NEW YORK, NY January 08, 2001 — For a decade now, the state has been providing rental subsidies to mentally ill people who are well enough to live in their own apartments. With counseling and support, they’ve been able to lead largely independent lives. But the subsidies have remained essentially the same since 1991, while the New York City housing market has boomed. Now, many of these mentally ill people are facing eviction. WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein prepared this report.

Valentine: That’s what I like about it hardwood floors and I make sure I mop them every weekend…

Margaret Valentine beams with pride as she shows a visitor her Inwood apartment.

Valentine:…This is is my living room, hardwood floors again and I must admit I really love this here apartment aint no way really I want to lose this apartment so I make sure I pay my rent on time every month got every single rent receipt as of October 1995 all the way to the year 2000

The apartment truly sparkles. There is not a speck of dust in sight. A coffee table in her living room is festooned with holiday cards. On the walls are a picture of Jesus Christ and one of Elvis Presley.

05 I mean look you could even buy these here kitchen curtains they only cost five dollars in these here discount stores up here, so I picked out a pretty one for the kitchen.

Margaret Valentine has thick, dark hair, and eyebrows that are pencilled in. It’s to cover, she says, a scar she got when she suffered a seizure. Valentine is mentally ill, and has had seizures since she was a child. She lived with with her mother’s boyfriend then. He sexually abused her. Her Italian American mother - also mentally ill, verbally abused her half-Puerto Rican daughter.

Valentine: She even threatened me to shave off my eyebrows here, she used to use the maybelline eyebrown pencil she says to me one day let me tell you something you want people to know you’re my fucking puerto rican daughter you better shave your eyebrows off or get the hell out of my apartment.

At age 20, Ms. Valentine did get out, and went to live in a homeless shelter. She was homeless for a while, then went to live with a boyfriend in Harlem. They lived together for 10 years. But he died, and Ms. Valentine had to leave. With the help of a mental health agency, she found this apartment. She has lived here for five years.

08: crinkling noises…this is the one..it says thirty day notice of terminiation

One day late last year she found a piece of paper taped to her door.

09: please take notice that the undersigned landlord, ronald edelstein, hereby elects to terminate your month to month tenancy now held by you after the expiration of a written lease agreement on january 31, 2000.

Ms. Valentine is one of 5000 mentally ill people who live in so-called “supported housing.” In the 1970’s after the discovery of horrifying conditions at the Willowbrook Mental Institution, a movement for so-called “de-institutionalization” was born. “Supported housing” was part of that movement - the idea was to provide housing in regular apartment buildings for tenants who could live by themselves - with some support, according to Philip Saperia, Executive Director of the Coalition of Voluntary Mental Health Agencies.

Saperia: This is housing for people who have had huge periods of instability in their lives, formerly homeless people in many instances, folks with subs abuse problems in many instances, folks with serious mental illness they're now in a period in their lives where they have some permanence and some hope

When the program started in 1991, the state decided to spend about 9500 dollars a year for rent and counseling for each tenant in supported housing. Most of the apartments are far from the center of Manhattan. Once, no one wanted to rent them. No longer. Ms. Valentine’s apartment costs about $500 a month. It’s worth almost twice that. And since the apartment is a co-op and Ms. Valentine is a subtenant, there are no rent protections for her and 25 others who face immediate eviction, says Lisa Greene, a legal services attorney for the mentally ill.

Lisa Greene: 05 they were told this is permanent housing for you you can stay here as long as you want so long as you can pay 30 percent of your monthly income here’s a roof over your head its your very own apartment and now they’re getting notices saying you’re going to be evicted

For Margaret Valentine, the stress of even contemplating moving has brought on a new round of seizures. John Landsden, is a lawyer for Ms. Valetine’s landlord, Ronald Edelstein. He says he’s been trying to negotiate with the mental health agencies, but they won’t commit to helping these tenants meet increased rents.

Landsden: we’re kind of caught in the middle clearly the occupants of the units are the ones truly caught in the middle they’re the ones that stand to lose their homes…but we’re kind of cuaht in the middle in that our fuel costs have gone up, our taxes have gone up, water metering has gone into effect…

Mr. Saperia says he has sympathy for that position. But he says Mr. Edelstein’s tenants are just the beginning. As leases come up for renewal, he says, hundreds, or even thousands, could be in a similar situation.

Saperia: 21: this is not a question of the greedy landlords versus the poor ill folks, it’s a quesiton of market forces, yes they’re not only entitled to get more they could get more on the open market, these are landlords who for the most part have been renting to folks with disabilities for many years who actually care about doing good but have a right to get a fair return on what they do

The mental health groups have asked the state for more money for the apartments. So, far, the State Office of Mental Health, while offering sympathy, hasn’t come up with any concrete numbers. William Rapfogal is Executive Director of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, one of the groups that administers the supported housing. He says a slow response from the state has caused his group to enter into delay tactics, like non-payment of rent.

Rapfogal: 27that process while its not something were terribly proud of it provides some degree of stability and helps us buy the time necessary to try and negotiate with the landlord while at the same time advocating for additional funds to pay the rent to the rent increase can come a little bit closer to what the market will bear. it’s a difficult position to be in

Still, landlord attorney Landsden says he’ willing to talk.

03, well its our position that we’re willing to talk with met council the problem is until they come back and tell us this is what we can pay we’re just negotiating against ourselves.

There are some straws in the wind. Last summer, Mr. Saperia says, the state put out a request for proposals for groups to administer 1000 new apartments for the mentally ill. But --

Saperia: Well there were no bidders, nobody would bid for these beds because they weren’t enough money.

The groups managed to convince the state to offer new money for the 1000 new apartments. But the old apartments are still being subsidized at 1991 rates. Mr. Saperia says it would cost about $15 million dollars to solve the problem. The state’s budget is expected to be announced next week. A spokesman for Governor Pataki says its too early to say what will be in the budget. The Office of Mental Health didn’t respond to repeated requests for an interview.Meanwhile, up in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, another tenant, who wanted to be known just as Steve, is worried.

Steve: My goal is to work as anybody else you know and come home like anyone else and make dinner whatever hobbies I’m interested in pursuing its just not being sectioned off living in a hospital

Steve has been able to attend college part time, and to hold a job. But recently, he says, the stress of the impending eviction has caused him to take a temporary leave. Through our entire interview, he stares at the floor.

Steve: I’m in the most independent situation and the next step is to live on my own which I’m pretty close to be able to doing,

Steve wants to go back to his job, where his pay is $23,000 a year. Someday, he hopes, that salary will be enough to rent his own apartment, by himself. For WNYC, I’m Andrea Bernstein

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