Management by ricochet: Part 1, stimulus
At times, I utterly despair of public housing.
What then must we do, cherub?
Public housing is economically dependent on higher levels of government (state or federal) that may cut its funding for their own egregious and indefensible reasons. Its stock is very old (averaging over 45) and functionally obsolescent. It is generally working with an outdated business model (direct government ownership) that has been superseded (by public-private partnership) almost everywhere else. The whole public housing system is breaking down, and a bold stroke is necessary.
Yet when a housing authority tries even a timid stroke, what is the result? Not good, as illustrated by two stories that appeared in rival
See what happens when you’re not looking?
Of what criminal neglect is the Boston Housing Authority guilty?
The safety and peace of mind of some 1,800 elderly and disabled residents could hang in the balance because of a Boston Housing Authority cost-cutting plan to replace security guards with surveillance cameras in 13 senior complexes, the Herald has learned.
The passive voice implies that the Herald got a leak — presumably, from a disgruntled BHA employee. (A previous Herald story, even more ill-founded, also seems leak-inspired.) Thus the BHA is not in control of the story, and the Herald, ready to rake muck, then beetled out to the properties to ask the residents how they felt, with predictable results:
The proposal has golden-agers spitting mad.
“They’d rather save a buck than save a life. When those cameras break, I guarantee they won’t fix them,” Glenn Williams, 53, said yesterday at Roxbury’s Martin Luther King Jr. Towers, where the oldest resident is 98.
The entrance of
Aside from the cheap demagoguery of the Herald’s framing, is Mr. Williams right in supposing that the cameras will break, and that they will not be fixed?
Federally funded BHA stands to save $650,000 a year by axing up to three unarmed sentries at the developments between
Yes, the elderly are up and about during the day. So too are the rental managers, the full-time custodian, the resident services coordinator, and the maintenance staff. All of them have eyeballs too, and if the sentries are unarmed, what makes their eyes more alert than the other staff’s?
If cutting three sentries per property at 13 developments saves $650,000 a year, that works out to about $8 per hour per sentry [$650,000 / (13 developments x 3 sentries x 8 hours x 5 days x 52 weeks)].
Councilor-at-large Sam Yoon chairs the Boston City Council’s Committee on Housing and has called a meeting for
Councilor Yoon at
I don’t believe Mr. Yoon needs a meeting to pore; poring can be done in private. And in any case, how complex are the statistics?
Between Jan. 1 and July 24 of this year there were only 16 reported crimes - mainly burglaries but one rape - in all 13 developments under the existing security arrangement. That compares to 1,963 serious crimes in the immediate surrounding neighborhoods, including seven murders, 24 rapes and 195 robberies.
So the elderly properties are safe today. Very safe.
It’s that surrounding environment of crime that seniors like Frances Sawyer, 59, who suffers from glaucoma, fears will move into her building.
“We need all the security we can get. We need security on top of security,” said Sawyer.
Note the presumption of entitlement; regardless of what we pay, you owe us more, even if we do not pay more. So naturally, we need all the security we can get.
Gary Downing, 62, angrily agreed.
Mr. Downing, angry before the camera
“I don’t want the cameras,” Downing said. “You can’t talk to no camera when you have an emergency.”
Said Yoon, “Shame on us, from the federal government on down to the city, if we let things get so bad as to take away something as basic to your home as your sense of security.”
When you have no security, this kind of thing happens
Making matters worse, Yoon said the BHA Police Department could run out of funding by October, as they are only operating now thanks to a $2.1 million emergency shot in the arm from the city.
While I accept Mr. Yoon’s concern for the elderly, how does he propose to find the money to address these needs? Unless I misunderstand, he has no power to increase the BHA’s budget.
Yoon said [BHA administrator Sandra Henriquez] told his committee the feds have slashed her agency’s budget by $29 million since 1995.
They have. The cuts have been huge, are indefensible on policy grounds, and are unlikely to be reversed. So the BHA has had to cut about 15% out of its $180 million budget.
That is the point of triage — making hard choices.
Sometimes the choices are limited
Still, Yoon said, a camera is “not even an effective deterrent. The deterrent is the real live person at the front door.”
Perhaps councilor Yoon is unaware of what MLK Towers offers:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Towers offers a wide range of amenities, programs and services to help you feel at home, including:
· Professional full-time staff on-site
· Live-in resident custodian who quickly responds to all emergencies
· Emergency call systems
· Resident services coordinator
· Air-conditioned community room with TV and VCR
· Weekly arts and crafts program and film showings
· First floor laundry room
· Lunch program for residents
· Active Tenant Task Force that organizes activities and advocates on behalf of residents
· Monthly meetings between manager and task force
· Parking available in the rear of the buildings
During the hours of 8 and 4, there will be plenty of eyes in the public entry way: on-site staff, the resident custodian, and the resident services coordinator. The lobby will not be empty. With cameras, the view could be on the screens of several people in their offices — in other words, possibly more eyes on the door than at present.
Council President Maureen Feeney said, “We’re really talking about the most vulnerable group of people in our society. There’s all kinds of drug activity, prostitution and intimidation.”
Ms. Feeney cares about the vulnerable
“That’s why we absolutely, positively need to have a commitment to the 24-hour security service.”
There should absolutely be a commitment to security in BHA properties, especially elderly ones. Despite the framing by all the critics, the question is not one of objectives, but rather one of expedients. Is the $650,000 best spent on unarmed security staff, or in other ways (like cameras)?
One BHA security guard, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the plan “utterly ridiculous.”
What a courageous guard, unwilling to speak except anonymously. That’s the sort of individual we want defending our elderly.
I’ll fight you one at a time!
I’ll fight you two at a time!
I’ll fight you with my own fists!
“A camera can’t stop someone from coming in with their friends or a hooker from wandering through the door. It’s not safe in these buildings as it is.”
If the buildings are not safe now, sir who is a security guard, whose fault is that?
Having thus been sandbagged by the Herald, the BHA was caught flat-footed:
BHA officials reached yesterday referred comment to BHA administrator Sandra Henriquez and a spokeswoman, who could not be reached.
Faced with this challenge, what did the BHA do?
[Continued tomorrow in Part 2.]
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