City Limits Magazine, February 2000 Issue

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Home Remedies

n the mayor's ever-escaLatingassauLt on the homeless, the contradictions betweenthe

l tated goaLsof the city'spoLiciesand their consequencesexist in the same surreaL reaLmwhere Pat BuchananbeLievesthat the trade embargoeson Cuba vioLatehuman rights.ReLyingon theprivate marketto take care ofhousingfor peopLewhodon't have any money,asthe mayorhas, is about as unreaLas it gets. Butsoonenough, our currentmayorwillbe a senator; or a Departmentof Justice chiefor charter schooLmagnate. ThenextLeaderof New YorkCity wiLLhave to figure out what options we have leftto house the homeLess.DeveLopingastrategyfor building and providingmoreaffordabLehousing-for the homeLess,the poorandthe hundredsof housandsNew Yorkerswho livedoubLedup-shouLdbe prioritynumberonefor any mayoraLcandidate who wants to grab the public compassionfor the homeLessthatGiulianihas so kindLyLeftas his Legacy. A ew suggestions:

Stop selling tax liens. AproLiferationof buiLdingsseizedfrom theirownersfor unpaidtaxes once Ledto disaster; as city taxpayerscame to own thousandsof abandoned buildings.But theyuLtimateLyled to opportunitiesfor affordabLe housing coordinated by nonprofitdeveLopers.Under GiuLiani,the city has beensellingoff he liens to private buyersas fast asit can take them. Managedproperly, seizedbuildingsare an asset, nota Liability. Use them.

Set aside some spots. The city has LargeLyabandoned reserving pLaces for formerLyhomeless andvery Low-incomeindividuaLsand families in city-backedprojects. Thoseneedto be restored. Butmore than that, set-asidesneed to pLaya more serious role in efforts tobuild housing using city-issuedbonds. Thoseprojects currentLy put mostof the availabLeresources intosubsidizingLuxuryand middLe-incomebuildings.

Not everyone needs a kitchen. Because of housing codes, no single-room occupancyresidences have beenLegallybuilt in the city sincethe I950s. Much of the existing stockofthose affordabLerooms, which kept homeLesssingle people off the street, has been lost toconversionsto pricier apartments. Their closestequivaLentis rooms illegallychopped outofhomesin the boroughs,but thesedon'tprovidestabLepLaces toLive. In generaL, the rtwreflexibility in the varietiesof housing thatcan be Legallybuilt, the better.

Spend what you 've got smarter. Thecity is Layingout $170 millionthis yearfor homeLessservices,the state $150miLLion.That moneyrepresentsan enormouspotential resource,someof whichcouLdbe more effectiveLyput to use to beef up tenant Legalrepresentationandprovide emergencyrent subsidiesto peopLeon the verge of eviction.

D on't f orget about public housing. The city's housing authority has responded toCongress'scalls for bringing in higher-income tenantswith a commitmentto keepingveryLow-incomefamilies to just 40 percent of the projects' total popuLation. But because itaLreadyhas a widerrange of ncomesthan mostpublichousingsystemsnationally, NewYorkhas the ability to maintain the status quo: 55 percent very Lowincome, or tens of housandsof apartmentsfor peopLewho can't find housingon the private market.

Andfor Pete's sake-if youdon't beLievein publichousing,don't live in Gracie Mansion.

Cover photo by Ozier Muhammad; Kamal Muhammadat work in a Broadwaynewsstand.

ALyssaKatzEditor

CityLimitsrelies on the generous support of its readers and advertisers. as well as the followingfunders: The AdcoFoundation.The RobertSterling ClarkFoundation.The Unitarian Universalist Veatch Programat Shelter Rock, The EdnaMcConnellClarkFoundation.The Joyce Mertz-GilmoreFoundation.The SchermanFoundation.The North Star Fund. J.P.Morgan&Co. Incorporated. The AnnieE CaseyFoundation.The NewYorkCommunityTrust.The NewYorkFoundation.TheTaconicFoundation.DeutscheBank.M&TBank.Citibank.and Chase Manhattan Bank.

City Limits

Volume XXVNumber 2

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3/40

FEBRUARY 2000

FEA.TURES

The M a nhattan ProjectTeachers at city schools are doing anything they can to makesure their students pass tough new tests. B ut by doing littleto offer guidance, the Board of Ed may be setting kids up to fail.Why aren't school officials listening to the people who wrote

the book on education standards?

Help WantedThe hype holds that working poor is the thing to be these days.But a close look at the resources availab le to low-paid workingfamilies shows that getting people off welfare is a lot morepopular than keeping them off.

Working RiffsJobs in New York City aren't all in Silicon Alley. The peoplewho make the city's service economy run put up with pests,stress, lost toes and modest wages, all in a day's work.

By J iU Grossman

Six of them tell their stories. By Ron HowellPhotographs by Ozier Muhammad

PIPELINES

Swept AstrayAt B ronx Housing Court,a group of janitors who workfor their welfare benefits say they were promised morethan an orange vest-and they're wondering wheretheir jobs are.

Their Own VictimsEven as violence plummets at Rikers Island, suicidesmay be increasing, and the city agency that overseesjails wants to know why.

Remaking the RentIn March, tenant advocates will face yet another fighttokeep rent regulations intact. But thanks to term limits,this time around it's the politicians who are sweating it out.

COMMENTA.RY

ReviewAll Togther How?

Spare ChangeMr. Smith Goes to Centre Street

DEPARTMEMTS

Editor ial 2 Ammo

Letters 4 Job Ads

Briefs 5 ProfessionalDirectory

By Tracie McMiUan

By Jarrett Murphy

By Jarr ett Murphy

13 0By Michael Hirsch

13 8

2 9

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3 4

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4/40

LOAM JUSTICE

Your article "The Harlem Shuffle"(November 1999) falsely portrays Mortgage LendingofAmerica, Inc., a licensedmortgage banker, as having "burned"nonprofit housing corporations by

renovatethe properties,or how such renovationsare performed. These are all theresponsibilityof the propertyownerlbor-rower, in this case, Helpline.

LETTERS ~ "promis[ing] them one-stop housing.......... .l.rehabs but instead hook[ing]them upwith overpriced buildingsand shoddyconstruction," leaving the nonprofits"holdinguninhabitablehousing and highmortgagesthey can't pay."

It is false that"MortgageLendingofAmericainvitedHelplineto buy homesineasternBrooklyn"(or anywhereelse, for

that matter).Of

the properties that itfinanced through Mortgage LendingofAmerica,Helpline bought seven(two ofwhich ithas since soldat a profit)directly from HUD, which hadforeclosed onthem. Helpline boughtthe remainingpropertiesfrom other sources, also unrelated to Mortgage Lendingof America.Helpline,and Helpline alone,is responsible for its purchases. (Your article misleadingly talks about "flip" transactionsby which developers sell properties tononprofit organizationsfor profit.That isnot what happened in the case of

Helpline, and Mortgage Lending ofAmerica is not in the businessof "flipping" or reselling properties.)

This is pure fiction. Unfortunately,your author appears to have boughthook, line and sinker-the false anddefamatorystoriesabout MortgageLending of America spreadby GenniePhillipsof Baldwin, Long Island, who operatesHelplineSoul RescueMinistries,Inc.

The facts areas follows: Mortgage Lendingof America, Inc.,

is a lender. Its businessis to make loans toqualifiedborrowers. Itis not in the constructionbusiness,the real estate brokerage business, the appraisal businessorany other business.Mortgage LendingofAmerica, Inc., is not responsiblefor itsborrowers' purchasesof properties, theircontractswith constructioncompaniesto

Your article falsely suggests thatMortgage Lendingof America causedHelplineto enterinto a contractwith TriMetro. In fact, this was purely Helpline'schoice. Ms. Phillips apparently told your

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reporter that she signed an agreemwith Tri-Metro whereby that comppaid Helpline $5,000 per building pchased (approximately halfa milliondlars in all) andshe in return agreedno"see the buildingsbefore or during cstruction." Mortgage Lendingof Ame

has no idea whetherthis is true or not,if Ms. Phillips signed sucha bizarrectract, she aloneis responsiblefor the csequences. Mortgage Lendingof Amewas not a party to Helpline's contwith Tri-Metro.

It is absolutelyfalse that MortgLending of America"refused to let" MPhillips "see the appraisal recordsaclosing documents" forthe loans Mortgage Lendingof America madeHelpline. Just like any other purchaspropertywho financeshis or herpurchby borrowing from a mortgage len

Helplinewas providedthe appraisalsapurchase and loan documents, at andbefore the closing.

Of the 105 propertiespurchasedHelplinewith funds loanedby MortgLendingof America, Helplinecomplerepairs on only 29, even though "dpayments"were availablefor renovatwork on all of them, in strict compliawith HUD guidelines. Helpline inexably failed to renovate the vast majoof the properties which it purchaseven though MortgageLendingof Amica escrowedover $1.2 millionfor tvery purpose. Helplinealone isresponble for this failure. Ms. Phillips'seserving statement,"We were shut outthe process," is a complete fabricatFar from being "shut out," she wresponsible for the process whereby organization bought properties,finanthem through Mortgage LendingAmerica and/or other lenders,and wsupposed to rehabilitate the propertcollect the rent and pay the mortgageis indeed a terrible thing for residentsHelpline-owned buildingsand the comunity that Helpline did not do wit was supposed to do. But thisHelpline's fault alone.

The draw checksthat were issuwere made payable jointly to Helpland the contractor,as required by HUregulations.Helpline, however, negoed these checks itself. Apparently asresult, Helplinehas been sued by a copany claiming to be the assigneeHelpline's contractor.

Helpline defaultedon loans madeMortgage LendingofAmericaon approimately 100 properties.Other than the

(continued on pa ge 3

CITY LIMI


5/40

Labor

Fntit FightF

r DanielLucas, workingthe picket linein the cold forsix hours a day is a vacation-literally. During his five years atthe Adinah's Farms greengrocery onthecomer of Avenue C and 2nd Street,

Lucas worked12 to 14 hours a day, seven daysaweek making sandwichesand stocking shelves.Hisweeklypay: $300, in cash. He got no lunchor din

ner break, catchinga quick nibblein between customers and shipments, all for what addedup to$3.60 a hour. No benefits,no overtime. Andwhenanother employeewas out, he suddenly had twicethe work. "I f someonewas off, we had to dotheotherjob," Lucas says, leaningnonchalantlyagainstthe policebarricadeset up for the picket.

It was these difficult conditionsthat pushed thisstore's six Mexican workersto pursue unionmembership with Local 169of the Union of Needletrades,IndustrialandTextileEmployees, or UNITE.But that, in tum, pushed the store's owner to firethem. So in August they took to the streets, askingneighborsto passup the store that passedthem over.

FEBRUARY 2000

Outside the store, former patronsof Adinah'stoss supportivephrasesat the protestersin Englishand Spanisl1, and nearby signsproclaimpro-worker and pro-union messages. "I feel for these guysbecausethey've worked hereso long, and they goand throw them out; it's a damn shame,"says oneresident."We try not to let [people] shophere."

In December, the National Labor RelationsBoardjumped in, issuinga ruling requiring ownerGrace Lee to recognize the union and rehire theworkers.That has yet to happen, but in the meantime the workers survive their indeterminate

unemploymentwith a little help from the union.UNITE is hoping for a bigger payday eventually:If he U.S.Departmentof Laborproves thatLee'sworkers made less than minimum wage,she'llhave to pony up back wagesand overtime-a figure theunion puts at $80,000 to $100,000. "I don'tfeel so bad," Lucassays of being out of work. "I'mglad I'm fighting for this."

It's a fight that has lit up the Lower EastSide.With organizingby UNITE, the MexicanWorkersAssociation, Lower East Side Community LaborCoalition and other groups,four other greengrocers arenow haunted dailyby pickets:FujiApple,Fruit and Vegetable, and twoother storesowned

by Lee, Gracelandand Gracefully.And the store-ownershave beenhit hard. Wifew Lower East Siders willingto cross a pickline, the greengrocers are under tremendous presure. "It's affecting us a lot," says MichaelShiwhose parents have owned Fuji Apple for years. He saysthat most of his workers were pminimumwage. "We're dying," he adds.

The agitationon theLower East Sidehas beebittersweet vindication for UNITE, after a campaign two years agoto unionize groceryworkein BrightonBeach failed. In that effort,as soon aorganizers got workers interested in improvintheir lot, owners divided workers by firing som

and raising the salaries of others, and conquerby intimidatingthe rest.

This time, community supporthas made all thdifference.Idle workers pace restlessly insideAdnah's Farms, and few customers dare come iWith such solid support, the workers aren't smuch waging a protest as maintaininga presencThey haven't been vocal for months. Most daytheyquietlystand in front of the store, signs drapover their jackets.

' 'We don't have to do anything," says ManuGuerrero, a union organizer.' 'We don't have tochaanything. The communityis alreadyon our side."

-Kemba Johnson

M


6/40

Briem . . . . . . . . . . - - - - - . . . . . . . . ----------$60K Union Donations

to Democrats Runningfor Mayor in 2001

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Campaigns

UnionMuscle

Een with Election Day 2001 nearly two

years away, individual donors andPACsare already pumping cash intothe coffersof pols planningto run formayor. Comptroller Alan Hevesi leads the packwith

$2.3 million in his purse, followed by Bronx BoroughPresident FernandoFerrerwithjustovera million dollarsin the tank. Money, however, isn'teverything: WitnessRebaWhite Williams,who showered$1.12 millionon her special electionCity Councilcampaignlastfall. Shebroke all the records, only tolose spectacularly.And in a recent informal surveyby the web site NYVOTE.com, Public AdvocateMarkGreen-third in campaign cashwithjust over

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oct e"en

$800,OOO-wasvoters'top choice.What may matter more than money is

muscle-people power, in other words, and thebest sourceof that is laborunions.With thousandsof troops to staff phone banksand pass out palmcards, the city's unions were widelycreditedwithgetting lastfall's charterrevisionproposal defeated by a three-to-onemargin.

Since candidates that get union moneymayalso beable to counton union manpower, a quicklook at how organizedlabor is doling outits campaign cashreveals some interestingtrends. WhileHevesi leadsin this category, City Council Speaker PeterVallone comes in a close second. Meanwhile, traditional labor-friendSal Albanese lagswell behind.

Republicansget the brush-off: FormerDeputyMayor Fran Reiter, Assemblymember JohnRavitz and CouncilmemberThomas Ognibenehaven' t registereda centof union money,according to Campaign FinanceBoard records.

-Jarrett Murphy

Welfare-to-Work

C o ~ t r a c tSports

In December, the mayor's office quietapproved almost $500 million worthof sen

sitive job trainingand job placementcontracts, completelyoverhauling New YorCity's welfare-to-worksystem. In all, fo

profitcompanies walkedaway witha totalof $23million. The city doled outa whopping $105milion to one corporate giant alone, Virginia-basMaximus, in twoof the biggestsocial servicescontracts the city has ever granted. (For furtherdetailsee our web site at www.citylirnits.org).

But at an obscure public hearingto approvelast-minute changeto Maximus' employment cecontract-it bumped up thecompany'stake fro$12 million to $47 million-a handful of welfawatchers raisedserious objectionsabout both t

contractorsand the secretive contracting procesFor one thing, City limits has found, somethese companies have lessthan stellarrecords.As wI:eportedin November, Maxirnus hashad troublefufilling someof its otherhuman services contracts"ourcommunity-basedgroupshad as manyquestioraised [about their records], they'd be blown outthe water," says ManhattanCity Councilman BPerkins, who presentedtestimonyagainst the company atthehearing. AndARBOR, Inc., whichis geting $18 millionin New York City for skills assement and job placement, botcheda similar jobPhiladelphialastyear. Cityofficialstheredeclinedrenew ARBOR's $21 million contract becau

amongotherthings, thecompany failedto keep traof clients. ''They fell well below ourexpectationsays Linda Blanchette, directorof Greater PhiladphiaWorks, the city's welfare-to-workprogram.

These 17 contracts, serving poorunemploypeople and welfare recipients, are performanbased, meaning that companiesget paid for eaclient they place and keepin a job. But becausethe way NewYork City's contracts are structurCity Project associate directorGlennPasanenpoinout, it appears Maxirnuscan collectup to 20 perceof its first-yearfees right away, for an up-fronttaof nearly$7 million.

Pasanenand Perkinsalso note that the contrprocess wasn't exactly public. The deals werearranged through negotiated acquisition, a meththat circumventsopen bidding. Andalthoughcotracts are supposed to be available for inspectibefore they go to a public hearing, the documeavailableat HumanResources Administrationheaquarters were little more thanboilerplate, includino specificson dollarfigures orsubcontracting.

"Is that good government, to be able to chanpolicy so dramatically, and be able to distributhat amountof money withouta serious processreviewand negotiationsto make sure that thecommunity's interestsare being represented?"Perkiasks. -Kathleen McGow

CITY LIMI


7/40

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PrE DOOMSMYCONTINGENCYPlANSOF THE MAYOR'SEMERGENCYMANAGEMENTTEAM a

O PREVENT A StRl0USCRIPPL1NGOf THE ClTY'SECONOMICINFRASTRUCTURE.,WF.VESET UPAN OOENS1VENETWORKOF CARRIERPIGEONROUTES."

OURVAPIDRESPONSETASKFORCEWIUHECKl.EAND HOUNDRUDYCREW UNTILItERESIGNS, THUSENABUN6 U51D RESfOR HOPE1 i) A HOPELESSSYSTEMWITH

WE'RE GOINGTO FINE MARKGREEN$ 2 5 . 0 0 0 ~A DAYFOREACHAND EVt:RVPOLlCYRtVERSALUNTILTHEQUESTIONOF'MAYORAl. SUCCESSIONISSETTLEDBYA FREEANDFAlR.

rnc==PROTRACTED,EXClTIN6NEW CAANCELl.ORSEARCH! ELECTION!

BIKE MESsENGERSTRIKE

Protests

Unfunded'Youth

In November,a group of Bushwick organizers and teens staged a carnival-like protestin front of Councilmember Martin MalaveDiliin'soffice. Their demand: new fundingfor a center to provide meals, counseling

and classesfor neighborhoodteens.Theirmethod:a lively street party thatstopped nearby trafficwith nearly 30 teens dancingto merengueand rapmusic. Andwhile they might not have won the

increased fundingthey werelookingfor, they didmanage to win the councilmember'sattention.The protest, organized by community group

Make theRoad by Walking, comes monthsafterits study found only2,000 slots for freeyouthser-vices programs availablein a communitywith apopulationof 40,000 teenagers.Protesterswant acrisis center for teens to address the problem ofteen homelessness."Thereare young kidsoutheregoing to jail," says YaritzaMercado,16,one of theyouth organizerswho led the protest."I think thatif we can get these programs outhere in Bushwick, there willbe less kids out in the street."

Malave-Diliinwasn't around for theprotest.

FEBRUARY 2000

RUDYELECTEDTo 'U.SSENATE!

But when he showedup afterward, some reportedthat things gotugly. Two protesters,Jesus Gonzalez, 14,and JusticeFord,18, and a volunteer,SeanGullette, said that the councilmanconfrontedGullette for helping to stage the rowdycarnival.

Malave-Dillin denies theaccusation. Hereports that $60,000 of his discretionarymoney,

Fos te r Care

plus an additional $57,000, goesto youth prgrams in his district. "Otherelected officialswell as I are working on the constructionofyouth centernot too far away fromthis organiztion," he says. Youth group membersmet latwith thecouncilmember,who promisedhe woulook into their proposals. -Elizabeth Corona

AGIN

DISGRACEFUFor kids infoster care, leaving may sometimesbethe hardesttrialofall.Youngpeopleagingoutofthesystem get upto S750ingrants, extrapublicassistance and not much else. Withoutresources or asupport network,manystruggleto payfor basic livingexpenses; oneUniversityofWisconsin study foundthat 32 percent ofadolescents who had beenout of foster carefor12to 18monthswereonsome formofpublicassistance. More thanhalfhad nomedicalinsurance

Newfederal legislation,however, shouldimprovematters. A illpassedby Congress iNovemberdoubles the amountof federalfunds availablefor independent livingprogramswhichteach foster kids the skills they need to surviveontheirown.New YorkStatestandsto receivean additionalS2 milliona ear.

Thelegislationis designedto give young peoplebetweenage 14and 21whoare about toleave foster care the financialflexibilityto continue in school or find suitablejobs. Statecan use up to 30percentofthe moneyto help adolescents payfor roomand board,or providehealthinsurance up to age 21.Themeasurealso compelsstates to trackwhathappento teens after they leavefoster care-somethingneitherthe city nor thestate does now.

Adaptedfroma ChildWelfareWatch news brief


8/40

PIPELINE i,

A group of WEPworkers sa ythey were g ivenfalse hope tha ttheir workfareassignmen ts a t

Bronx HousingCourt wouldlead torea l j obs .

:M

Swept AstrayBronx welfare workers say the city promised them jobs-and then gave them the brush-off.

By Tracie McMillan

"w eeel that we are beingused as individuals to workand clean all courts withoutthe city paying checks or benefits," readthe letter to the editor of the civil servicenewspaper The Chief The signers: 33Bronx Housing Court "interns" enrolled inthe city's Work Experience Program. It ishardly a new story; critics of the city'swork-far-welfare programhave been mak-ing the same point for years. These workers, however, have a new complaint-theyinsist they were lured into a anitorial train-

ing program by a promise that wasn't kept.'They told us at the orientation that we

would get a real job. This is not a real job,"says Terry Boyd, who helped coordinatethewriting and signing of the letter. She has

been a Housing Court WEP intern for twoyears. "We're just being used to do workthat city employees used to be paid for andall we get are our [welfare] benefits," Boydadds. 'That doesn't make any sense."

Boyd and about 140 other WEP workers have been assigned to clean Bronxcourts for the Department of CitywideAdministrative Services, which suppliesjanitorial staff to public buildings. Fortheirfirst eight to 10 weeks on duty, the workerslearn to sweep and clean through theagency's Custodial Maintenance TrainingProgram, which is supposed to prepare

them for private employment.But these traineessay that the official in

charge of DCAS' WEP brigade told them ajob would be waiting after they completedtheir training.Workers assumed he meant acity job. Instead, they are still in their workfare assignments, and their supervisorshave said they can't arrange permanentjobs for the workers.

"[DCAS WEP director] Harris Colontold us that when we finished the trainingandeverything,we were going to get a ob,"says Norma Torres,a formerHousing Court

WEP worker who now cleans the BronxDA's offices. She feels betrayed by the program. "Doing this training, getting certificates-I worked hard. And for nothing."Torres has been cleaning court buildingsfor

over two years, often voluntarily workingmore than her assigned 32 hours a week.'They told us we'd get a ob," says anothercleaner. "But we've gotten nothing."

So when the Housing Court workerssaw an article about WEP in The Chief,they felt compelled to draft the letter. "Wefigured that if we wrote them, then maybethey could help us try to get jobs," saysBoyd, who wrote the letter. Over half of thewelfare workerson site signed it.

DCAS insists that the trainees misunderstood. "Nobody has ever told the WEPparticipants thatthey could take the test or

training to be assured of a city job," saysDCAS spokesperson Denise Collins. 'Theidea is for them to be prepared for openingin the private sector. The program is not seup to provide for city employment."

Nearly 3,000 WEP workers have beeassigned to this training program since istarted in 1997. Most drop out or leavwelfare altogether;so far, only 375 of themhave completed the training. DCAS hahired just 41.

Meanwhile, fewerthan one in seven othe custodial workers in the Bronx court

are city employees. Indeed, the number osalaried janitorial jobs with DCAS habeen slowly dwindling as welfare workerhave arrived. In 1994,just beforeWEP walaunched, there were 295 full- and parttime custodial court employees citywideBy 1997, there were 436---a totalof 267WEP workers and just 167 city employees

Most city jobs that remain are for "custodians," a low-level supervisory positionthat requires more specialized trainingthanDCAS offers-in boiler maintenance, foexample. With the agency's encouragement, Boyd, Torres and anotherdozen or so

of their colleagues took the civil servicexam for custodial jobs last May anywayalong with 1,300 other applicants.

They won't know their results until aleast this spring, and DCAS has not yeannounced how many jobs will be available. In 1997, the last time the agency hiredWEP workers as employees, just 16 gojobs. "We have very limited openings andmany more passers for the test than openings," confirms Collins. 'The training thawe do for the certificate is not meant to becivil service exam training."

The Housing Court trainees know altoo well that openingsare limited. "Some ofthem get discouragedand just leave," saysBoyd. "But I know maybe eight people thagot jobs after this. Two girls went to work aK-Mart. One went to work at Macy'sThey're all doing maintenance work."

Others aren't so lucky. Says Torres,"I'm looking for a job and everything. Itake my newspaper, put applications here,put applications there. And nothing. It'shard for me." .

Tracie McMillan is a Brooklyn-basedfreelance writer.

CITY LIMITS


9/40

Their Own VictimsAn uptickin city jail suicides prompts a probe-and questions about mental health care.By Jarrett Murphy

L ittle more is known about MustafaQverterman than when he died,and where-in a cell at the Contagious Disease Unit in the West Facility onRikers Island on Christmas Day, 1998-and that he killed himselfby standing hisbed on end and hanging himself fromits edge.

The Board of Correction, an independent agency that oversees the massiveNew York City Departmentof Correctionjail system, is reviewing Qverterman's suicide, along with seven others that occurredbetween July 1998 and June 1999. It's anoticeable uptick:In fiscal years 1997 and1998 there were five suicides in city jails.In 1996, there were only three. Theincrease comes despite dramatic decreasesin violence at the jails-down 55 percentin just the last year-and an almost 7 percent decline in the daily jail populationover the past five years.

Every suicide in the city's jail systemis investigated by the Board and Department of Correction. ("One is too manyfor us," saysDOC spokespersonThomasAntenen.) But now the Board is takingan especially closelook to see why theremight be an increase in inmates takingtheir own lives. Says Board DeputyDirector Kathy Potier, "We're looking atany trends-any issues that would comeup. It's something we've wanted to dofor a while."

Several issues are ripe forthe probe.With greater rates of mental illness andsuicide than state and federal prisons,city jails also now host large numbers ofinmates detained for quality-of-lifecrimes-people who never contemplatedthe possibility of jail time are ending up

behind bars for crimeslike public urination or possession ofalcohol.At the same time, the Department of

Correction has adopted a hard-nosed antiviolence strategy at the jails. While it hasreduced the numberof incidents tremendously, the effort relies on invasive measures such as regular cell searches, whichwere up 38 percent last year alone.

Then there are the usual questions ofwhether the staff or the structure of theprisons may contribute to the problem. AMay suicide reportedly resulted in severalsuspensions and transfers of DOC staff,

FEBRUARY 2000

although Anteneninsists the moves had todo with other management problems.And

the structure of the cells themselves mayhave helped inmates hide from guardslong enough to take their lives in at leastthree cases over the past two years.

But the jails' health and mental healthcare, already underfire, is also under themicroscope. Ever since the DepartmentofCorrection and the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation hiredprivate SI. Barnabas Hospital to run health services forRikers and some of the other jails in January 1998, replacing Montefiore MedicalCenter, critics have chargedthat the hospital has cut comers on care. The Manhattan

District Attorney and State Attorney General investigated these health services last

year. Two groups of prisoners are suing St.Barnabas and the city for allegedlysubparhealth care. And at a Board of Correctionmeeting last year, officials reported thatmedical complaints-such as allegationsthat health providersweren'tpaying attention to sick inmates-have quadrupledsince 1996.

Nw York City's jail system--{;on

sisting of 10 facilities on Rikersand four other jails-locked up

130,000 inmates last year. Rikers hosts16,000 on any given day. The jails' mostly

PIPELINE

Correctionsofficials are

taking aclose

look at suicidesin the city'smassive HikersIsland jailcomplex.


10/40

[1M

able standards."ransient inmates may be awaitingtrial, biding time until a transfer to astate prison, or servinga brief sentence. Three-fourthsto 95 percent ofthe jail populationis addicted to alcohol or drugs.

After 11 inmateskilled themselvesin city jails in 1985, thecity implemented a set of minimum standardsfor mental heath care. Suicides felldramatically,and in fiscal 1993, therewas only one. Antenen callsthe standards a "comprehensiveplan" that is"regularlylooked at as a model in thecountry."

Today, roughly 25 percent ofinmates getmental health carein thecity's jails. Many mentally ill inmatescan stay in the general prison population while they receive psychotropicdrugs and counseling. Someof themore seriously mentallyill are housedin Mental ObservationUnits or Rik-ers' 24-hour, seven-day-a-weekMen-tal Health Care Center,which offermedication, individualand group ther-

Board of

Correctionmembers foundthat jail medical

staH had beenunderreporting

attemptedsuicides and called

for city healthoHicials to developa new reporting

procedure.

Other evidence, however, suggests thatSt. Barnabasstill has worto do. At a July 1999 Board of Corection meeting,members foundth"medical staff has been undereporting attemptedsuicides," ancalled for HHC to develop a nereporting procedure. At anothmeeting, board members expressconcern thatSt. Barnabaswas usinpills in cases where liquid meditions, while more expensive, wouguarantee that inmates could nstockpiledrugs for suicideattemp(All "dangerous drugs,"says Marero, are already dispensedin liquform.)

Gerald McKelvey, a spokespeson for St. Barnabas, saysthe hosptal provides "customaryand ordnary mental health servicesto thextent that it can be rendered inthsettingon RikersIsland."

apy and extensive suicide preventionmeasures. Unusuallyaggressive mentallyill inmates go to the 24-bed BehavioralManagement Unitin the Bronx, run by St.Barnabas, and extremely disturbedinmates are taken to one of the prisonwards at Elmhurst,Bellevue or KingsCountyhospitals.

In order to use those services, inmatesmust first be diagnosedwith some mentalproblem. Medicalstaffare supposedto seethe inmates during the first 24 hours ofconfinementand are allowed up to fourhours to test for physical and mental ill-ness. This intakescreeningis crucial;corrections expertssay it's the initial shockofimprisonmentthat often triggersa suicideattempt.

But the city's correctional facilitiesoften don't receive inmates until they'vespent several hours incarcerated in aprecinct lockup or courthouse holdingpen. In addition, 20 percent of DOCinmates are in and out of jail within 72hours, and 50percentwithin a week. Thehead of the city's correctional health services has admitted that not everyonecanbe seen by a mental health staffer by thetime theyleave-and indeed,the BoardofCorrection has received whistleblowerreports that medicalstaff is too small tohandle the inflow of inmates. Correctionofficers union president Norman

Seabroook says his guards echo thosecomplaints: "I get a sense that there aremore back-upsnow," he says.

Responds HHC spokesperson JaneZimmerman, "There was a restructuringof staff, as with any newaffiliate.Staffingneeds areassessed on a regular basis."A1998 HHC report states that jail healthcare staff is the samesize as it was whenMontefiorehandled the contract. But critics of the St. Barnabas arrangementsaythat the way its$340 million, three-yearcontract is structured allows the hospitalto scrimp on care, becausea portion ofany money that the hospital doesn' t usefor care it can keep. "In general," saysUrbanJusticeCenter lawyer HeatherBarr,an attorney for one of the groups ofinmates suingthe city, "the structurein thecontract has created an incentive to provide lousyservices."

HHC officials deny the contract isflawed, and theypoint to a set of 35 performance indicatorsthat are supposed tobe reviewed quarterly. But Ernesto Marrero, director ofCorrectional HealthServices, could not say exactly how wellSt.Barnabasis performingon those indicatorsbecause he is currently reviewing ninemonths' worth of data. Zimmerman saysthat her impressionis "overall, St. Barnabas has been meeting medicallyaccept-

Antenen insists that the DOtakes the problem of suicivery seriously; indee

reducingthe numberof suicides is the seond of five performancegoals forCorretional Health Services. DOC recentassigned suicide prevention aides-inmatestrainedto observeotherinmatesto all three shiftsat a Rikers infirmary.AnAntenen saidin an early December intview that staff at the prisons was onextalert for suicides as the holiday seasbegan.

Even as the Board's probe proceeguards at Rikers Island patrolthe tierscells carryingan instrument calleda 9("nine-eleven") knife. It's a speciacurved blade that can' t be used asweapon. Itsonly purposeis to cut downinmate who's hanged himself.Guardscity jails have carried the knives for ov10 years.

The knives are metallic proof thdepression, fear and suicide are factslife in jails. "People killing themselvejails and in prisons is nothing new," saMaddy deLone of the Prisoners Righprojectat the LegalAid Society. That sucides occur is no scandal; the questionwhether New York City's jails are doinall that they can to prevent inmates frotaking their own lives. Says deLone: "Itnotjust that stuffhappens-people just lit happen at some level."

C ITVWoClTS


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Remaking the RentAs rent protections come up for a reckoning, tenant groups court a newly cautious City Council.By Jarrett Murphy

It's a good thing Tony Bennett didn'tleave rus heart in New York. Hewould have gotten palpitations in

December, whena group of tenant advocates, armed witha karaoke machine, serenaded the Sheraton New York Hotelwith their own lyrics to Bennett's songswhile the crooner himself performedinside at a birthday party. "I left myheartJIn thelandJords'pocketIFJush withtheir cash/l' lJ run for Mayor," they sangto the 65-year-old guest of honor: Bennett's boyhood friend fromAstoria, CityCouncil speaker PeterVallone.

The picket, stagedby New York StateTenants & Neighbors Coalition and theMetropolitanCouncil on Housing, was asign of just how anxiousadvocatesare asthe city's rent regulations head towardexpiration this April 1. Rent control andstabilization operateunder state laws, butthe legislation requiresthe CityCounciltocertify every three yearsthat New YorkCity still needs the regulations. I f AprilFools Day comes without such a votefrom the council, the rent regulationswhich limit yearly rent increases onroughly one million regulated apartments

and protect tenants from harassmentwill disappear.Tenant organizers are quite worried

that the council will try to weaken rentprotections, as it did in 1994. But they arealso betting that the council they face tillstime around will hesitate before turningon tenants. Term limitsare forcing councilmembers, many of whom have won theirdistrict races effortlessly for up to 20years straight,to seek rugheroffices-andto do that, they'll need tenants' votes. Atleast 20 current members are thought tohave suchaspirations.Vallone, for one, is

running for mayor. Says Tenants& Neighbors Associate DirectorMichael McKee,"We think Vallone is going to think betterof tills because he is running for mayor,and thank goodness. It gives us leverage."

The elections, however, may alsoworkagainst tenants.The RentStablization Association (RSA), a

landlord-backedlobbying group,is eagerto see the council mortallywound therentlaws-in 1997, when the regulationscame up for renewal in Albany, it doledout at least$40,000to city candidates, and

FEBRUARY 2000

over $600,000to

state contenders.BothRSA and the Real Estate Board of NewYork have written members asking themto donate to Vallone. Tenant sources saythat Vallone has asked the board for$15million for rus campaign chest.

Even if the council renewsthe rentlaws, it has the power to wreak heavydamageto them. Understate law, the CityCouncil can voteto keep the rent laws asthey are or weaken them, but it cannot

substantially strengthenthem. Last timearound, a Vallone-led council voted toderegulateall apartmentswhen their rentsreach $2,000 a month-a move that hasencouragedlandJordsto use rent law loopholes to bump rents up over the limit. Andthe council outragedtenant advocates lastJune when it voted 36-15 to limit landlords' liabilityfor lead-paintpoisoning.

Vallone haspublicly promisedto renewthe laws. Butorganizers still fear that thecouncil will take potshots at the law, voting again to lower the maximumrent forregulated apartments orto weakenclauses

that protect tenantsfrom harassment. Tocounter landlord clout,says McKee, "westarted strategizinga year and a half ago."That'smeant nightly phone banksand frequent mailingsto tenants in targeted council districts, all aimed, says McKee, at"making sure that the City Council isgoing to vote theright way."

At least a dozen council members,many from Manhattan, are considereddependablepro-tenantvotes, while some

members with few rent-regulated constituents-including Queens' ArcrueSpignerand Thomas Ognibene-are surefriends of landlords. Organizers are aiming at middle-of-the-road councilmembers and the leadersrup, asking tenants tobombard members' offices with phonecalls. The effort has targeted the membersin Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens whocast the swing votes that weakened thelaws in 1994. These include WalterMcCaffrey and John Sabiniof Queens,who both may run for Congress, andBrooklyn's Annette Robinson,who wants

PIPEliNE

Tenant advocatesoffer SpeakerPeter Vallonebest wishesoutside aDecemberbirthday bash forthe mayoralhopeful.


12/40

s

to go to the statehouse. McCaffrey andRobinson voted for decontrol in 1994;Sabini was absent.

Also on the hit list is Brooklyn's Herbert Berman, who voted to weaken thelaws in 1994. He is running for Comptroller in 2001 and needs citywide support.Ken Fisher will also need broad-basedsupport for his potential run for mayor orBrooklyn borough president.Bronx member June Eisland, who voted for decontrolin 1994, is vying for Bronx borough president. As valuable as landlord contributions are, it's votes that count-and a lotof voters live in rent-regulated apartments. Council members running forhigher offices, believes Jenny Laurie,executive director of the Met Council,"will take risks for a real estate contribution, but they won ' t take enormous risks."

Thus, when the callers demand thatcouncil members send letters assertingtheir support of rent regs, many comply,as Sheldon Leffler and KarenKoslowitz-both possible candidates forQueens borough president-have already

Asvaluableas landlordcampaign

contributionsare, it's votes

that count-anda lot of voters

live inrent-regulated

apartments.done. Leffler has been a strong supporterof. tenants rights, while Koslowitz votedfor the 1999 lead paint bill, but boththought it important to declare their sympathy with tenants early on.

Tenants are more than wiling to use

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this new-found leverage. Arnold Leveheads the tenants association at NortShore Towers in Little Neck, QueenTenants in the 300 rent regulated aparments there have joined Levey in blitzinBerman, Fisher and others with call''These people all have political ambtions," says Levey. "We take the positiothat as wonderful as they may be, wcouldn't possibly support them if thedon't support the current rent laws."

But the experiences of 1994 and 199suggest that regardless of what othecouncil members want, the speaker wiget whatever law he wants passed. "Hwill get his 26 votes oneway or anotherwhat we' re trying to do is surround himwith nervous members," says McKee; thidea is to lobby councilmebers who withen lobby the speaker to keep the lawintact. "U1timately, the decision is gointo be Peter's."

While it may secure votes, the councblitz is not gaining McKee or TenantsNeighbors any friends. "Mike McKeegroup is using this as an organizing tool tkeep their troops interested between thbattles," charges Fisher, who says renregulations aren ' t even on the councilradar yet. "Nobody had bothered to ask tsit down with me to discuss this fushand. It's a cheap attempt to scare people," and perhaps a ploy to raise moneFisher suggests. An equally skepticBerman says, "I'm not unconvinced ththe reason tenant advocates havegone tthis extent to traumatize the people[because1 they want to be the heroeswhen rent regs pass unchanged. Fisheand Berman both say they ' ll vote for nchanges.

Rica Rinzler, a s p o ~ e s p e r s o nfor Valone, says that "he will renew the renlaws. There have been no suggestionsfochanges." Privately, one council memberefers to claims that Vallone is anti-tenant as "pure unadulterated bullshit."Apparently, even McKee and Laurie holout hope for the speaker. Teaming witCouncilmember Stanley Michels, theare drafting a bill that will strengtheprotections (or city tenants by requirinbetter maintenance of regulated aparments or funding more subsidies forenters.

Even as they remind Vallone and voters of the speaker's past betrayalsthey 're counting on him to play the herthis time around .

CITVLlMITS


13/40FEBRUARY 2000


14/40

Laura Koster kicksoff the holiday seasonin her fourthgrade class with a lesson on money. "What standardare we using today?" she asks her 30 students, all ofthem dressed in interpretationsof Commurnty Elementary School35's navy-blue uniforms. The morn

ing's exerciseat the school,a few blocks eastof Yankee Stadium,focuses on how to add andsubtractcoins to pay for gifts. Butit'saboutmore than that, too. For these fourth graders,anotheroccasion is fast approaching-their standardizedstate tests. EnglishLanguageArts is first, on January 31, followedby math in June.

"Mle, " answersa girl with her handraised, demonstratinghermastery of one of the lesson numbersoutlined in a handbookonKoster's shelf. "The New Standards" offers detailed explanationsof the kind and quality ofwork a teacher should requireof students, and they reflect the materialthat will be on the test. Theywill also decide whetherKoster's class, and 78,280 otherfourthgradersaround the city, will moveinto the fifth gradein the fall.

Koster, who hastaught in Bronx Community SchoolDistrict9for seven years, posts the standardson the classroom walls exactly as they are written in her city-issuedhandbook. "Read aloud

fluently," reads one. "Divide fractions," exhorts anotheNext to them are posted the urnt numbersthat corresponwith them,and Kosterasks her studentsto memorizeall othe standardsand their unit codes.

Koster isn' t the only teacher at C.E.S. 35 who harealignedher teachingwith the new standards. Across thall, fourth grade teacher Fran Guber has labeled constructionpaper turkeysand "WhatI am thankfulfor" statements hangingoutsideher classroom"ELA standardsE2and E4a,b." Thatmeans Guber's students havelearnehow to write a narrative, understand basic grammarananalyze and revise their work. "Students shouldknowhat is expectedof them," says FranLawlor, whocoordnates District9's teacher trainingand curriculumin litercy. The district expects all teachers in District 9 to postandards for math and English wherever theycan. "Ithard to hold someoneaccountable for something thedon't understand," says Lawlor.

For the three mornings following theirmath lessoKoster's students, along with the rest of the districfourth graders, will pore over a simulated readinganwriting test in preparationfor the English LanguageArtest on January 31. It's the second timeC.E.S. 35's kidhave seen it. Principal Hilda Gutierrezand her staff atakingextra care to assure thereare no surpriseswhen thstudents sitdown totake the exam, which will ask themread and listen to fictionand non-fiction passages,wrishortessayson whatthey have heardand answerquestioon what they'veread. "It's importantso that when theygto that time, they'll recogrnze it," says Nathy Nixon,thschool's math staffdeveloper,who showsother instructhow to teach the subject.

District9's obsessionwith the testsmay seem unusuafierce, but it's characteristicof the city's 32 school distrithese days. Starting lastyear, New York City began to uthe scores onstandardizedtests to decide whetherstudenin third througheighth grades will moveup. The testscorare alsoexaminedas part of principals'annualreviews,andetermine whethera poorly performingschool isplaced o

the state's probation list. Last summer, the Boardof Educativoted toshutdown 14 schoolsfor longrecordsof low scores.

The stakesare higher thanever. Yet when it comes to figuriout how to make the grade, schoolsand districtshave beenlefttheir own devices. Elsewherein the Bronx,District 10 pays flow-scoring studentsto get professionaltest coachingspecificatailored to the city exams. In a $29 million, five-year initiative

Brooklyndistricts19 and 23, a private sponsor, the New York CiPartnership, is giving staff cash bonuses at schoolsthat improperformance-teachers get $2,000, principals $15,000, and dtrict superintendentsup to twice that. And in Manhattan's Dist2, whose students scorehigher on the tests than those in all bone other districtin the city, adrllirnstratorsinsist that the waybeat thetests is to provide creative instruction structuredarounddetailedcurriculum-in otherwords, the exact oppositeof the tedrills the vast majorityof schoolsare relying on.

Yet with little guidancefrom thecity or stateon how to teato the New Standards, the race toscore well on the high-staktests is taking almostas many shapes as there arePokernonchaacters.Many districts, worry teachersand parents, are resorting

CITY LIMITS


15/40

hit-or-miss approaches.''We're seeing our teachersworking veryhard withouta clearunderstandingof what they'resupposedto bedoing," says Joseph Colletti,who taught specialeducation for10years beforegoing to the city teachersunion.There,he's develop

ing a corecurriculumto help teachersmakesenseof the standards.District9, whichhas a historyofpoorly performingschoolsandadministrativecorruption,has a long way to go to meet the city'sperformanceexpectations.Last year, only 30 percent of fourthgradersin this districtmet the new standards; atC.E.S. 35 alone,13 of 152 fourth gradersscored in the lowest quartileof the statetest lastyear, sending them to summerschool.And in December,teachers atfive of thedistrict'selementaryschoolswereaccusedofdoctoring test answer sheetsin an attemptto boostscores.

Officially,District9 merelyorders teachersto hold two hoursof literacy and onehour of math a day, and to give fourth graderstwo practicetests throughoutthe year. But Kosterwill sprinkleherdaily lessonswith test vocabularyuntil theschoolyear is over. "Apenny isa unit," she explains in her moneylesson. "Remember,

on the math test they'regoing to call it 'units.'"

FOur miles away in mid-Manhattan, studentsin District2 find themselvesin a differentworld.Recently, a classof second graders toured neighborhoodrestaurantstostudy menus andthen returnedto the classroomto create their own, getting a lesson in reading, writingand

math all atthe sametime. Throughoutthe district,kids are expect-

FEBRUARY 2000

ed to read a varietyof fictionand non-fiction-25 books a year infourth grade,includingTales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by JudyBlumeand C.S. Lewis'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Inaddition to writingstories,they draft descriptiveessaysaboutpro

cedures,such as how to hook up a VCR.They arenot asked to memorizecurriculum codes, oreven thematerial they're going to be tested on. And theycertainlydon'ttake practicetests.

District administratorsclaim that's precisely why District 2has thesecond-highesttest scoresin the city: Lastyear, 80 percentof its fourth gradersscored above standardin reading,and 76 percentabovestandardin math. "Ourapproachis completelyalignedwith what theassessment is looking to measure," says schoolboard PresidentKaren Feuer.That "balancedliteracy"approachto teaching kids to read and write-using repetitive lessons ofsoundingout letters and words, reading a variety of books, andwritingstoriesand essays-is exactly what the standardsand thetests are geared for.

It's not entirely accidentalthat Feuer's district is so far along:Oneauthorof theNew Standardshasbeen helpingto shapethecurriculum there as a literacy consultant.District2 also has a teachertraining programthat'sbeen aroundfor severalyears. Lastyear, thedistrictinvested $11.2million-an unusuallyhigh 6 percentof itsbudget-in training, immersing teachersin balanced literacy.

Nowa teamofeducationscholarsand reform advocatesis tryingto see whetherDistrict2 has indeed comeup with what everypub-


16/40

lic educator in New York has been searching for: the secret to beating the standardized tests that have cometo decide whether students,their teachers and those teachers' bosses, will flourish or flounder.

''There are lots of different ways for schools and districts tomeet the New Standards," says Dr. Richard Elmore, a professor atHarvard's Graduate Schoolof Education and a lead researcher ina series of District 2 studies commissionedby the U.S. Department of Education. Since 1994, Elmore has been deploying asmall army of observers in the classrooms, interviewing teachers,analyzing data and test score patterns, and rating the quality ofteacher performanceand training.

Elmore stresses, however, that schools that teach directly tothe test are not guaranteeing success. ''They're trying to out-guessthe test, teaching kids test items," he says. ''That will get yousmall short-term gains, but it doesn't hold up in the long-term,especially with a challenging test like the fourth-grade test."

What makes District 2 work, Elmore believes his research willprove, is its focus on a clearly defined curriculum, constantteacher training geared to it, and a stable district leadership that

keeps those priorities straight. Too often, that's precisely whatother districts are lacking, says Elmore. With weak guidancefromboth the state and the city, he says, principals and teachers frequently don't know what to do to help kids reach the standards.

Other observers of the city's elementary schools agreewith hisassessment. "In low-achieving schools, the planningis not verygood" and is hindered by high teacher turnover, says Noreen Connell, executive director ofthe Educational Priorities Panel, a nonprofit school policy think tank. Last year, her organization published a study exploring how high-achieving schools succeed inlow-income communities. Strongleadership and an alignment ofcurriculum, she says, are critical.

Without those elements in place, the pressure falls on teachers,

Elmore points out, with results that shouldn' t be too surprising"Teachers don't cheat because they are inherentlydishonest," hesays. ''They cheat because they're in a bind."

The authors of both the standards and the tests claim the

do not advocate any specific approach to preparing fothem. "We believe in accountability and measuringresults," says Joseph Garcia, a spokesman for theNational Center on Education and the Economy, which

created the New Standards in partnership with the LearningResearch and Development Centerat the University of Pittsburgh"I f he tests are standards basedand the standards are high, teachinto the test in and of itself is not evil," says Garcia. ''There are someschools that are going to be better prepared to take this on immediately, and others that are going to need time to work on that."

New York was one of 26 states that collaborated on developing the standards. But althoughthe New Standards-trademarkedby NCEE-were designed to be tailored to each school district'needs, and hundreds of school systems nationwide have madeuse

of them, New York City's is still the only system to have adoptedthe standards outright.

NCEE first got into the standards businessas a national leadein "school-to-work," an approach to education that strives tobridge the needs of students and the businesses that need to hirethem. The idea was to develop skills that will get students highpaying and challenging jobs by having them reach standardizelevels ofproficiency from kindergarten on up. Both an anti-poverty effort for young people and an initiative to improve U.S. competitiveness in the global economy, school-to-work became anearly favorite of the Clinton administration. It has since fallen ouof favor among educators, particularly for its unrealistic expectation that schools and businesses would team up.

CI TV LlMITS


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In a five-yearprocess beginningin 1991, the standards teamaimed to establisha clearset of academicexpectationsby asking,"How good is good enough?" Based on those standards, NewYork City's Board of Education collectedand compared schoolwork from localstudents,determinedwhich assignmentsdemonstrated the widest range of skills, and then declared those to besamples of standard work. In 1996, theNew York State Department of Education struck a $5.8 million contract with CfBMcGraw Hill, oneof the nation's largest publishersof standardized achievement tests, to design examsfor reading and mathbased on the New Standards.

With the District2 study, Elmorehopes to narrow in on whystudents there continue to test so well on the New Standards.One reason, inescapably,is that the districtserves some of thewealthiestneighborhoodsin the city. There are certainlypoorlyperformingschools there-at the worst, P.S. 33 on West 28thStreet, just 26 percent of fourth-graders passedthe exams lastyear, comparedwith 96 percent at the Upper EastSide's PS. 6.Ninety-nine percentof the students at P.S. 33 are poor enoughtoqualify for free schoollunches. Still, the proportion of childrenin poverty who fail the standardizedtests in the district is muchlower than it is almost anywhereelse in the country, says Dr.Lauren Resnickof the Universityof Pittsburgh,who is also codirector of the New Standards Project and is working withElmoreon the District2 study.

Then again, these schools have had a significant head start.Ten years ago, under theleadershipof fonnerSchoolsChancellorAnthony Alvarado, District 2 shifted the focus of its literacyinstruction from storybooks with repetitive language for beginning readersto a balanced-literacy curriculum.Teachers are alsopushed to continually identify students' weaknesses, to use a

clearly defined and consistent approach to teaching, and then toclosely analyze how well children are learning the material,adjusting the curriculumaccordinglyall the while. Modelclassrooms serve as examples forteachers, as do coaches who havebeen teaching for years.

Resnick is quite possiblyDistrict2's number-onefan, callingits efforts to improveteachingand learningnothingshortof "brilliant." Resnickhas also played no smallpart in that development,having workedwith District2 for several years on strengtheningits literacy efforts.

And her stakes go deeper than that.As one of the architectsofthe city's education initiative,she has a big chance with the success of District 2 to prove th.at the standardscan work. Collaborating on the study with Elmore, Resnick wantsto find out the

secrets of District 2's success, so that NCEE can encourageschools elsewhere to replicate what it does right. Giving moreresources to poorer schools, she says,is key to bridging the performance gap. ''That will make it much more attractive for thegood teachersto teach there," she says.

But though fonnerSchoolsChancellorRudy Crewbrought inthe New Standards withfanfare in 1998, theBoard of Educationhas since remained quiet on how to bring teaching in line withthem. Elmore has already circulated portions of his research onDistrict 2 to districts around the city and the country, proposingthat otherdistrictsadopt the best of what it does.But regrettably,he says, "I don't see much evidence thatthe Board of Educationis interested."As long as there isn't supportand guidancefrom thetop, he continues,"I think there's a crisis."

FEBRUARY 2 0 0 0

As hard as it has anywhereelse in the city, standardsfever has hit District10 in the Bronx, which coversboth upscale Riverdaleand working-classKingsbridge and Marble Hill. This yearit is one of sixNew York City districts workingwith Resnick and

District2 to boost training for teachers in reading and writing.Laura Kotch, the district's director of educational initiatives

for elementary schools, says she's thankful her superintendentoverhauled literacy teachingfive years ago, which has meant thatDistrict10's readingand writing instructionhave beenin line withthe New Standardsfrom dayone. Indeed,66 percentof District 10fourth graders scored above standard on the reading exam lastJanuary. In math, however, thedistrict is in serious trouble,withonly 35 percentof fourth graders scoring above standard. Eighthgradersdid far worse-just 13 percentpassed.

So last year,District10 took a desperatemeasure:It hired Stanley Kaplan,the test coachingcompany, to tutor about 300 eighthgraders whodid not meet the standardsin math or reading, atabout$200 a head. Deeming the program successful--everystudentscoredwell enoughto moveon to high school-the districthas sinceinvestedanother$15,{XX}for the companyto provide materials andtrain 200 of its teachersand administratorsin test-taking strategies."At this point,we're just going to make sure our kidsare able toscorewell," says Kotch. "Student achievementhas to beour number one priority."

Resnicksays shesees nothing wrong with test-boostingmeasures like the Kaplan coachingas an interim measure. "It's anobviousidea," she says. It will take time,she believes,for the district's teaching to catch up with theNew Standards.

Kaplan is taking full advantageof the New Standardsmarket.Inspired by numerouscalls from concerned parents looking forhelp for

theirfourth graders,in November the company

releasedits first study guide for elementaryschoolstudents. The Parent'sGuide to the New York State 4th Grade Tests lays out test-takingskills and strategies,from pacing oneselfto guessinganswers.Asimilarbook for eighth graders is expected outin the spring.Andnext fall Princeton Review plansto sell in-schooland retail versions of practicetests designedfor the New York State test. Nowtesting the materials in a pilot program in Texas, whereGovernorGeorgeW. Bush has made standardizedtestinga virtualstatereligion, the company plans thisspring to propose them for useat theNew York City Boardof Ed.

While unsure if commercialtest prep is the long-tennanswerto prevailingon the tests, Kotch agrees withResnickthat whatever the ultimatesolution, "it's going to take us time." Meanwhile,

her officehas mandated that every fourth grader take three practice tests before the official srateexam is given.

TOO often when SusanRust inherits a class of thirdgraders at Bronx P.S. 109, she says, they arriveunprepared forthe lesson plansshe's expectedto follow. Rust reports that the second-grade math textbooks her school has been usingfor years never get

to crucialmaterialstudentsneed to knowbefore they can be readyfor the third grade standards.

The fourth grade teachersat her District9 schoolrun into thesame problems,because the amountof teaching needed to meetthe standards is so intensive that the third-grade teachers are

(Continued on page 31)


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Forpoliticiansandpolicy geeksalike, workhas become the holygrail.Poor people donltjust neemoney, goesthe thinking. Theyneedstructure, self-respect anddiscipline-andonly a ob canprovidethat. Bythis measure, the true goal ofwelfarereform isnlthelpingpeople out ofpovertyItls about puttingas manypeople to workas quicklyas possible, nomatterhowlousy,poorly paiunstable or boring thesejobs are.

But there'sone bigproblem. Mostof the bottom-drawerjobs in the American economy simplydon'tpay enoughto keebody and soul together.Justover seven million Americans haveleft the welfare rolls, butthey're not exactly flyinghigh:A

comprehensivesurvey found that the average yearly incomeofnewly

employedfamilies worksout

tobe

about$11,640.

The subsidies and programs thatare supposed tohelp poor people have yetto catch up with this reality.Many of them are reserved expresslyfor welfarerecipients,even though it's getting harderand harderto draw a distinct line between working peopleandthose on the dole. But insteadof bumpingup the official poverty level(now $13,880 a year for a family ofthree), which wouldbe politicallynightmarish,mostgovernment benefitsprogramssimplycook thepoverty books to suit their needs. Depending on the program, poor enough to qualify for help can mean 130percentof the poverty line, 200 percentof the povertyline, or 80 percentof "areamedian income."

It's confusing, whichis one of the reasons thatbenefits likefood stampsare underused. But programsthat help working peopletend to be like that: uneven,contradictory, and hard to find out about.Many ofthem also stop far short of the boost that a familyneeds to live decently.

"We wouldneverdesigna 'safetynet' that looksanything like this one,whetheryou were ideologically leftor right," pointsout welfare maven LizKruegerof theCommunityFoodResourceCenter. ''Butthis is whatwegot. It was thepoliticsof the moment."And the politicsof this moment saythat work makesyou free, as citywelfare boss Jason Turner infamously pointedout.

City Limits has tried to makesenseof this workingworldthat so manyAmericans are getting pushed into,and analyzejust what kindof options people have. Inthe first segment,we look at how governmenthas letworking Americansdown witha crazy qUilt of assis-tance programs that oftenmiss the verypeople thatneed help themost.And we've excerpteda handfulofstoriesfrom Ron Howelland Ozier Muhammad'snewbook, One Hundred Jobs. Their projecttakes a broadlook at working in America, but the stories we'veselectedare about peoplestrugglingto get by-working long hours at dangerous or monotonousjobs,oftenwithout pensions, health insurance or benefits.Theirlabor helps New York work. So why can't the systemwork for them? -Kathleen McGowan

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Taxcredits for the poor are all therage,butNewYorkCitycan't ge

Emed IncomeTax Creditsare a favoredchild of both think-tank conserva

tives andearnestlefties-and have givena huge boostto working peopletrying to get by. Under the federal version, a worker with twochildren who

made between$9,540and $12,460this year could getup to $3,816 knockedoff

Income limit for a family ofthree to escapecity taxes:S15,000Numberofpoor New YorkCityhouseholds that pay nostateor federal tax, but must paycity tax:Roughly127,000

federal taxes-or get a refund for thatamount. Working parents with two kidscan make up to $30,095 and still get asmall break.Even better,thecreditdoesn'tcountas extra income,so it won'tput foodstamps or Medicaid in jeopardy.

About 20 million householdsclaimedthe creditin 1997; the president'sCouncilof EconomicAdvisers found that federaltax creditsliftabout4.3 million Americansoutof poverty.

L . . . - ________ -- J New York Statehas a similar"refund-able"tax creditprogram, peggedto the federal one,that handsbacka maximum

of $751 for a three-personfamily. It's one of the most generousin the nation,and by 2001 it will give backup to $939.

But somehow, NewYork City keeps failing to fix its punitive incomesystem,which hits the workingpoor harderthan eitherthe state or federalgernment. According to the city's IndependentBudget Office, about 127

poorhouseholdsmake toolittle to pay federaland state tax but getslammethecity anyway, paying anaverageof about $125. Most aresingle parents,wcan leastafford it. Andbecausethe cityhasn't adjustedthe cut-offsin a decand inflation continuesto erode the valueof deductions forthe poor, the nber of peoplecaught in this peculiarproblemhas quadrupledsince 1993.

Unfortunately, proposalsto starta tax credit herein New York havestaland the state is mostly to blame. In thisyear's budget,both themayorandCity Council finallyagreed to start a city tax credit program thatwouldon up to $188 in rebates for a three-personfamily, helping more than hamillion New Yorkers reduce theirtax burdens. Since it would cost aboutmillioneach year, city officialsplanned to tap into thestate's welfaresur(nowat $1 billion)to fund it. The federalgovernmentokayed thatstrategylier this yearbut this plan, likeso many other bright ideas,has gotten hstrung in Albany. Becauseit's a changeto the tax law, the state has to appr

the measure-but the legislaturehas yet to do it, anddoesn't seem particuly eagerto put welfarecash behind the plan. -Kathleen McGow

Stranded betweenMedicaidand the privatemarket,workingfamili

Wen it comes to health care, if you're not dirt poor or well off, then

generally, you're out of luck. Moderatelypoor peopleare actuallyless likely to have insurancethan people that are trulydestitute.One

third of New York's working poor (here measured as people who earnbetween100and 200percentof the poverty level)have no health insurance.A United Hospital Fund study slices ita different way: Nearly three-quarters of the uninsured are employed,and 41 percent of them are actuallyemployed full-time.

Uninsured poor people whopostpone doctorvisits:51%NewYork Medicaidcutoff forparents after allowances forcertain expenses:S7,992

In fact, havinga job can actuallybe aliability when it comes to health insurance. Medicaid has done a great job ofprotectingthe unemployed-to the pointwhere poor workers are twiceas likely asthe joblessto lack health insurance.But aparentwith two kids and a net incomeofonly$700a monthstill can't get Medicaidfor herselfin New York.

Poor workers also don't have muchluck withtheirbosses.Fewerthan half of

working poor New Yorkers get insured through their job. But in the nextbracketup (between200 and 300 percentof poverty),nearly three-fourthsofworkers are privately insured.In addition, many employersare passing onrising insurancepremiumsto their workers. Andincreasingly,they must pay higher deductibles.

But when theywant to be, New York legislatorscan be downright adventurous on health care. Since1991, the state's Child Health Plus programhasbeen insuring the children'of poor families where Medicaid leavesoff-sixyearsbeforeCongressestablisheda similarnational program.Together,Medicaid and Child HealthPlus covered 1.7 millionNew York children in 1999.

Enter Family HealthPlus, a new plan to spread this successto 500,000working poor people.But even this smart step leaves many poor workersbehind. ThestateAssemblyhoped to coverparents makingup to 200 percent

of the poverty level andchildlessadults up to 120percent,but the final com-FEBRUARY 2000

promise left only parents makingup to 150 percentof the povertyline eble. And childlessadults making $8,200 ormore can't participate. Foraone earning more, the state will kick in about 10 percent toward indivcoverage, costinga staggering$300 or $400 a month. -Kemba Johns

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Housingprograms,oncea ifelinefor the workingpoor,are nowmostlyfor the mddleclassor the destitute.

Nbody in New York City needsto be told that it's practically impossibleto

afford rent ona placefit for a family, but this factseemsto haveescapedthepeople who hand out housing money. These days, housing subsidies are

mostlydevotedto the poorestof thepooror to peopleapproachingmiddleclass.There'sa big hole wherehousinghelp forworkingpoor peopleused to be.

As an analysis from theNationalLow Income Housing Coalition proves,the single biggestpot of federal housing moneyis for mortgage tax breaks,worth$82 billion in 1999. Abouttwo-thirdsof all governmenthousing moneywinds upin the hands of the richestfifth this way. The next biggest chunkgoes

Annual income to adequatelyhousea three-person family,accordingto HUD:S34,500Medianincome of a New Yorkrenter:S23,600

to the poorest fifth. Meanwhile, peoplewhomakebetween$22,000and $30,000get the shaft, withonly 3 percentof totalsubsidies.

Much of the money left in federalhousing budgets has been routed intoprograms that help the very poorest.When theU.S. Departmentof Housingand Urban Developmentfmally issuednew housing vouchers in 1998, theywere all reserved for people in theprocess of leaving welfare.Tax credits,

the biggest sourceof federal subsidies for new urban construction, aredesigned for people who make less than about $24,000. But a GeneralAccounting Officestudy found the average incomeof a renter in housingbuilt with taxcredits is actuallyonly $13,300.

Locally, the story is no different. Since the 1950s, state Mitchell-Lamasubsidieshave built 125,000cheap apartmentUItits (the averageincomeof aMitchell-Lama residentin 1998 wasaround $26,000). But these mid-pricedapartments are vanishing: As with federal programs,many landlords aredecidingto out of the programand chargemarket rents.

Of course,homeownershipisn't practical for a lot of families: About8percentof the city'spoor peoplerent. But there'sjust not much helpavailabfor families gettingby on $18,000 a year. The city Housing DevelopmeCorporation,whichbuildshousingby sellingtax-exemptbonds, is construcing nearly 1,200 new apartments.Many of the rents,however,approachmaket rate, and family incomes rangebetween$60,000and $80,000.

There is one silver lining. Public housing provides low-cost homes439,000 peoplein thecity. Fora three-personfamily, the upper limitis $35,30for federallysubsidizedprivate housing under Section8, it's $22,050.

The problemwith these programsis that the waiting lists range from ougeous to unendurable. Butunder federal public housingreform law, workinfamiliesnow get special preference. Homeless peopleand victimsof domestviolencehave alwaysbeen ableto leapfrogthe waitlists;now, working familcan do the same.The ideais to bringup the average rentrolls in the projec"A working family stillmay earn below the poverty level,but the assumptiois that working families will have higher incomes," explains CommUItitySevice Society housing policy expertVic Bach. -Kathleen McGowan

Wherethe City's HousingMoneyGoes Homeless

and low income ,up to $27.500

o $27.500-$44.000

And with city funds,about two-thirdsof the new units built recentlywereforlow-income orhomelesspeople(seechart).At the sametime, there aremanysmaller-scalecity programs thathelp the middle class, primarilywith homeownership programs that are outof reach for mostNew Yorkers. The NewYorkCity Partnership'sNewHomesprojectallowspeople makingup to $70,950tobuy new two- and three-familyhouses. Prices hoveraround$200,000; homeowners' average incomeis $38,000.With thecity's HomeworksandCityhomesprograms, buyers must makeat least $27,000 or$30,000.

Since 1986, two-thirds of the city's h ou sing mon ey has gone to build' - - _ - - - =a p _ a_r t_m _ e _ n t _ s _ f o _ r . . : , . p _ e o - 'p_ l e _ w _ ho_ m _ a k _ e _ l _ e s _ s _ t _ h a _ n _ $ ~2_ 7 . : . . . . , 5 _0 _0 _a . . : . y _e a _ r _ _

Whilefamiliesonthe dole get guaranteedday care, workingfamiliewait in a 3tQOO-kidline

Average yearly cost forlicenseddaycare foronechild:FromS3,650to S13,7ooIncomecutoff fordaycare help:

S28,880for a family ofthree

Wlfare reform has given states agolden opportunityto make childcare affordablefor more workingparents, but New York State has largelyleft them to fend for themselves. Thepoorest familiesget free care, butfees foreveryone else rangefrom $1 to $90 ormore a week. While working familieshave to wait in line forhelp, parentswhoare receiving welfare benefitsor who'veleft the rolls in the last year are guaranteedsubsidized care.All in all, about 37,000

children are on cityday care waitinglists, morethan twiceas manyas in 1997,in a system with about 84,000publicslots.

Meanwhile,many families with modest incomescan't get any assistancat all. It doesn'ttake much to become totally ineligiblefor child caresubsdies: $29,880for a family of three. ''The reality is there's not enoughchilcare to go around," says Gail Nayowith, executivedirector ofthe CitizenCommittee for Children. "We're pitting people on welfare against lowincome workingpeoplewho are onestep away fromwelfare."

It doesn'thave to be thisway. In 1996,Congress bulkedup child care spening from $2.3to $2.9 billion a year, and gavestates unprecedentedflexibilitStates are now allowed to allocate nearly a third of their total federalwelfagrant to help poor familiespay forchildcare.

NewYork hasn't takenCongressup on it. The statesits ona $1.4 billionwefare swplusand has yetto payout$200 million froma childcare reservefundAnd much of the child caremoney thestate has spent is tied to welfare reformLast year, the state released$64 million in child care funds. About 40percen

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of thatwill go to parents receiving welfareor recentlyoff the rolls. Therest willfund about5,300 new slots and vouchers,which the city can decide to reservefor welfare recipientsor makeavailableto all kindsof poor working families.

Even this subsidy is skewed, since the numberof working familieswhoneedhelp withday care dwarfsthe number thatare onwelfare.As oflast summer, there were about 123,800childrenwhose parents need childcare in orderto do workfarejobs. But thereare nearly twiceas many poorNew York Citykids with working parents, andthey get no guarantees.

Federalrules call forpublic childcare to be availableto familiesmakingupto 275 percentof the current povertyline, or $35,771.But while thepoverty lineis continually adjustedupwardfor inflation,New York hasn'traised theincomecut-offfor child care subsidies since1990. Nayowith'sorganization estimatesthatnearly 150,000 citychildrenwhoseparentswantaffordableday careare not

getting it. For about oneout of every 11, it's because their parentsmakmuch to qualify.

This drasticshortfall has developed largely unnoticed. One vocal tion hasbeen unions, whichthrough lobbyingand grassroots campaignbeen calling for fairer access to affordablechild carefor low-and modincome families.This winter,the NewYork Union Child Care Coalitionhave parents around the city fill outapplicationforms for child care, evthey make too muchto beeligible.Organizers are hopingthat a flood of pwill show elected officials the profound hidden need for child care"Wgoing to take theseforms to the City Counciland say, look, this is youring constituency,and these people are noteligible for child care," says SDuCote,the campaign'sfield organizer."We need morechildcare. Rightworking familiesare last in line." -Alyssa

A ew planforjob trainingmayget lost in the nationalobsessionwwelfare-to- WQr

Sarting this July, states will be given a new chance to offer job training

and placementhelp to nearly anybodywho needsit. Unfortunately, that

doesn't mean they're going to take advantageof the opportunity. Especially in New York City, the preoccupationwith moving people offthe welfare rollsis likely to overwhelm,if not destroyoutright,the chances forworkers to get the training that couldhelp them move out of poverty.

The federal WorkforceInvestment Act(WIA), which goesinto effect thissummer, putsa lot of the responsibilityfor job trainingand placementinto thehands of state and localgovernments.By establishing"One-Stop"career cen

Percent of working poorandunemployedwhosay they needmore job training to get abetter job, according to aRutgers Universitysurvey:

79%Percent whose employers willhelp pay for job training:18%

ters to serve all sorts of job seekers, thelaw will greatly expanda system thatused tobe available onlyto welfare recipients and certain"displaced"workers.

UnderWIA, states can use thecash tofund everythingfrom resume workshopsto commercial truck driving classes. It

will also provide more job assistanceforthe working poor, loosening incomerestrictionsso that anybody lookingfor ajob can enroll in a federallyfunded class."The federal governmentwants to offer[job training] to everyone and anyone

who needs it," says Andrew Gehr of New York State's Office of WorkforceDevelopmentand Training.

But thefederallaw mightplay outvery differentlyon the state level, giventhe new "work-first"mandate. For one thing, communitycolleges,whichhistorically have provided vocational trainingto anyone regardlessof income,are the naturalsites for the One-Stops.But underWIA, actual training takesa back seat to putting people to work as quicklyas possible, somethingcommunitycollegesaren't necessarily preparedto do.

Accordingto a recent reportfrom the AmericanAssociationof Community Colleges,"underWIA .. raininghas becomethe serviceof last resort."As aresult, traditional jobcounselorswill have to transform the way they do business, trading in training programsthat teach complex skills for boot-campstyle job placement workshops.

Also, by handing over the reins to localities and states, WIA has giventhem the authority to favor welfare-to-workprograms over those for theworkingpoor. The legislationgives states the right to put nearlyall these newresources into getting peopleoff the dole,and there are already strongindications that New York City willdo just that. Thecity's welfareagency has a$1.5 milliongrant from the state to administerthe city's One-Stops. Andlastsummer, the city's job training contracts were abruptly shifted from theDepartment of Employmentto the Human ResourcesAdministration,essen

tiallyputtingwelfareofficialsin control of mostof the city's work programs.FEBRUARY 2000

Meanwhile,the shortfall in low-skilljobs is worse in New York Cityanywhereelse in the nation, according to a survey by the U.S.Conferen

Mayors.And local unemploymentis well above the nationwideaveragenew law wasoriginally writtento boost worker trainingwith governmfunded trainingprograms.But HRA's specialty is getting peopleoff thefare rolls, not training them for careers or helping themfind goodjobs.

Another possiblepitfallof the new lawis in how it restructuresfundinyouth summerjobs programs. Theold job traininglaw specificallyordaiSummerYouth Employment Program, butWIA leaves it up to statesand governrnents.So far New York City-with a youth unemploymentrate opercent, almost twice the nationalaverage-has made no such plans former 2000. As a result, an estimated 23,000summerjobs for young pstand to lose federal funding.

So far, WIA mostly seems poisedto provide an unfortunatecase stuunintended consequences.But the law's impacton the workingpoormay nentirely bleak. TheConsortiumfor Worker Education, a nonprofit origfoundedby labor unions to access federal funding forjob trainingand re-ing, doesa greatdeal of this sortof work-such as trainingdisplacedChinaapparel industry workersin computerizedsales and cabdrivers in basicputer skills. That organizationexpects to be, accordingto one CWEoffici"a very goodposition"to get One-Stop funding. -Liza Feathersto

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Movingfrom welfareto a decentjob is like runningto stay in place

In theory, there have been worse timesto be poor. Adding up tax credits,food stamps,child care assistanceand a small supplementof welfarebenefits, a single parent workingfull-time at minimum wagecan now eam$14,630a year, accordingto one estimate,and in most statesher childrenwillstill be insured under Medicaid.In 1986, that family would have takenhomejust $10,464 (in current dollars) from the same package of benefits, barelymore than it would haveearned on welfare.

But whilethe new policy emphasison work-backed by more than $50

Poverty rate for workingfamilies withchildrenin 1979:7.7%

In1998:10.9%

billion in federal spending last year-has made the initial jump from welfareto full-time work more alluring, therewards for working taper off veryquickly. In New York, where publicbenefitsare relativelygenerousfor people on welfare but extremelyhard to getfor those who are not, the fillancialtrade-offs for moving fromwelfare to

work, or from low-wage work to higher-wage work, are among the mostextreme in the country.

Looking solelyat New York's welfare, foodstamp and tax regulations,researchers from the Urban Institute, a Washington-based welfare policyresearch organization,calculated whata family of three would give up as itmovedfrom welfareto a minimumwagejob, and fromthere to a full-timejobpaying$9 an hour. When a family moves fromwelfareto a $9-an-hour job,itloses 84 centsofeachnewdollarin foregone foodstamps,tax breaksandotherbenefits. Movingfrom minimumwage to $9 an hour, a 75 percent increasein

, \, I

- -

cash eamings,the family would gain only6 percent in total income.Those figures,of course,assume that a family is actually receivingall th

benefits that it can. Workingpeopleare eligiblefor food stamps if they ear

less than 130 percentof the federalpoverty line, or $8.53 an hour for a famly of three (though becausefood stamp regulationscompensatefor high houing prices, manyNew Yorkerswho make slightlymore are still eligible).

But as both a federal courtand an investigationfrom theU.S. Departmeof Agriculture have concluded,applicantswho aren'ton welfare havea hartime getting foodstamps in New York City. The number of city residenreceivingfood stampshas shrunk by 392,000since Sept

Documents

City Limits Magazine, February 2000 Issue