Public Employee Press

Profiles in Public Service
Housing activist Betty Wilson:
30 years fighting for tenants’ rights

By ALFREDO ALFREDO

Betty Wilson began her career at the Housing Preservation and Development Dept. at the peak of New York City’s housing abandonment crisis in 1978, when the agency became the landlord of last resort for some 10,000 occupied apartments every year. An Ohio native and a caring member of Local 1219, Wilson found herself responsible for the well-being of tenants in more than 300 buildings in Harlem.

Wilson weathered the worst andbecame an integral part of the success story that followed as HPD grew into the largest municipal developer ofaffordable housing in the country. Since 1987, the agency has provided over $6.3 billion to repair, rehabilitate and build thousands of units of housing.

As an Associate Real Property Manager, Wilson was responsible for inspecting properties from cellar to roof for structural problems and code violations, which abounded in properties that were abandoned by their owners to avoid the cost of necessary repairs or back taxes. The buildings she handled around West 141st Street were expensive to maintain, since most had up to six or seven rooms with windows in every room.

“The windows were always broken,” said Wilson. “The city was overwhelmed by these properties.”

When necessary, she had to relocate tenants to other buildings — an especially difficult part of her job. Wilson recalled having to relocate an elderly tenant who refused to move. “She liked the hat I was wearing, so I made a deal with her. If she would move, I would give her the hat. It worked,” she recalled of those trying times.

Working in Harlem during the city’s housing crisis, with drug dealing rampant in the neighborhood, was especially frustrating for Wilson. That’s when she decided to use writing as a tool to cope with her tension. “When I got angry I starting taking notes and keeping a diary,” she said. The notes culled from her more than 25 years on the front line of the housing crisis eventually evolved into Wilson’s first book, “Mr. Jefferson’s Piano and Other Central Harlem Stories,” published recently by Alpha World Press.

Wilson returns to Harlem
“We’re all very proud of Betty,” said Shirley Williams, president of Real Estate Employees Local 1219, as Wilson signed copies of her work Oct. 2 at the Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem. “Betty and our members do a great job of helping New Yorkers deal with difficult housing issues.”

Wilson, who studied design andillustration for three years at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, now works at HPD’s downtown office as a Curriculum Developer, planning and writing training manuals.

And the Harlem buildings along 141st Street are no longer the neglected wrecks of the past. “Tenants who were eligible were able to buy those apartments for very little money,” said Wilson, pointing to the buildings with shiny front doors and sparkling unbroken windows.

“We were able to help a lot of people under some very difficult conditions,” said the first-time author. “So I have a great sense of accomplishment in the ways things have turned out.”