Rachel and Her Children (30 page)

Holland Hotel: See notes for
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.

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City Council on deterrence policy: study cited above.

Mayor Koch:
New York Times
, December 17, 1985;
New York Daily News
, December 8, 1985.

Congressional testimony of ten-year-old boy and the reaction of Mayor Koch:
Newsday
, March 20, 1986;
New York Daily News
, March 17, 18, 19, 23, and April 5, 1986.

Newsday
, March 20, 1986: “In airing his feelings on the subject …, the mayor said that the benefit package received by a family of six—such as [boy’s name deleted]—is valued at a total of $20,400 a year. He included in that package the family’s government-paid allowance [for potential apartment rental] and potential Medicaid payments. ‘Over 75,000 city employees earn less than $20,000,’ the mayor wrote. ‘Office aides make $14,000 a year; health aides $13,600. And they all work for a living. I wonder why they bother.’”

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New York Daily News
, March 19, 1986: “In Albany yesterday to lobby for state aid, Koch brushed aside a suggestion from a welfare mother that he live on welfare before concluding that homeless families get enough help. ‘Oh please, you live on it,’ Koch replied when asked about the suggestion…. Asked if $6 a day is enough to feed a child, Koch said, ‘You bet it is.’”

George Orwell quotes one of his own characters in a semi-fictional story “The Spike,” published in
Adelphi
,
March 1931; later included in
Down and Out in Paris and London
, San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1961.

“As to conditions at the hotels …” Statement of Haney Robins, Acting Commissioner of the HRA, is included in a letter of September 18, 1986, to New York City Council member Abraham Gerges, printed in full in city council study.

Details about concealment of cooking utensils and pre-announced inspections: Many residents and city employees familiar with the Martinique Hotel confirm this.

Physical conditions in the Martinique: “The State Court of Appeals, in a unanimous decision,” the
New York Times
reports (June 5, 1987), “held that the emergency housing system of New York City must provide and enforce minimum standards of decency for homeless families.” While the court did not determine whether the city met such standards, Legal Aid Society attorney Steven Banks observed that “almost everyone in the system is living in conditions that violate these standards.” The lead plaintiff in the suit “was placed with her children in the Martinique Hotel near Herald Square.” According to court documents, she “found a roach-infested room with a urine-soaked mattress and filthy sheets.”

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“Other rights go by the board …” There is no consistent prohibition on admission of journalists. It is, however, “an accepted understanding,” according to a city employee, that, if a tenant speaks ill of the hotel to a reporter, a way will be found “to get that person out.” Since most residents are already breaking several rules (the official prohibitions on cooking or cohabitation with an unregistered person, for example), justification for eviction need not make reference to communication with the press.

Suit to regain the franchise for homeless people: The case, brought shortly before the 1984 presidential election, was won in 1985. Plaintiffs were represented by Robert Hayes and the law firm of Davis Polk and Wardwell. Federal District Judge Mary Johnson Lowe enjoined the city from barring the homeless from the right to vote. The mayor instructed his corporation counsel to
appeal. Some months later, the city quietly gave in.
(Safety Network
, January 1986.)

Banned newsletter:
Martinique Monitor
, November 1985. A nonresident familiar with the Martinique Hotel states that “all copies” were removed from residents’ mailboxes, either by hotel management or by city officials.

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Refrigerators, dispute with hotel management, etc.: Interviews with several residents and others familiar with the Martinique Hotel confirm all details except the estimated price of “less than $200,” which is Kim’s supposition and seems accurate. The rate chart of the Martinique Hotel lists “$1.08” nightly for
“FRIDGE.”

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Details concerning payment of hotel rent: Kim’s words on issuing of checks are confirmed by HRA employees.

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No day care: A day care program was finally begun in June of 1987. According to a recent visitor, half the ballroom has been walled off to create a preschool area with a new kitchen and new floor. I am told that the hotel cooperated in this effort.

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Everything in Its Path
, by Kai Erikson, cited above.

Interviews in Martinique Hotel, 1986.

Lead paint in Martinique Hotel: New York City Council, above. I am told that there has been some abatement since. A new danger, however, was discovered in the spring of 1985. According to the
New York Daily News
(June 18, 1987), “A mountain of cancer-causing asbestos—illegally packed in open containers—was uncovered yesterday in the Martinique Hotel…. Dangerous asbestos-coated pipes were also found in the hotel’s lobby and on the sidewalk—within easy reach of the welfare hotel’s 1,500 children…. Sanitation [Department] spokesman Vito Turso said that his office was considering criminal action against the hotel ‘for clearly violating the law.’” See also
New York Times
, June 19, 1987.

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Danger of exposed metal frames: After the accident described later in this chapter, Kim said: “Now the hotel
will get rid of these beds.” In fact, as early as December 1985, parents who protested vigorously enough had managed to convince the management to replace these metal frames by wooden bunk beds. Subsequently, all or most such metal beds have been replaced.

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“Churning …”
The Making of America’s Homeless
, cited above;
New York Times
, April 24, 1987. An eloquent and detailed description of “churning” by a welfare recipient is included in Children’s Express Symposium, cited above.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
, by James Agee and Walker Evans, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1941.

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“Spanish is her first language.” Her mother, however, speaks English with proficiency. A resident who knows Laura tells me that she is learning disabled.

Filthy carpets: Carpets in the hotel have since been replaced by linoleum or tiles.

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Kai Erikson: See above.

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Rent notice from Martinique Hotel: These notices now read: “Your rent is due. Please go to your center.”

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Restaurant allowance and food-stamp allocation for a homeless mother with four children in January 1986: Laura’s information confirmed by HRA employees. The cited restaurant allowance was for half the month, food stamps for the full month.

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Lead poison: See City Council, as cited on
this page
.

“This is true. I seen it …” In
Struggling to Survive in a Welfare Hotel
(cited above), the Community Service Society says this: “Hotel staff ask for sexual favors from women in exchange for provision of services.” Reference is to Martinique Hotel.

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$1,500 rent for two weeks: According to Martinique Hotel rate chart, rent with tax for five persons in two rooms should be $2,584 for a 31-day month, or about $1,290 for each semi-monthly check. Without taxes, each of these checks should be about $1,100.

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Uprooted Children
, by Robert Coles, cited above.

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Average length of stay: See notes for
this page
.

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Interviews at Henry Street Settlement’s Urban Family Center, Baruch Place, New York City, January 1986; follow-up interviews in later months.

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Holly’s effort to obtain G.E.D., her mother’s eviction, eight months in two Manhattan welfare hotels, residence at Holland, experience at Clemente: Robert Hayes believes the two hotels in which Holly lived prior to the Holland were the Latham and the Carter. Note that I do not distinguish, in this book, between “shelters” and “hotels.” I have no way to corroborate the other information she supplies on these matters nor her previous statements on her childhood in foster care, her education and early work experience. Data compiled by the Coalition for the Homeless and some of my later conversations with Holly indicate that her mother had lived for some time in homeless shelters and that she was in the Martinique while Holly lived there. Certain details on Holly’s background, and on David’s, are disguised to guard their privacy.

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Date of child’s birth, life, sickness and death are contained in a press release and chronology released by the HRA on December 19, 1985. Additional data is provided in a confidential 33-page chronology compiled by David Beseda and Mark Bullock of the Coalition for the Homeless, made available to me with Holly’s permission by Robert Hayes. See also “Blind and Deaf Infant’s Short Life on the Rolls of New York’s Homeless,”
New York Times
, December 20, 1985;
New York Daily News
, November 27, December 18 and 20, 1985.

Incubator, oxygen, I.V., Holly’s need to solicit blood donations: I have no corroboration for these statements.

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“Seizure disorder …”
New York Times
, December 20, 1985.

Eviction from Mayfair: The HRA and Coalition for the Homeless both refer to a physical quarrel involving David and/or the father of Holly’s older children. It appears that police were called. Holly tells me that an employee of the Mayfair had made sexual advances to her, that he saw David’s presence as an obstacle, and that this was the immediate reason for her eviction.

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“I stayed there with him in the hospital …” The HRA reports that Benjamin was readmitted to the hospital on March 27 and released on May 1. During this period, according to the HRA, Holly received at least four one-night placements, spent some nights with her mother, and an unspecified amount of time on Long Island. The Coalition for the Homeless indicates that, wearied by short-term placements, she stayed for a time with David’s mother. It appears that she could not have stayed with Benjamin for the entire five-week period. She was there, it seems, during the final weeks. Records indicate that a physician contacted her on April 18 to tell her of the need for surgery. The Coalition for the Homeless reports that she went to the hospital immediately.

The coalition notes that Holly was not a good manager of her affairs, that she seems to have resisted acceptance of the extreme seriousness of Benjamin’s illness, and may even have seen his condition as a means by which to improve her family’s opportunity to be granted permanent housing. But the coalition also notes that Holly was “religious” in keeping clinic appointments for Benjamin, was with him at the hospital as much as possible in view of the difficult logistics with which she was faced, and was regarded by many observers as an affectionate mother.

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Letter from hospital: See notes for
this page
.

“I told my social worker …” It is unclear if she means her Income Maintenance (welfare) worker or a social worker at Beth Israel.

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Benjamin released from hospital: Records indicate the hour was 5:30 p.m.

“It was rainin’ as a matter of fact. Not a warm night …” On May 1, 1985, the evening was cool and cloudy but there was no rain. The next two days, May 2 and 3, however, were unseasonably cold. It rained on both days. On May 6, the last night before Holly brought her son back to the hospital, the weather in New York again was cool and it was raining.

“I had had that letter …” The letter from Benjamin’s doctor (New
York Times
, December 20, 1985) asked that he be given “suitable housing to support his condition.”

“For seven days …” As her later words make clear, she was not on the street all seven days.

“I would sit from nine to five, the welfare center … and from five to eight o’clock at EAU …” The Brooklyn Emergency Assistance Unit is open from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. on weekdays and around the clock on holidays and weekends. See
this page
for details on Holly’s placements during this week. HRA records do not indicate that she was at her welfare office during this time but they confirm that she was repeatedly at the EAU. I believe she is referring here to the general procedure she had undergone for many months, not to these specific days. According to Scott Rosenberg (Legal Aid Society), the procedure she describes, including “a referral” by the I.M. center to an EAU, is not unusual.

“A nice hotel in Queens …” On May 1 and 2, according to the HRA, she was placed at the Turf Club Hotel in Queens. On the next night (May 3), the HRA reports that she was sent to the Martinique Hotel but returned with her children to the EAU on May 4 at 4:30 p.m., saying she had been denied a room by the Martinique. After a wait of 10 hours and 15 minutes, she was sent with her children to the Hotel Carter at 2:45 a.m. (morning of May 5) but returned after midnight (12:50 a.m. of May 6), terming the Carter “unlivable.” The HRA reports it had “no vacancies available” that night and that Holly and Benjamin remained at the EAU until 9:50 a.m. on May 6. The following evening, Benjamin was readmitted to Beth Israel for the final time. See also notes for
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.

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“So he was goin’ in the cold and rain …” See notes for
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.

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“The baby looks like it is dyin’ …” It’s unclear whether Holly is attributing these words to a welfare worker at her Income Maintenance Center or at the EAU. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, Holly spent May 6 at her welfare center and went to the Brooklyn EAU at night. At 3:00 a.m. on May 7, the coalition states, David left the EAU to take Benjamin to Beth Israel. The HRA places Benjamin’s admission to the hospital much earlier that night, at 5:15 p.m.