Newspaper Page Text
Pa*e Six
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, Oct. 3, 1969
AMERICAN NEWS REPORT
by Ben Gallob
Jewish - Sponsored S trategy
Keeps Queens Section Integrated
A successful battle to maintain
the integrated character of a
New York City neighborhood is
being waged by two community
agencies whose creation stemmed
from the determination of a Jew
ish president to combat a typical
block-busting campaign by local
relators.
One of the volunteer-operated
agencies in Laurelton, a Queens
borough area of about 5,000
homes—45 percent of them Jew
ish—is a unique no-fee home
finding service, housed in one of-
Laurelton's four synagogues. The
Home Finding Service has, in
some three years of operation, ar
ranged for the sale of about 250
homes to both whites and
Negroes, according to Jay Stein-
gold, the resident who initiated
the anii block-busting effort. Mr.
Steingold has been president of
the other agency, the Greater
Laurelton Fair Housing Council,
since its formation.
Mr. Steingold, a hat manufac
turer who has lived in Laurelton
for 12 years, reported on the pro
gram at a conference of the New
York Federation of Reform Syn
agogues and amplified his report
in a telephone interview with the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The
two community agencies were
described by him as complemen
tary but independent, each having
a basic role in the effort to pre
vent panic selling of homes by
whites.
He explained that the housing
council was organized in 1364
when a realtor campaign to “turn”
the community began producing
the usual panic selling by fright
ened whites. One function of the
housing council has been to in
form residents on the facts about
changes in the neighborhood,
which includes combating misin
formation stemming from real
tors in hot pursuit of commissions.
The housing council has sponsor
ed more than 200 block meetings
for such objectives since it was
Listen and Sip to the
Saucy Songs and Patter
of
Alex Johnson
3172 Roswell Road
Phone 237-7775
BUCRBEAD
formed. Another function is to
act as an “agent” for government
action to warn realtors against
improper solicitations. Still anoth
er is to de-fuse possibly inflam
matory incidents, often at block
gatherings, sometimes in direct
meetings of black and white res
idents.
These efforts, Mr. Steingold re
ported, largely ended panic selling
Ly whites but a major problem
remained. In normal turnover,
at least in the New York City
area, residents move out of a
neighborhood at the rate of six
to eight percent annually. Real
tors may advertise such homes
in a way which skirts violations
that might cost them their li
censes but which is aimed at non
whites. One technique is to ad
vertise homes of white would-be
sellers in Negro publications. If
the normal annual turnover res
ults in sales largely to Negroes
by such methods, then the inte
grated community inevitably be
comes a Negro ghetto in a few
years.
The answer to that problem
was creation of the Home Find
ing Service, a cooperative effort
of the four synagogues and two
Lutheran churches. Mr. Stein
gold is involved in the home find
ing service as a vice-president of
Reform Temple Beth El one of
the four sponsoring congrega
tions, which have a total mem
bership of about 1.400 families.
The main office of the service is
in the Laurelton Jewish Center,
one of the two Conservative syn
agogues and — with 800 families
— the largest. The other two are
a Young Israel congregation and
the Conservative Jewish Com
munity House, each with about
200 families, which is also the
membership of Temple Beth El.
Ten full-time volunteers run
the office, with about 20 others
coming in to help as needed. All
of the six congregations contri
bute to the cost of operations,
which consists mainly of pay
ment for advertisements in news
papers and magazines, offering
homes in Laurelton. Thus in
volves an outlay of around $1,500
to $2,000 a year. The advertise
ments “play it straight,” Mr.
Steingold said, avoiding refer
ences to integration and brother
hood.
In reporting on the effective
ness of the two-pronged ap
proach, Mr. Steingold said that
in 1966, only 20 percent of sales
of Laurelton homes were to
whites. By 1967, after the two
campaigns began to take hold,
that percentage rose to 50. At
the present time, he said, whites
make up about 70 percent and
blacks 30 percent of the Laurel
ton community.
Mr. Steingold called the pro
gram “a new concept in social
dynamics” which “dramatically
proves that panic selling block
busting, fear and ghetto living
can be ended.” He credited much
of its effectiveness to the excep
tionally cooperative relations be
tween the leadership and mem
bership of the four Jewish con
gregations and between Jewish
and Christian leaders and resi
dents and to the availability
through the years of the needed
volunteers. He described as
another significant factor the
fact that the home finding ser
vice does not charge any fee for
its services, thus saving the pros
pective home seller a substantial
sum in brokerage charges. He
said it had been agreed from the
start of the program that it
should operate completely with
out fees, even modest charges to
cover expenses.
In describing the activities of
the housing council, Mr. Stein
gold said that when a neighbor
hood begins to change, brokers
start flco ling white homeowners
with mail, telephone calls and
visits by salesmen. Under a New
York state law, the Secretary of
State may designate “cease-and-
desist” communities to cope with
that problem. The housing coun
cil arranged for such a designa
tion for Laurelton and made the
arrangement known to all Lau
relton residents. A realtor-bom
barded resident signs a cease-
and-desist order provided
through the housing council,
which forwards it to the Secre
tary of State, who then notifies
all real'ors in the area that they
no longer have the right to so
licit that homeowner on penalty
of loss of license. Mr. Steingold
said that more than 1,400 such
orders have been signed by
Laurelton homeowners and sent
to the Secretary of State. In fact,
he reported, Laurelton has sub
mitted one-sixth of the tot^l
cease-and-desist orders for the
entire state.
Trouble usually starts on a
block when the first prospective
Negro buyer appears. Rumors
begin to fly. The housing council
immediately organizes a block
meeting to which all the resi
dents are invited. A member of
a special housing council speak
ers committee explains to the
block meeting the facts of that
situation, rebutting falacies about
property value declines, and re
porting what the prospective new
homeowner and his family are
like. With the average price of
a Laurelton home around $30,000,
buvers — whether black or
white — usually are middle class
professionals with middle class
values, including strong commit
ments to proper maintenance of
their newly-acquired homes. “We
don’t preach about the benefits
of integration” at the block
meetings, Mrs. Steingold said.
“We simply give the basic econ
omic reasons for staying.”
As an example of what can
happen to a neighborhood with-’
out a sustained effort to main
tain integration, he cited the im
pact of a blockbusting campaign
on nearby Hollis. There, he said,
ownership of some 10,000 homes
changed from white to non-white
in less than five years.
One example of the type of in
cidents in which the housing
council acts to prevent panic in
volved the distribution of vicious
anti-white literature to homes in
four integrated blocks, signed
purportedly by block power ad
vocates. The housing council
called the District Attorney’s of
fice, which sent staff members
to several block meetings at
which the matter was discussed
and the residents reassured. La
ter investigation disclosed that
the material had been prepared
by the militant rightwing Min-
utemen with the specific goal of
panicking the recipients and de
stroying integrated housing in
Laurelton.
Appeals by the four, rabbis to
their congregants are made oc
casionally in sermons which re
late the goals of open occupancy
and integrated communities to
Jewish moral and ethical
values. But Mr. Steingold be
lieves that stress on the basic
issue of dollars and cents in
volved in home ownership, which
is the principle theme of housing
council educational efforts, is
probably more effective in per
suading Laurelton’s white resi
dents to remain.
(Copyright,1969—JTA
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IN BUCKHEAD — 233 406)
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