Broken closet doors in Lydia Silvagnoli's apartment in Campos Houses. Photo by Rachel Wise

Public housing developments in the East Village are riddled with problems. There are leaky ceilings, walls and pipes; broken windows; fallen doors and cabinets; chipped and peeling paint; cracked or missing tiles, moldings and doorways; holes in walls and ceilings; inoperative vents; broken doorknobs and apartment doors; faulty appliances; and prevalent mold growth on bathroom ceilings and walls, a three-month investigation uncovered.

And, unfortunately, the list goes on.

A thorough investigation into New York City Housing Authority developments within the East Village brought a group of reporters into more than two dozen apartments. They visited every East Village public housing development — Lillian Wald Houses; Jacob Riis Houses; Pedro Albizu Campos Plaza I and II; Lower East Side II and III; Judge Max Meltzer Tower; Mariana Bracetti Plaza; and First Houses — and spoke with about 50 residents.

In addition to visiting dozens of apartments, reporters combed through hundreds of Department of Building and Environmental Control Board records; examined dozens of court cases; and consulted legal aid, community leaders, advocacy groups and elected officials.

Reporters captured hours of video and audio interviews with residents, and took hundreds of photos documenting substandard conditions.

More on this project in the New York Daily News, which includes video produced by Reinhard Cate

Betty Buck, 67, a 43-year resident of Wald Houses, was at home sleeping on Aug. 30 when her kitchen cabinets came crashing down. NYCHA workers came to inspect the damage, but all they did was move the cabinet unit into her hallway — blocking the already-narrow space. She was given a repair appointment of February 2011 — almost 6 months after the damage occurred.
But that’s not the only issue Buck faces. She also has holes in her walls and ceiling, and peeling paint, from water damage; mold in her bathroom; and a roach infestation, despite an otherwise clean and well-kempt apartment.

Water damage in Betty Bucks's apartment. (Photo by Rachel Wise)

Nilda Gomez, a tenant in Riis Houses, also faces many disrepair issues. The worst offense happened during the summer, when NYCHA workers came to repair her heating system. They disconnected her steam pipes and left them that way for months, jutting diagonally across her bedroom.

In the process of fixing a broken pipe in Gomez’s bathroom, workers instead wrapped a blanket secured with tape around the busted pipe. Other pipes throughout her apartment have been patched with duct tape.

A blanket is taped on to a busted pipe in Nilda Gomez's apartment. (Photo by Rachel Wise)

Also in Gomez’s apartment are holes in the ceiling and walls; mold in the bathroom; broken tiles and moldings; broken windows and closet doors; and a lock on her apartment door that only opens from the inside.

After years of assigning housing assistant receptionists at individual properties to deal with tenants’ requests for repairs, NYCHA in 2005 began to introduce the Centralized Call Center, a hotline tenants can call to schedule routine repairs during regular business hours or to report emergencies 24 hours a day.

According to General Manager of Operation Michael Kelly, “NYCHA proposed the creation of a centralized call center, aimed at improving service delivery to residents, standardizing data entry for (work tickets) and scheduling appointments.” Kelly spoke at an Oct. 26 public hearing on housing.

But, from residents’ points of view, the call center has been a huge failure.

At the start of this investigation, reporters requested a series of documents from NYCHA under the Freedom of Information law. The authority responded saying it had “possibly 140,000 documents” of call center data in the past three years for East Village developments alone. However, NYCHA said it would charge for staff time to gather the documents in addition to 25 cents per page. NYCHA failed to provide a detailed index of the documents — as required under the FOI law — and has yet to produce any of the documents requested, despite months of negotiations with reporters.

Because no documents have been made available, the average time residents wait for repairs is unclear. But, according to residents, the average wait time is at least one year — and often as long as two or three years.

“NYCHA understands and respects our residents’ frustration over the current backlog of repair and maintenance work. No one wants to resolve this problem more than NYCHA,” Kelly said at the Oct. 26 public hearing.

No one denies the fact that the New York City Housing Authority is strapped for cash. The city agency has a growing deficit that it worsened by its lack of federal funding and increasing demand for repairs.

“In 2005, NYCHA’s comprehensive physical needs assessment identified a 5-year $7.5 billion need to fully address the repair and maintenance across the authority,” Kelly said at the hearing. “Currently NYCHA only has $1.5 billion to address such repairs.”
Victor Bach, senior housing policy analyst for the Community Service Society, has spent a great deal of time looking into NYCHA’s budget and meeting with officials to come up with solutions.

“When you have a $7 billion backlog in capital need that can’t or won’t be addressed by Washington, what ultimately happens is that your deterioration accelerates and your repair needs begin to escalate,” Bach said. “The needs are growing at the same time the centralized call center is experiencing problems responding. It’s a combination.”

Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who chairs the New York State Assembly’s committee on housing, led the public hearing on Oct. 26. Lopez acknowledged the funding problem but insisted it wasn’t the only trouble the authority has.

“We realize it’s a funding problem, but as a few people have mentioned, it’s also an operational problem,” Lopez said.
While NYCHA admits the backlog of repairs is an issue, the agency has yet to provide data that shows the number of unfulfilled work orders.

But, according to figures reported by The New York Times on Oct. 24, NYCHA has a total backlog of 106,000 work orders — 9,000 of which are scheduled for 2012 and an additional 300 scheduled for 2013.

Toni Footman, an 18-year resident of Lillian Wald Houses, grew so tired of waiting for repairs to be made, she took NYCHA to court on Sept. 14.

NYCHA resident Toni Footman, took the agency to court. Photo by Rachel Wise

The judge ruled that NYCHA had to fulfill Footman’s maintenance request — fix leaks, exterminate for roaches, plaster and paint walls damaged by leaks — within 30 days.

More than two months after the court ruling, NYCHA has yet to make any repairs in Footman’s apartment.

“They told me by 2013 they can do the work,” she said with a sigh. “They’re still saying they don’t have the right supplies; they don’t have contractors.”

Tenants from all East Village developments tell similar stories: They’ve been waiting years upon years for NYCHA to fix damages in their apartments. This can take a toll on residents, especially on the elderly and disabled.

Residents from Meltzer Tower, an all-senior development in the East Village, worry about their health in the winter months. They say NYCHA turns the heat off in their building between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., a complaint echoed by tenants in several other East Village developments.

“Some of the residents here are incredibly ill,” said Sara Augustin, 65. “We’re older, you know? The cold goes straight to our bones.”

Augustin, who has rallied her neighbors and garnered 30 signatures for a petition demanding the heat be left on at night, recorded whom she claims to be a NYCHA official explaining their heat policy.

In the recording, the man tells Augustin that NYCHA will only turn the heat on at night if it is below 20 degrees outside — which is 20 degrees colder than what’s required by the New York City Housing Maintenance Code. The law requires building owners to provide heat between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. if the temperature outside is below 40 degrees — and if it’s below 55 degrees between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

In an e-mail response from NYCHA’s press office, NYCHA maintained it does follow the Housing Maintenance Code.

However, according to the Department of Housing Preservation & Development, who enforces the City Housing Maintenance Code, NYCHA is not held to these same standards.

“HPD does not have jurisdiction or the responsibility of enforcing the Housing Maintenance Code in NYCHA properties,” HPD spokesman Eric Bederman wrote in an e-mail.

Another issue that negatively affects elderly and disabled tenants is the frequent elevator breakdowns in NYCHA buildings.

NYCHA owns more than 60 buildings in the East Village, which are divided into eight developments. According to the Department of Buildings, NYCHA has accrued 741 building violations, some which date back as far as 1972; 275 of these are listed as “open” or “active,” meaning the DOB has no record of these violations being addressed.

More than 152 of them are Environmental Control Board violations — the most serious kind. A total of 20 of these serious infractions remain “open.”

The majority of the violations issued to NYCHA are because of poor exterior wall conditions, and shoddy elevator and boiler maintenance. Most are not considered hazardous to residents, according to the DOB, but they are considered major violations.
As for elevators, specifically, the DOB says NYCHA developments in the East Village alone have been hit with more than 60 building violations for failing to maintain elevators.

According to documents from the DOB, NYCHA has taken anywhere from two months to seven years to address elevator problems. Tenants say they are often forced to walk up and down flights of stairs because their building’s elevator is out of service — and disabled and wheelchair-bound residents say they’ve been trapped for days on end waiting for elevator repairs.

Of these 60 elevator-related infractions, the DOB says, 12 are still “open,” meaning the DOB has not received a certificate indicating the problems have been fixed.

In addition to quality-of-life problems tenants face, many are also up against health concerns they believe are linked to dilemmas involving disrepair. Many residents — young and old alike — worry poor housing conditions have caused or worsened respiratory problems such as asthma.

Frequent asthma attacks have been linked to the presence of moisture, mildew and cockroach allergens in homes, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Urban Health. The presence of allergens that cause asthma may be more common in housing that is in old or in a state of disrepair, the study said. Common symptoms of deteriorating housing are “water leaks, holes that pests can pass through, poor ventilation and peeling paint.”

A very thick layer of mold on one of the bathroom in NYCHA's Campos Houses (Photo by Rachel Wise)

Residents from every East Village development cited all of these as problems NYCHA failed to repair. Mold growth from water leaks was the most apparent — and severe — in all apartments where residents suffered from asthma.

Although NYCHA has failed to provide specific documents on health concerns related to poor housing conditions — such as mold, asbestos, gas leaks and paint — the authority said it had between 30,000 and 35,000 such documents for East Village developments alone.

Toni Footman and her children, for instance, have experienced breathing problems, which she believes are exacerbated by the presence of mold, cockroaches and extensive water damage throughout her apartment.

“Lately my chest been really bothering me,” she said. “I’m really a healthy person. I’m a vegan; I work out. And it’s only when I’m inside of my home that I feel like I can’t breathe.”

Her children’s doctor has diagnosed one of her two sons with asthma; the other, they believe, is allergic to cockroach allergens.
“(My) little one is nine, and he’s been having more breakouts because the mold is in the bathroom,” she said. “He’s inhaling that. He’s been scratching; his fingers all broke out.”

What frustrates Footman even more about this situation is NYCHA’s lack of response, despite the September ruling in housing court.

Footman has been actively searching for another place to live, which is no small task, considering she only pays $245 in rent every month.

“I’ve been filling out applications now to try to move,” she said. “If I do happen to find something, I can move out of here because it’s disgusting.”

With reporting from Alexandra DiPalma, Sarah Tung, Simon McCormack, Shamira Muhammad, Zanub Saeed and Reinhard Cate

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The Border Project: The Thin Line from Rachel Wise on Vimeo.

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Odell Pamias, president of the Jacob Riis Tenant Association. Photo by Rachel Wise

One morning in early April, an elderly woman awoke to find her stove was no longer working. The woman, who lives in Jacob Riis public housing in the East Village, contacted the maintenance call center to report the problem.

The operator told her the earliest they could fix her stove was May 29. And when she continued to follow up on the request, the operator told her to stop calling. That’s when Odell Pamias, president of the Jacob Riis Tenant Association, stepped in.

“That is unacceptable! You know how Spanish people like their coffee,” Pamias said with a chuckle, before a stern expression swept over her face. “Seriously, though. I don’t play. I really don’t.”

Odell Pamias explains her outrage over the operator’s response.
CallCenterProblems_OdellTamias

Odell Pamias, 67, has lived at Jacob Riis Houses for 43 years, but for the past five years, she’s served as president of the tenant association. Her job is to help tenants with any housing-related issues, on a volunteer basis.

“Basically, I’m the medium between housing and tenants. Someone has to stand up for them,” she said.

Jacob Riis is a public housing development comprising 19 buildings and 1,764 apartments. Its borders are East Sixth and East 13th streets, and Avenue D and F.D.R. Drive. And it is home to 4,305 residents.

Pamias was born and raised in Columbus, Ala., but moved to New York City when she was only 17. She worked odd jobs at factories in Long Island and Manhattan in the 1960s, and moved from place to place, usually staying with friends or family members.

“I didn’t become a prostitute or drug addict, thank God. I’m surprised. But you can’t change a person, especially from South,” Pamias said. “I was doing OK. I was never, like, homeless or anything like that.”

Odell Pamias explains her experience avoiding alcohol and drug use.
NoDrugs_OdellTamias

Then in 1967, Pamias got married and had a son. When her son was only 8 months old, she applied for housing and was accepted. She moved into Jacob Riis Houses — when rent was only $68 per month. Although she got divorced in 1972, she and her son continued living at Jacob Riis. And it didn’t take long before she became involved in the community.

“I have been living here for 43 years. … I was always involved when something happened,” she said. “When there was another president … I would volunteer my service.  I could not be doing nothing — I’m not like that. I have to be doing something.”

Before she became president, Pamias served as tenant patrol supervisor — a part-time job for which she received a small stipend. For 12 years, she was responsible for the safety of tenants at Jacob Riis. Every night, she patrolled the grounds and checked on tenants. After that, she became vice president of the TA.

The outside of the offices for the Jacob Riis Tenant Association. Photo by Rachel Wise

During her time as president, Pamias said she has done “what’s expected” of her but doesn’t think she’s done anything “special.” But history, and tenants, tells a different story.

“I think she’s great. Always friendly and happy to help,” said Maria, a 12-year resident of Jacob Riis who declined to give her full name. “I know when I’ve had a problem, she really helps to work it out. And she’s got a great spirit about her, too.”

One thing Maria pointed to is Pamias’ ability to build a sense of community among residents, specifically citing her organization of Family Day.

Every summer, Pamias is responsible for putting together a Family Day celebration.

“Politicians give us money, and housing gives us money. And we buy franks and burgers and ice cream. … And we have a DJ and clowns, and sometimes (a bounce house),” Pamias said.

But Pamias takes it a step further: She also provides gifts for all the children who come to Family Day, sometimes using her own money if funds run out.

“I buy book bags for the boys and girls for when they go back to school in September. I put everything in there: the pencils, the pens, the eraser — all kinds of little stuff for them,” Pamias said. As she continued to describe the day’s events, her excitement grew and her eyes lit up. “I love to just help, you know, just buy stuff for the kids.”

Odell Pamias talks about buying toys for children at Jacob Riis during the holiday seasons.
BuyingToys_OdellTamias

In addition to community building, Pamias also has made great strides to improve the security at Jacob Riis. When she became aware of safety issues in the development — such as break-ins and robberies — she immediately took action.

“I did the petition to get surveillance cameras for every building,” she said. “I got over 600 people — 700 people (to sign). It’s supposed to keep out the undesirables.”

The “undesirables,” according to Pamias, are the “drug dealers” who invade the premises and stay with friends in several of the buildings.

“I have a whole apartment of drug dealers in my building — in my building,” she said. “I told the police, I told everybody. … There ain’t nothing much else I can do.”

Sibyl Colon, manager of Jacob Riis Houses, agrees with Pamias that drug addicts and dealers are a big issue in the community.

“(Pamias is) very proactive in trying to get rid of the drugs,” Colon said. “We have constant meetings with the police … and relay the information on.”

And while these drug problems are a source of frustration for Pamias, they’re not the only thing.

“The hardest part of my job is when (maintenance) stuff does not get done fast.  … That is what is bothering me. It’s the same thing, week after week,” Pamias said.

She said the problem stems from a lack of funding to hire the proper staff who knows how to fix the issues that plague Jacob Riis — “leaky walls, broken this, broken that,” according to Pamias.

“There’s a lot of work shortage here … because of the budget,” Pamias said. “They got the people that clean the grounds (working on) infrastructure problems. They need a contractor to come in and fix the leaks inside the wall because these people don’t know how to do that.”

Odell Pamias addresses the condition of Jacob Riis Houses.
DevelopmentOld_OdellTamias

But all of this wouldn’t be as hard to handle, she said, if it weren’t for the issues tenants have when they contact the maintenance call center.

Pamias said she has seen dozens of apartments with various problems, but no matter what the problem is, she always hears the same response.

“They’ll tell you a month from now. I swear … it doesn’t matter what you call for, they’ll tell you a month from now,” she said.

Sometimes, Pamias admits, the issues she faces seem overwhelming.

“When I first came here it was beautiful. You know, nice, quiet. But now … it’s gone to the dogs, I think,” Pamias said. “It was like the nicest development in the whole Lower East Side … but now it changed. It has changed, trust me, over the years.”

Despite the problems, Pamias is determined to help Jacob Riis become the development she knew 43 years ago.

“She cares about her community. It’s a volunteer position, so you have to really care to do it,” said Sibyl Colon, manager of Jacob Riis. “She has definite leadership qualities, and the residents respond well to her.”

For more than 20 years, Pamias has served her community. But in only one month, Pamias’ reign could be up. The election for TA leaders is set for May, and the winners will be sworn in in June.

“At first, she wasn’t going to run again,” said Epifania “Fanny” Rodriguez, 62. Rodriguez is TA vice president and Pamias’ longtime friend. “But I told her she had to. She’s done a good job — she really has.”

When tenants and friends urged Pamias to run again, she gave in. She said she’d be happy to be president again, but for a shorter term.

Odell Pamias describes her decision to run for reelection.
TAelection_OdellTamias

“Two years — I think I can deal with that, right? I don’t think I’ll drop dead in that time,” she said, erupting in laughter. “That’s all I can say. And if they still want me, they vote for me.”

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A sign in the Creative Little Garden on East Sixth Street warns visitors to clean up trash to prevent rat infestations. Photo by Rachel Wise

Faruk Mohammed recalled dozens of mornings when he’d show up to work and find signs of intruders. Packages seemed to be torn open, and their contents covered the floor.

Mohammed, who works at Akter Grocery at 106 Avenue B, set traps, hoping to catch the offender. When he returned to work the next morning, he was shocked to find not just one but five intruders — five fat, gray rats stuck in traps.

“We’re losing business because of rats,” said Mohammed, 32. “We had to move all the shelves around because they bite everything.”

Mohammed is one of many East Village residents affected by rat infestations. And unfortunately for them, things could potentially get worse in the coming months.

On March 30, amNewYork reported the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene plans to reduce the number of pest control aides by almost 70 percent — cutting 57 of 84 full-time positions.

Pest control aides are workers who respond to complaints called into 311 and from community boards about rats; they conduct inspections and work to rid troubled areas of rodent infestations when owners fail to act.

According to officials from DC37, a union for public employees in New York City, four of six workers in Manhattan and one of two supervisors will be cut.

Amy Geung, who lives on E. 10^th Street across from Tompkins Square Park, worries about how these cuts will affect the neighborhood.

Rat traps, like this one on East Fifth Street, can be seen throughout the East Village, usually near trashcans outside apartment buildings. Photo by Rachel Wise

“I’ve lived here seven years, and each year (the rat problems) have gotten better,” said Geung, 41. “If they cut those positions, what will happen? Probably, it will set us back.”

Geung says her apartment building doesn’t seem to have problems with rats but plenty of other places nearby do.

“You see the rats in some areas a lot — like near trash or dirty vacant lots. In those areas, (you see) one rat trap after another,” she said.

Mohammed said rat traps are necessary in his store because of the amount of trash that accumulates.

“The basement is all garbage. But where I live (on First Avenue), there are no signs of rats,” he said. “I think garbage is the key.”

Michael Rivera, co-owner of Beyond Pest Control at 80 First Avenue, agrees. Rivera said there are some parts of the East Village that are hit hard.

“St. Marks is one place that’s heavily, heavily hit. All the street shops there, and the transit system,” Rivera said. “People are generally not clean, and that attracts rats. There’s no real cure for it.”

The health department couldn’t say how often pest control aides are sent out, and Community Board 3 didn’t respond when asked how often complaints are reported in the East Village. But Rivera said he gets calls daily about rat problems in Manhattan. As for the East Village specifically, Rivera said, “it’s hard to say.”

But Steve Rose, who works as a superintendent on East Sixth Street, around the corner from Akter Grocery, and manages the Creative Little Garden also on East Sixth Street, tells an entirely different story.

“I live on the ground floor.  … I’ve been there thirty-five years, and I’ve seen all of five rats. People tell me they see them in the garden, but I’ve never seen them,” said Rose, 59. “It doesn’t seem to be a problem.”

Rose admits he keeps his properties very clean, which might make all the difference. In his apartment building, he keeps trashcans sealed and indoors. In the garden, rat traps are set and trash is kept to a minimum.

In a statement, the health department maintains “proposed cuts focus on the services that would have the least adverse impact.” Officials said the pest-control program will “continue to answer complaints about rats, conduct inspections, exterminate, issue violations for rats and garbage … (and) proceed with the indexing initiative which was recently expanded to Manhattan.”

The indexing program is detailed in the Rat Information Portal, an extension of the NYC.gov Web site, which provides specific data “to proactively identify the presence of rats in neighborhoods, and to compare the severity of infestations among blocks and neighborhoods.” Using the RIP complaint tracker, users can zoom into specific places in the city to determine whether an area shows signs of rats, problem conditions or has passed inspection.

Additionally, the RIP provides a 10-page guide on how to prevent and control rat problems. The health department reminds residents to store garbage in rat-resistant, sealed containers; to trim shrubs and keep landscaped areas free of tall weeds; and to check for and repair cracks or holes in buildings and sidewalks.

The pest-control aide cuts represent just 35 percent of staff cuts the health department plans to make, which could save the city as estimated $1.5 million. Almost every city agency has been asked to reduce spending by at least 15 percent to help New York City close its $2-billion deficit.

While it’s uncertain when these proposed cuts would go into effect, it would likely be at the start of the new fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Visit the Rat Information Portal and see your neighborhood statistics at https://gis.nyc.gov/doh/rip/.

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Councilwoman Annabel Palma, center, addresses the crowd along with fellow advocates and a few other elected officials. Photo by Rachel Wise

Gov. David Paterson’s (D-N.Y.) proposed state budget recently revealed a plan to cut $65 million in annual funding for adult homeless services. And many elected officials and advocates aren’t taking that lightly.

On Monday, the Department of Homeless Services and the Coalition for the Homeless, along with Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, councilwoman Annabel Palma and a group of advocates held a press conference to voice their fierce opposition to the proposed cuts.

“We have record homelessness in New York City right now. The governor’s cuts would absolutely decimate the adult municipal shelter system,” said Mary Brosnahan, executive director of Coalition for the Homeless. “This is exactly the wrong cuts at the wrong time. We need more help from the state, not less.”

More than 39,000 people in New York City seek shelter, according to the Department of Homeless Services daily census. Officials and advocates claim Paterson’s proposed cuts would drastically reduce aid to adult shelters, homeless-prevention services and safe havens.

“New Yorkers have seen the progress we’ve made in outreach program, drop-in centers, prevention,” said Christy Parque, executive director of Homeless Services United, a coalition of homeless service agencies in New York City. “We’ve made significant milestones in reducing the number of people of the street and reducing the length of stay (at shelters), and we want to continue doing that.”

The officials and advocates who held the press conference at Bowery Residents’ Committee, 317 Bowery, made it clear they were very different from one another. Each was involved in some part of the homeless-services community but admitted they have been known to butt heads often.

“This is a diverse group. Many times, we have gone against each other in terms of policy and what to do,” said Palma, a councilwoman who was homeless only 18 years ago. “But today we are standing here together to send a strong message to the governor and to Albany that these cuts can simply not happen.”

New York City operates under a “right to shelter” mandate, which ensures shelter for homeless men, women, children and families. Because of this, the city would still be required to serve the same number of individuals but with significant less funding.

Some speakers at the press conference held back opinions of what they thought might happen to the homeless-services system if these proposed cuts were passed.

“I’ve really hesitated when I’ve been asked … what would happen as a result of these cuts … because it’s unconscionable. It would set the city back, in the area of homeless services, 20 or 30 years,” said Robert Hess, commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services.

Other advocates felt it was important to look to the past to predict what the system might turn into — a grim forecast.

“Twenty or 30 years ago, we never had a capacity crisis in the shelter system because (shelters) were just so horrible. People only went when they had to,” said Muzzy Rosenblatt, executive director of Bowery Residents’ Committee. “They weren’t safe; they weren’t supportive; they weren’t caring; and they didn’t get results. And so when you make a two-thirds cut, you go back to that.”

Adding to this already-complicated issue is the fact that more and more people are becoming homeless as a result of the economic downturn.

“We need to step up and provide the services for the new people coming into the system,” Parque said. “Cutting the safety net for the people who are already hanging by a string is tantamount to condemning them to remain homeless and eliminating any opportunity for them to better their lives and return to a stable housing situation.”

Markus Spokane, a 46-year-old homeless man, has been in and out of shelters for more than four years. Spokane said he wasn’t aware of the proposed cuts but isn’t surprised.

“So many shelters are at capacity as it is. That’s why I’m here, sleeping on the sidewalk,” Spokane said. “The cuts are just going to hinder that even more. I don’t even want to think about how many others like me will be back on the streets — probably for good.”

While the cuts would certainly have a negative impact on the homeless community, advocates say the rest of the city will feel the change, too.

“These cuts aren’t just going to hurt our homeless neighbors; they’re going to hurt all of us because it’s going to decimate the quality of life here in New York City,” Brosnahan said.

These leaders and homeless-services advocates are calling on Paterson and the state Legislature to reverse the proposed cuts and restore funding to what they say is an integral community need.

“Is there going to be a broad abrogation of responsibility, and sort of running away from the problems in our state, or is there going to be some kind of lines in the sand drawn, where there is an understanding … the quality of life in this city could be fundamentally different if Albany fails to act?” de Blasio asked.

On Tuesday, de Blasio and Commissioner Hess will be in Albany, fighting to restore funding for the homeless population.

“We need everyone to call members of the Legislature, and to put all the pressure on possible to call on the governor to do the right thing,” Hess said. “We call upon them today with a coalition that doesn’t often stand together but believes, sincerely, that we cannot set this city back 30 years.”

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The concert boasted some big-name musicians: Bacon Brothers, featuring Kevin Bacon as front-man; 2010 Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame nominee Darlene Love; Tabitha Fair, who performed at President Obama’s inauguration; Patty Smyth, former lead singer of ‘80s rock band Scandal; Pete Francis; and the Bev Leslies.

The artists donated their time and the Canal Room, a club in Tribeca, donated the space. With ticket prices starting at $20 and a table set up for additional donations, and attendance at an estimated 250, event organizers agreed it was “a success.”

“The energy in the room was amazing. They had so much fun,” said Deana Concilio-Lenz, founder and president of DCL production company. “There were accountants, doctors, younger people … It was a great cross-section of New York who came to show their support.”

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Hill’s latest project has him donning a dolphin mascot head and white tuxedo as he delivers $1 bags of “candy crack” — or packs of crushed up sugar cubes colored and flavored with snow-cone syrup — to anyone who calls in an order in Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

“It’s just the theater of the drug dealer,” Hill, 32, said.

Hill’s project is part of a performance art group called Club Animals, a secret society of mascots formed in early 2009. The group has performed several other acts, including the popular “Free Bouncy Rides,” where Hill, dressed in his dolphin costume, sits on a bench in the subway and offers strangers knee-bouncing rides.

The idea for Club Animals, Hill said, came after he and a friend were visiting an art gallery in Chelsea.

“It was so stuffy and pretentious, and we were joking that wouldn’t it be funny if we were in mascot costumes right now?” he said. “It started from wanting to be absurd in public.”

Hill, who acts as creative director of Club Animals, classifies his latest work as “regression art.” After he turned 30, he said, he felt the need to “rebel against aging.”

“I just wanted to start acting extremely young. I wanted to act like a child … but also keep the fun stuff about being an adult,” Hill said, “like being able to do drugs and have sex. That’s why the bouncy rides are somewhat sexual, and candy crack is about drugs.”

Hill said his work has become relatively well-known, thanks in part to the Nonsense NYC list, an e-mail newsletter that alerts subscribers to “weird events, strange happenings, unique parties, and senseless culture in New York City,” its Web site says.

“I realized there was a thing we could do without even going anywhere,” said one candy junkie, who preferred not to be named. “I thought it was fun to have strange people come to our house.”

But not everyone is amused. In August, Hill came under fire after the New York Daily News published an article about how his candy crack delivery service angered community activists.

“I hate anybody who jokes about drugs,” Ismael Torres, 75, president of the tenant association at the Borinquen Plaza in Williamsburg, told the Daily News. “I’ve seen too many cemeteries, too many hospitals, too many funeral parlors. The cops should stop this guy.”

But Hill said he wasn’t fazed by the criticism.

“Either you get it or you don’t,” he said. “Either it’s funny or it’s not.”

Hill’s entry into the art world began with “urban taxidermy,” he said, where he would sew together different animal parts to create large-scale pieces of art. Then he co-founded Club Animals. But what’s next, Hill said, is yet to be determined.

“I want to be a real artist. … I want to be transformative. I want to keep changing and reinvent myself … so I can prove to people I’m not just a spectacle,” Hill said. “I think that’s the mark of a real artist — if you have something new to say every year.”

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They are the people of Navajo Nation; they are those who make up the Forgotten People organization.

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