The Inner Core; Conversations from the Inner Core; Peggy Kendrigan, community worker

The inner core another in the continuing series of programs recorded in north central Milwaukee a few weeks ago Ralph Johnson talk with one of the community workers in the Corps. They discussed problems of housing welfare and employment. Their conversation began with a description of the problems of one of the families this community worker helps. She originally was contacted by my neighborhood worker and the neighborhood worker discovered that Mrs. Davis was having very deep problems as far as housing particularly getting repair work done within her house. She had contacted her landlord. Oh within three months probably once a week trying to get the man to do something about repair work. There were there was a window out that was covered up by a board instead of a new window. There's no no name on the floor. There was no sidewalk leading to the house and because of this any time it would rain or snow it there'd be mud puddles. Actually the front of the house. There was

plaster falling out of the walls painting needed to be done and none of this repair work had been taken care of. Mrs Davis came into the office originally asking us if there was some way that we could speak on her behalf to the landlord and try to get him to do something. After she came in I spoke with the landlord and discovered that. The landlord was one who had been through and is in court two or three times a week because of failure to meet health standards. As far as his housing was concerned he promised me at that particular time when I called in the latter part of December that he would meet the following day with me and he would see what repair work had to be done and he would be more than happy to do it. Mrs. DAVIS by the way has never missed a rent payment so there was no problem there. Or does Mrs. Davis governor and she's not Mrs. Daviss I'm well aware she's receiving.

A D.C. famous men AND WELFARE WORKER involved in this case has an extremely maternalistic type of attitude towards Mrs. DAVIS. She thinks of her as a child. She thinks of her children. She actually used this word that they are like destructive little animals. And she blamed all of the destruction of the property on the children. Now when I spoke to her about repair work I found out through that our neighborhood worker and through Mrs. Davis that what happened originally when she moved into this place was the caseworker came out found the place and moved her in. She hadn't even looked at the place before she was moved and she just packed her up into a truck and moved her over to this place and she had no and had made a decision one way or another was and left up to her. Her caseworker is extremely condescending attitude towards her. The repair work that was needed was nothing that could have been done by children such as no linoleum that was ever

on the floor to begin with paint work that had been neglected for years plastering falling off of the top of the wall the roof was in bad shape and like I said there was no sidewalk No this had nothing to do with destruction of children. And did you see how much fun she's paying for the songs she's paying $65 without utilities and with the condition of the house being such that it would cause drafts through the house the heat bill will probably run anywhere between forty and fifty dollars a month. During the cold season she's got about a five room place. And like I said she's paying $65 without utilities and responded pretty skimpy growing with him to six children. Oh yes she has six children and I or anyone else living in the house. No there isn't anybody else living to choose you to divorce yourself from. Yes she separated right now. And. What happened as far as a landlord was concerned I contacted him you agreed to

after meeting the neighborhood work around it and this is Davis's place that he would start that week doing that repair work. When Mrs. Davis comes into our office several times for other problems that are existing within the family at any point and every week I would check to see if the repair work had been started and if it hadn't I would call him so I was calling him every week for about 6 weeks and finally I just decided to forget it and make a formal complaint to the health department because I realized at that point that he wasn't going to do anything unless actual legal pressure was brought to bear on the situation. I contacted the Health Department and they sent out a health inspector. When he got out there he wrote up the housing violations against the landlord. He also wrote up a housing violation against Mrs. Davis for roach investment. Mrs. Davis lives in a single unit dwelling and under the housing ordinance of Milwaukee and in a single unit Well when the tenant is responsible if there are rats or roaches on the property. However the

housing ordinance also stipulates the general condition of the house is such that it would cause rats or roaches that the tenant is not responsible. After I discovered that Mrs Davis had received this notice from the health department I called the health inspector. I spoke with him about this and asked him if it wasn't true that the general condition of the House would have caused roaches no matter what Mrs. Davis said. And he agreed that that house would cause roaches and there was nothing probably that could be done. And even though he agreed with this he said that it's just the general policy of the Health Department to serve the tenant with this notice and he couldn't do anything. And so I decided instead of waiting around for court action which usually involves a one hour fine anyhow for the landlord that I would just let it go and try to take care of the roach investment through the house through the Department of Public Welfare. I called up the extern will

kill extermination and they determined that it would cost approximately $35 for the extermination of professional extermination. When I talk to the health inspector he verified that it would take a professional extermination because the roaches were through the walls and just brain would never do the job. I contacted the caseworker to get. The $35 for Mrs. Davis and she refused to give her the $35 she has an attitude such that she can reward and punish Mrs. DAVIS If Mrs. Davis is good children boarder she's bad she can punish or and she decided that it would be good for Mrs Davis to get the chance to take money out of her own budget to take care of this because this would make her feel so happy. Her budget. When is that one hundred twenty nine dollars a month for six children and herself. And there was no everything as stipulated as far so much for clothing personal needs etc. as in any welfare budget. And there was no way conceivable that she could afford to take

$35 out of the budget unless she would go without eating. And I explain this to her particular caseworker she seemed to feel that you know if Mrs. Davis would just spray it that that would do the job and I explained that the health inspector had said that this would not be adequate. She still insisted that she would not give any money to Mrs. Davis for this extermination. And so at this point I contacted her supervisor and her supervisor wasn't very helpful so I contacted our post worker. We have a welfare worker that works at our center as an outpost worker. I contacted him and he went. To the caseworkers office and spoke with her and she told him that if his people he's a negro caseworker if his people would keep their places clean that they would have. A place to live. And when I spoke he also indicated that it was Mrs. Davis's own fault that she was in the position she was and she really didn't

deserve good housing right now because she wasn't ready for. This is something somebody has to become prepared for and maybe in five to six years she could get her into public housing if she was good and kept her place clean and showed that she had promises fire as being a good housekeeper. When you spoke of going neighborhood workers a welfare agency one by one neighborhood workers work in our center there people from the neighborhood who go into the homes and their outreach workers they go into the homes and try to find out what problems exist in the family. If our agency can be of any service to them they try to encourage them to become part of our advisory board which is whichever is made up of people from the neighborhood and advises us on the needs of the neighborhood. But then we use the term caseworker dozens of case workers a welfare worker from the Department of Public Welfare at any rate. This

reach worker from the Department of Public Welfare who is actually stationed at our center. I decided then to go to her supervisor which in turn did no good so he finally went to his supervisor and the matter was taken care of and her caseworker called me back and explained that there was any that the Department of Public Welfare had an exterminator of their own which would be doing he would be doing the job before this of course he never would admit that there was such a person in existence and that this could be done through welfare and so she conceded and decided that she would send this man out for the extermination of the roaches to give us some idea of how bad the Roche investment was in the home. Mrs Davis also has physical disability she has a very bad hearing problem which in turn affects her speech pattern because of this I referred her to an ear

specialist in Milwaukee and when she was at his office he was cleaning out her ears and he found a roach in her ear. This will give you some idea of how bad badly the house was infected infested with roaches. At this point the man has come out and exterminated the roaches. Generally I would say that the caseworker and the landlord has been extremely and cooperative been punitive in most of their actions towards Mrs. DAVIS. Extraordinary story. She had an unusual. Run underwater situation for her. Yes well see like us. Like I stated before I am in charge of housing at our center. Generally when I do call. Landlords as far as repair work when people come into the office requesting such service

I get the story about how people don't keep up their property and their buildings are going to be torn down anyhow within the next three to five years and they don't feel it wise and their part to expend a great deal of money on repair work when their buildings are going to be torn down. The only power that we have which is pretty evident is to reported to the health department. But the problem there once again is that the fines that are levied against these people are not strong enough for them to really feel obligated to do anything about it because it's cheaper for them to go into court. Times a week and pay between 1 and $10 fine even though they could find them up to $100 anyhow than it is for them to do the repair work that's necessary and they realize this so they just keep going back to court. Is that the real key of the court problem with small fines or move. Well that's not the real death not them. The main problem is just the first of all off

there are the there's very little adequate housing in the inner core. Generally speaking the housing is very rundown and I would say that approximately 40 percent at any rate is in just such bad state that nobody should even be living there. The rest of it is livable but in so many cases it's certainly not a place where any white middle class family would agree to live. There's not enough housing because of the housing pattern in walking. People cannot move out of the core and yet there have been 15000 people displaced by the highways going through and they have been moved out of the core they still remaining in the core but there are just more people in less rooms and the space problem is extremely bad. And the real problem is just that there's no place for people to go and so they stay here and some landlords know

that they've got a thing going for them because they know that these people can't move out that they've got to move someplace and particularly in the cases of large families which you know most of the people in the Korea area do have anywhere from five children out on. And in this case particularly large families it's extremely difficult to find them a place to live even in a three bedroom situation when I called to check on the property. Most of the landlords insists that there are no more than three to four children in a three bedroom apartment. And there aren't too many three bedroom apartments to begin with but then when they set limitations as they do family size and the number of children it makes it an impossible task. And because of this situation they move anywhere that there is space available whether it's in good condition or not. And whether the rent is too high for what they are actually receiving etc.. If you have the power what would you do about the surcharge. First arrived in their. Strong open housing bill which would

enable people to move out of the core area at some time. The situation right now as far as I'm concerned housing is the major problem in the Morkie area. If a child doesn't have any place to go when he comes home from school to study he can't study whether he wants to or not and soon loses the motivation that everybody talks about but knows very little about when they're talking about it he has no place to study there's just no room for him to study. In order for a man to keep going to work every day he's