How the homeless bought a Rolls for Cornelius Pitts.

HOW THE HOMELESS BOUGHT The ROLLS FOR CORNELIUS PITTS

It is a typical 90-degrees-and-humid June day in Washington D.C. and also Cornelius Pitts is actually
one hour late. He bursts straight into leading workplace in the Pitts Motor Hotel, apologizes, then
sits down in the maroon leather chair at the actual rear of a sizable desk with lion-head drawer
handles. A New plastic plaque upon his desk reads: "The problems with some people can be they
won't admit their particular faults. I'd admit mine . . . if I had any.' Pitts asks certainly 1 of his staff
to obtain him an ice cream sandwich. Maybe two. He is a extremely huge man and his awesome
voice can be deep along with raspy. About 1 hand he wears a sizable diamond on a gold band,
around the other, three slightly smaller sized diamonds on a silver band. He wears a very, very thin
gold watch.
The merely hints which Pitts's prosperity arises from an unconventional enterprise would end up
being the images in small monochrome monitors inside the corners of his office. they show the factor
which was once your hotel's luxurious Red Carpet Lounge slowly filling up with his newest--and the
majority of lucrative-- clients, homeless people acquiring their chicken dinner.
The homeless have been excellent for you to Pitts. When your capital associated with scotland-
Washington D.C. hadn't offered him its sole-source contract for providing emergency shelter
pertaining to homeless family members in 1982, he might not have achieved what he calls his "100
percent occupancy' rate. He and his wife would not likely make $245,000 within salaries, benefits, as
well as income from your contract last year. and in the event the city hadn't renewed his multi-
million-dollar contract each and every year--even after mounting proof of fiscal irregularities--he may
never have been able to develop all those additions upon his upper Northwest Washington home,
which can easily be now assessed at $399,562. or buy his 5 cars, especially the $61,000 Mercedes
560 SEL as well as the $117,500 1987 Rolls Royce Silver Spur. (Both cars have three-digit license
plate numbers, a new sign of access for the best town officials which dispense them.) Indeed,
without having the particular contract, Pitts might have lost his hotel.
Pitts doesn't understand why people have been critical regarding his enterprise practices. He says
he runs the class place, that his hotel in 14th and also Belmont, can always be as fine a shelter for
that homeless as anybody could find anywhere. As Well As if he is truly a great profit, well, that's
nobody's business. He will be not, he factors out, one of individuals nonprofits. His business, he says,
emphasizing each syllable, can be "a pro-fit-mak-ing-en-ter-prise.'
Rooms in the top
Living off government contracts wasn't your dream Cornelius C. Pitts brought along with him when
he stumbled on Washington via New Orlens during Globe War II. With first, he worked like a clerk-
typist for the War Department and moonlighted like a cab driver, saving his cash regarding some
thing bigger. He wanted to be successful in a white man's world. "I ended up being determined to
break via the actual color barrier,' he was quoted saying within 1968. "I was created straight into
business. My mothers along with fathers ran a mom-and-pop food store within New Orleans.'
In 1950 he produced the leap, getting his very first creating on Belmont Street, then a middle-class
black residential neighborhood. He transformed his new property right in to a tourist house with
regard to blacks, whom are not welcome within downtown hotels. Nine many years later on he
bought yet another constructing on Belmont. Meanwhile, just just like the immigrant hero inside a
thousand American good results stories, he went alongside to college, and in 1964, in the
chronilogical age of 41, he graduated with a diploma running a new business administration coming
from Howard University. Your next season he bought 3 more buildings on Belmont Street, then tore
down just about all his buildings and also constructed your Pitts Motor Hotel.
In the sixties, your Pitts Resort was obviously a showplace, along with Cornelius Pitts had been
among Washington's nearly all productive black entrepreneurs. His resort attracted not just tourists
as well as traveling businessmen but nearby customers, black and also white. they lined up in the
Red Carpet Lounge--which featured valet parking plus a maitre d'--to listen towards the likes of
Aretha Franklin. "The location stayed packed,' any former regular said. "The drinks weren't that
high. A Person didn't feel like you had been receiving ripped off. the audio was great. and the minute
you walked in, anyone felt comfortable there.'
Pitts viewed himself as using a definite role to experience within his community. "Whenever he
could, he does one thing for your neighborhood,' says Leroy Hubbard, a nearby civic leader and
long-time pal of Pitts. "He would donate food and also room regarding neighborhood functions,
sponsor kids throughout camps. He trained a number of summer youth employees throughout resort
work. He ended up being the items they referred for you to as any progressive businessman.' Calvin
T. Rolark, president along with founder with the United Black Fund, publisher with the every week
neighborhood newspaper, the Washington Informer, plus a close good friend involving Cornelius
Pitts since your early fifties, agrees: "He often offered a lot of employment for the black community.
He definitely shared his income together with numerous blacks. Generally there have been many
occasions I known as on Pitts to help out a family group and your man does it, simply asking that
people keep his aid anonymous.'
Pitts achieved his achievement in the deal with of exactly your same racism just about any black
entrepreneur regarding his generation experienced. back throughout 1961, pertaining to instance, a
pair of white law enforcement officers from your department's morals squad tried to get Pitts's
tourist house license revoked around the grounds which two females have been arrested there the
actual prior year. Businessmen rallied in order to Pitts's defense. The Particular D.C. Chamber
associated with Commerce pointed out that the incident seemed to be a portion of "a pattern
involving questionable police tactics which are directed principally toward Negro establishments
using integrated clientele.' Pitts's efforts to flourish his company had been frustrated through the
reluctance associated with banks to provide loans for you to blacks. "I've seen white men get loans
via banks within this neighborhood,' he said in 1968, as they was made to spend "as significantly as
a dollar to find a dollar inside interest. Your just bank that really solved your problem ended up
being the actual Industrial Bank of Washington, any black bank.'
As among Washington's premier black businessmen, Pitts naturally drifted in in order to the orbit of
prominent black political figures. A New month just before his 1968 assassination, Martin Luther
King rented 30 rooms at the Pitts for a board meeting with the Southern Leadership Conference.
that same 12 months Ralph Abernathy along using other members in the Poor People's Marketing
Campaign stayed in the resort throughout their particular march about Washington.
Cornelius Pitts's slide in the best began with the assassination regarding King. news in the killing
triggered rioting, along with what ended up any vibrant shopping district close to end up being able
to the Pitts became any gloomy mass involving burned-out buildings. "Location-wise he was beat,'
says Leroy Hubbard. "He has been considered certainly 1 of the greater successful businessmen
during that time, however after the riots items went downhill. the street deteriorated.' Nearly All
businessmen whose stores are not destroyed rapidly transferred to various other neighborhoods.
Pitts will be nevertheless admired simply by many with the city's black leaders pertaining to
remaining loyal to his neighborhood. Yet the neighborhood in no way rebounded, and Pitts in no way
again made the gain he had enjoyed catering for you to middle-class customers. Ironically regarding
Pitts, your effects of the particular neighborhood devastation were heightened through the success
of the civil rights movement. Right After the particular riots, blacks whom formerly had simply no
alternative yet to be able to stay at the Pitts hotel increasingly were permitted to the white hotels
downtown.
Pitts's respectable clients were replaced by prostitutes and junkies. within a few months with the
riots, he could will no longer keep up his $4,064-per-month payments on the Tiny Company
Administration loan. While a new spokesman for your D.C. Alliance involving Active Black
Businessmen, he pushed regarding metropolis help to end up being able to revitalize the battered
neighborhoods, yet small help came. by 1981, Pitts owed a lot much more than $415,000 within back
again federal and also area taxes and the maintain on the Pitts Motor Resort had been weak.
Suite deal
Most cities were unprepared for the crisis associated with homelessness in which erupted inside the
eighties. Your mixture of slashed federal low-income housing support, deinstitutionalization
involving mental patients, neighborhood gentrification, as well as hard economic times pertaining to
poorer Americans produced a new homeless population in which simply by 1985 has been increasing
by simply 25 % a new year, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. within in which population,
homeless families comprise the fastest growing group. It had certainly not been clear regardless of
whether federal funds designed for emergency sheltering of the homeless might be accustomed to
build shelters or to generate more permanent housing stock. While any result, many cities
considered an obvious expedient: hotels.
In Washington, officials considered Cornelius Pitts. With Regard To a new quantity of years he had
from time to time sheltered homeless households for that District. Renting several rooms to the
homeless, he explained within 1969, has been good business, particularly "during the actual hard
winter season.' Through 1982, the actual District necessary greater than a couple of rooms. It
necessary a complete facility specialized in homeless households as well as an "intake center' for you
to centralize the particular Department involving Human services (DHS) processing. DHS inquired
for bids on the contract; Pitts submitted his as well as won. The Actual price: $1.3 million. Soon,
though, the Pitts ended up being overflowing, and also DHS began placing households throughout
various other hotels. Nevertheless your Pitts remained the only intake center and the only resort
with a fixed-price contract.
There were a few who doubted the wisdom of
deciding on the Pitts. Right After the 1982
contract ended up being announced, The
Actual Washington Publish reported that police
had made 17 arrests at the Pitts within the
prior 14 weeks with regard to crimes like drug
possession along with assault having a deady
weapon. "I would question the judgment of the
decision [to move family members to the
hotel],' a new D.C. narcotics sergeant informed
your Post; "It's proper off 14th Street . . .
drugs and also prostitution tend to be in that area.' It also seemed odd which such a contract would
visit somebody who ended up being paying down $415,000 within back again taxes.
City officials, however, say they had small choice inside the matter. "Back once we very first
produced the award, we felt our backs had been really against the walls,' explains Robert Allison,
deputy controller regarding DHS. "We inquired the actual program individuals what to accomplish
and thus they said there ended up being clearly nowhere in addition to set them.' In Which is not
entirely true. Pitts had competed for his contract against a couple of other bidders: the particular
Residence involving Ruth, an emergency shelter for ladies as well as children, as well as the 10th
Street Baptist Church. Pitts won even though, as the Submit reported in the time, the particular
Residence associated with Ruth's proposal has been lower compared to Pitts's.
The individual least troubled by the contract award was, of course, Cornelius Pitts. "The contract
had been an absolute must pertaining to me,' Pitts explained when the award had been announced.
"I just don't know how I would have been in any position to create it without it.'
Pitts says he could be proud in which today, right after greater than 5 years as a house towards the
homeless, the Pitts Motor hotel will be once more any showcase, significantly like it absolutely was
in the sixties. "This is the very best temporary shelter with regard to homeless families in the city.
Right now there isn't any shelter in this metropolis that will is truly as fully equipped,' he says. "I
don't cut corners.' Inside the actual staff region at the rear of the particular thick bullet-proof
window are several pc systems using the latest software. His resort supplies a totally renovated
kitchen the chef claims "is more well-equipped as compared to any 1 of these kitchens downtown.'
There can always be a little store, the first-class security system together with monitors scattered all
through the particular building, plus a video system that may feed just about any certainly 1 of your
more than 90 movies in the Pitts video library into each and also every room.
The public areas of the resort tend to be relatively clean along with cheerfully painted. The Actual
restaurant continues to have some associated with the panache with the Red Carpet days, although
there's simply no red carpet over your white linoleum floor. Any children's playroom is decorated
using children's sketches regarding houses using bright roofs, curlicues associated with smoke, and
also single shade trees.
But the actual rooms where homeless family members stay are not therefore well maintained. The
city inspection statement with the resort through last February repeatedly cited loose plaster, leaks,
not enough ventilation, holes in the walls along with floors, rooms infested using roaches, bedbugs,
along together with other insects, and inoperable fire alarm system, as well as broken lights.
Although the Pitts contract specifies no more than four
individuals in every room, Angela Robertson says the girl
family associated with six had been crammed in to one
room. The Girl shared any bed using your ex two youngest
sons, her two older sons slept together, as well as your ex
daughter slept on a roll-away cot. the room, the girl says,
was infested using roaches along with rats. Any existing
resident, who ended up being simply sitting with a crowd in
the front steps, was reluctant to describe what it absolutely was just like to live there since "it brings
about trouble.' The Lady turned your ex head as well as shook it saying, "I can't . . .' Then your
woman stated quickly, "It's hell.'
Booked up
For providing his first-class accommodations towards the city's homeless families, Pitts may be
guaranteed complete occupancy; through 1982 in order to 1986, the actual area renewed his
contract without bothering to always be able to seek other bidders. A Couple Of DHS internal
memos from 1984 along with 1986, which were leaked to the press, plus a publicly introduced 1986
audit in the Pitts contract simply by metropolis auditor Otis Troupe reveal in which in turn the
millions had been spent.
The 1984 memo says in which Pitts ended up being overcharging your metropolis through one-third
for the meals he provided his residents. But as opposed to demand which Pitts cut his prices, the
particular area increased his volume: the actual following year, DHS began busing homeless housed
throughout additional shelters for the Pitts 3 times each day for meals. This extremely inefficient
means of feeding individuals grossed Pitts a lot a lot more than any million extra money that will
year. DHS dropped the brand new system following your 1986 audit known as it, and Pitts's meal
prices, "diseconomical along with excessive.'
The audit also disclosed in which Pitts have been charging $97.07 per square foot for your
workplace used by DHS officials. By Simply comparison, the actual audit pointed out, DHS leased
room with 1875 Connecticut Avenue, a more desirable location, regarding $15 the square foot.
Indeed, your best office suites within Washington's fancy new Harbor Location now lease regarding
$42 a square foot. While questioned with regards to this, Pitts launched right in to a long,
convoluted monologue about the Economy Act of 1932 as well as the critical distinction between
"raw Condos For Sale Silver Spring MD space' and also what he provides. DHS Deputy Controller
Robert Allison, which wrote the actual 1986 memo, puts the particular overcharge at regarding
$280,000. "We sent Pitts a letter asking for back again room rental,' says Allison. "I doubt we can get
it.'
The documents reveal dozens regarding other overcharges. Pitts's salary was as well high--twice
what DHS paid out your administrators of the city's a couple of largest nursing homes. Pitts charged
the particular metropolis $10,400 regarding damages, despite the real fact that damages had been
already covered elsewhere in the contract. Pitts didn't keep tabs on furnishings, equipment, or
perhaps things about your house bought along with DHS funds. Any time asked concerning such
complaints, Pitts bristles. "We stood a fixed price contract with most the city. When we found out
that our expenses exceeded our income, we had to take inside the expenses. Conversely, if we
created an adequate profit, the us government had absolutely nothing to accomplish using the
means we commit it.' the government, however, compensated Pitts $21,677 annually for three many
years to get CPAs do impartial audits of his books. Pitts took the cash however somehow never got
around to commissioning the particular audits.
In total, your auditor concluded, your city's contract using Pitts has been "sufficiently egregious as
well as exploitative in the taxpayers' interest as to allow merely a conclusion that the Agency had
been grossly derelict throughout its duty to guard the taxpayers' resources.' Says Allison: "The guy
was just creating an excessive amount of funds off the particular homeless.'
"The fruits involving my labor'
Those who perform with the homeless recognize the absurdity of sheltering homeless people in
hotels just like the Pitts. With $42 any night, in addition $12 for each individual every day pertaining
to meals, the us government will be spending practically the maximum amount of per month to assist
keep a family at the Pitts as it might expense to place these in public housing for any Condominium
Silver Spring MD year. but together with therefore small public housing available, families are
stored in the Pitts pertaining to weeks in end. If this could be frustrating pertaining to independent-
minded people eager to get in to their very own apartments, it's a complete lot worse for most those
suffering from welfare dependency. "Putting family members during these resort shelters is
unconscionable,' says Reverend Tom Nees, which runs the 15-apartment nonprofit facility with
regard to homeless family members called community associated with Hope. "As desperate as some
are usually to have out, others, unhappy to become able to say, obtain hooked on it.' Perhaps
Ricardo Lyles, chief regarding D.C.'s office associated with Shelter as well as Emergency Services,
agrees: "It's not the actual perfect to get a family members to live in a hotel. a family members ought
to maintain an apartment.'
Other cities have discovered being "creative' making use involving their federal emergency funds,
utilizing them to rehab apartments directly into that shelter residents could be moved. Washington,
D.C. has been a sluggish learner, despite the real fact that it has operating alternatives as models.
The Neighborhood involving Hope is just down the trail from the Pitts. Its contract with most the
town is usually to offer "transitional,' as well as medium-term, shelter pertaining to homeless
families. The Actual extended stays at the Pitts--an "emergency,' or perhaps short-term, shelter-
-make the actual distinction mainly theoretical. You will find differences, though. A New homeless
woman acquainted with each the community regarding Hope and the Pitts place it simply: "The
difference among these 2 places may end up being the difference among heaven as well as hell.' Any
Neighborhood of Hope apartment just isn't simply much more livable than the actual usual room at
the Pitts, it's additionally much less expensive. a month's space as well as board in the Pitts for a
family members associated with four expenses the federal government $2,748. A New month's rent
for a community regarding Hope apartment, exactly where households have got their particular
kitchens, costs $500. "We've been pressing the particular city for over annually to flourish our
contract,' stated Nees, "I said excitedly the worst it would do will be help an individual save money.
Nevertheless we merely haven't gotten anywhere.'
According to Pitts, those that complain the area features overlooked better choices are generally
blind towards the greatest virtue involving his program: his program will be necessarily your very
best as it is run simply by blacks. "98 % with the recipients involving services are black people.
These are my people,' he says. "It is hard for a white enterprise individual of searching after with
regard to my people. However as a black company person, I'm doing an improved job.' Whenever
questioned about the Neighborhood associated with Hope program on the street, he responds, "It's
absolutely nothing personal. I just don't believe which any kind of white person could be as
interested in the welfare of poor black people as getting a black person.'
The problems regarding race and class inform Pitts's judgments. He explains in which his
neighborhood and business went into decline after the riots because "after Dr. King had been shot,
your whites left and consequently they have but to return' also, since The Particular Washington
Publish "kept writing about such a substantial crime region this is as well as by absolutely no means
retracted it. Just what helps make an region safe is actually people; once the press helps make folks
scared, folks stay away.' He furthermore blames his middle-class black clientele, which stayed away
along with starved his business. "Poor blacks have got often supported black businesses. It may end
up being the middle-class blacks we now have often had problems with. Maybe it is because we
compete socially together with one another and also we do not want to give the some other person
an edge. We meet up in parties along with talk about the sort associated with vehicle an individual
drive and also the kind involving house you have.'
He says critics regarding his program tend to be racists as well as are swallowing a new clever
strategy regarding white real-estate developers. "Whites who've moved straight into el born area are
usually whites who would like to build pricey condominiums about Belmont Street,' he says. "They
are interested my property. I refuse to be able to sell. so they try to discredit me to ensure that the
particular D.C. government would withdraw my contract.'
Ask Pitts's many friends in Washington's black power elite about the criticisms regarding his plan
and additionally the email address particulars are nearly always the actual same: white racism and
not gross mismanagement of the public poverty program, can be at the particular rear of your
complaints. "I have absolutely no idea why your man will be criticized,' says an indignant Calvin T.
Rolark of the United Black Fund. "Racism is even now sticking its ugly head up. A number Of people,
a few white people, aren't desirous associated with blacks achieving anything. These People think,
whenever they achieve it, they need to steal it.'
Pitts works to assist keep assistance just like that. When he nonetheless owed countless thousands
of money in back taxes, his resort were able to occur on top of $2,000 for Mayor Marion Barry's
1982 reelection campaign--a couple regarding months before the DHS contract ended up being
awarded. Leroy Hubbard explains that this can always be a skill Pitts were required to learn.
"Sometimes he would catch the mayor's ear at special events. He wasn't really political before; now
he is each as well as every special event. He is extremely supportive politically and he will support
the current politicians.'
The television monitors throughout Pitts's office show your staff clearing the particular tables. a
number of homeless people possess moved to the hotel's front stoop where they tend to be going to
sit talking until the particular 11 o'clock curfew. Pitts wades by means of the youngsters consuming
fudgesicles and the ladies sipping Orange Crush upon his method to his Rolls Royce. their eyes
adhere to him and conversation stops. "I have been running any business for 37 years,' Pitts says. "I
really feel I have got earned the proper to drive the actual kind of vehicle I may afford to purchase
and also live in the type of hoem I can afford to contact home in. Basically will ever benefit via the
fruits involving my labor, I must enjoy all of them on this life.'
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