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Homeless Help Is A Family Affair For Cuomole t a n y o n e frpp7.p to H e a th o r s t a r v eto death in this state.%u201dAs part of the effort to stem the rising tide of homelessness in New York, Cuomo called on the people of New York to join the efforts of the Partnership for the Homeless. The Partnership, during the %u201cHelp the Homeless Week,%u201d will operate 131 shelters with 2,000 volunteers. Cuomo stressed that the Partnership ran one of the most effective programs in the country.%u201cThis sort of work is what I mean when I say the government is a family, that New York is a family,%u201d Cuomo elaborated. %u201cWe%u2019re all in it together. We should all stick together,%u201d he said.Cuomo added that the corporate and more affluent sector of New York also shared the responsibility of providing help for the homeless. He pointed to the $400 million fund from the Battery Park luxury housing development, targeted for low-income and moderate-income housing, as one method of tapping into large resources. The State%u2019s Gains Tax, he said, was another channel for obtaining tax money from large developers.%u201cLast year we made $576 million but in 1982 when the State eliminated the tax they said it would hurt real estate development in New York,%u201d he explained. %u201cI got that tax back and 10 cents of every dollar in gains comes back,%u201d he said.Homelessness was one issue being addressed this day by the Governor, but most of the press entourage that was there to record the scene had something else on their minds, choosing to focus on his recent criticisms of the media. %u201cI think you improve government when you criticize it, but in turn the media does not draw exemption from criticism,%u201d Cuomo said in reply to the badgering. %u201cThere have been times when I thought the media was off and we know, good as you are, that you%u2019re not sanctified yet,%u201d he said to the group.He promised reporters present that he would continue to criticize the press, agreeing that it would hurt his image nationally. %u201cOh sure, it%u2019ll hurt me. That%u2019s why people don%u2019t criticize the press, because they can kill you. But I%u2019m a big boy and I know what the price is,%u201d he said.Other questions concerned the recent uproar in the New York City police force. The governor said he believed the Mayor and Police Commissioner could work problems out. He reiterated that his plans concerning the presidency had not changed from his position two years ago: he%u2019s thinking about it.m r w Tf? tr A n ii JL%u00bb 1 JUJUu A U V UIt was noon on Thursday, Nov. 13 and the place was the living room of a Brooklyn family. Governor Mario Cuomo was sitting on the couch, balancing nine-year-old Lashawn McLaughlin on his knee and handing out red and black Mets scarves to the rest of the McLaughlin family of nine that clustered around.Kicking off %u201cHelp the Homeless Week%u201d sponsored by the Partnership for the Homeless, Cuomo was here to visit this untilrecently homeless family as an example of how private involvement can help alleviate the problems of the homeless. The Partnership for the Homeless, an interfaith group that coordinates the largest private emergency shelter network in the nation, obtained a home for the McLaughlin family through its Adopt-A-Family program. Under this program, the Partnership arranges for private landlords to rent their apartments to homeless families in exchange for a special bonus funded equally by the City and State for rehabilitation and bringing the apartment up to code.%u201cThese wonderful children and Emma are worth knowing because they say we have a world of potential before us,%u201d Cuomo said shortly after meeting the family. %u201cThese are the people who will be doctors, lawyers and presidents and will invent inventions, but it%u2019s our job to help them realize that opportunity,%u201d he added.Cuomo called on the private sector to expand its involvement in helping the homeless, pointing out that government efforts alone were not sufficient. %u201cDespite the power, the might and the wealth that this country has, we have more homeless now than at any time since the depression,%u201d he said. %u201cThat%u2019s not a political or democratic statement, that%u2019s reality,%u201d he said, sitting on the couch with the family, before a display of pastries.The Mcl^aughlin family originally lived in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn but were burned out of their house two years ago. The family landed in a City-operated shelter for homeless families on Convent Avenue in the Bronx. Last fall, Mr. McLaughlin died leaving his eight children fatherless.Nineteen-year-old Donald McLaughlin showed Cuomo the small bedroom he shares with his brother and pointed proudly to the artwork hanging on the wall. %u201cI would have done a portrait of you, but I didn%u2019t have time,%u201d the teenager explained.Cuomo%u2019s arrival, coinciding with a cold snap in New York that raises the danger to the homeless on the street as temperatures dip, spurred him to say, %u201cOne of the reasons we selected this time to come is because we are on the edge of a cold period. We are notThese are the peoplewho will be doctors,lawyers and presidentsand will inventinventions, but it'sour job to help themrealize thatopportunity.Governor Mario Cuomo, kicking off %u201c Help the Homeless W eek,%u201d poses with theMcLaughlin family outside their iiome on St. John%u2019s Place where they moved after spendinga year in a City shelter. The family laid out the welcoming mat for his arrival. (Below) Cuomois joined by 9-year-old Lashawn McLaughlin in her home. (Phoenix/Koch Photo)Council President Says Slope Answered CallBY ROB TAYLORIn the wake of the controversy over a 70-bed shelter for the homeless at the 14th Street Armory in Park Slope, some might have been deterred from sheltering any more homeless people in the affluent neighborhood from fear of a similar judgment.But, Park Slope Civic Council President, Jim Ryan, was determined to work on the homeless problem when he was asked to head the council in June, and through a small, community based shelter for homeless women at St. Augustine%u2019s Church, he has seen an overspill of neighborhood volunteers who want to help out.%u201cIt%u2019s really amazing,%u201d says Ryan about the roughly 50 volunteers who spend one night each helping operate the facility for homeless women. He says it is more than enough to successfully operate the eight-bed, overnight shelter. %u201cWe%u2019ve got a real mix, black, white and Hispanic volunteers. We also have older stalwarts and husband and wife teams.%u201d' The shelter, which is operated in conjunction with St. Augustine%u2019s Parish and the Partnership for the Homeless, an interfaith organization supported by the city%u2019s major religious denominations, is open Wednesday through Sunday, and is the overnight home of women who are driven to Park Slope from Manhattan at night and taken back in the morning. Ryan says that he would like to keep the shelter open seven days each week, but the parish holds several meetings Monday and Tuesday evening that make it difficult tokeep the shelter open at the necessary time.%u201cWe definitely have the volunteers to do so,%u201d he says. Since the shelter opened Oct. 1, Ryan says only two of the original volunteers have dropped out. %u201cWe had enough volunteers, but we weren%u2019t able to use all of them,%u201d he explains. %u201cSome of them wanted to volunteer on Monday and Tuesday, but we couldn%u2019t use them those nights.%u201d%u201cI think that there are many people living in Park Slope who have a really sincere empathy with the homeless,%u201d he adds, %u201cbecause, for whatever reasons, they have fallen through the cracks of the housing market.%u201dWith the outpouring of volunteer support, Ryan says he felt encouraged to look for another location for an additional shelter. With about 10 to 12 people on a volunteer waiting list for another small shelter. Ryan thinks he should have a second location secured by January. He has located another church in Park Slope, but won%u2019t disclose the name because it has not been approved by the church%u2019s governing body and is still waiting for the City%u2019s Human Resources Administration to inspect the premises.Once the plans for a new shelter have been finalized, Ryan says he plans to again speak to neighborhood associations and pass flyers out at the Key Food on Seventh Ave. asking volunteers to sign up. %u201cI hope to have it open before the really cold weather sets in,%u201d he says.Volunteers will be expected to spend onenight each month in the shelter. They arrive an hour before the %u201cguests%u201d arrive, wheel out the cots and spread the linen, and set out some snack foods. Ryan pairs a male and female volunteer together because he does not want the women to feel %u201cthreatened.%u201d %u201cIt%u2019s really quite simple and the duty does not take a lot of time,%u201d he says.Part of the success and acceptance of the St. Augustine shelter over the larger 14th Street Armory shelter is definitely size say officials with the Partnership for the Homeless. With only eight women, and neighborhood residents spending the night in the shelter, the community is getting to knowSociety Needs HelpThe Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture is looking for volunteers to work in its Winter Night Emergency Shelter for the Homeless at 53 Prospect Park West.The ten homeless men, who will spend the evening at the shelter, are screened and sent to the Ethical Society each evening by bus from the City Shelter System. This is the fourth year the society has run the shelter, which is open from 8pm to 7:15am, Sunday through Thursday. Volunteers are asked to sign up for one night each month and may sleep in a separate room for part of the evening.Interested volunteers are asked to call Louise Rood, at 855-1226, or the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, at 768-2972.the people, unlike the homeless women living at the armory.According to Pat Burton-Eadie, of the Partnership for the Homeless, %u201cIt is not a situation where people are hanging around outside,%u201d the homeless women at the St. Augustine shelter are bussed back to Manhattan every day. Women at the Armory shelter remain in Park Slope during the daytime hours.The women are also screened in Manhattan before they come to the church, says Ryan, and many of them have become repeat %u201cguests.%u201d %u201cThey all know where the food is kept and are disappointed when they can%u2019t find their favorite kind of cereal,%u201d he says.For Ryan, who volunteers one evening each month, the experience has shown him that the homeless people are largely an unseen dimension, who are not crazy, but can be highly intelligent people.He recalls an evening at the shelter where several Black women from the lower East Side in Manhattan, and a Jamaican woman, who was %u201cobviously well-traveled,%u201d talked at length about the problems in South Africa and the Portuguese withdrawal from Angola. %u201cThey knew all about it,%u201d he says. %u201cI just sat there, amazed. I wanted to ask, but thought it would be rude, how they became homeless.%u201dAnyone interested in volunteering is asked to call Erica Brown at 638-5031.November - ' %u00b0H O EN IX, Page 5