
But while it may not have the political mus
cle or sheer square footage of Queens, down
town Brooklyn is an especially promising loca
tion, for reasons that Green himself outlined in
DECEMBER 2001
his report. It's got a major anchor in the
MetroTech offi ce complex, rich academic and
cultural institutions, vibrant surrounding resi
dential communities, a burgeoning commercial district and an excellent transportation hub
lin.king it in minutes to Wall Street.
That transit connection is Brooklyn's
biggest asset. It's also one the city could use to
keep jobs in th e metropolitan area: When the
Tri-State Transportati on Campaign cross- ref
erenced moving patterns of displaced firms
with transportation data, they found that
most firms had elected to move to "transit
connected" areas in New Jersey rather than
closer but less accessible locations like Long
Island and Connecticut. "Most employers,"
the campaign concluded, "credited the city's
remain.ing ferry and rail links to Manhattan aslarge factors in their decisions to locate offices
[in Jersey City]."
As workers continue their diaspora out of
Manhattan, now would seem the right time to
invest in public transportation, redevelop
ment initiatives and office space construction
in those expanded business districts the
Group of 35 proposes-including Brooklyn.
"You need to rebuild lower Manhattan," says
Eric Deutsch, executive director of the Group
of 35, "and still make the rest of the city a
viable market. "
But with emotions still raw and Washing
ton holding all the purse strings, nobody daressuggest that federal relief aid be funneled
towards economic growth in the outer bor
oughs. For the most part, officials across the
city are presenting a united front. Adams
thinks he knows why: "It's in the city's interest
to get the most federal aid for lower Manhat
tan," he says. "It's a much harder sell for the
other boroughs. And quite frankly, I don't
expect a congressman from Arkansas or Iowa to
understand the needs of downtown Brooklyn."
Thus, Brooklyn civic groups and municipal
officials are lying low these days, Adams says.
Nobody wants to rock the boat when the seas are
so choppy and unpredictable. "My impression isthat Brooklyn leaders are holding their tongues,"
he says. "It's too soon after the tragedy."
Eventually, Adams says, it will be appro
priate to push openly for alternative business
districts in the boroughs. "Our attitude is for
the city to get the money first, " he says , "and
then we ' ll step it up a notch or two. Brookl yn
will ultimately play a role in the rebuilding of
New York." •
Keith Kloor 1S a senior editor for Audubon
magazine.
INTELLIGENCE
THE BIG IDEA
NEW REPORTS
When Congress passed the Workforce Investment Act in 1998, it envisioned a completely
overhauled employee development system ,
culminating in dozens of streamlined "one-
stop " centers. It hasn 't quite worked out-
particularly in New York City, months behind
on its WIA deadlines, with only a single one-
stop in Jamaica and over $100 million in fed
eral funds unspent. This thorough and careful
report details why: lack of inter-agency cooper-
ation, impossible-to-meet performance mea-
sures and little private sector integration."Workforce Investment Act:
Better Guidance Needed to AddressConcerns over New Requirements "
General Accounting Office Available on
web: www.gao.govor 202-512-4800
It's pretty well known that about 40 million
Americans don 't have health insurance, that
the uninsured don 't receive very good health
care,and that most of the uninsured come from
working families . But this report 's strength is
how well it states the obvious: Rarely have those
facts and many others about the nation 'shealth
care crisis been so rigorously assembled, by a
NAS committee of respected academics.This is
the first part of six studies on health care
upcoming in the next two years-they're sure to
form the base of future campaigns urging
national health care coverage.
"Coverage Matters: Insurance and HeaJ/hCare"
NatXmIAcaJerrrtof heSciences
Available on web: www.nap.edu or 888-624-8373
Fnally, some accessible Census 2000 infor
mation on the Internet! If you've braved the
government's baffling census web site, this
easy-to-use accumulation of data, focusing
particularly on children, is awelcome alterna
tive. For New York City, there 's a wealth ofnumbers that can be downloaded , viewed as
charts, or compared to other cities. For exam-
ple, who would have guessed that diverse NYC
ranks 104th of 242 cities nationwide in the
number of children identified as belonging to
more than one race?
"I(jds Count: Census Oata Online"
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Available only on web:
httpJ/www.aecf.orglkidscount!census!
2
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INTELLIGENCE
CITY LIT
The Power Mediocre
By Michael Hirsch
The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York
by Vincent J. Cannato
Basic Books, 2001. 579 pages. $35.
IF 1960s POLITICS WERE A CATACLYSM, New
York City was the epicenter. A biography of
John Lindsay, the city's youthful photogenic lib
eral Republican mayor could tell a lot about the
juncture of city government and social move
ments in hard-or at least interesting-times.
But Vincent J. Cannato's The UngovernableCity: John Lindsay andHis Struggle to Save New
York is not about Lindsay, and even less about
cities. It's more an ideological hit on modern
liberalism, using our sainted incumbent mayor
as a template to judge another man and anoth
er time. By ignoring Lindsay and his era to
score political points, Cannato fails to shed any
light on our own. Despite its nearly 600-page
girth, Cannato's anecdotally rich but analytical
ly mendicant book offers little evidence of what
exactly Lindsay did wrong, as opposed to what
went wrong.
Commitment is
And yes, a lot went wrong. From a crip
pling transit strike the day he took office
and divisive battles over community con
trol of schools and scatter-site housing, to
a paralyzing snow storm, skirmishes with
former patron Nelson Rockefeller, and a
failed civilian-dominated police reviewboard he had stumped hard for, Lindsay
became a magnet for urban dissatisfaction,
and a symbol for the ills of a nation
especially its cities.
Yet it is never clear what narrative Can
nato is telling. In Cannato's world, context
is nothing: There are no failed federal hous
ing or lending programs, no police vio
lence, no intractable segregation, and no Nixon
era counter-intelligence efforts to subvert and
marginalize dissidents. The possibility that the
grinding and seemingly endless Vietnam War
had any economic or psychic impact on city po
icy or popular behavior doesn't seem to ha
occurred to him; likewise, he ignores the shift
national priorities from butter to guns, blithe
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unaware of its impact on jobs, patronage or
declining revenues--exactly the terrain in which
the decade's internecine community-based eth
nic battles over schools and housing were fought.
CannatO sees no structural social, economic orpolitical problems here-just friction generated
by frenetic white radicals, self-loathing liberals,
and an extortionist black underclass with an
effete WASP idealist at the helm.
Cannato insists that Brownsville, the site of
the ferocious 1968 battle over public school
decentralization , with its deplorable lack of san
itation and other basic city services, was ripe for
rebellion, not a school-governance revolution.
But why were conditions so bad? Why did
Lindsay and his predecessors let them fester? It 's
a fair question, but CannatO does not raise it.
Yet while trivializing the real agony of low
income people of color, he accepts as well-founded the white ethnic whining that ptOduced such
abominations as the Society
for the Prevention of
centers, of which Lindsay was poised to be
spokesperson and advocate, were not growing.
"The United States was not an urban nation, "
he blithely asserts, "bur rather one of suburbs
and small towns"--glossing over the sizable
growth in metropolitan areas and the increas
ing need for regional planning. He calls the
Lindsay-authored Kerner Report on causes of
domestic disorder, commissioned by LBJ,
"alarmist" fot predicting predominantly black,
impoverished center cities. And he ignores the
equally alarming growth in census tract segre
gation-amply illustrated by Douglas Massey
and Nancy Denton in American Apartheid·
Segregation and the Making of the Underclass,
among others.
Even the role of he finance, insurance and real
estate sectOr-which would play the dominant
role in the city's fiscal crisis of the next decadedoesn't figure until almost the end of the book
Even then, it's only
Negroes Getting Everything
(SPONGE, get it?). He even
slams Jimmy Breslin and
others sympathetic to com
munity control as having no
empathy for their lower
middle-class white brethren.
A slur by an opponent of
integrated housing at a
Queens community meet
ing-that progressive, secular Jews, including Lindsay
aide and community liaison
Barry Gottehrer, were "not
Sure, this is ahard read for
mentioned for com
parison, as an employ
er whose workforce
contracted after
1969-in contrast to
the conservative bug
bear of a growing city
public sectOr.
.progressives ,
but not because it
lands any punches.
Sure, this is a hard
read for progressives,
but not because it
lands any punches.Certainly a legitimate
case can be made
real Jews"-is accepted by CannatO as legitimate.
For CannatO, the problems are all politics, pos
turing and gutlessness-with black militants
allowed to run riot by Lindsay, while Italians,
Irish, Jews and other ourer-borough ethnics were
shortchanged on city services because they had
no paladin in City Hall. Nothing is that simple,
but Cannato's schema is no more complex.
On the macro level, the book is weakest
where it should be strongest: in understanding
cities and urban policy. Aside from a too-quick(and too-accepting) summary of the Gov.
Rockefeller-impaneled Scott Commission
report, which slammed the mayor and his
administrative skills, CannatO gives little atten
tion to how Lindsay's agencies actually worked.
Was it a good thing that super-agencies such as
the Human Resources Administration and the
Heal th and Hospitals Corpo ration were consol
idated? What long-term plans did the city
develop? What ideas were shot down?
Cannato even suggests that Lindsay's munic
ipal rescue mission was doomed because urban
DECEMBER 2001
against the hubris of
storming heaven on the back of government,
but CannatO doesn't make it. The self-satisfied
tOne would not be so irksome if there were a
larger theory that the book elaborated, a big idea
that helped move the discussion of the future of
cities. Bur there isn't. After nearly 600 pages, we
still do not know what Lindsay could realistical
ly have done differently. The book's coda, "He
failed to live up to the promise of his early years
and meet his own standards for reforming the
city," can be said about any municipal pol. Byfailing to go beyond his own narrow sensibilities,
Canna o writes less a histOry than a morality
play--one in which everything is asserted, and
nothing need be proven.
Here, if you offer up enough red meat
including an overblown chapter on the Co lum
bia University uprising and how its "v irus of
rebellion spread to other city campuses"-Lind
say and a generation of urban reformers can be
caricatured rather than understood. A solid
book on Lindsay, the 1960s and urban politics
would be a valuable read. This isn't it. •
INTELLIGENC
CITY LI
NOW READ THIS
New Immigrants in New YorkEdited by Nancy Foner
Columbia Unversity Press, $22.00.Why are Soviet Jews the immigrant group leas
likely to visit their home country? Why do Korean
immigrants belong to more ethnic organizations
than others? This wide-ranging book, an update
of one published in 1987, looks at migration to the
five boroughs since 1960.Seven scholarly articles
focus on specific immigrant groups,while the first
two, chock-full of useful data, focus broadly on
immigration and labor trends for all groups .
Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians,
Salesgirls and the Fighting Spirit
of labor's last Century
ByHoward Zinn, Dana Fankand
RobinD.G. Kelley, Beacon Pess, $23 .00
Inthe 1930s, new sound technologies threatend
the livelihood of the 26,000 musicians who had
provided live soundtracks to silent films in the
US. Chanting "Bring back flesh ," members of the
American Federation of Musicians picketed film
theaters in New York City in 1936.They failed, but
Kelley spins the musicians' struggle into an
engaging story with clear implications for anyone
whose job is threatened by technological innova
tion.The other two-thirds of this trio are well-told
tales of aColorado coal mine strike (linn) and a
sit-in at aWoolworth 's n Detroit (Frank).
ThickerThan Blood: How Racial Statistics lie
By Tukuu Zuber i, University of Minnesota
Press, $24.95
What we call race has everything to do with cul
ture and politics, and little to do with biology. Yetit is still widely treated as scientific fact: Hispan
ic SAT scores drop! Tracing the roots of statistical
analysis to the eugenics movement, sociologist
luberi reminds us how crude the common cate
gories are--Chilean immigrants are "white," but
coastal Hondurans "black." luberi 's book,
though academically dense, forcefully argues
that social sciences and public policy are built on
a racist foundation .
2
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INTELLIGENCE
MAKING CHANGE
Unfinished
Business
By Alyssa Katz
NOT LONG AGO, THE WOMEN'S Housing and
Economic Development Organization
(WHEDCO) was one of those social service
organizations whose every step appeared to be
a giant leap forward. Founded in 1991, it runs
a host of programs to promote economic
empowerment for poor people, particularly
single mothers. Its culinary arts program put
former welfare recipients to work in WHED
CO's catering business, the Urban Horizons
Food Company, and starred in a glowing profile in Mother Jones magazine this summer.
But like virtually every business in New York
City, WHEDCO got a whack in the gut following September's attack on the World Trade
Center. The only physical damage was at its
Bronx complex, where phones were knocked
out for more than a month. But new traineesdidn't arrive for weeks, because the city's welfare
computers were down; for WHEDCO, which
gets paid per head, this meant no new business.
The restaurant and hospitality industry-the
prime source of employment for its graduates
suffered enormous plunges in business, and an
immediate surge in layoffs.
The worst was yet to come. In the weeks fol-
28
lowing, catering clients of WHEDCO's Urban
Horizons Food Company cancelled major
orders-a vital cash source for the organization's
other operations. With no guaranteed revenue,
Urban Horizons had to shut down. "So my
heart doesn't break, I'm calling it 'retrench
ment,'" says Executive Director Nancy Biber
man. Now, the only work experience food ser
vice trainees get is vending lunches in a takeoutkiosk at WHEDCO's Bronx complex.
The catering income-a projected $180,000
for this fall alone-was so vital because WHED
CO's financial troubles did not begin on Sep
tember 11. In previous years, Biberman says, she
could count on gradually escalating support
from private foundations. But this year the
group's grant income actually declined, in con
junction with a 19 percent drop in the stock
market. Two of WHEDCO's funders backed
out aI together.And like many other organizations around
the city that train the unemployed and under
employed to work, WHEDCO has found itselfon the losing end of a new municipally funded
scheme that doesn't pays the group until it suc
cessfully places a client in a job-and doesn't
pay it adequately until that worker had held a
job for six months or more [see ''The GreatTraining Robbery, " May 2001]. Already, with
the faltering economy, trainers had started to
see clients coming back to them, laid off from
their new jobs not long after they were hired.
The catering revenue made up for WHED
CO's losses in its city job training subcontracts.
The organization's only other hope had been its
ongoing effott co lobby Albany legislators for som
supplemental cash.By October, WHEDCO had laid off eigh
staffers, including some former welfare recipents who had risen up through its training pro
grams. "We knew in December [2000] th
this was going to be a horrific year for us ," say
Biberman. "I don't know how many whammie
there are," she says. "We got them all. "
IN THIS GRIM SEASON, few groups can cou
themselves whammy-free. Nonprofits are in
precarious position, and some, it's now wide
acknowledged, will not survive for much longe
This is no mere spate of bad luck. Social se
vice organizations are much like badly treate
children: They are sustained by two parmers
a combative marriage, and money is at the roof the conflict. Through an unwritten agre
ment, government and private charity split t
responsibility for sustaining the social safe
net. It's an arrangement that allows elected of
cials to address profound needs even thoug
they consider it politically dangerous-and p
vate donors are perfectly happy to take the t
breaks that ensure their participation.
Not incidentally, the deal also keeps an enti
sector of the economy going. According to t
Department of Labor, 29,899 non profits in t
state employ 2,171,509 people. In the city, nea
ly a million people work for nonprofits.
Combined, New York City and state spe$7.7 billion to employ nonprofits (and some fo
profit companies) to carry out an entire realm
government work-in foster care agencies, sett
ment houses, hospices, senior centers and tho
sands of other enterprises that make up wha
known technocratically as human services. Mo
elegantly, they're the hands that help hold up t
city, the extra legs that keep it running.
It's no secret that public funding isn't near
enough to keep those organizations in busine
Private money-from traditional charities, ind
vidual donors, fees for services, and, increasin
ly, business enterprises like WHEDCO 's - is t
lifeblood that keeps their services and payroso und. The average New York human servic
age ncy that contracts with government takes
about 90 percent of ts funding from public cotracts, while the rest comes from private fun
ing, according to the Human Services Counc
a trade group.
All this is not a new phenomenon: Ev
through the New Deal and the Great Societ
social service agencies-many founded in er
when public funding for their work was
alien concept-never lost their reliance o
philanthropy.
CITY LIMIT
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Private delivery of social services has been an
astounding bargain for government. "Govern
ment contracrs wim us because we're cheaper,"
says Human Services Council executive director
Darwin Davis. "It's been a longstanding com
plaint in me nonprofit arena mat me govern
ment has never paid for me full COSt of services."
But me markdowns may not prove sustain
able much longer. As it has in previous reces
sions, me private sector is proving less and less
willing to chip in-something mat has been
happening ever since me stock market started
ruming down a year and a half ago. "We've
been inundated by proposals from people we
haven't heard from in me past, saying mat foun
dations X, Y and Z aren't giving us money," says
Suzi Epstein, me program officer who oversees
funding for employment training programs at
me Robin Hood Foundation.
Some major philanmropies are trying to buck
me trend, and Robin Hood is one of mem. In
mid-September, me foundation called tOgemer
irs grantees to find out what mey needed to get
mrough me coming months. In addition to
establishing a new relief fund to assist individuals
affected by me arrack, me foundation has com
mitted an extra $7 million to me work it already
does: supporting organizations fighting poverty.
WHEDCO got one such grant within a week:
$175,000 to help make up for irs losses .
The largest World Trade Center relief pool,
me September 11 Fund, is also devoting a yet
to-be-determined portion of its $300 million
in pledges to assist nonprofits directly affected
by the attacks. By mid-October, more man a
hundred applications had come in , and about
$3 million had gone to nonprofits providing
relief services, including mental health
providers, immigrant aid groups and job refer
ral agencies. Through Seedco, an organization
mat assists non profits wim finance and man
agement, me fund is backing an additional
$2.15 million in zero-interest loans to non
profits whose offices were closed or mat lost
substantial revenue in me chaotic weeks fol
lowing me attack-when clients didn't show
up and city checks didn't get cut."We mink of nonprofits as delivering ser
vices, wnich absolutely they do, but mey are
also employers and a vital part of the city," says
United Way of New York senior vice president
Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, who helped conceive the
September 11 Fund along wim the New York
Community Trust. "Part of our stated goal was
to help businesses in lower Manhattan which
had been hurr and damaged, and nonprofits
are small businesses mat were hurt. We wanted
to make sure mey remained viable."
DECEMBER 2001
But she is all tOo aware mat not enough
other major charities are making mat a priority
this year. Indeed, me September II Fund itself
is being exceedingly careful, for bom legal andpolitical reasons, to limit irs support to groups
directly affected by me disaster or that are pro
viding specific services to mose who lost a fam
ily member or a job on mat terrible day-a
mission mat could ultimately exclude nonprof
its dealing wim long-term ripple effects.
Wim help from the New York Regional Asso-
ciation of Grantmakers, Barrios-Paoli and me
Trust's Joyce Bove urged omer foundations--and
particularly me foundations' influential trustees,
Nonprofits are
. .In aprecarious
position, and the
roots of their
troubles go back
decades before
September 11.who were proving eager to be heroes-that wim
more man $1 billion already committed to disas
ter relief in private funding alone, me bravest
ming they could do is continue supporting me
work mey always have. "This is going to take a
vety great, immediate expansion of resources for
non profits to deal wim me crisis here," agrees
William Grinker, executive directOr of Seedco
and former head of me city's Human Resources
Administration, one of me biggest sources of
human services contracrs. Bur he has no illusion
mat private reliefmoney will be sufficient to keep
me entire sectOr afloat: "I think it will take an
infusion of government resources to bring non
profits to me point where mey can provide me
necessary services," says Grinker.
BUT RIGHT NOW, GOVERNMENT couldn't be less
likely to fill me breach. The city and state are
taking some measures to help nonprofits,
including underwriting a $50 million low
interest loan program for small businesses. But
that aid is an infinitesimal portion of me fund
ing mat Albany is poised to take away. Pending
INTELLIGENC
MAKING CHANG
action on his controversial aid request to Wa
ington, me governor demanded mat legislat
forgo much of me spending mey planned
this year's budget, including me entire $3million mat members spend on grants at m
own discretion. In late OctOber, me gover
and legislative leaders had restOred about tw
mirds of mat funding, wim orders mat essen
human services and groups involved in rel
related work be first in line for me cash. W
omer curs, me total loss to nonprofirs is mman $200 million.
Meanwhile, me mayor has ordered c
agencies to cut their budgets by 15 percent.
patterns from previous cutbacks hold true,
private agencies mat contract with the city w
take a disproportionate share of mat hit.
Paradoxically, me funding crunch is comat exactly me moment when nonprofirs are
obvious place to turn for services mat are n
needed as urgently as ever. The city comptrolle
office predicrs citywide job losses of between
and 6 percent of me workforce in me comi
year-a development that will call for not on
increased investment in job training but a
new resources for emergency food, child welfa
services and omer measures mat come betwe
me poor and abject destitution. Lifenet, m
referral network for mental healm services,
convinced mere simply aren't enough train
professionals available to handle the demand
counseling. Eviction prevention, substan
abuse, H N education, asthma treatment, wor
ers' righrs-a11 of mese and more have taken
new and deeper dimensions since September I
Calls to me state substance abuse hotline, f
example, have reportedly increased 50 percen
Organizations meeting some of those nee
will have access to resources: T he state Office
Mental Health, for example, has obtain
$22.7 million for crisis counseling mrough m
Federal Emergency Management Agenc
Meanwhile, the city's Human Resourc
Administration has been referring people w
became unemployed as a result of me disaster
me agency's welfare-tO-work job placement pr
grams. That could help me groups runni
these programs meet their elusive performan
targets, assuming mat finding long-term jo
for those who have recent work experience w
be relatively easy. The state Department
Labor is Likewise referring me unemployed
private organizations funded by federal Wor
force Investment Act dollars. Job trainers ha
had talks wim state and city officials about ea
ing unrealistic performance standards, a
mese groups may also be able to access priva
relief money to ass ist displaced workers.
2
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INTELLIGENCE
MAKING CHANGE
But groups unable to demonstrate a direct
connection between their clients' needs and the
disaster are already having a difficult time prov
ing they are essential. Particularly hard hit, andoutspoken about it, are groups working with
people with HIV and AIDS. Earlier this year,
one charity-Broadway Cares/Equity Fights
AIDS-announced that due to an unprecedent
ed number of applications, it was postponing its
annual grant awards by several months. Yet the
charity donated $50,000 to the Twin Towers
Fund, the city-run charity supporting the fami
lies of police, firefighters and emergency workers
killed in the attacks. "When even an AIDS orga
nization isn't supporting AIDS groups, that's a
problem," says Jackie Virno, senior policy asso
ciate for the New York AIDS Coalition.
This fall, some major corporate supporters
backed our of a fundraiser for Bailey House,
which operates residences for people with AIDS;
in toral, executive director Regina Quattrochi
expects a 25 percent decline in her organization's
private funding this year. Len McNally, who runs
the New York City AIDS Fund under the New
York Community Trust, points out that AIDS
donations were already in decline before Septem
ber l l -h is own fund's income dropped by 14
percent in just one year. He recently advised
groups seeking the fund 's support to prepare for
big cuts in their own budgets. "We talked about
the general climate for AIDS fundraising over the
next 12 to 24 months," he explains. ''That's
where many organizations are hearing they're los-ing support."
AIDS organizations also rely on revenue
tied to the number of visits clients make, pri
marily from Medicaid; those have seen a clear
decline. Quattrochi is leaving open positions
unftlled in an attempt to slash costs. But like
other advocates for people with AIDS, she pre
dicts that recent events will lead to higher rates
of infection and a greater need for services.
Even the bombing of Afghanistan will have
consequences. If predictions hold and the U.S.
becomes glutted with heroin smuggled from the
war zone, it could prompt a surge in new users
seeking an inexpensive high. Alternatively, ifmilitary action prompts a shortage, sending the
price of heroin up, it is more likely existing users
will choose the cheapest route: injection.
A connection between a social need and the
disaster is no guarantee of relief funding,
because many problems will take some time to
appear. Before September 11, the Housing
First campaign had pushed hard to get tax rev
enues from the World Trade Center and Bat
tery Park City slated for affordable housing.
Now, Coalition for the Homeless senior policy
30
analyst Patrick Markee also worries that invest
ment in immediate relief will take the place of
addressing the enduring needs of city residents.
"Our waiting room is insane," says Markee,
noting that the number of homeless families has
already reached record levels, driven by exceed
ingly high housing costs. The coalition is now
bracing itself for a wave of evictions, as unem
ployed people find themselves unable to pay the
rent. Predicting such a calamity is hardly a parti
san agenda-at a recent Carnegie Corporation
disaster-response meeting, Mayor Giuliani's num
ber-two lawyer, Larry Levy, also expressed worry
that the ci ty will soon see a rise in homelessness.
"When is it going to hit?" Markee asks
rhetorically, adding up unsustainable rent-to
income ratios, swelling unemployment figures
and eviction law timetables in his head. "Prob
ably not for another year."
"When even
an AIDS
organization isn't
supporting AIDS
groups, that'saproblem," says
one activist.
NOT EVERY NONPROFIT is facing fmancial may
hem as a result of recent events. In fact, some
have found unprecedented focus for their
efforts-andwith the disaster, demonstrated the
capacity of non profits to mobilize during a crisis
in ways that government and for-profit busi
nesses can't. NPower New York, a year-old orga
nization providing computer training and otherservices to nonprofits, found itself serving as an
influential intermediary for tens of millions of
dollars in relief donations from technology com
panies. The first call was from Microsoft, one of
NPower's founding parmers, asking the group to
identifY $5 million worth of technology needs
among nonprofits disabled by the attack.
More companies soon followed Microsoft's
lead, confident that their contributions would be
in capable hands. In fact , the companies quickly
refused to deal with anyone other than NPower.
Through the group, Intel supplied technology t
New Jersey's relief center in Liberty State Park
And when the city opened its relief center o
Worth Street, it was NPower again that coord
nated the delivery of piles of computers and ne
working equipment. "It opened on [aJ Wedne
day," recalls NPower New York executive directo
Barbara Chang. "They called us on Monday, sa
ing, 'Get this going!'"Bur other groups seeking to assist in reliefhav
found themselves frustrated. With guidance ftom
the New York Commwlity Trust, WHEDC
had sought to use its idled catering kitchen to pr
pare food for relief workers, only to be inform
by FEMA that the Salvation Army and Red Cro
had exclusive contracts to supply food . (FEM
Voluntary Agency Liaison Ken Curtin says th
the city Department ofHealth made the decisi
to restrict food service to the two charities.) "Thvety modest food operation we proposed,
would have allowed us to keep staff people, an
we could have delivered for under $2 a head. B
I can't get a foot in the door," says a vexed Bibe
man. "We are laying off people who are doing th
work, who are becoming additional casualties."
Other organizations are also already layi
of f employees or reducing staff hour
because, they say, years of inadequate gover
ment payment for their services have l
them with no margins for unexpected ca
shortages. "Yo u have to understand how pr
carious all of our positions have been for t
past seven or eight years," says Kathy Mastegeneral counsel for the Brooklyn gro
CAMBA and vice-chair of the New York Ci
Employment and Training Coalition. She sa
that while she supports performance-bas
contracts in principle, without improv
compensation for job training program
CAMBA will have to layoff staff and sh
down its initiative training refugees.
While sympathetic to nonprofits' plig
Barrios-Paoli appears resigned that times will
tough for them. The September 11 Fund, s
emphasizes, cannot help groups with problem
that predated the disaster. Nonprofits "a
caught between an economy that's problemaand a city and state that are putting resourc
that might arguably have gone into other thin
into [disaster relief]," says Barrios-Paoli. "Th
are going to have to figure out how to survive
But Masters, like Quattrochi and othe
thinks it's high time for government to settle
accounts-and "bailout" is a word they're usi
a lot these days. "We've been subjected to a bu
ness model, and the city and state want us to a
like businesses," says Masters. 'Td like to act li
the airline business, thanks very much." •
CITY LIMIT
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CRUMBLE in the BRONXcontinued from page 23
in the building. She contacted the elevator company and discovered it would not make repairs
because Banana Kelly owed too much money.
And in 12 years ofliving in the same apartment,
she says, she had never received a paint job. "It
was horrible," she said. "I t was unbelievable."
Tenants generally agree that Banana Kelly's
property management operation was unre
sponsive. "You were supposed to call the office,
and it seemed like they would write the com
plaints on a block of ice ," says Marta Rivera.
"They just disappeared. They got the rent, but
they never got the complaints." Many tenants
say they regularly received warnings from Con
Edison that lights in the public areas were
about to be cut off because Banana Kelly had
not paid its bills . One tenant at 750 Bryant
Avenue, where the public lighting was actually
turned off several times, had kept a bill stating
that the owner owed $52,000 for one account.
Tenants also say they were regularly charged
for back rent even if they were current on their
payments. "You were always receiving notices
that you owed arrears," says Cheryl Jones, who
lives at 750 Bryant Avenue. Several tenants made
it a habit to save their receipts so that they could
demonstrate that the arrears billed were erro
neous when Banana Kelly took them to housing
court. Former employees who worked for the
group for years confirm that property manage
ment operations were beset with such problems.
"It was embarrassing in front of the judge when
they saw that the tenant had paid," one recalls.
"There was no money-no money for
repairs, no money for materials ," says another
manager. "The supers had no control either
so metimes they didn't have a broom or a mop."
One of the likely reasons the organization
had so Little money on hand was that it had dif-
ficulty collecting rents. Marc Jahr, program vice
president of LISe, confirms that Banana Kelly
has experienced such problems since the buildings his organization helped fund opened to
their first occupants in the early 1990s. "Their
rent collections were very poor relative to other
gro ups," he says. "You could go down the street
and find other CDCs with the same portfolios,
and they were co llecting rents." Rivera notes that
her organizatio n auempted to work out payment
deals with tenants who fell behind on their rents,
even if collection rates suffered as a result.
Banana Kelly's woes are not all of its own
making. Running a large portfolio of buildings
designated for low-income tenants, would be a
formidable challenge for any organization.
DECEMBER 2001
Banana Kelly had very liule margin for error
it needed ro keep rent collection rates high and
the buildings close to fully occupied. What's
more, it had to contend with construction flaws
that may go back to the earliest days of city
funded rehabilitation of abandoned buildings.
Flores, for one, says that the plumbing problems
in 788 Fox Street were never really addressed
during the entire 20 years that Banana Kelly ran
the building. Such problems may have been a
serious drain on the organization's resources.
But property management also suffered,
according to former staff and outside
observers, because information systems were
terribly inadequate. In the early 1990s the
South Bronx Comprehensive Communiry
Revitalization Project, a program designed to
strengthen a select group of Bronx communi
ty organizations, provided resources for
Banana Kelly to bring on Staff with the neces
sary expertise. Janice Berthoud, who was hired
during this period, says that as vice president
of operations she created a new system for
property management that was in place by the
time she left in 1994.
But staff who stayed on say that most
changes were never institutionalized. Rapid
turnover, they say, impeded further progress.
"There was a rapid round of firing and hiring
in key positions, says Simon Moule, who
worked at Banana Kell y in 1991 and 1992 andnow runs a property management consulting
business. "There were different property and
fiscal staff every three months." In 1996, 16
staff were fired in a restructuring; in 1999, still
more, including the president. Rivera says that
turnover at Banana Kelly was no greater than is
typical at nonprofit agencies.
Yet the organization clearly had problems
following through with projects. Some of its
buildings lost out on tax abatements worth
hundreds of thousands of dollars because appli
cations were never completed. A vacant syna
gogue on Fox Street that the organization
planned to turn into a base for its programs hasstood undeveloped for 10 yea rs. A vacant lot
across from the organization's main office met
the same fate.
In 1998, tension s reached a boiling point for
the residents of 866 Beck Street, who descended
on a community board meeting to demand that
Banana Kelly resolve drastic problems in the
building, including rats, leaks, and a month-long
gas shut-off Through the mediation of a com
munity board member, tenants and the group
eventually agreed to obtain a state loan. Bur
Banana Kelly failed to file financial documents in
time. By 2000, 866 Beck was boarded up.
Bttered from its tribulations, Banana K
is attempting to rebuild. It is relyin
other organizations to rake on respon
ities it formerly carried our in-house. "It's bto give management to other entities s
doing management, while we focus on
people are doing," explains Rivera.
SEBCO vice president Phil Foglia says
the properties had serious problems when
organization took them over, but that it is
ing repairs. An outside firm , N. Cheng &is now managing Banana Kelly's financ
step Rivera expects will quell questions abou
cal practices. An executive search firm is he
recruit new board members.
The new Banana Kelly is looking to dev
programs in areas it identifies as strengths,
ticularly in youth initiatives, business and
nology, and "adults and their dreams." It
continue to manage social service contracts
says residents want to see Banana Kelly co
ue to create programs that allow them r
property owners and express their dre
"People would like to see us be more invo
in their lives," she says.
Banana Kelly's success a t winning over s
tical residents will hinge in part on whethe
organization can delive r solid, useful servic
the neighborhood. The more fundam
challenge, however, may be to provide
with a genuine voice within the organizaThe board of directors could be one place
that. But in the end, it will surely requ
return to the SOrt of organizing that w
enable residents to take an active, cooper
role in building and running their neigh
hood. For if resident involvement and co
has been the key to much of the organiza
past fame and success, it could prove eq
crucial to its fu (UT e.
"If [Yolanda Rivera] had given Banana K
to the people and let the people who were
ning it continue," contends Mavelin Mor
"the agency wouldn't have fallen apart the
she let it fall apart." Bertha Lewis says it's son that's been learned and lost over and
agai n, and not just by Banana Kelly. "
neighborhoods need a co mbination of diff
things," observes Lewis. "They need advo
and they need community development
they need social services, but the engine
drives it all is organizing. And that's the
they always leave out." •
Robin Le Baron is a project manager with
Parodneck Foundation. During 19961997 he conducted dissertation researc
Banana Kelly.
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This Sold Housecontinued from page 19
poor neighborhoods. But, even now, homeowner counselors and hous
ing advocates say, the city could take some simple steps to protect vulnerable homeowners.
For one thing, the city could extend a program, called the Senior Cit
izen Homeowners Exemption (SCHE), which gives a reduction in raxes
for low-income homeowners over 65. For someone with an income below
$19,500, the program offers a 50 percent reduction; for those between
$19,500 and $28,900, smaller discounts apply, on a sliding scale.
Counselors say SCHE is an effective tool to keep elderly people in
their homes. Still, it has one huge shortcoming: It's not retroactive. If a
senior doesn't apply for the exemption until she's 70, but owes a tax lien
based upon payments she couldn't make since she was 65 , she has no
recourse bu t to pay the full debt, or lose her home.
They also say the city could do a better job of educating homeowners,
particular seniors, many of whom struggle with illiteracy, poor health and,
sometimes, dementia. Experts who work with seniors say that repeating
straightforward messages is essential. Why not begin explaining rax lien
sales as soon as certain homeowners miss their first payment, instead of
waiting until their three years are nearly up? Why isn't the SCHE exemp
tion pushed harder? "They need to explain the rax process a lot better," says
Marcia Vacacela, director of homeowner services for Neighborhood Hous
ing Services. "By the time homeowners hear about the liens, the debt is
already so high, it's too difficult to fix the problem ."
The most controversial proposal, backed by a coalition of legal, coun
seling and economic organizations called the Tax Liens Moniroring Group,
would be to exempt certain categories of homeowners from property raxes .
At the vety least, the city could allow those groups flexibility in establishing
long-term, low-interest payment plans. There is nothing legally preventing
the city from excluding these groups now; Finance has full discretion over
which liens go in a sale. New York could join Atlanta, which in 1994
excluded lien sales for "those private properties owned by the elderly, hand
icapped or disadvantaged. " Philadelphia has similar provisions.
Advocates argue that such exclusions are good policy, particularly
because many of the liens are for less than $10,000. "They're making a rel-atively small amount of money from small homeowners," argues Canedo.
"Losing their houses over a few thousand dollars isn't worth it."
But others, like Larian Angelo, deputy direcror of the City Council's
finance division , argue that exempting certain groups would set a bad
precedent, possibly jeopardizing tax collections and budgets. "There has
to be some threat involved in paying the taxes," says Angelo.
What 's so tricky abour evaluating tax lien sales is that it's like
a Hepatitis C outbreak-it takes a long time to see the ful l
consequences. If hundreds or thousands of homeowners
have been pushed into predatory loans in order to payoff their tax
debts, it would take months or years before significant numbers of those
homeowners fall behind on their mortgage payments. And then there's
the rwo- to three-year average length of the t ortuous foreclosure process.What's worrisome about that possibility is that the victims of preda
tory lending fueled by tax lien sales are poor neighborhoods' most valu
able asset-long-term homeowners. "Older homeowners are active in
block associations ," observes Howard. ''They have a history in the
neighborhood. They're very connected. When you have a high rurnover
in a neighborhood like Bed-Stuy, you see the face of predatory lending
in crumbling blocks."
It's not just the loss of the family that leaves a foreclosed house behind
that hurts neighborhoods. "This is what makes the whole market for real
estate speculators," observes Madden. "They go out, flip the houses and tty
to get rich. So you move from a home building family equity to feeding
speculation. It 's how money gets sucked our of minority neighborhoods
and that creates anger and distrust. It's so disheartening." •
32
JOB ADS
ADVERTISE IN
CITY
LIMITS!To place a classified ad in City
Limits , e-mail your ad to
[email protected] or fax
your ad to 212-479-3339. The
ad will run in the City Limits
Weekly and City Limits mag
azine and on the City Limits
web site. Rates are $1.46 per
word ,minimum 40 words.
Special event and professional
directory advertising rates are
also available. For more infor-
mation, check out the Jobs
section of www.citylimits.org
or call Associate Publisher
Anita Gutierrez at
212-479-3345 .
RENTAL SPACEDesk space in newly renovated office. Desk,
utilities , included. Location, 3rd and 12th
Street in Brooklyn ,Business should be compat
ible with Real Estate broker. Rent $750 per
month. One and half month secu rity. No R.E.
fee . Call P Jenkins 718-789-6274.
JOB ADS
COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT Positionrequires ability to write press releases; pitch
stories; handle press inquiries; update media
databases; track placement; maintain Web
site; and other communications activitiesincluding managing publication production.
Must have excellent oral and writing skills,ability to juggle multiple projects, and interest
in working at anonprofit organization dedicated to health care and aging issues. Fax, e
mail, or mail resume and writing sa mples to
DB , Medicare Rights Center, 1460 Broadway,
NY,NY, 10036; ax: 212-869-3532; or email to:
CASES seeks a BILINGUAL TRAINER to deliverthe Treatment Readiness Program classes in
Spanish. Respon si ble for providing referrals forservices in Spanish and English; focus on link
ages with bi-cultural programs ; and develop
relationships with treatment provider. Certifi
cation as HIV counselor and a suitable combination of academic training or equivalent
experience in social work required . Salary:
$29K, plus excellent benefits.Send cover letter
and resume to: Personnel, CASES-TRP, 346
Broadway, 3rd Floor West, New York, NY 10013.
CASES is EOE.
ADMNISTRATIVE ASSISTAN T. FIT Posi
needed to assist the Executive Director in
to day operations. Type memos,program na
tives , statistical reports, and Board corres
dence. Compose short letters, Main
employees time balance, Establish and m
tain filing system , n Charge of petty cash
token disbursementlreimbursements , O
and distribute supplies, coordinate Emplo
Health Insurance and other benefits ,Respoble for office management and organiza
Answer telephones, Coordinate appointm
and meetings for the Executive Director, sch
uling and organizing materials for Board M
ings, Supervise clerical volunteers and inte
Qualifications: Associates Degree in rel
field and 2-3 years experience, excellent o
nizational and interpersonal skills , abilit
follow-up, detail oriented , good spellinggrammatical skills , computer literateknowledge of Word/Excel/PowerPointiAcceExperience in typing and organizing large
uments. Haitian Women 's Prog
464-466 Bergen Street, Broo
NY 11217 (718) 399-0360 E-m
haitianwomensprogram@ erols.com .
PROGRAM COORDINATOR. Position is res
sible for creation of the NY Child Care facilNetwork, aproposed program of financing
technical assistance to expand child care
vices.Major responsibilities include: creati
bus iness plan, designing capital and TA
grams; organizing the local advisory com
tee ; marketing; and fund raising. Bache
degree required, preferably in a relevant
of study such as business administracommunity development, or in early care
education. Resumes: The Low Income Hou
Fund , 1330 Broadway, Suite 600, Oakland
94612. Salary commensurate with experie
and excellent benefits. EOElAA.
Olivieri Center for Homeless Women of U
Pathways , an EOE, seeks apart-time BA C
MANAGER for 21-27 hours/week, seeing
clients. Facilitate groups , incldg Hou
Readiness. Assist MI , MCA, chem . depen
clients to identify barriers to perm . hou
Create individualized Ix plan. Will conside
and/or CASAC willing to attain BA. Need e
rience working w/chronically mentally ill,stance abusers and/or homeless popula
No calls please. Resume/cover letter to: So
Stanton, Dir. Soc . Servo 212-594-2359 or
to Olivieri Center, 257 W. 30 St., NYC 1000
STAFF ASSOCIATE. Lesbian & Gay Rights
AIDS Projects Provide back-up for ProjDevelopment and Public Education. Must w
well,work well with others, and think crea
ly; College degree and experience in comm
cations, development, or community relati
Send cover letter, resume, nonfiction wrsample,and two references to :Matthew C
ACLU Lesbian &Gay Rights and AIDS Proje
125 Broad Street-18th Floor, New York
10004.
The North Star Fund , a progressive foundawhich supports community organizations
socia l change in NYC , seeks a full-tPROGRAM ASSOCIATE to coordinate our C
munity Funding Board and grantmaking
CITY LIMI
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grams. Experience with community organiza
tions, writing and computer skills are neces
sary. Ca ndidateshould have political perspec
tive compatible with our progressive mission.
Salary $28-32K and generous benefits. Please
send cover etter, resume, two writing samples,three references to: North Star Fund , 305 7th
Ave ., NY NY 10001. People of color, lesbians
and gay men are encouraged to apply. Dead
line: ASAP.
Leading company in the job training field seeks
creative, experienced adult education profes
sional for PROJECT DRECTOR in Manhattan.
Work closely with city HRA officials to provide
basic education, ESL and computer skillstraining to working adults on public assis
tance. Services during daytime, twilight , and
Saturday hours. Oversee staff of 8 and two
training locations. Permanent career position,immediate opening. Salary $60,000 plus per
formance bonus . Fax resume to B. Lynch (610)
566-9482 .
Common Ground Community (CGC) , a eading
NYC not-for-profit housing development and
property management organization , seeks aCOMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTSCOORDINATOR to plan and implement special Hous
ing Development projects and programs . The
Coordinator will oversee the census of home
less subgroups, including the recruitment and
training of census workers; collect data, con
duct analyses , prepare statistical reports, and
make recommendations for further study. The
Coord inator will also perform research , draftand/or write grant proposals and publications,building materials, and maintenance proce
dures. S\he will also present training and sem
inars on national and international iss ues
involving housing and homelessness ; and
coordinate the participation of and/or repre
sent CGC in Community Advisory Board andlocal Community Board meetings for the
Chelsea Residence and projects. BA degree
and experience and/or commitment to working
with low income, special needs communities.
Cover letter and resume with salary require
ments to Director, Human Resources , CGC , 14
East 28 Street, NY, NY 10016.
Reporting to the Executive Drector (ElD), and
working in collaboration with the Board of
Directors, the senior staff, funding sources,government agencies and local community
leaders, the DIRECTOR OF HOUSING
DEVELOPMENT will conceptualize, establish,
plan, implement , and manage the housing
development agenda of Common Ground Com
munity. The Director will develop additionalpermanent housing facilities based on Com-
mon Ground 's successful projects, and create
and implement new programs serving subpopulations of the homeless and low-incomehouseholds. S\he wi ll secure project financing;and oversee and manage the work of consul
tants. Candidates should have Masters degree
and five years comparable experience withknowledge of low income housing financing .Cover letter and resume with sa lary require
ments to Director, Human Resources, CGC , 14
East 28 Street, NY, NY 10016.
The Cypress Hlls Local Development Corpora-
DECEMBER 2001
tion seeks a seasoned NONPROFIT
ADMINISTRATOR to join its management team.The Directorof Administration will be respons ible for financial management, echnology,MIS ,human resources , facilities and communica
tion functions of the agency. Cypress Hills
Local Development Corporation and its subsidiaries employ 300 individuals and sponsor
comprehensive community revitalization and
human services programs at ten sites with abudget of $6 million. Candidates for this position should possess senior level management
experience (5 years minimum) in a LOC or
social service organization , a MS degree in
Public Administration, Business or Social Work
and strong administrative skills. Salary depen
dent upon experience . FAX resume to: MichelleD Neugebauer, 718/647-2805.
Gallatin School of Individualized Study. The
Gallatin School seeks an experiencedTEACHERISCHOLAR with a ecord of excellence
in learning formats that link the classroom and
the community: experiential education, action
research , internships, service learning, filedstudy. This new faculty member will : create
and teach courses and projects that connecttheoretical inquiry with activity in community
settings; help other faculty member integrate
experiential components into their courses;
develop partnerships between Gallatin and
community-based organizations; advise students. The successful candidate may have
(inter) disciplinary or professional training in
any number of social sciences and/or profes
sion; she or he must also have significantexperience in community-based learning pro
grams, as well in college-level teaching; expe-
rience in community organizing or grassroots
activism, particularly in communities of color,
is desirable. A ecord of research and publica tion is also an asset. Gallatin offers the BA and
MA in individualized study; student-createdconcentrations , intensive advisement and
mentoring, experiential learning and student
centered teaching. Students combine course
work from most NYU schools with Gallatin
seminars and non-classroom study. Our cours
es bridge debates for the great books traditionwith current scholarship , contemporary issues
and alternative canons. Qualifications: Ph .D r
equivalent; commitment to non-traditionaleducation, especially advising and mentoring;excellent teaching skills, ncluding at the postsecondary level; ability to develop innovative
courses and projects; high-quality scholar
ships. We are committed to enlarging the
diversity of voices in our commun ity. Rank is
open , pending budgetary approval. Send letter
of application and c.v. to: Chair, Faculty SearchCommittee, Ga llatin School of Individualized
Study, New York University, 715 Broadway, New
York, NY 10003. Review of applications in con
tinuing into the Fall 2001. The Gallatin School
is strongly committed to building a diversecommunity among our faculty, staff and students. Gallatin's website can be found at
www.nyu.edu/gallatin.
Bushwick Family Residence, a Salvation Army
lier II for homeless families , seeks a CASE
MANAGER . Experience with similar population .BA degree required. Send resume and cover
letter to: B. Burns 1675 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY
11207. O ax to: 718-574-2713.
Faith-based CDC seeks COORDINATOR forneighborhood improvement and public safety
project within Bedford Stuyvesant whose out
comes include housing rehabilitation , preser
vation, and construction; safer streets;improved appearance of streetscapes; strong
resident associations; increased computer and
finan cial literacy; and youth civic engagement.
Coordinator will directly implement projects
and organizing efforts and collaborate withother programs that impact the target neigh
borhood . Qualifications: BA or AA. 5+ years in
the community development field, includingprogram and organizing experience and abilityto facilitate collaborative efforts among com munity residents, non profits, and law enforce
ment and other public agencies . Salary:
$35,000 to $45,000, commensurate with expe-
rience. Forward resume and cover letter: Bridge
Street Development Corporation , 266
Stuyvesant Avenue , Brooklyn, New York 11221
Attn: Safe at Home Coordinator Search, Fax
(718) 573-6874.
Hunter College Center on AIDS, Drugs and
Community Health seeks PROJECT COORDINA
TOR provide general oversight of research project a 2Planned Parenthood field sites, super
vise research assistants & research activities .Experience in women 's health , community
research or health. Masters in related fieldhealth , nursing,etc. RESEARCH ASSISTANTS 2PT positions available, implementing counsel
ing curriculum at the 2 ield sites &conduct
ing interviews. Experience in community outreach , research & interviewing. Send resume,cover letter & 3 professional references (no
phone calls) to: J. Melly, 425 East 25th Street.
New York, NY 10010.
Help USA, ahomeless housing provider has the
following opportunities available: SOCIAL
WORK CLINICIAN : A challenging opportunityfor a creative and dedicated professional to
grow through hands on practice through therapeutic groups and counseling individual s.
Candidate must have a MSW. New graduates
are encouraged to apply. Computer literacy is amust. Bilingual (Spanish/English) is a plus.Salary starts in the low $30s. CASE MANAGER
An opportunity for acommitted professional to
play an essential ro le in helping familiesachieve permanent housing and self sufficiency. Must be able to handle aquick pace and amultiple tasked job. BA is required with Case
Manger experience desirable. Computer literacy is required. Salary starts in mid $20s.INTENSIVE CASE MANAGER Exciting, challeng
ing opportunity to provide intensive case man
agement to a case load of 12-15 families.Duties include meeting with each family as
needed , with a maximum of once per week.Assist families in maintaining day to day
activities, increasing the family 's money management , daily living and parenting skills, and
teaching families self advocacy skills. Must be
computer literate. lime management skillsand ability to multi-task as well as being
capable of working in face paced environment
are necessary. BA is required . Salary starts in
low $30s. Resume for "Social Work Clinician"and "Case Manager" should be forwarded to :Tabitha N Gaffney, Director of Social Services ,Fax : 718-485-5916. Resumes for "Intensive
Case Manager" should be forwarded to Carol
JOB AD
Agurs, Assistant Executive Director, Fa
485-5916. EOE. Adrug free workplace.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR . City Project, p
sive nonprofit research , education, te
assistance and advocacy organization
York City, seeks highly motivated indivibe executive director. City Project analy
City's budget, educates the public ab
City'sbudget and fiscal condition and itery of services, provides technical ass
to non profits, and advocates for equ
social justice. Extensive experience wiYork City, its neighborhoods , and its p
structure required. Demon strate knowle
fiscal and policy analysis, and able to
out and bring a wide spectrum of New
together in common projects, write clea
raise money. Graduate degree preferred.
competitive. Send resum e and writingto: Gregg Walker,Chair,Sea rch Committ
Pro ject, 350 Broadway, Suite 525,New Y
10013.
HIGH SCHOOL COORDINATOR. (pn Des i
implement educational , co llege and
activities for high school youth . Faworkshops for parents, serve as liaiso
teachers, guidance counselors, and com
ty providers. Req . Mas ters or BA plus
ence with youth, bilingual preferred,organizational and programming skills.Commensurate with experience . Send
to Carmen Diaz, Hunter College Departm
Urban AffairslLPP, 695 Park Avenue W
New York, NY 10021.
STAEW IDE CAMPAIGN ORGANZER .
Reform and Pub lic Job Creation Issues
munity Voices Heard , amembership or
tion of low-income people on welfare b
NYC is seeking an experienced organ
build and manage a statewide campaNew York State fOCtJsing on Re-Autho
(Federal Welfare Reform), job creatiostate welfare reform issues. Th is posit
be based in NYC , but with a arger perc
of statewide travel, a arge focus of wh
be the Hudson Valley to Albany. The StaCampaign Organizer will be responsi
Identifying groups and constituencies in
ed in welfare, job creation and othe
poverty iss ues ; building relation ship
upstate organizations and individuals
districts throughout the state to work o
fare , job creation and other anti-issues; building networks of local indion welfare to support CVH Campaign
issues; providing technical assistance
ing and information to help mobilize locmunity organizations and people on
issues; organizing statewide meeting
actions with interested organizations an
viduals focusing on TANF and welfare
issues. Qualifications: 2+ years experi
Direct Membership, Legislative , eland/or issue organizing; experience orgcommunity forums, meetings and larg
actions; excellent with computers, writispeaking in public; a basic understan
the state budget process, welfare refo
job creation issues is highly desirable
to work independently, as well as pateam ; Spanish language ability is debut not required ;Ability to work long hou
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JOB ADS
to wo rk away from NYC for pe riods of time,incl ud ing traveling arou nd NYS TheStatewde
Ca mpaign Organizer is a temporary position.Appicans sho ud have access to an auomo
bile or statewide travel. Sa lary is DOE. Please
fax resume and cover letter ASAP to CVH 170 E 116 th Street, IE New Yo rk, NY10029 or 212-
996-9481. For more information, check out:cvhaction.org or call: 212-860-6001. CVH is an
equa l oppo rtunity employer, women , peop leofcolor; LGBTpeople and former welfare recipi
ents areencouraged to apply for this position.
Established and growing non profit seeks
GRANTS ACCOUNTANT to prepare mo nh lyreports to funding sou rces and work with gov ernment contracts. BAIBS Accounting and
minimum 2 ea rsexperience requi red .So lomon
a plus. Fax resume to 212-931-9181 or email
hr@ere-cpa .com .
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT. A management
consu lting fi rm worki ng with nonprofit, foundation , and corporate clients seeks a FIT
administrative assistant to provide general
office support. Requires strong sense of pro
fessionalism ,ability to prioritize, and attentionto deta il. Salary commensu rate w/experience;goo dbenefits. Send letter/resume to:The Conservation Company, 50 East 42nd St reet , 19thfloor, New York,NY10017. Fax: 212-949-1672.
We are an Equal Opportunity Emp loyer.
NYC Employment &Training Coalition seeks a
RESEARCH DIRECTOR to analyze labor markettrends,workforce development and welfare-to
work statutes and regulations , and draft briefing materials. We represent 95 community
based organizations providing training and
employment services. Requirements: MA or
equivalent experience; knowledge of employ
ment, training and welfare policies; strong
research , written , verbal and ana lytic sk ills.Resume and relevant writing sample to: Mar
garet Stix, NYC Employment & Training Coalition ; 275 Seventh Avenue , 14th F.; NY NY10011; Email:[email protected].
Shelterforce:The Journal of Affordable Housing
and Community Building seeks an EDlTDR to
plan issues, recruit writers, make assign
mens, edit copy, oversee design and produc
tion . Fesh ideas, congeniality, a progressive
but non-dogmatic outlook, and familia rity with
commun ity deve lopment/organizing are puses . Resume/samples to: NHI, 439 Main St. ,Oange, NJ 07050, or e-mail [email protected].
Small non-profit organization seeks PART
TIME OFFICE MANAGER. Qualifications: Bookkeeping/Quickbooks required Non-profitadministrative experience preferred Database
expo required. Good phone skills Duties will
include: facility management responsibilities
for sma ll hstoric bui lding with non-profit ten
ants, general staffing for Board meetings,preparation of minutes, scheduling use of
meeting and office spaces , monthly invoicing,management of cleaning saff & service
requests. Please send resume and cover letter
to Felicia Mayro, St. Mark's Historic Landmark
Fund , 232 East 11th Street, NYC 10003.
FELLOWSHIP. Reproduct ive Freedom Project.
Assist in all aspects of Project litigation . One
year with possible extension to two years . M
be self-motiva ted an dcommitted to reprod
tive rights; excellent research and writ
skills. Th ird-year law students and rec
graduates. Send resu me etter of interest ,erences, and lega l writing sample to: Lou
Melling, Assoc iate Director, Reproductive F
dom Project , ACLU 125 Broad Street-1
Foor, NYC , 10004. Noemails.
Teaching hospital in Park Slope see ks
DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE to provide of
support & database services for developm
program . Raiser 'sEdge & research a plus,Office req ured. Must have good organizatio
& people skills. BA or equiva
databaselfundraising experience prefer
Fax letter and resume 718-780-5
dcr900 [email protected] .
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER will work to buil
team of parents to increase awareness, ad
cacy, andsupport for district one school in
Lower East Side. Experience working with
ents,educational institutions , non-profits,
PROFESSIONAl DIRECTORY
Consultant Services
Proposa ls/Grant Writing
Hud Grants/Covt. RFPs
Housing/Pros,..,-un Developmcnc
Rea l Es tate Sak'S/Rentals
Technica l Assistance
Employment Programs
Capacity Building
MI(UA(L 6. BU((ICONSULTANT
HOUSING , DEVELOPMENT & FUNDRAISING
Co mmunity Relations
PHONE: 212-765-7123
FAX: 212-397-6238
E-MAIL: [email protected]
451 WEST 48th STREET, SUITE 2E
NEW YORK , NEW YORK 10036-1298
34
Nesoff Associates
management solutions for non-profits
Providing a fo il range o fmanagement suppor t servicesfo r non
profit organizations
• management development & strategic planning
• board and staff development & rraining
• program design, implemenrarion & evaluation
• proposal and report writing
Box 130 • 75A Lake Road ' Congers, NY 10920' tel/fax (914) 268-6315
NYSTAR.COMWebmastering Service,
Web Design ,Free Ads Available,Free Link Exchange.
http: / / www.nystar.com
or email [email protected].
SOURY COMMUNICATIONSFull Service Public Relations and Marketing Firm
local and national media experts • crisis communications • government and public affairs. corporate sponsorships· media
training· advertising • special events
Clients include AAFE, Green Guerillas, GM Minority Dealers, KesslerRehab, NY Ethical Culture Society, NY Chinese Scholar's Garden
offering non-profit rate
150 west 25 street , suite 403new york, ny 10001
(212) 414-5857
Committed to the development of affordable housing
GEORGE C. DELLAPA, ATTORNEY AT LAW15 Maiden Lane, Suite 1800
New York, NY 10038212-732-2700 FAX: 212-732-2773
LOl/J-incomt hOl/sing tax credit syndication
Public and private
financing. HDFCs and not-for-profit corporatiom. Condos and co-ops. j-51
Tax abatement/exemptions. Lending o r historic properties.
SPECIALIZING IN REAL ESTATEJ-5 1 Tax Abatement/Exemption . 421A and 421B
Applications • 501 (e) (3) Federal Tax Exemptions • All formsof government-assisted housing, including LISC/ Enterprise,
Section 202, State Turnkey and NYC Partnership Homes
KOURAKOS & KOURAKOSAttorneys at Law
Eastchester, N.Y.
Phone: (914) 395-D871
CITY LIMIT
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pol itical orga nza tio ns in an effort to bu ild acoalition of social change agents to improve
Dstrict oneschoo ls. Salary Mid -30's. Bl in gual
& MSW preferre d. Please forward resu me to
Pablo Tejada 212-505-5660.
APPL.E.S COORDINATOR. Responsible for
established consortium of agencies to prevent
teen pregnancy. Pan and facilitate meetings ,
ass ist the officers, monitor subcontractors,oversight of a youth employment project and
program development. BSWIBA or related field
experience and commitment to youth develop
ment. Flex ible hours and four wee ksvacation .Send resume ASAP to: Staff Search, Loisaida ,Inc . 710 East 9th Street, NY, NY 10009, fax
212-473-5462, e-mail [email protected].
SENIOR ACCOUNTANT responsibe for mainte
nance of accounting systems and all transactions involving the accounting requirements of
the company. Directly responsible for monitor
ing the companies financial budgets. Conduct
bu dget reviews, prepare bud get va riance
reports,and budget modifications. Post journal
entries into accounting systems. Prepare
monthly bank reconciliations. Reports to con
tro ller. Bac he lors degree wi th 3 years paid
experience in accounting. Working knowledge
of Microsoft Excel. Knowledge of American
Fund wa re a plus. Knowledge of non-profitorga nzations helpful. Salary commensurate
with experience. Com petitive benefits. Emailus at [email protected] or fax at 718-
299-1386.
The Association of the Bar of the City of NY
Fund, Inc. seeks an ATTORNEY w/strong com
mtment to pu blic service &homeless rights to
temporarily direct Legal Clinic for the Homeless
for 4months. Boad knowledge of public bene
fits and housn g law, excellent organizational
& communication skills req . Spanish languagea plus . Send cove r letter/resume/salary
req/writing sample to HR Dir, 42 W 4th Street,New York, NY10036-6690. EOE.
The Forest Hills Community House now has 2positions avai lab le n he Organizing!Housing
and Homelessness Prevention Program target-
ing families who have experience d multip lethreats of eviction. The new positions will carry
forth the case management com ponent of ateam effort to hel p the fami ly identify an dresolve issues,which interfere with heir housing stabi lity. ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, Oganiz
ing!Housing Su pport Pograms: Requires :MSW
or equ ivalent; 2-3 yea rs experience working
wth at risk families; supervisory experience ;
excellent written and verbal skills; knowledgeof entitlements and community res ources .Must be willing to do home visits. BilingualSpanishlEnglish preferred. Salary: Low-Mid
30's . CASE MANAGER: Requre s: BSW r equivalent; 2-3 years experience working with at risk
families; excellent written and verba l skills,knowledge of entitlements and access to com
munity resources . Must be willing to do home
visits . Blingual Spanish/English preferred .Salary: 25-30. Excellent benefits. EEO. Send
Resumes to: FHCH 108-25 62nd Drive Forest
Hills, NY 11375.
The Sa lvation Army seeks a DIRECTOR OF
MENTAL HEALTH to oversee existing and future
JOB AD
single adult shelters and SROs for me
ill/chemically addicted population . Resp
bilities inc lude : multi-site man agemdevelop ment and mo nitoring program
gets; grant writing; a l as pects of stafcommunity re lations . Req uires : MS/MA de
prior exp ope ra ting a residential faci lity,
experience a+. Sa lary $60K+ dep upon e
rience. Please fax resume to Patricia DeL
212-337-7279.
The Center for Urban Community Services
(CUCS) is agrowing not-for-profit organizis rec ruiting fo r the folowing position.position is available at the Times Square
gram, a permanent supportive housing
dence for 650 low-income tenants, man
whom have a history of mental illness, ho
less ness, substance abuse and/or HIV/
loc ated in md-town Manhattan. SOCIAL W
CLINICIAN Th is postion function sas partcore services eam,which providesa ull r
of direct services to recipients. Addition
this individual will provide professional e
tise in theareas of program , esource and
PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
MICHAEL DAVIDSONConsultant in Nonprofit Management
MANAGEMENT SUPPORT & ASSESSMENT
BOARD DEVELOPMENT & TRAINING
STRATEGIC PLAN NING
INTERIM MAN AGE MENT ASSIGNMENTS
Hands-on solutions to h elpnonprofit organ izations achieve their vi sio n
Tel: (212) 662-1758, 523 West 121 St., NY, NY 10027,Fax: (212) 662-5861, [email protected]
NEED OFFICE SPACE?Citadel Realty Group
The Not-for-Profit Specialists
Licensed Brokers - Leasing or Purchasing - All Boroughs
No Fees or Charges
Contact Vince Marrone at 212-644-3397 ,
or at [email protected]
DEBRA BECHTEL - Attorney
Concentrating in Real Estate & Non -profit Law
Title and loan closings 0 All city housing programs
Mutual housing associat ions 0 Cooperative conve rsions
Advice to low income co-op boards of directors313 Hicks Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 ,
(718) 7 80-7994 (718 ) 624-6850
DECEMBE R 20 0 1
you can count on us
non-pro f i t bookkeepers
866 422 5302 (toll -free)
non-profit financial pros who specialize in
QuickBooks® solutions for small non-prof its
Hand Mailing ServicesHenry Street Settlemem Mailing services is a revenue
generating, work-readiness program offering batrered women an
shelter base families on the job and life skills training.
We offer hand inserting, live stamp afftxing, bulk mail , foldingcollating, labeling, water sealing and more.
For more information please call Bob Modica,
212-505-7307
OFFICE SPACE PROBLEMS?
IL.I.WCS1
CS I C ON5ULTANTS INC.
(845) 566-1267
Expert Real Estate Services - once
available only to major corporations and
institu tions -Now offered to NYC's Non-Profits •••
at no ou t-of-pocket cost,
or at specially reduced rates.
Visit our web site: www.npspace.com
Call ·for a free, no-obligation consultation.
www.npspace.com
3
8/3/2019 City Limits Magazine, December 2001 Issue
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JOB ADS
development necessitating a horough clinical
understanding of homelessness, mental illness , substance abuse, etc.This position ma y
supervise a imited number of individual staffmembers or students as assigned by the clinical coordinator. Requires: CSW; 2yrs of applicable post-masters degree, direct service expe
rience with populations served by the program ,2yrs of applicable pre-masters degree experi
ence may be substituted for no more than 1yrof post-masters experience. Salary: $40,123 +
comp benefits. Send cover letter and resume by
10/26/01 to Sophie Miller, CUSCmmes Square
255 West 43rd Street NY, NY 10036. CUCS is
committed to workforce diversity.
CASE MANAGER. MSW/BSW with Human Ser
vices experience preferred. Assess/plan and
coordinate services to homebound elderly in
community based agency. Challenging ,rewarding work. Knowledge of Spanish helpful.
Salary $32,000. SUPERVISOR-MSW withexperience preferred for case management
community-based agency serving homebound
seniors. Position includes supervision of social
work staff, intake, program development and
direct client contact. Salary $40,000 +.Resume to BetsyTuft,Director,Project Life,312
East 109th Street, New York, NY 10029.
VIP community services , a multi-service com
munity based behavioral health organization,has a portfolio of low & moderate-income
rental properties.We have an immediate open
ing for a HOUSING DEVElOPMENT
COORDINATOR to assist in the identification
and acquisition of properties or sites for new
projects. Conduct zoning and feasibility analysis of projects including projects for long-term
financial viability. Coordinate the preparation
of funding &subsidy applications for proposed
or existing projects. Develop strategies for
expanding the role of the agency as developerand owner of housing. Direct report to presi
dent of the company. Salary commensurate
with experience. Requirements : graduate
degree in planning, architecture, real estate or
business. Two years experience in real estate or
related field. Excellent analytical, interpersonal & communications skills. VIP is an equal
opportunity employer. We offer a competitive
benefits package which includes health insurance, pension, & more. Please fax: 718-299-l386.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER works with Parent
Action Committee, an established grass-roots
organizing project led by parents in SW Bronx,whose goal is systemic improvement of the
schools in Community School District 9, in SW
Bronx, where 77% of students do not read at
grade level. C.O. works with parents toresearch, develop and implement multifacetedcampaigns and conduct outreach . Require
ments: Trained organizer with passion for
socia l ustice; minimum 2years ' experience in
organizing. B.A.IB.S . or MSW . preferred . Expe
rienced organizers with equivalent trainingalso considered. EDUCATION COUNSELOR,Col
lege A cess Center.Working with Center Direc tor in new center (opening fall '01), plan &con
duct 1-1 co un seling sessions & group work
shops for teens, parent orientations &commu-
36
nity outreach, with goal of assisting youth in
overcoming barriers to higher education, stay
ing on track through high school &applying to
college. Requirements: Counseling/advisingexperience with focus on academic achieve
ment and higher ed . opps. B.A.IB .S Salary:mid-20s-30K. COORDINATOR, Youth Program .Manage &develop the Bronx Helpers, an intensive, award-winning, community service/youth
organizing program for teens , 12-18, andtrain/supervise program staff. Requirements:
Leadership experience in positive youth devel
opment, community service/outreach & youth
organizing toward social change. MSW/ rele
vant advanced degree or 2 years ' experience
with youth & group work. Salary: low-mid 30s.ALL POSITIONS Full-time,year-round. Compre
hensive benefits. EnglishlSpanish bilingual aplus. New Settlement has an 11-year trackrecord of neighborhood revitalization, community building & organizing, and positive youth
development. Mail cover letter, resume and 3references to Job Search , New Settlement
Apartments & Community Services, 1512
Townsend Avenue, Bronx, NY 10452. No faxes,
please. EEO/AA.
The Urban JusticeCenter's Homelessness Out
reach & Prevent ion Project seeks a DIRECTOR
to supervise a 7-person team of attorneys and
non-attorney advocatesengaged in direct ser
vices work through weekly outreach legal clinics for homeless or marginally housed clients
who face legal problems, including govern
ment benefits, housing, and disability. Applicants must be admitted to practice law in New
York State, and mu st possess experience with
direct client representation, class action/lawreform litigation, and fund raising . Applicantsof color are strongly encouraged to apply.Salary commensurate with experience . Send aletter of interest and resume ASAP to: Search
Committee , Urban Justice Center,
666 Broadway, 10th floor,
New York , NY, 10012, email:[email protected] , fax: 212-533-
4598.
Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS) ,a national leader in the development of effec
tive housing & service initiatives for homeless
people is recruiting for the following positionfor its 350 Lafayette street Transitional pro
gram. Anationally recognized model for help
ing mentally ill homeless women acquire housing, the program services include transitionalhousing for 40 women , comprehensive case
management, group treatment, on-site psychi
atric &medical services &housing placement.
CLINICAL COORDINATOR/Overnight &WeekendTeam (9:30pm - 7:30 am , 4 shfts/week)
Responsibilities: Supervise overnight and
weekend team, provide clinical services, crisisintervention, oversee group treatment activities &participation in program development &quality assurance. This position has significant decision-making, administrative , pro
gram management, and service delivery
responsibilities . Requires: CSW, 3 yrs applica
ble post-masters exp, 1 yr supervisory expo
Spanish speaking preferred .Salary:$46,459 +co mp benefits. Cover5 letter and resume to:
Melody Hartmann, CUCS-TLC, 350 Lafayette
Street, NY, NY 10012. CUCS is committed to
workforce diversity. EEO.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER to work in midsize,
community based human services agency in
midtown Manhattan . Full oversight of Advoca
cy & Community Building initiatives with
agency and community. Must have excellent
grassroots organizing skills; understanding of
community assessment & research ; able to
design strategies; coalition building strategiesand implementation of advocacy plan; out
standing communication skills;computer literate. MSW or degree in relevant area and sig
nificant experience required . Salary $35-40K
depending on experience; excellent benefits.Please send resume to: Hudson Guild Human
Resources , 441 West 26th Street,NY, NY 10001; fax (212) 268-9983 ;[email protected] .
SOCIAL WORKER (MSWl. Weston United Com
munity Renewal , a non-profit mental health
agency located in central Harlem seeks MSW
with psychiatric and MICA experience . Suc
cessful candidate will supervise casework
staff, coordinate intake referrals and interviews, interface with community agencies,and
provide direct clinical services to an adultmentally ill population in a residential setting.Work hours are evenings and one weekend day.Knowledge of DHS and DMH compliance standards and supervisory experience preferred .Bi
lingual a plus. Excellent career opportunity.
Salary: $40's and great benefits. Fax resume
to: Joseph Wong, Human Resources Manager
(212) 316-0789.
The CUCS Housing Resource Center (HRC) is
seeking a PROGRAM DIRECTOR for Training
and Technical Assistance Services to oversee
its local and national training and consultation
efforts. This unit assists hundreds of organiza
tions serving homeless and low-income peopleand individuals with special needs to increase
their capacity to deliver quality services. The
position is responsible for program develop
ment and management, staff supervision, cur
riculum development, proposal preparation
and business development, and delivering
group trainings and one-on-one technicalassistance. Some travel required. Require
ments: Related Master degree , minimum of
seven years of experience in housing or human
services and at least five years of supervisory,managerial or technical assistance experience .Excellent written , verbal, interpersonal and
analytic skills. Computer literacy also required .Experience in supportive housing, mental
health, homeless services , and training and
consultation strongly preferred. Competitivesalary and benefits. Send resume and cover
letter to: Suzanne Wagner CUCS Housing
Resource Center 120 Wall Street, 25th Floor,
NY, NY 10025 Fax: 212-635-2191. CUCS is
committed to workforce diversity. EEO.
NY Foundling, a highly respectable social ser
vice agency, is seeking qualified individuals for
positions in foster care & prevention services.SOCIAL WORKER , MSW/BSW/BA .Bilingual/English 3+ . SOCIAL WORK
SUPERVISOR . MSW. Foster care & supervisory
exp required . Send/fax 212-886-4098 resume
w/ salary req to: HR-LA, New York Found
590 Avenue of the Americas , NY, NY 1001
Email : [email protected] .
HUMAN RESOURCE ASSOCIATE to assist a
director in providing volunteer opportunities
retired and senior citizens. Develop and im
ment strategies for the recruitment of new
unteers . Interview, train, and place volunte
at new and existing sites. Provides manament assistance to volunteers . Prep
progress reports as required . Represent CS
community meetings and conferences. Par
pate in preparation, coordination and im
mentation of special events. Job Req
ments: Bachelor's degree or equivalent of
(4) years experience in volunteer managem
and/or community organizing or developm
activities . Good oral and written commun
tion skills required . Knowledge of word
cessing and other basic software applicatiSubmit resume and cover letter to: Commu
Service Society of New York Human Resou
Department RS-4 105 East 22nd Street,York, NY 10010 Fax 212 614-5336 [email protected]. EOE.
The Valley Preventive Services is seeking M
and BA CASEPLANNERS to provide inten
case management for families at riskof plment. Requires knowledge of ACS rules
regulations. E.G.UCR's and MPR 's, prog
notes. Ability to provide intensive indivi
and family counseling and referrals fo
families per case load. Willingness to con
home/office visits on aweekly basis. Bi-lin
aplus . Salary; BA level27k to 31k, MSW 3
40k. Fax resume to Cassandra Francis,gram Director at (212) 932-2124.
HEAD TEACHER. Major nonprofit seeks afessional with paid early childhood classr
experience for their residential BrooklynManhattan sites.BA in ECEIMA A+. Experi
supervising child care workers required. Pl
fax 212-465-9539 or send resume w/sa
requirements to: HR Director, Women In N
Inc. 115 W 31st Street,New York,NY 10001
EOE, MIFN/D. No calls please.
PROGRAM DIRECTOR. Major nonprofit s
and experienced professional to manage
daily operations of their residential site. R
MSW, MPH or MA in related field . Demons
ed social services experience; 2-3 years su
visory or administrative experience inclubudget management req 'd. Strong comm
cation and people skills req'd. Knowledg
family services or res . Services &employm
preferred. Please fax 212-465-9539 or
resume with salary requirements tITHR D
tor, Women In Need , Inc. 115 W. 31st St
New York, NY 10001. An EOE,MlFNID .PROGRAM SUPERVISOR. MSW or related
w/3-5 years experience in family or res. c
seling services or BSW or related field. Wit
8 years experience . Bilingual/Spanish sp
ing required. After care and Shelter
COUNSELORS BSW or related field. And ex
ence in counseling or case managemKnowledge of working w/homelessness ,stance abuse, domestic violence and em
CITY LIMI
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ment required. COUNSELOR/JOB PREP SPE
CIALISTS BA in Human Services or related fieldand experience in social service setting and
working with clients on vocational/employment
issues and familiarity w/welfare policy. Bilingua[ Spanish speaking preferred. PARENTING
& LITERACY COUNSELOR BA in Education or
Counseling & paid experience. INTAKE COUS
NELOR-ADDICTION COUNSELORS MSW
w/paid work experience in substance abuse or
CASAC wlBA or BS and relevant experience .FAMILY THERAPISTS (PT orm SW &NYC cer
tified, paid substance abuse experience and
experience providing family therapy required.
HOUSING SPECIALIST BA or equivalent in work
experience. NYC housing mktg. Experience and
Bilingua[/Spanish required. We offer excellent
benefits package. Plea se fax 212-465-9539 or
send resume w/salary requirements to: HR Dir,
Women [n Need, Inc. 115 W 31st Street New
York, NY 10001. An EOE MlFIDN. No calls
please.
Social Service: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR for SF
multicultural human service agency. Commu
nity development, architectural services, fami
[y support, workforce training. Requires experienced manager, proven fund raising , MA/equiv.
Comp $80K to $100K DOE. Resume to: Asian
Neighborhood Design, 1182 Market St. #300.
San Francisco, CA 94102. Fax 415-522-8620,www.andnet.org.
Fortune Society is looking for a progressive,innovative individual to be our SR. DIRECTOR
OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT. Ho[ding a key role
by managing overall operations and marketing
of the unit, this out-the-box thinker will create,
administer and implement development
strategies. Know[edge of performance based
employment outcomes/strategies is a plus. ABAIBS required, Masters preferred ; 5 rs super
visory or program management expo Send all
resumes with cover letter specifying salary
requirements to: The Fortune Society, 53 West
23rd Street, New York, NY 10010, Attn: HR
Manager. Fax to 212-255-4948 or email to
MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR. Minimum three
years of experience coordinating membership
or individual donor programs and services.Bache[or's degree required. Interest in immi
grant issues a plus. Send resume and cover
letter to DJM, 112 Fourth Avenue, Meuanine
F[oor, New York, NY 10003
OFFICE MANAGER. Six or more years of experi
ence in nonprofit administration , including
management and supervision. Bache[or'sdegree required . nterest in immigrant issues aplus. Send resume and cover letter to DJM, 112
Fourth Avenue, Meuanine Floor, New York, NY
10003
The SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT will lead and
manage the development and structuring of
initiatives and programs that contribute to and
support the economic and physical deve[op
ment of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment
Zone. Experience with the cultural industry &arts organization necessary. Focus is on non
profit development, tourism and culturalindustry development, human capital develop-
DECEMBER 2001
ment and quality of life nitiatives. Target initiatives include arts and culture, institutional
capacity building , workforce development,public projects and other initiatives related to
economic development. The LOAN OFFICER will
provide one-on-one counseling to small busi
ness owners in the areas of finance, management, marketing and business planning . Per
form full credit analysis and projection scenar
ios for proposed loan fund clients. Structure
loan terms and assist in the closing process forapproved loans. Present written and oral rec
ommendations to the Loan Committee. Serve
as a iaison with all forms of [ending programs.
Provide monitoring and follow-up assistance
loan customers. Participate in training pro
grams and seminars for BR[SC and other ser
vice providers. Interact with community orga
nizations, banks, loan funds, governmental
agencies and service providers on behalf of
clients. Conduct outreach and marketing to
attract new BRISC loan clients. Exceptiona[
analytica[ experience and credit training pre
ferred. Bache[ors degree and commercial [end
ing or banking experience required . Spanish
speaking candidates encouraged to apply, but
not necessary. Fax resume & cov . [tr. to 212-410-9083. E-mail to [email protected], or
mail to UMEZ 290 Lenox Ave . New York, NY
10027. EOE. For more information , please see
our web site at www.umez.org.
Social services ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE DIREC TOR A challenging opportunity for a creative
and dedicated professional to be involved in
the management of daily operations for a ran
sitiona[ housing facility for homeless familieslocated in Brook[yn . Supervision of all program
services including contracted service
providers. Successful candidate will also han die program development, quality assurance&
ensuring compliance with all city and state
regulatory requirements. MSW preferred while
a MA in related field is necessary. Five yearsmanagement experience preferably in a residentia[ setting. Must be computer [iterate.Bi[ingua[ a plus. Salary starts in low $50s.Resumes to: HELP1 , 515 B[ake Avenue, Brook
[yn, New York 11207 or fax: 718-495-1946 .Attn: Nancy Nunziata or via email to: nnunzia
[email protected]. EOE. Adrug free workplace.
PROGRAM DIRECTOR. New educationa[/cre
ative arts afterschool/evening program for 7-
to 12-yearold children of Long [sland University students. Responsibilities: daily operations;supervision; curriculum development. Require
ments: MA, 5years experience with children, 2years supervisory. Bilingua[/Spanish preferred.
Salary: $35,000-$45,000. Excellent benefits.Meets Monday - Thursday 3:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
F[exib[e 4- or 5-day 35-hour work week . Fax or
email resume/cover letter: Charlotte Marchant,Director,Learning Center for Educators &Fam ilies, LlU , fax: 718-246-6499 ,
COORDINATOR of the custody planning pro
gram. This position focuses on working with
H[V+ parents to help them plan for the future
of their children. Contact: Please FAX resume
and cover letter to Felicia Coleman, Senior
Coordinator (718) 585-5041. COORDINATOR of
the peer training institute. COORDINATOR of
the women's HIV prevention program. Hea[th
Force: Community Preventive Hea[th Institute ,an award-winning Bronx health support and
education project, seeks two coordinators for
its leading HIV prevention programs-theCoordinator for the Peer Training Institute and
the Coordinator of Women 's Prevention. The
candidates also need excellent supervisory
skills; training ability and presentation skills;and computer literacy. App[icants should have
a minimum of two years college or three years
related work experience , preferably dealing
with HIV, and familiarity with the South Bronx.
Contact: Please FAX resume and cover letter to
Doris Casella , Director of Family Services (718)
585-5041.
VP FOR REAl ESTATE &ASSET DEV'T: Har[em
based nonprofit seeks experienced, se lf direct
ed leader for real estate operations. Know[edge
of RE finance, property mgt., ax credit compli
ance and public sector funding sources
required . Quantitative , underwriting and management skills amust. MBA prefered . Emai[ or
fax resume to: [email protected] or 212
3685483
Seedco, a national community development
intermediary provides financial/technica[assistance to build partnerships between
anchor institutions and CBOs that lead to com
munity revitalization. Seed co's
programmatic/investment strategies target
the fol[owing areas: workforce development,community economic development, affordablehomeownership/commercia[ real estate and
capacity building aimed at CBOs . Positions
availab[e: NFORMATION TECHNOLOGY in com
munity revitalization; SMALL BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT; NON-PROFIT/SMALL BUSI
NESS LENDING; CHILOCARE INITIATIVES;
PUBLIC RELATIONS . Send resumes to
[email protected] For specifics on the
positions, visit our website :www.seedco.orgljob.
Anon -profit organization seeks an experienced
OFFICE MANAGER/RECEPTIONIST. Duties
include answering phone, general office man
agement, assisting Directors in administrativeand clerica[ support. Prior experience is
required for this job. Please send your resume
and cover letter to: [[email protected] .
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE PROJECT ORGANIZ
ER. Make the Road by Walking (MRBW) , agrassroots , membership-led organization that
works to create power through community orga
nizing, leadership development and popular
education is seeking an experienced, bi-lingualcommunity organizer to spearhead an Environ
mental Justice Project that creates community
power to challenge urban environmental haz
ards, such as : lack of open space, ead poisoning, and illegal dumping that are concentrated
in low-income,communities of color. Responsi
bilities include: extensive door-knocking , campaign planning and coordination, leadership
development, member recruitment and training , one-on-one meetings, direct action plan
ning, assist with MRBW's other active organiz
ing campaigns, and active participation in
MRBW's staff collective. Must be available to
work some evenings and weekends. Peop le of
JOBADS
color and women are encouraged to app
Salary in the 30,000's, based on life and w
experience. Please contact Environmental J
tice Hiring Committee at Andrew
maketheroad.org, or by fax to (718) 418-963
COUNSELOR. BA Degree or equivalenthuman services/related field. Crisis interve
tion and MICA experience a plus. Salary: H
20's. Location: Bronx. Fax resume to: New E
Veterans, Inc. 718-904-7001. Attention: Ju
Anne Jeenarine.
HIV HEALTH EDUCATOR. The Institute for Fa
ily Health, a not for profit Health Care Agen
in New York Cty, seeks a health educatorwork with persons living with HIVIAIDS in p
mary health care setting in the Bronx. Prov
treatment adherence education to individu
and groups. Work with health care tea
Strong clinical knowledge of HIV illness a
current treatments is required . Spanish de
able. Will cons ider LPN, RN, FNp, MPH andcommunity health education experience . Se
resume to: [email protected].
REGISTERED NURSES &LICENSED PRACTICNURSES. NYS Licensed RN & LPN needed
provide nursing services including triagepatients in an ambulatory care setting. M
be proficient in venipuncture and administing immunizations. Bilingua[ Spanish p
ferred . Send resume with salary requireme
to Wayne Webb: Fax: 212-989-6170 or mai
IUFH 16 East 16th Street, New York, NY 100
email: [email protected] .
Citizens Advice Bureau is seeking a RE
DENCE DIRECTOR. Reqs masters in SW
related field a + min of 6 yrs of soc service
min of 4yrs exp in program mgt &supervis
Will manage & supervise Bx Tier II shelterhomeless families . Responsible for contr
compliance, meeting government regulatioprogram development, supervision of she
staff, writing monthly program, reports to
Must develop relationships w/funders, co
munity, and other programs. Reqs excel
writing , communication and organizatioskills. Knowledge of entitlements, hous
related issues , case mgt, & homelessn
reqd . Fax cover letter, resume ,biz refs o CM
(718) 365-0697.
The Professional Staff Congress, AFT L
2334, is a progressive, activist union re
senting over 17 ,000 faculty and instructiostaff at the 18 campuses of the publicUniversity of New York (CUNY). The PSC
five openings on our energetic staff te
Three permanent positions: OFFICE MANAGCoordinating support staff, office operati
technology and meetings; ASSOCIATE EDIT
Reporting, writing and related work; ADMI
TRATIVE ASSISTANT TO OFFICERS. Handinquiries, assisting in preparation of matermaintaining schedules and files. Two tem
rary positions (now through 6/30/02): OR
NIZERS: Membership mobilization and rel
union activities. For more information, conFaye Alladin at 212-354-1252 or send res
and cover letter to: Faye Alladin , PSC , 2
43rd Street, NY, 10036, or fax to 212-7815. Specify which position interestsFor Associate Editor, please also send c
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ILLUSTRATED MEMOS
F ~ ~ r OFFICEOFIHECIlYVISIONARY:(
, ,,, , r- r
Rudy's domed sportsstadium in Manhattan
might not be themost
prudent use of t a ~ 1 J a y e r funds at this time.
HOMELAND SECURITY ENHANCEMENT
PLANNQ 91101-6
Let's do something morepractical with the federal
bailout money • .
- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ : .--'_... ~ ~ - : ..
::: .... ' - - .
--.: .. '::'.. .. ..
GOT AN IMPRACTICAL SOLUTIONTO AN INTRACTABLE PROBLEM";)SEND IN 11©OdJrRl ~ ~ f M ) @ T O D A Y ! 38
. _ . . . '...... ' : : - - : ... -
- .. '- ..... _......, - - -
- ,-'"-- - .. ...- - - - ' . . .. .. . . -- - . -. --- -. "- -. ' .. - -- -----:. ...-:..--.--
OFFICE OF THE CITY VISIONARY
CITY LiMITS MAGAZINE
120 WALLST., 20TH FLOOR. NY NY 10005
ootcv@ citylimits.
CITY LIMIT
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Application deadline: November 30. The PSC
is an equa l opportunity employer. Women and
peo ple of co lor especially encouraged to
ap ply.
StatewideTANF/Jobs FIELD CAMPAIGN ORGA-
NIZER. Community Voices Heard, an antipoverty memb ers hp organization is hiring an
experien
ced indiv
dual
to build and manage
statewide campaigns on welfare reform and
job creation issues. The position will bu ildCVH's statewide mobilization capacity, orga
nz ing legis lative meetings and networks
arou nd the state to partic ipate. Responsibili
ties include membership recruitment, coalition
building, chapter building, training leaders ,and organizing community forums and
statewide legislative action days. Qualificat ions in cl ude 2 yea rs organizing experience ,ab ility to work ndependently, access to a car;b-l ingual Spanish is helpful but not required .This position is based out of NYC with significant upstate travel. Salary DOE. Call 212-860 -6001 for mo re information or check out:
www.cvhaction.org . CVH- 170 East 116thStreet Suite IE, New York, NY 10029.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER . Community Voices
Heard , an anti-poverty membership organization is seeking an experienced individual forthe position of Community Organizer. This
position is respons ible for managing CVH
organizingcampaigns,
leadership development, strategizing and base buil;ing. Salary
DOE. Call 212-860 for more Information or
check out www.cvhaction.org . CVH - 170 E.
116th Street, Suite IE New York, NY 10029.
ASSET MANAGER. The Enterprise Social Investment Corporation (ESIC) is currently searching
for an Asset Manager for our New York, NY
office to oversee a portfolio of tax credit projects through site visits, financial review and
problem reso lution as needed. This positionrequires a thorough knowledge of real estate
and basic finance. Bachelor's degree and 5years + housing and rea l estate required or
Mas ters deg ree with 3 years experience pre -
ferred. Property management and financial or
accounting experience will be helpfulWe offera competitive salary and excellent benefits.
Send resume with sa lary requirements o: The
Enterprise Social Investment Corpora t ion c/oHuman Resources 10227 Wincopin Circle,Suite 800 Columbia,MD 21044 Fax: (410) 772-2676 Email: [email protected] Equal Oppor
tunity Employer.
PART-TIME SPANISH SPEAKING CASEWORKER .Bronx Violence Prevention Program seeks Part
time case wo rker to counsel teenagers and
their parens in Spa nsh/Eng lish. Res um es to:
Derek V Schuster, SCAN 207 East 27th Street,New York, NY10016. Fax: 212-683-2522.
PROGRAM ASSOC IATE at Center for NYC
Affairs, in New Sc hool's Mi lano Grad uate
School of Management and Urba n Po licy.Part-time. Organize public seminars , forums,lectures. Facilitate policy development with
pu blic officials , community leaders , advo
cates, non profits, others. Educate the public,
JOB A
journalists and influential people
issues affecting NY neighborhoods,grants . Must have public policy expe
excellent writing an d communicationbe able to work independ ently and
building networks of interestingSalary FIT equivalent high $30s , DObenefits . Cover letter, resume to:
White, Drector, Center o r NYC Affairs,Graduate School, 72 Fifth Avenue , Roo
NYC 10011. Or e-mail : wh
newschool.edu. New School Universityequal opportunity employer.
BILINGUAL (ENGLISHISPANISH) COMM
ORGANIZER for Mothers on the Move, aroots social justice organization . Resp
ities: conduct outreach, help develop ne
ers and staff aca mp aign.Community o
ing experience strongly preferred. Targdate: January 7, 2002. Contact: MOM
Committee, 928 Intervale Avenue , Br
10459. Fax: (718) 842-2665. Email:h
mothersonthemove.org .
Reach 20,000readers in the nonprofit sector.
Advertise In CITY LIMITSCall Anita Gutierrez at
(212) 479-3345
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from 6 to 9 p .m .
B rid g ew a te rs a t th e S o uth S tre et S ea po rt
Y es , I w ou ld like to s ign up now to be a pa rt o f the 25 th A nn ive rsa ry G a la B ene fit C o m mittee !
o V I C E - C H A I R :
At $10,000 Includes: Twelve Premium Tickets
and a Gold Page in the Tribute Journal
o S T R A T E G I S T :
At $1,500 Includes: Three Premium Tickets
and a Half Page in the Tribute Journalo V I S I O N A R Y :
At $5,000 Includes: Eight Premium Tickets
and a Silver Page in the Tribute Journal
o A C T I V I S T :
(individuals/nonprofits only):
At $500 Includes: Two Individual Tickets
and an Eighth Page in the Tribute JournalI D E A L I S T :
At $3,000 Includes: Six Premium Tickets
and a Full Page in the Tribute Journal
O R J O I N U S I N D IV ID U A L L Y :
o Enclosed is $ for premium tickets at $400 each
o Enclosed is $ for individual/nonprofit tickets at $125 each
o I'm sorry, I cannot attend. Please find my tax-deductible donation of $ enclosed
o Please send me information on purchasing a tribute in the 25th Anniversary Gala Journal
Print your name as you wish it to appear in the 25th Anniversary Gala materials:
Name: __
Organization: _
Address: _
City/State/Zip: __
Phone: Fax: E-Mail: _
Fo r m ore in fo rm atio n, c all A nita a t 2 12 .47 9.3345 o r e -m ail par t y@ci ty l im i t s . o rg