Pubdate: Sun, 03 Apr 2005
Source: New York Daily News (NY)
Copyright: 2005 Daily News, L.P.
Contact:  http://www.nydailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295
Author: Deborah Kolben, Daily News writer

DRUG BUILDING IS GOV'T-OWNED

Hud: No Idea Of Goings-On

A Bushwick appartment building where neighborhood activists charge
drug dealing was so rampant residents "live in hell" is owned by the
federal government, the Daily News has learned.

A nearby apartment building where drugs also are being sold is
subsidized with city funds.

"Gimme a break," fumed the Rev. Mgsr. John Powis, who has been leading
a crusade to stop local drug dealers. The tenants "live through hell
day in and day out," he said.

"If it was another type of neighborhood - a high-class neighborhood -
everybody knows they wouldn't allow good families to live in those
conditions."

The building at 135 Bleecker St., across the street from Powis'
church, St. Barbara's, is owned by the federal Department of Housing
and Urban Development.

Drug dealers operated out of the three-story building for more than
five years until a fire ripped through the third floor last month.

Parishioners said they could hear drug addicts calling out the
dealer's name.

"People come here from all over New York City to buy drugs," Powis
said.

Powis received death threats after he wrote an op-ed column in the
Daily News last month charging that drug dealers were retaking the
Bushwick neighborhood. He mentioned the Bleecker St. building
acrossthe street, but HUD officials insisted they had no idea about
the drug dealing.

"We have not heard from any sources that there may be any type of drug
activity taking place at the building," HUD spokesman Adam Glantz
said. "This is an active tenants group, and I'm sure they would have
contacted us if there was a problem."

But police have long known about drugs there. Every month, Powis and
local leaders hand over a list to local cops of a dozen drug dealers
and locations.

Parishioners at St. Barbara's are so scared of local drug dealers they
leave anonymous tips in the church's collection box.

"There has been narcotics activity at those two locations in the past
and we have made several arrests," said police spokesman Detective
Louis Camacho.

He declined to comment on any ongoing investigations.

Down the street at 164 Bleecker St., dealers operate out of a six-unit
brown brick building. The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, a
nonprofit that receives city funding, took over the building nine
months ago from the city's housing agency.

The group knows about the drug problem and wants to sweep it out. They
have notified police, it said.

"But without a conviction, it's very hard," said Joseph Center,
associate director of UHAB.

"All we can say is 'alleged drug dealing' - and 'alleged drug dealing'
does not mean anything in housing court," he said.

There have been more than 400 narcotics-related arrests this year in
the 83rd Precinct in Bushwick.

"Eastern Brooklyn still has a very big drug problem, and police should
put more effort in confronting it," Center said.

Residents and neighbors on the block were too scared to speak out
about the drug problem last week.
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