City Limits Magazine, February 1978 Issue

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CITYLIMITSCOMMUNITY HOUSING NEWSFEBRUARY 1978 VOL. 3 NO.2

PROTEST BREAKS DEADLOCK

IN COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT



been it very important program for rescuing landlord

abandoned buildings in low income neighborhoods.

Since 1972, an increasing number of community

organizations have served as the managing agents for

buildings that came into the city's possession after theowners defaulted on their real estate taxes. Under con

tract with the city, the organizations have hired staffs tomake repairs, purchase equipment and arrange for services, advise tenants and collect rents. The groups

receive management fees from the city that help pay for

their own rent and other expenses.

The money for each contract comes from two sources :

rent from tenants and federal Community Development

funds from the city.Last year, some 56 buildings totalling more than

1,000 dwelling units were under community manage

ment in 10 neighborhoods in Brooklyn , the Bronx and

Manhattan. Under the new contracts, the figure is ex

pected to double to 2,000.

Community management has proved to be an

important a l t e r n a t i v ~ to management by the city of its

own properties. "The city is no better than an absentee

landlord," said one participant in the program."It

responds only when pressure is applied and even when

pressure is applied the city shows up with a band aid for aserious problem."

All of the existing community management contracts

expired last July, the beginning of a long series of

delays. Twice the contracts were extended while city

auditors examined the participating organizations'

books.In early December, the city approved 18 new con

tracts. Those that exceeded $100,000 (most of them)

went to the EFCB where they became bogged down byquestions raised by the state and tardiness of the city to

contracts centered on the existing practice of rent col

lection by the organizations in the community manage

ment program.The State deputy controller's office, which advises

the EFCB, took the view that tenants should pay theirrent directly to the city rather than to the groups. State

officials cited Section 126 of the New York City Charter

requiring all city revenue, including income from city

owned property, to go into the general treasury.

The position of the community organizations and, ul

timately, the city was that the groups should collect the

rent since they have responsibility for managing the

buildings. To turn rent collection over to the city would

undermine the ability of the groups to manage, theycontended, and mar the efficiency of the program.

On December 6, several weeks after the State con

troller's office first raised the rent issue, the city

corporation counsel's office was asked for a legal

opinion.City housing and legal officials acknowledge that the

matter languished for months before the corporation

counsel's office drafted an opinion strongly supporting

continued rent collection by the organizations. Meanwhile, the contracts missed two chances for EFCB

approval.Asked why it took so long to prepare an opinion, one

corporation counsel lawyer blamed lack of staff and the

volume oflegal work, adding, "Frankly, we take these

issues as they become critical."

On Feb. 8, two days before the next EFCB meeting,

there was no indication that the legal and accounting

dispute was being solved and-despite city pressure to

call it off-the community organizations went ahead

with plans to launch the demonstration the following

day.



DEMOLITION BY DYNAMITE

LIGHTS COMMUNITY'S FUSE

Demolition by dynamite, which set of f an explosion of community protest when first slated for atest last month on abandoned buildings in the

South Bronx, will take place, City housing aidesinsist, after an explanation of the technique toaffected Community Boards.

"We have not junked the idea by any means,"said Frank Juliano, director of Community and

Site Services for the Department of HOllsingPreservation and Development.

The demolition-by-dynamite technique, knownas "implosion," is a City proposal to save moneyand time in demolishing buildings condemned bythe City or by court order. There is a rapidly

growing list that now contains some 10,000 build-

ings susceptible to demolition around the city.

South Bronx community l e ~ d e r s , however,protest that the first implosion experiment wasscheduled without any community consultation.

"They come in here and say, 'We're gOing todynamite your community.' There's no hearing,no communication," complained City Councilman

Gilberto Gerena-Valentin, who represents thearea.

Juliano, who is HPD's liaison to the Community

the protest in a unanimous vote on January 18. Inhis district three tenements which were to be partof the test are now being taken down by conven

tional means."We were told by the City that there are notenough [conventional] demolition companiesavailable to do the whole job," Arce recalled. But

implosion is not the answer, he said. "This is an

issue of economic development. Minority demoli-

tion companies could be formed with City support.The City could guarantee their bonding," Arce

maintained.Implosive demolition has been used elsewhere,

mostly on large structures, but has until now beenprohibited in New York City. The techniqueinvolves setting off many small, synchronizedcharges of dynamite, placed at critical supportareas of condemned structures, to force them tocave in on themselves.

Criti cs charge that any money saved by " im-

ploding" small buildings will be offset by the

much larger insurance and bonding required than

in conventional demolition contracts. The highcost of insurance reflects the threat to public

safety from the procedure, they contend.



CETA, CJCC GRADUATES:

TRAINING FOR WHAT

? "A Lot of Promises

• But Nothing Definite."

by Susan Baldwin

Many construction trainees in New York City com

pleting one-year programs funded by CETA and the

Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) are

facing the possibility of being chronically unemployed

once again.

The programs were designed to train the graduatesin the various construction trades, thus assuring them

placement in un subsidized jobs."I don't know where you can point the finger when it

comes to assessing these programs," Alan Weiss,

director of the Adult Work Experience Program in th e

City's Department of Employment, said recently. "The

responsibility lies with the programs. and those

running the programs have to face the issue. They have

to place the people, and this is a tough one. "Stressing the job placement difficulty, Weiss noted

that the unions are themselves struggling to find jobs

for more than 40,000 unemployed men and women New

Yorkers who have many more years of experience in the

same fields.

"We cannot solve all the city's ills just through basicjob training," he continued, "and I think this is why we

have to look at these programs again to determine what

alternatives exist."

Most critics concede that the training programs, with

some exceptions, are being well run, and conscientious

efforts being made to place trainees in un subsidi zed

owned by MVDC, is slated for low-income cooperative

ownership by its tenants.

"The pay could be better," Pagan said. "For the

finished product it's much too low," he told a visitor

recently as he pointed out details of the workmanship in

a good-as-new sunlit apartment. "Why, regular construction workers don't even come to work every day

when the weather's bad, and they still get paid. But

then, they don't learn how to put in a new boiler and a

new backyard and even fight rats."

If Pagan likes his job despite the uncertain future,

less optimistic is the view of Jose Cruz, the site coordinator for the project. (Three supervisors and a book

keeper round out the payroll.)

"I believe that this program was set up to fail," heasserted. "All the workers here are from the neighborhood, and we know them. They're not making that

much money-from $120 to $225 a week. We would like

to employ them after the program ends at better wages

on a [City-supervised] housing rehabilitation program

we have, bu t the City says they don't qualify for work in

a specific trade. "This comes about, said Cruz, because the City, which

supervises the rehabilitatio}:l of City-owned multipledwellings managed by the development corporation,

does not acknowledge the training that CJCC workershave received.



to read blueprints on the job. It is a job, Pagan summed

up, that has brought "a lot of benefits and a lot of

blisters," adding up to "a lot of knowledge, bu t

probably not enough for union jobs."

Almost everyone interviewed on the job training

dilemma emphasizes that neither the CETA nor the

CJCC programs should be treated in such a way as to

make them synonymous with "an alternate form of

welfare."Roberto ("Rabbit") Nazario is director of Interfaith

Adopt-a-Building, known for its innovative answers to

the housing problems of Manhattan's Lower East Side.

He wants neighborhoods like his to look to the future

with the idea of creating more jobs for neighborhood

residents."W e can create jobs and have created them for our

CETA graduates," he said. "They have shown the

ability to learn, have developed good work habits, and

have gone on to lead and supervise others," he said,

noting that 80 per cent of his organization's most recent

CETA training program graduates have been placed in

the group's community management program.

Nazario pointed out that the local trainees and

community residents have proven their skills in theseal-up of abandoned buildings nearby. Now they

would like to become involved in th e reconstruction of

the old amphitheatre at East River Park.

"We're going to seek jobs for community

people-many of them graduates of our CET A

program-in the construction trades to rebuild this,"

Nazario asserted. "Then, once this work is completed,

we would also like to put our people to work main

taining and managing it."Herman Hewitt, the director of Adopt-a-Building's

CETA program, agrees with Manhattan Valley's Cruz

about the time constraints of the job traning program.

"The recruits get started, and by the time they are

beginning to be trained, the program is over," he said.

"What we need is a program based on apprentice

ship training which lasts at least two years and may

extend to four," he added, noting that this format

would resemble the one followed by constructionunions, and would provide a structured a.1ternative for

entry to the skilled trades.

Hewitt also said that CET A funds could be used to

organize neighborhood trade unions if the traditional

labor organizations refused to recognize this apprentice

training program.

Ronald Grey, director of the management and work

experience program at Brooklyn's Oceanhill-Browns

ville Tenants Association, disagrees with the critics ofthe CET A train ing program who claim that money is

being wasted in construction training.

"The main problem now is that there is not enough

time to train them all to be skilled laborers," he

asserted. "But it's impossible to agree with those guys

who say that our guys are not being trained at all."

Grey believes that the hardest part of th e current, too

short program is finding a way to end it gracefully.

"Oceanhill-Brownsville is just as bombed-out as theSouth Bronx, and we have a lot of people out here who

haven't worked for so long," he said. "A s a reSUlt, it's

really hard to explain to them when the project is over

that there's no work."

Grey is presently trying to find work for CETA

workers whose program ends next month. "I'm hoping

that some of the smaller developers who are becomingmore interested in rehabilitating housing, since there is

not money for new construction, will hire our graduates,"he said.

"We also found out by testing the guys here that

there were serious problems with reading," Grey



SOLAR SEENAS TOO COSTLY

FOR POORER

NEIGHBORHOODS

Solar panel atop 1186 Washington Ave. in the South Bronx.

by Bernard Cohen

At dusk, when the thick line of clouds to the northgrows dark and the new moon is a bright sliver, the glass

panel sheets that angle up from a rooftop in the South

the present, is nowhere on the horizon.Right now, "solar energy is not a worthwhile

economic investment for anybody, much less for low

,



about forming businesses more centered on energy

conservation."I think we've all had our eyes opened , " said

Michael Bobker, of Peoples Development Corporation,

sponsor of the 1186 solar project. "We're a lot more

realistic about energy issues and have moved into weatherization , which is much less glamorous than solar

but much more cost effective."At the same time, he said , "We're trying to develop

real low cost solar energy that uses a more passive

design and materials available to any community groupand tying these things clearly into other energy

issues. "Advocates of alternative energy stress that ways

must be found to make solar cheaper through a combination of government support, redesign of the tech

nology and local production."There is no question that solar energy has produced

savings," said Michael Freedberg of the East 11thStreet Housing Movement and a resident of 519. "The

question is how can we achieve these savings with the

smallest capital up front investment." I t is not that the cost of labor is too high or that th e

cost of materials is too high, although obviously reducing those would be helpful as well. The principal problem is that the cost of money is too high," Freedberg

said.All agree that there must be a meaningful federal

urban energy policy that combines more commitment toresearch and development of solar techniques appropriate for low-income neighborhoods with an activeprogram of grants and other subsidies to solarconsumers.

The solar units atop 519 East 11th Street and 1186Washington Avenue are called optimized glycol sys

tems. They consist of flat plate solar collectors mounted

interest. the cost per apartment would have worked out

to between $5 and $7 a month if tenants had had to payfor the solar systems. " It's not worth it when you're

already at the margin" of what you can afford , saidCharles Laven of the Urban Homesteading Assistance

Board.Because of the uneven monitoring of the solar equipment, it is harder to know accurately how much it ha s

saved on fuel costs. In a manual called No Heat No Rent

published in September, 1977, ERF estimated that the

11th Street solar system cut each apartment's fuel bill

by $2.54 per month.Assuming a ten percent annual increase in the cost of

oil, the manual estimated that it would be 1988 beforethe savings on fuel exceeded the cost of the solar

equipment. However, the book warned that monitoring

of the solar system was done sporadically by hand and

called the data inconclusive.EFT has a brand-new economic analysis of the opti

mized glycol system and four solar variations that

weighs initial cost, annual BUT output, maintenance,

fuel savings, inflation, interest rates and projected oil

and electricity cost increases to arrive at what the task

force calls a " present value benefit!cost ratio."

A ratio of less than ONE means the cost exceeds the

projected life cycle benefits. All five systems come in

under one with the optimized glycol type looking the

worst at .15 or a harsh 15-cent return on a $1 investment. The analysis concludes that solar hot water "has

a ways to go " before it can be considered economically

attractive in New York City.The task force is now trying to design a more passive,

less elaborate solar system that would be both cheaper

and more adaptable to local production.Called the direct gain heater, it is a compact model

that puts the storage capacity on the roof and



people have, you would be looking at a whole differentpicture," said Freedberg.

For fiscal year 1978, Congress has appropriated $411

million for solar or about 15 percent of the total energy

budget. Solar amounted to about 10 percent of the 1977

budget..Writing last year in The Nation, Bruce Welch,

director of the Environmental Biomedicine ResearchInsti tute in Baltimore, state that by the end of 1975, the

federal government had spent $8.25 billion to developcivilian nuclear power, the equivalent of more than 85

percent of the capital the industry itself had invested.

A spokesman for the federal Department of Energy,acknowledging the enormous past federal expenditures

for nuclear development, said "the same thing is beingstarted with solar but we're not yet up to the stage

where we're spending that kind of money."

The money the government does spend on solar re

search and grants, critics assert, favors expensive,"active" technologies more appropriate for large-scale

commercial manufacture than for decentralized,

locally-based production. "Big companies (Exxon and

the like) are moving rapidly," says ETF. City Limits

was unable before going to press to get a breakdown offrom the Department of Energy on how research funds

are being spent.The Department of Energy has an appropriate tech

nology small grants program with a two-person staff

and $3 million to spend. So far, all the grants have gone

to Region 9, California, Arizona and Nevada. Beginning

in April, the office will begin soliciting applicationsfrom Regions 1 and 2 including New York and New

England.

Of the 330 demonstration solar grants given so far by

the Department of Housing and Urban Development,

10 percent to 15 percent have been for low-incomeprojects, a handful of them sponsored by neighborhood

organizations doing housing rehabilitation, accordingto a HUD spokesman.

The spokesman said that the guidelines for the next

cycle of grants state for the first time that special consideration should be given to projects sponsored by

low-income non-profit community development groups .An example cited by critics of how poor people are

losing out on solar is President Carter's proposed 40percent credit against income taxes since poor peoplepay little or no taxes.

"The government is virtually guaranteeing that low

income people are not going to be able to capitalize significantlyon solar energy," said Norris. "I see solar as

principally a political issue in that it's critical that lowincome communities not only conserve bu t also produceenergy."

What many predict for the next five years is thatunless there is a change in policy, low-income neighborhoods will probably see a small increase inindividual grants, the utilities and large corporations,

like Exxon and Westinghouse, will monopolize the solarfield and poor people will have lost a valuable chance to

recoup some control over their lives. 0



PARTICIPATION LOANS

STUCK IN BOTTLENECK

The City's participation loan program is 16 months

old, but, contrary to the Department of Housing Pre

servation and Development's earlier predictions, it has

not been booming.

To Jan . 13, the City's figures show that only seven

buildings, totaling S60 units, have gone into construc

tion. This represents the addition of only one building

since Aug. 31 to the total work load.

There have been no formal closings since the pro

gram's commencement, these figures show, although a

closing for a seven-unit rehabilitation of SS St. Nicholas

Avenue in Manhattan is slated for completion in the

early spring, according to Christopher Hook, operations

director of the participation loan program at HPD.

Why have there been so many problems with the

participation loan program?

When questioned last September, Alexander Garvin,

assistant commissioner for rehabilitation and neigh

borhood preservation, said that the loan process was

taking longer than it should, bu t that a new push was

then under way to get more projects under construc

tion. He also predicted that the number of applications

submitted to the HPD counsel's office would be double

that of August by October, and that there would be a

significant increase in the number of projects receiving

feasibility approval.

As of Jan. 13, 31 buildings totaling 1,391 dwelling

units had received formal feasibility approval. Twenty

three buildings with 1,274 units were approved by last

August.

Buildings reaching the feasibility evaluation stage by

CITIZEN TASK FORCE

OFFERS IN REM ADVICE

Community groups interested in solutions to the

rapidly increasing epidemic of abandoned buildings

formed a citizens' task force this month on the matter.

The " In Rem" task force meets each Friday after

noon in the office of City Councilwoman Ruth Mes

singer (D .-Man.) at 250 Broadway.

By the end of February, the group planned to release a

working position paper on problems involving "In Rem"

buildings which it will send to Mayor Koch. The study

will also be available to any community groups orindividuais who are interested in pursuing the sub

ject-one that is expected to reach crisis proportions by

the beginning of next year, if no action is taken. Most

recent citywide figures for abandoned buildings show

more than 20,000, with about 24,000 more projected by

January 1,1979.

Commenting on the group's reasons for forming the

task force , Messinger said, "A number of community

groups came together because they wanted to talkabout legislative issues, and, once they began talking,

they realized that there were among us a number of

people with expertise on city-owned, abandoned

buildings. As a result, they decided to make this topic

our area of concern. "

Responsibility for the "I n Rem" buildings is sche

duled for transfer from the Department of Real Estate

to the Department of Housing Preservation and

Development on April 1.Some of the groups involved in planning the task

force's policy are: Renigades, Pratt Institute, Operation

Open City, United Tenants Association, East 11th



TRIMMING THE FAT

FROM "DAVIS-BACON"

Poor inner city neighborhoods seeking help promised

by federal law to reclaim their housing from the arson

ist's torch and the wrecker's ball are finding that still

another federal law stands in the way of the help they

seek. This classic Catch-22 goes by the name Davis

Bacon.

Enacted 43 years ago in the midst of the Great

Depression to protect local labor building a post officein Richmond, Virginia, from the builder's attempts to

bring in lower-paid workers from outside the area, the

Davis-Bacon Act requires that construction workers on

federally supported projects be paid "prevailing

wages." These are in practice determined by the

Secretary of Labor from the wages paid to workers on

union-contracted jobs, the highest paid in the industry.

Although construction unions only recently have

begun to compete for the tradesmen's jobs to be had inhousing rehabilitation projects, all but the very tiniest of

these projects (seven units or less) must, under Davis

Bacon, pay the union scale for journeymen if federal

money is used.

H. • • Davis- Bacon is killing neighborhoods

because the costs are so high . . . It pits

neighborhood people against the union . . . We

will have to overthrow Davis-Bacon."Why do community groups oppose a provision that

promises high pay to trained workers? First, because

trained workers are hard to find in the city's poor

Community Management program.

"Our emphasis has been on employment and train

ing, and everyone does make the prevailing wage in the

maintenance component," Moncrief noted of the han

dymen and janitors who maintain tax-foreclosed

multiple dwellings while Community Management

prepares them for return to private ownership by com

munity groups or tenant cooperatives.As to the rehabilitation of some 1 000 dwelling units

that the 18 Community Management groups will

undertake this year, Moncrief wondered ,"What is a

journeyman worth?"-in terms of time saved and

higher performance standards anticipated. He agreed

that the employment question creates tension in the

community.

Moncrief voiced his hope that next year will see more

than the one-trainee-to-five-journeymen called for inthe present contract, in order to provide at least an

adequate share of job opportunities to community

residents.

Meeting the Davis-Bacon requirements on pay scales

will not afffect the rents tenants will pay when rehabili

tation is completed, Moncrief asserted. "It's a grant

program-fairly reasonable. Tenants won't have to pay

back the salaries in the mortgages.

"I'd like to hear just how [Davis-Bacon] hurts. I'mnot an adversary of Davis-Bacon," Moncrief said.

Leila Long, assistant commissioner at HPD for Equal

Opportunity, suggested that the harsh effects of Davis



James Harris, a lawyer who has closely studied the

Davis-Bacon Act for both the Association of Neigh

borhood Housing Developers and U-HAB, said,

"Davis-Bacon has become a terrible political problem.

Unions are suffering from high unemployment; they do

not like minorities and they consider them scabs."Most rehabilitation work is non-union, anyway,"

Harris observed, "s o what is the 'prevailing wage'?

Housing people should get the courage just to goahead."

As pressure mounts on government from neighbor

hood groups to permit a break in the "prevailing wage"

scale for housing rehabilitation in poor neighborhoods,

equal opposing pressure is applied from labor and from

"traditional" liberals, to whom such labor cost-cuttingis anathema.

Stanley Friedman, assistant area director of the

Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of

Labor, said recently, "Just because it's a minority

contractor doesn't make any difference to us. We go to

the contractor and ask, 'Who's funding?'" Friedman

emphasized, "What we will tell you is that prevailing

wages must be paid."

"Most rehabilitation work is non-union

anyway, . . . so what is the 'prevailing wage'?

Housing people should get the courage just to

go ahead."

As a way out of the impasse, Harris has recommend

ed that U-HAB support amendments to the

Davis-Bacon Act as it applies to federally assisted

"sweat equity" projects. These are likely to make theirway into the hands of inner-city and rural Congression

al representatives who are beginning to speak out for

change in the law.

"Just because it's a minority contractor doesn't

make any difference to us. We go to the

contractor and ask, 'Who's funding?' " . . .'What we tell you is that prevailing wages must

be paid."

pass a law declaring that the development of a viable

'sweat equity' program is 'in the public interest,' and

thus strengthen the hand of any project seeking an

individual waiver from the Secretary of Labor."

St. Georges, whose U-HAB-sponsored Section 312

demonstration program obtained such a waiver, is,nonetheless, pessimistic about the chances of a

coalition of union-alienated urban representatives and

anti-union rural representatives mounting a successfulchallenge to Davis-Bacon.

He believes that due process and equal opportunity

litigation, based on the exclusion of the entire class of

urban poor from the opportunity of becoming urban

homesteaders and homeowners, is worth trying al

though the outcome is equally uncertain.Waivers ought to be sought for all "sweat equity"

projects, even under present regulations, as a means of

keeping up the pressure for change, St. Georges urged.

A major omission in the Housing and Community

Development Act of 1974, into which most previous

housing assistance programs were subsumed, is the

absence of a provision permitting the HUD Secretary to

waive Davis-Bacon requirements. And, in an opinion

dated July 29, 1977, HUD Assistant Secretary RobertC. Embry, Jr., stated that "the legislative history pro

vides no indication that the omission of a waiver pro

vision was unintentional. "



SOMEBODY UP THERE

LOVES ARAMIS GOMEZ

by Susan Baldwin

Every time there is a major change at City Hall, or at

the Department of Housing Preservation and Develop

ment, that's the time for community groups once againto gird up their loins , rally the troops , and work to one

end-the removal of Aramis Gomez, the durable

deputy commissioner now in his fifth year at HPD's

Office of Relocation.

What happens? Everyone gets excited. There is aflurry of emergency meetings, extensive letter writing

campaigns , community protests. Nothing happens.

Gomez remains."I don't think I've ever heard a nice thing about

him," said Doris Rosenblum, president of the

Strycker's Bay Neighborhood Council, the Project AreaCommittee (PAC) that monitors sites in Manhattan's

West Side Urban Renewal Area where about 50 title

vested tenants still remain on urban renewal propertiesunder the jurisdiction of the Office of Relocation.

"He always seems to have to prove that he's got a lotof power," Rosenblum continued, noting that her

experience in countless dealings with Gomez has been,

" 'Poor people aren't worth anything. I pulled myselfup from the streets, so why can't they do the same

thing?' I really think he has a vendetta against a class of

people . . . In order to behave the way he does toward

people, he must have someone pretty strong protectinghim in his job."

Community pressure for Gomez's removal surfaced

somewhere else. And then we read the newspapers."

[Maxwell Kauffman is director of operations under

Gomez.]

A false report in early February that tenants on urban

renewal holding sites should expect imminent evictionnotices is what finally mobilized the groups yet another

time against Gomez.

One site tenant in the Clinton Urban Renewal Areaon Manhattan's Mid-West Side had been told by the

site manager that he would be evicted if he did not paythe disputed arrears for increases tacked onto past

rents, and begin to pay the increased rent each month.The City is asking for arrears back to Aug. 1, 1975.Clinton has some 50 vested tenants.

The tenants in these three renewal areas are currently paying old rents that range from $14-30 per room.

They are not required to pay more than 25 percent of

their income in rent, under guidelines established bythe federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for tenants residing on sites slated fordemolition and new construction. I f they were to paythe arrears the City asks for, some tenants would oweseveral thousand dollars.

The unauthorized demand by the Clinton site manager, coupled with the fact that urban renewal sitetenants did not receive their February rent bills ontime, proved to be the sources of the tenant alarm.

"W e are just telling people here to continue to pay



alarm goes, the groups are just telling the tenants to

continue with the old plan and pay the old rents . . . It's

too bad that this one [Clinton] tenant panicked and paid

the new rent along with the arrears."

"This is just another example of why we have been

trying to use political pressure to get rid of Gomez,"

said Peggi Winslow, an actress who lives on one of the

Clinton sites. She had alerted the other groups to the

potential evictions.

"W e can't continue to live like this, from day to day

worrying about being thrown out by Gomez," she con

tinued. She stressed that the Clinton tenants believe

they are being harassed even more than the tenants of

other renewal areas because they are not as well

organized.

Noting that Gomez's typical response to any question

is, " ' I f you don't like it, ge t out,' " Winslow added,

"It's taken me a while to realize that all the things I've

heard about him are true. Whenever you talk to him,

you have an insane conversation. It's the same as if you

were talking to Idi Amin . . . He's an irrational, mean

man, and he makes it quite clear that he can make any

decision he wants. The last time I talked to him, I was

shaking afterwards."Neighborhood groups recite details of past

"atrocities" suffered at the hands of the Office of Relo

cation under Gomez's command with such passion and

in such detail that it would give most observers pause to

explain why he has remained in this position of author

ity for so many years.

The city has a serious shortage of housing suitable

for relocation of poor families burned out of or other

wise forced to vacate their homes, say communityleaders, yet relocation crews enter urban renewal

"holding" site buildings whenever a tenant moves out,

"If you recall, last year was the worst winter in the city's

history, bu t still we did not have any buildings that

were without heat for more than 48 or 72 hours under

our management.

"We keep daily reports on how all our buildings are

doing," he added , noting that he had been with the

office for 12 years , with a background in real estate.

"What we have here is 'blood equity,' not 'sweat

equity,' " he said. "Our workers go into neighbor

hoods trying to find places to relocate families, and fre

quently their lives are endangered. We check every

location before we put a family in. We have a good track

record. In the last 15 years this office has placed over

100,000 families, and I believe at least half of them

were put in public housing.

"Let's face it ," he concluded, referring to the var

ious duties undertaken by the relocation office, "No-

body likes somebody who wants to throw you out of

your house . Noboy likes the sheriff, the marshal, or the

landlord, and, in our job, we are all three. You can't

expect them [the community groups] to like us for

that. "

At press time, CITY LIMITS called Commissioner

Leventhal's office, and received a return call from his

special assistant, Edgar Kulkin, who released the fol

lowing statement for Leventhal: " At this point in the

game, he [Leventhal] has not made any changes in his

staff. He has asked those people who want to remain for

the time being to stay."

Asked whether the commissioner plans to keep

Gomez on indefinitely as his deputy commissioner,

Kulkin added, "This is a decision he will make in due

time. Gomez is not the only one who has gotten a hard

time. There have been other commissioners criticized.

At this point, he has made no decision. Gomez will stay



C ~ A - C 1 C C c o n r i n u e d revealed. To counter this problem, the program has

retained a tutor who gives lessons in basic reading and

mathematics Monday through Friday from 3 to 9 p.m.

"It 's ridiculous to expect the men to be able to read

blueprints if they can't even read at the fourth grade

level," Grey said. "That's part of why we're offering

these lessons. We also want to develop self

confidence. "

Self-confidence seems to be the key word when one

attempts to identify the most important aspect of the

job training programs. "I know that a lot of the men

would like to be eligible for union jQbs in construction,

but I don't think that's everything to them," Grey

explained.

"We've had representatives from New Jersey unions

coming here to explain to them about joining, and most

of the guys are not interested in paying the dues to the

union. After all, there's no guarantee, even if they

make it possible for them to join, that they will get w9rkfor them."

The Department of Employment's Weiss has

stressed repeatedly the need to re-examine the present

training program with an idea to making it less

expensive and more relevant.

Hewitt of Adopt-a-Building commented on the issue,

"I don't think anyone would deny that there are

problems with these job training programs, but they

are ones that can be worked out. What we have to keep

in mind is that these programs are essential to the

survival of the communities where they provide the

only answer for generating employment.

• These programs are the key to getting those people

back to work who have not worked in such a long time, "

Hewitt concluded. "So they get in the habit of working

IITOWN MEETING"

TERMED SUCCESS

About 100 community residents attended the tenth

quarterly "Town Meeting" February 20 conducted by

Interfaith Adopt-A-Building at "Loisada," 177 East 3rd

Street, Manhattan.

The conference lasted from one until five p.m., and

featured a general town meeting, workshops, and guest

remarks from Councilwoman Miriam Friedlander and

Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein.

Friedlander is the Council representative for the Lower

East Side. Refreshments and entertainment, including a

slide s.!tow, followed.

The meeting had been called to introduce candidates

running from the area for the Community Corporation

elections. Although these have been postponed indef

initely by Mayor Koch, the elections were still

discussed.

Commenting on the successful turnout, Roberto

("Rabbit") Nazario said, "The people came here and

participated. I think they are showing interest in their

neighborhood problems... There are five areas in

housing that we received as our mandate from the peo

ple to carry out in the community." Nazario is director

of Adopt-A-Building.

Elaine Binno, training officer for Adopt-A-Building's

CETA program, added, "I think this is a very good

thing. People showed a great deal of interest in the

central issues facing us here. They spoke up at the

meeting and participated in the workshops."

Problem areas deemed important for follow-up



Anne Hartwell

Anne Hartwell, a specialist in tenant manage-ment, has joined ANHD as director of technical

assistance.

Hartwell comes from MFY Legal Services Inc.where she has spent the past six years as projectcoordinator in the community developmenthousing unit.

"Whatever it took to get a building from theloan stage to the point where tenants were able to

take over the management," was how she des-cribed her former job.

She said nine buildings with 161 units have beenrehabilitated and converted into tenant coopera-tives under her coordination . Four others are in

the pipeline.Hartwell joined MFY in 1971 as a welfare advo-

cate. She is a founder of radio station WMCA's

" Call fo r Action" program in which listeners with

housing and other problems can call for

assistance.

The technical assistance position was created as

part of a reorganization plan designed by the

ANHD membership late last year.

The new director said her program will dependon the technical assistance needs expressed by the

member organizations.

First on the agenda, she said, is a program that

will make available 10 CETA-paid bookkeepers toANHD member organizations that want help with

accounting and record keeping.The CETA bookkeepers will help establish

sound and workable financial systems for housing

programs and will train staff in the community

based organizations in basic fiscal practices.

The goal of the program is to help the organiza-tions run their own programs more effectively. It isexpected to get under way in March. 0

DICKSTEIN LEAVES HPD

FOR THE POLICE DEPT.

Paul Dickstein, who served for one year as first

deputy commissioner of the Department of Housing

and licensing functions.Prior to joining HPD in February, 1977, Dickstein



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IN THIS ISSUE

• Community Management

• Dynamiting Buildings• CETA and CJCC Graduates

• Solar Energy• Davis-Bacon Act Quandary

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City Limits Magazine, February 1978 Issue