Rachel and Her Children (31 page)

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Holly beaten by father of her other children: See notes for
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.

HRA records indicate that Holly was offered placement at the highly reputable Red Cross Family Center on the night of May 6 but refused this. The Coalition for the Homeless, citing Legal Aid Society records, confirms this. Holly tells me that she asked, when told of this placement, whether there was someone there who could care for Benjamin when she left to go to welfare or the store. (She says she asked specifically whether there was a nurse or doctor present.) When she was told that she could leave her children with one of the other women in the shelter, she became alarmed. It seemed unsafe to her, she said, and this is why she wanted David with her. In retrospect it is easy enough to view this as poor judgment. Any shelter, but especially that offered by the Red Cross, would have been safer for Benjamin than the itinerant existence that she had been leading. The HRA states that, at midnight, it placed her at the Turf and that, the next night—after Benjamin had been readmitted to Beth Israel—it found her a week’s placement at a hotel called the Le Marquis. One week later, the HRA reports, it offered to send her to the Clemente shelter, which she refused, and finally placed her at the Carter. Whatever the real reason for Holly’s refusal to accept the offer of the Red Cross shelter, it is important to note that truly safe and reputable shelter was offered to her only at the intervention of the Legal Aid Society. It is remarkable that the city would have tried—twice in the preceding week—to place a child in Benjamin’s condition in places like the Martinique and Carter. After months of exposure to dangerous conditions in so many unsafe shelters, it is believable that Holly no longer had sufficient faith in any authority figures (even those at Legal Aid) to recognize a good place for her child when it finally was made available.

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The behavior of the HRA throughout these months seems characterized, not by a lack of kindness, but by asphyxiating chaos. The HRA Commissioner later observed that, during Benjamin’s entire life, “there was never a complaint filed” with the proper agency. The
city did, in one respect, accept responsibility. The HRA Commissioner conceded that “the primary weakness illustrated by this tragic story” was a “lack of concentrated and focused services.” His assistant, however, told the
New York Times
that, based on her review of the case, “everyone did his or her job conscientiously.” Both people, according to the
Times
, “conceded a need for improvements….” (HRA report and
New York Times
, December 20, 1985.)

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The Hotel Carter: See notes for
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. Benjamin’s life seems to have been cursed from start to end by three of the best known and most hated shelters in New York in 1984 and 1985. Conceived at the Holland, born while his mother lived at the Martinique, he lived out his last days while she struggled to survive conditions in the Carter. For documentation on the Carter, see
this page
.

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“Evicted from the Carter …” The Coalition for the Homeless indicates that Holly was still living at the Carter, and was telephoned there by the hospital, at the time that Benjamin died. Other than on this detail, the report assembled by the coalition seems to support the sequence she describes. It adds that she was next assigned (May 29) to the Martinique but did not go there. By June 1, she was living in the Hamilton Place Hotel.

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Benjamin’s death: The HRA says it was told by the hospital that the cause was “brain infection” or “infection of the shunt,” but cites Holly’s statement that she had been told the baby choked to death. The Coalition for the Homeless says that Benjamin died at 6:55 a.m. on May 21, 1985.

“Welfare gave $250 …” Death benefits have since been raised to $900. See Epilogue.

HRA employee called the Coalition for the Homeless, requesting funds for funeral: confirmed by Robert Hayes and David Beseda.

Holly still homeless: According to the Coalition for the Homeless, she had been placed at the Hamilton Hotel by the time of Benjamin’s funeral.

“Some place on an island …” See Epilogue.

Holly’s reference to a nervous breakdown: Coalition records suggest a suicide attempt shortly after Benjamin’s burial.

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Fears of passersby on seeing homeless:
New York Times
. May 12, 1986. See also “The 39th Witness,” by A. M. Rosenthal,
New York Times
, February 12, 1987.

“Some 800 families …”
A Crying Shame: Official Abuse and Neglect of Homeless Infants
, National Coalition for the Homeless, New York, November 1985.

Letter of Carol Bellamy: cited in
A Crying Shame
.

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Mothers and children sleeping in city welfare offices:
New York Times
, November 20, 1984, December 12 and 16, 1985;
New York Daily News
, March 14, 1986.

On November 20, 1984, the
New York Times
stated: “Some homeless families, mostly mothers and young children, have been sleeping on chairs, counters and floors of the city’s emergency welfare offices.” Reacting to an earlier
Times
report to the same effect, the mayor said: “This woman is sitting on a chair or on a floor. It is not because we didn’t offer her a bed. We provide a shelter for every single person who knocks on our door.” On the same day, the HRA reported that, in the previous 11 weeks, it had been unable to give shelter to 153 families.

In the subsequent year (1985), the city later reported, about 2,000 children slept in welfare offices during a three-month period because of a lack of shelter space for families. (New
York Daily News
, May 14, 1986.)

Legal Aid suit:
New York Times
, September 7, 1986.

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Thomas J. Main, op/ed essay,
New York Times
, November 27, 1986. Research is not Mr. Main’s only suggestion. “But what may we do positively,” he asks, “to solve the homeless families problem?” He answers by restating his initial point: “The sad fact is that there is probably
no short-term answer.” In his closing words he concedes the need for low-income housing.

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William Raspberry:
Washington Post
, January 9, 1987.

Andrew Stein: op/ed essay,
New York Times
, January 17, 1987.

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David Dinkins: cited above.

Comparative figures on subsidized housing construction: U.S. Senator John Kerry, newsletter to constituents, February 1987.

Housing allocations compared to defense expenditures:
The Faces of Homelessness
, by Hope and Young, cited above.

Andrew Stein: “Children of Poverty,”
New York Times Magazine
, June 8, 1986.

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Herbert Spencer is quoted in
Blaming the Victim
, by William Ryan, New York: Pantheon Books, 1971.

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30-month wait to use public van: See notes for
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.

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Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950–1980
, by Charles Murray, New York: Basic Books, 1984;
Commentary
, May 1985. Murray proposes that the government might “commission advertising campaigns whose mission would be … to ruin the image of the single woman with a baby.” He proposes the “stigma” might be “reinforced” by intensifying the unpleasantness of welfare procedures: “Instead of trying to reduce the rudeness of welfare workers and eliminating eligibility investigations …, such practices would be encouraged.”

“The natural system …” Murray explains that by a “natural state” he means one which “produces very few children born into single-parent families.” But the juxtaposition of his terms—“natural state,” “natural system,” “natural results”—resonates with the social Darwinism (“natural selection”) of his nineteenth-century antecedents. It has been observed that Mr. Murray does not always ask that he be taken literally. It is his manner to set forth an idea, elaborate on it for a time, then step away as if he were not serious. Increasing public opprobrium for
single women already on welfare, he concedes, “seems patently unfair.” (He goes still further and concedes that it would be “contemptible.”) Having thus distanced himself from his own suggestions, he adds that, no matter how frivolous they seem, they represent just about the only strategies available.” The
Commentary
essay in which most of these statements appear is titled: “Helping the Poor: A Few Modest Proposals.”

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Conversation in Boston, January 1986.

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Epigraph:
The Making of America’s Homeless
, cited above.

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Interview and author’s observation at Church Street EAU: November 1986. The Emergency Assistance Unit on Church Street has since been closed and replaced by an EAU on Catherine Street.

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Lead-paint problem, other complaints, and litigation re Catherine Street shelter:
New York Times
, December 14, 1985, March 8 and 11, May 9, 1986;
New York Daily
News
, April 22, June 25, August 30, 1986.

Statement of Dr. Saundra Shepherd, pediatrician at Montefiore Hospital, and results of testing by independent agency:
New York Times
. March 11, 1986.

Covering lead-based paint with lead-free paint: The New York City Council (cited above) stated that the city “renovated the Shelter, but only painted over the lead paint. A City expert testified that to contain any lead poisoning the City would need to hire 38 workers to mop the floors constantly.” Advocacy groups report that the implications of the term “abatement” (removal of dangers constituted by lead-based paint) have been much disputed in New York; the same dispute has prevailed for over 20 years in Boston. Real abatement, according to
David Beseda (National Coalition for the Homeless), calls for stripping a wall down to its surface, or covering the original wall with sheetrock, prior to repainting.

Dr. Laurence Finberg, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, State University Health Science Center at Brooklyn, is cited from a letter of September 8, 1986:
New York Times
, September 25, 1986.

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“They let me stay there in some kind of office …” See
this page
.

Handcuffs: I have no confirmation of this.

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Childhood and Society
, by Erik Erikson, New York: Norton, 1963.

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New York Times
, January 10, 1987.

Background information on lead-free area at Catherine Street and apparent illegality of placement: Scott Rosenberg, Legal Aid Society, Homeless Family Rights Project, telephone interviews, June 1987; correspondence with Kim Hopper, June 1987.

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Priest in Wisconsin:
Homelessness in America
, Community for Creative Non-violence, cited above.

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Interview in Hotel Carter, January 1986; follow-up visit to Carter, November 1986.

Data on Hotel Carter:
New York Times
, December 9, 1985; “Sixty Minutes,” CBS, February 2, 1986;
Village Voice
, April 1, 1986. Use of rear entrance by school children was discontinued in early 1986.

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Senator Daniel Moynihan: “Sixty Minutes,” above.

Interviews in Martinique Hotel and by telephone, November and December 1986; follow-up interviews, 1987.

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Waiting at welfare office during day, EAU at night: The EAUs do not open until late afternoon on weekdays.

Data on Holland Hotel:
New York Times
, November 4, 23, 26, December 11, 1985; March 10, 1986; July 15, 1987.

“A kiddie park designed by Hogarth and Marquis de Sade …” See “Children in a Sordid Sea,”
New York Times
, Editorial, December 5, 1985.

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Two categories of tenants at Holland, lack of water, etc.: Mrs. Andrews has repeated these details several times. David Beseda confirms her general portrayal of the Holland. According to the HRA, a Crisis Intervention center was first established at the Holland in November 1983; the winter of 1983–1984 seems to have marked the turning-point in the hotel’s transition to a homeless shelter.

Woman at EAU given a “referral slip” to her welfare center: This procedure, according to Scott Rosenberg (Legal Aid Society), does take place, but very rarely.

Daughter’s illness and number of days before family is placed in Martinique Hotel: Exact sequence remains unclear.

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Rules on savings permitted or prohibited by welfare regulations: Interviews with several residents and with HRA employees. According to Michael Hauer, director of the Central Resources Section, HRA, AFDC and General Assistance (“Home Relief”) recipients in New York are allowed to save a maximum of $1,000 before it interferes with benefits. (Telephone interview, August 11, 1987.)

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Increase of $8.75 in restaurant allowance in November 1986: This is the period in which New York had announced but not yet fully implemented plans to equalize food-stamp cuts. (See note for
this page
.) It is possible she means $8.75 for each person, rather than for her entire family.

Rent about $2,000 monthly: One of her rent receipts, apparently for half of January 1987, reads “$1,134.55”—which appears to indicate a monthly rent of $2,269.10. According to the rate chart of the Martinique Hotel, a four-member family pays $946.65 (including tax) for 15 days—or $1,956.41 for a 31-day month. Without tax, the monthly rent should be $1,676.48. Inconsistencies between rate chart and the rents residents claim to pay are common.

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Reference to a single elevator with no light: “After 9:00 p.m.,” Mrs. Andrews tells me, “the back elevators
are turned off. Only one elevator in front is left in operation.”

$1 billion cut in food stamps and child-nutrition programs requested for 1987:
New York Times
, January 2 and 6, 1987.

29 families housed at Newark hotel:
New York Times
, November 3, 1986.

HRA says situation is not critical:
New York Times
, November 3, 1986; January 27, 1987.

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President Reagan:
Philadelphia Inquirer
, August 3, 1983 (first citation); speech in Bloomington, Minnesota, February 8, 1982 (second citation), cited in
Homelessness in America
, Community for Creative Non-violence, above.

Budget cuts:
New Republic
, March 18, 1985. See also
Washington Post
, September 26, 1986.

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David Stockman:
Homelessness in America
, above.

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The Needs of Strangers
, Michael Ignatieff, above.

Shelter guards in New York City are frequently untrained and their qualifications are checked only on a random basis.
(New York Daily News
, February 28, 1987.) See also “City Criticized for Way It Selects Shelter Guards,”
New York Times
, November 1, 1986.

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Charles Murray:
Commentary
, May 1985. Murray credits William F. Buckley with this suggestion.

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Michael Ignatieff’s specific reference is to people in underdeveloped nations.
(The Needs of Strangers
, above.)

Newspapers substituted for diapers:
A Crying Shame
, cited above.

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Interview: November 29, 1986.

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“When you come in at night …” Similar procedures exist at Third Street Shelter and nearby Kenton Hotel in which Lazarus sleeps, according to Keith Summa, National Coalition for the Homeless. (Telephone interviews, June 1987.)

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Job search, line, subway tokens: The regimen of life in the men’s shelter is confirmed by Keith Summa.

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Difficulty in obtaining welfare benefits if homeless and unsheltered: Robert Hayes, Kim Hopper, and others confirm this. In speaking of panhandlers, the
New York Times
(July 31, 1987) reports: “Most receive no public assistance, and cannot, unless they have an address where payments can be mailed.” Those who have a shelter address, however, according to the
Times
(July 16, 1987), “receive no cash on the theory the shelters provide their basic needs.” In practice, according to Keith Summa, it is difficult but possible for an unsheltered individual to obtain General Assistance (known as “Home Relief” in New York State) if he or she can obtain a post office box or provide a friend’s address. In a place like the Third Street Shelter or Kenton Hotel, social workers help to expedite the application process. Sheltered individuals do receive some benefits and may soon receive more. A recent New York State Supreme Court ruling has established that homeless men and women in city shelters are entitled to Medicaid and cash welfare grants.
(New York
Times
, July 31, 1987).

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Work program for homeless men, curfew at Kenton Hotel, etc.: confirmed by Keith Summa, Coalition for the Homeless, and by New York City Council, cited above. In
Hardship in the Heartland
, cited above, the Community Service Society of New York makes this observation: “Men and women in the city’s pilot work program work 20 hours a week for which they are paid $12.50. Can anyone honestly argue that paying people 63 cents an hour for make-work will transform the allegedly ‘shiftless’ into models of industry? When shorn of its rhetoric, it is plain that such a program does nothing to prepare people for gainful employment or self-determination. Rather, it would appear to perpetuate dependency because the only work it offers is the forced product of an artificial market. Further, by making labor mandatory but valuing it so meanly, it compounds the shame of those desperate enough to seek shelter in the first place. Thus shelters would revert to nineteenth-century workhouses, and the poor would be penalized for their poverty.”

30 days before case can be reopened: HRA employees and Robert Hayes confirm this. See also
New York Times
, May 14, 1987.

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Prohibition on savings: The limit is $1,000. See note for
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.

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Sleeping in the active subway tunnels:
Newsday
, January 29, 1987.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral, homeless man driven from “outstretched arms of Jesus …”
New York Times
, November 17, 1986.

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Man dies in trash compactor in Chicago:
The Faces of Homelessness
, by Hope and Young, above.

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Driving the homeless from Grand Central Station: Virtually all details, including death of elderly woman Christmas morning, 1985, are contained in the New York City Council study; other details confirmed by George McDonald, America’s Homeless Political Action Committee, New York City, in interviews November 1986 and June 1987, and by the author in several visits during November and December 1986. Metro North police, not New York City police, have responsibility for Grand Central Station.

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Pennsylvania Station, women driven from bathroom: New York City Council.

Amtrak directive: The document from which these words are cited is an Amtrak “interoffice memo” signed by S. L. Nickerson and dated June 13, 1985. The memo concludes: “Immediate removal on a continuous basis … will eventually produce the desired effect.” The
New York Times
(November 29, 1986) reports another memo containing similar instructions, issued August 29, 1986, and describes the legal action taken by the American Federation of Railroad Police to resist such orders. Television station WCBS, on November 29, 1986, cited by name an Amtrak official who asked: “Can’t we get rid of this trash?”

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Laramie, Wyoming:
The Faces of Homelessness
, cited above. Columbus, Ohio:
Columbus Dispatch
, November 16, 1986,
and
Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
, November 14, 1986. Stabbing in California took place in Santa Barbara:
Time
, March 31, 1986.

Man set ablaze in Chicago:
Wall Street Journal
, December 1, 1986. The man survived, according to the
Journal
, “because the flames didn’t eat through his many layers of clothing.”

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German shepherds in Tucson, election platform of mayor of Tucson, words of anti-homeless organizer in Phoenix:
Newsweek
, January 2, 1984. Measures to prevent homeless people from sleeping in public:
New York Times
, March 31, 1986;
Time
, March 31, 1986;
USA/Today
, August 20, 1986;
Times-Picayune/States Item
, May 13, 1986. Bleach on discarded food in Santa Barbara:
Time
, March 31, 1986. “Drip lines” in Portland, Oregon: These were described to me by Michael Stoops and Beverly Curtis (Burnside Community Council) in October 1986. Fort Lauderdale:
Hardship in the Heartland; The Search for Shelter; The Faces of Homelessness
. (All cited above.)

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Columbia Point:
Boston Globe
, March 19, 1986; June 5, 12, 26, 1987. Additional information on Columbia Point: John Madden, former president of Dorchester Historical Society. (Telephone interview, August 12, 1987.)

In Los Angeles, in 1987, the county commissioner proposed the lease or purchase of a barge dating from World War II to house 400 homeless people. The barge, docked in Puget Sound, was finally rejected for fiscal and other reasons. (
Washington Post
, August 21, 1987.)

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“I just can’t accommodate them …”
New York Times
, September 18, 1986.

New York City’s homeless “dumped” in Newark:
New York Times
, October 1, 1986.

Jails, shelters, incinerators:
New York Times
, April 23 and 27, 1987.

Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews: 13, 2.

Burial of poor children: See Epilogue.

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Boarder babies:
New York Daily News
, January 22 and 23, February 24, 1987;
New York Times
, December 12 and
29, 1986, February 8, April 25, May 6, 1987. The
New York Daily News
(February 24, 1987) reported that there were about 300 such infants in city hospitals. See also “Afraid of Babies in Queens,” Editorial,
New York Times
, April 23, 1987.