Author Archives: ANTHONY CALIFANO

A Temporary Home for the NYC Homeless

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On a cold December night on the corner of Willow Avenue and 135th Street in the Bronx, there is a line of men who all want one thing, a bed to sleep in and a cooked meal. As the dozens of men impatiently wait to be called to be checked in and receive their linen, there is a sense of desperation in the air and loud bantering that echoes through the walls. For the workers, it is just another long night of keeping their patience, filling out paperwork, and making sure the men have a bed to sleep in.

On a frigid night, a homeless plan stands outside the Willow Avenue Shelter.

On a frigid night, a homeless man stands outside the Willow Avenue Shelter.

Being homeless is difficult, especially with the holidays approaching. But it is also hard for the shelters that house the homeless. Like the rest of New York City, Willow Shelter is struggling with the dramatic increase of the homeless population. The homeless population is nearly at 60,000 and continues to escalate. Of this population, Willow Shelter serves 169 men who come from all walks of life, all different races, criminal backgrounds, history of drug addictions, psychological problems, and the list goes on and on. While all odds are against shelters like Willow including lack of resources, funds, and not knowing who comes walking through their doors, the question is how are they still able to serve the men who are sent to them by the Department of Homeless Shelters?

One of the major catalysts for homelessness is the lack of funds provided. This creates a whole bunch of problems, including insufficient staffing. A House Manager at the shelter explains that staffing can get low and this can affect the way they service their residents. Randy Caro stated, “Even though we serve the residents to the best of our ability, it can be difficult to keep up with the amount of work, including the physical and psychological exhaustion that we go through.”

The scarcity of staff causes a bigger problem when Willow is faced with residents who are using drugs and display very aggressive and violent behavior. Residents do not like to follow any of the rules and regulations implemented in the shelter system. They feel that they should be allowed to do what they want. As a result, when they are re-directed, they become angry and get aggressive with staff, especially when under the influence of narcotics.

Troy Martin, a worker at the shelter, explained how the staff deals with these types of problems. “We are well trained to intervene. In addition, we must be firm in the way we intervene and be accurate in documentation to avoid any punitive litigation,” he said. The reason why Martin and the staff must avoid any punitive litigation is because the Department of Homeless Shelters contracts agencies including Willow Shelter, to provide services for them which come with guidelines that they must abide by. As a result, agencies cannot implement their own plan of action. This results into staff having to be hands off. “Since we are hands off, clients are allowed to evade discipline and cause disturbance in the operations of services through a coalition team formulated to advocate for them,” he said.

The coalition team mentioned above is part of the Department of Homeless Shelters. Each shelter is given a Program Analyst and a Program Administrator, who both function as a liaison between the DHS and the shelters. One of the Associate Directors from a local shelter who decided to be off the record because of the sensitivity of the situation stated, “The shelter’s relationship with DHS is positive and productive, but meetings can sometimes become intense. They also change leaders quite often, and with new leadership, most of the time comes new ideas and constant changes. I would like to see more assessment though before changes are implemented.”

A spokesperson for DHS explained their mission and stated, “The mission of DHS is to prevent homelessness when possible and to provide short-term, emergency shelter for individuals and families who have no other housing options available to them.” DHS is an agency comprised of 2,000 employees and has an annual budget of approximately $1 billion. In 2014, the agency implemented a new commissioner,Gilbert Taylor. In partnership with the new mayor, Bill de Blasio, they are trying to focus in on the city’s increasing homeless population that has faced a 13% surge, according to the mayor’s office.

Before most of these problems erupted, Palladia Inc., the agency Willow Shelter is part of, was founded in 1970. It is one of the largest non-profit multi-service agencies of its kind in NYC. It is an agency that serves both families and individuals who are struggling with substance abuse, homelessness, mental illness, trauma, domestic violence, issues of behavioral health, and transitioning from the criminal justice system. According to Palladia’s 2013 Annual Report, 17,500 New Yorkers received Palladia services and 1,560 people sleep each night in Palladia residential programs or housing units. It can be hard to support these individuals, especially when the total expenses for the services they offer sits at $50,004,187 for 2013. While the total support and revenue they received sits under their expenses at $44,045,893. There is clearly a lack of funds and this in turn affects the services Palladia offers, including the Willow Avenue Shelter.

Although there is a lack of funds, staff continues to strive to serve their residents and to try to find them permanent housing outside of the shelter system. A Case Manager at the shelter who is one of the individuals in charge of trying to find housing for the residents reflected on her experiences at the shelter. Roberta White stated, “As a Case Manager, I witness people come into the shelter system believing there is housing. But once they are assessed and meet with a Case Manager, they become informed that there is limited housing for them. As a Case Manager, I understand their frustration. However, I try and find other housing for them. This entails seeking employment to move into a room, residential treatment, or returning them back home to their families.”

With all these problems that are against shelters like Willow Avenue Shelter, there is a puzzle that needs to be solved regarding where the future lies for housing the homeless in New York City. One of the possible pieces that might complete the puzzle is opening new shelters across the city. As reported by Mayor de Blasio’s office, the mayor has opened 23 new shelters in 11 months. But will opening shelters really solve the problem? Troy Martin, a worker at the shelter, doesn’t believe so. “I don’t think opening 11 shelters will solve the problem. However, it will give more beds to house people who need the services. The primary goal is to get them housing. They need more transitional places to provide housing. For example, an apartment building designed to house residents from shelters. This will not only provide more jobs but residents will also have supervision, which will help them avoid returning to shelters and relapsing from addiction.”

A resident of the shelter, Joseph Brown, agrees that more housing needs to be developed. “The city needs to build new and better housing instead of building new shelters. I always wanted my own apartment, but I can’t afford it,” he said.

Class Profile – Matthew Rozanski

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We have all had those high school dreams of getting that one job after college. Then college comes and it turns out that it is not as easy as we thought it would be. Matthew Rozanski, a student at Baruch College, was one of those high school kids who didn’t know what was coming his way.

“In high school, I convinced myself that becoming a business major would be fun and easy. Baruch, being the business school it is, made that choice easy. I was wrong,” he said.

IMG_20141025_163358Matthew was born and raised in Ridgewood, NY. New York City has always been the apple of his eye. “I love New York overall. The music scene is cool in places like Williamsburg. Bars are cool, clubs are awful and usually trashy. Food is awesome. New York is definitely a love of mine,” he said.

Before entering college, he always had a fancy for writing because of its ability to help him self express. “I’d like to say I’ve been writing since I was in diapers. I’m out of my mind and imaginative in the weirdest ways, so I like to sketch my ridiculousness out on paper with words,” he said.

Although writing has always been a passion of his, he didn’t quite know what he wanted to focus on in the future. “I’m not a focused person at all. I have the attention span of a watermelon and I really need to beat myself up to focus on something. I kind of figured everything out after an in depth talk with my mom,” he said.

Now, as he is taking a feature article writing class, he continues to strive at being a better writer while still enjoying the college life. “This class has helped the flow of my writing. Other than that, I have enjoyed the laughs and the cool people around me,” he said.

The future is a scary thing to think about for anyone, even for Matthew. “I hope I’m doing the things I love to do: writing, traveling, singing, and dancing. I really don’t know honestly; the future kind of scares me a bit. I live for the moment,” he said.

So for all the people out there thinking life after high school is the best thing that will ever happen to them, Matthew has a little advice for them. “I don’t have everything together but I’m good at making it seem like I do. And I have more in common with whoever is reading this than they think.”

A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds

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The way Andrea Elliot organizes this New York Times piece shows that it is an exemplary work for how a story should be organized. She was able to shadow Mr. Shata for 6 months and was therefore able to narrate his story and describe the challenges he went through as he struggled between following his faith and teaching the modern generation in a mosque in Brooklyn, New York. Elliot uses chronology in her story, including time jumps, flashbacks, and flash forwards. An interesting technique that was brought up during class was “sign posts”. Similar to a nut graf, Elliot gave us a hint as to where the story was going. Lastly, the reporting of this story must have been a challenge as Elliot translated many of the conversations that were observed.This is a technique in itself. It shows future writers that although a story may be challenging at first, once the final product is complete, it’s well worth it in the end.

Battle in Black and White Blog Response

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What techniques does Amy Fox use in narrating this conflict story? Who are her sources? What kind of research did she do? What is the arc of this conflict story and where is the nut graf?

Amy Fox narrates her conflict story with many techniques. She uses instances of flashbacks to her grandparent’s recollection of their memories in Stuyvesant Town. Fox also uses real life accounts from her family including her grandmother, grandfather, and even from local residents that lived during that time and who currently live there. Real life accounts definitely gave her story a personal touch. At the same time, she balanced the personal content with research content. She did a bountiful amount of research about the housing in Stuyvesant Town, including researching at the public library. The arc of the story occurs when residents began to protest and stand up for what they believed in, which was standing up for the black residents in the housing units. They wanted the racial tension to stop and instead for people to be integrated no matter what the color of their skin was. Fox does a great job at linking the different parts of her story from the arc, to the flashbacks, and to the current. She also does an excellent job at making her nut graf known, which was the 5th graf, when she links personal and research content perfectly.

NYPL’s Effort to Gather Stories from the Past

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We all know longtime residents of the neighborhood who have a lot to say about the communities they’ve lived in. They are our natural story tellers who can reminiscence just about anything from funny childhood memories, to remembering favorite hangout spots, or to recalling the many changes that have occurred in their communities. But if only these voices could be preserved like a message in a bottle floating on the ocean sea that is just waiting to be uncovered.

The New York Public Library is known for being the resource center of any neighborhood because of its offering of traditional services like the loaning of books, audio books, e-books, and the use of computers and laptops. Now it is doing something a bit unconventional and it is trying to measure the pulse of the neighborhood by introducing an oral history project.

NYPL first began their effort of initiating an oral history project in the hopes of documenting and preserving neighborhood history in the communities of Greenwich Village and Harlem. Because of the success of those efforts and with attaining close to 200 interviews, NYPL is trying out the project in the Bronx.

“Voices From East of Bronx Park” is the name of the project and it will cover the neighborhoods of Allerton, Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, and Van Nest.

Alexandra Kelly, the Outreach Services and Adult Programming Coordinator of NYPL, is the individual in charge of this project and she believes the Bronx is the perfect location for neighborhood history. “This is the only oral history project that has ever been done in these neighborhoods. When you google search them, you’re not going to find a whole wealth of information. And the best way to get that information is to talk to the people who have actually lived in these communities and hear their stories,” she said.

One of the libraries that is participating in this project is the Pelham Parkway-Van Nest Branch. This branch has been around since 1912 and has moved four times to where it currently sits at 2147 Barnes Avenue. For over a quarter of a century, active residents of the community have strove for a change of name because they felt the Van Nest name did not fit the community it serves since it moved to its current location back in 1967. The name was finally changed in August of this year.

David Nochimson, the branch manager, felt it was the perfect time for this type of project. “With the recent name change of the library, it seemed like a good time for this project to finally discover what the real story of this neighborhood is,” he said. As it was stated previously, the project was done in the city, but Nochimson feels the Bronx will bring something different. “These neighborhoods may not be as famous as Greenwich Village or Harlem, but they will surely reveal what life is really all about,” he said.

Jhenelle Robinson, an Information Assistant at the branch, is enthralled that the project was brought to the Bronx. “It’s time for the Bronx to get its due respect and be highlighted like the other boroughs. There aren’t many instances of Bronx history recordings, so I feel like the library system saw an opportunity to be a forerunner in documenting the rich history of the Bronx,” she said.

Although the project has just recently started, it has already gotten the dialogue on record. Jeremy Warneke, District Manager of Community Board 11, who interviewed Cecilia DeBrino Haas, a former resident of the Bronx who currently works at Albert Einstein Hospital. “When I heard about this project I thought.. growing up in the Bronx, raising a kid in the Bronx, having a career in the Bronx, developing friendships in the Bronx.. I want to be part of that, and so here I am,” she said.

When Warneke heard that the library was doing this project, he was automatically on board to be an interviewer. “I think it’s great that the public library started this initiative. The library has remained relevant and continues to stay in touch,” he said.

Besides starting new outreach initiatives, the library plays a key role in the community, particularly with the closing of many bookstores. The only major bookstore in the Bronx, Barnes and Noble, offered e-books and remained with the trends, but was still recently threatened to close. The library continues to serve as a threat to bookstores and offers a wide selection of e-books and audio books.

Cecilia DeBrino Haas, an interviewee of the project, is a daily user of audio books and she believes the library is excelling at remaining current with the current digital trends. “I have a 25 minute commute to work every day. I’m addicted to books on tape and there is an audio book in my car at all times. If I don’t have a book in my car, I don’t want to come to work. And that’s why I believe if the library did not remain current with the trends, the library would die,” she said.

The oral history project has gotten people from the Bronx involved and they appreciate that the library is getting the community involved. “Somebody is gonna have to listen to this, poor thing. But on a serious note, the library is a great resource and I want to say thank you to the New York Public Library for doing this project,” Haas said.

At the end of this project, which will conclude in May of 2015, the New York Public Library is hoping that it will be a success. “Success is not just measured by the amount of interviews we collect, but it’s about how it gets people talking, how it gets people to continue the dialogue even beyond the collection process, and that is my hope for this project,” Alexandra Kelly stated.

NYPL Oral History Project Slideshow

Beginning With the Undertaker – Liebling Comments

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If you look up the noun “undertaker” in the dictionary, you’ll get the following definition: one that takes the risk and management of business. Liebling revolved this definition around one man in the story: Angelo Rizzo of Mulberry Street. Everyone in the neighborhood comes to the undertaker’s store and becomes a part of it. “During the day, the undertaker acts as a referee in the disputes of children. Housewives tell him their troubles; priests appeal to him to head church committees.”

I enjoyed the analogy Liebling used as the frame of his story: the undertaker or otherwise known as Angelo Rizzo. By Liebling using this analogy throughout the whole story, the reader gets a sense of the importance of this one man in the community. It goes to show that the role of a businessman goes far along than being just a businessman. It includes being a sociable person who talks to everyone including the policeman, kids, housewives, and the list goes on. Overall, I think this remains true in neighborhoods today where there is that one businessman who knows everyone and is basically the mayor of the town.