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Mount Hope Housing Company to Benefit from Citgo Grant

November 1, 2007

By JOE HIRSCH
NYCity News Service

Nov. 2007 - Saving a few hundred dollars on heating oil is no small thing for a single mother of three scraping by on a social worker’s salary. Thanks to a Citgo Corporation heating oil discount program, Camille Pow has stashed away some much needed cash the last two winters.

“I got a deduction of $26 to $30 every month last year, which means $300 more you can look for in your pocket,” said Pow, 45, who rents one of the 1,250 apartments owned by Mount Hope Housing Company, which receives a 40 percent discount on oil from Citgo, then passes the savings on to tenants through rent breaks.

Now the two-year-old program could potentially benefit Pow (pictured with her family) and other low- and moderate-income residents of the 32-building complex in ways they never expected.

Citgo’s social service arm is backing plans for a new tenants advocacy system – as well as supporting community programs, including one that will train Mount Hope tenants as licensed childcare workers, so that parents have somewhere to leave their kids.

The oil giant’s relationship with the Bronx began two years ago with a visit from controversial Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Citgo, the Houston-based American subsidiary of Venezuela’s national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, has been distributing discounted heating oil to needy households across a swath of northern states since 2005.

The heating oil program is tentatively scheduled for re-launch once the cold weather returns, said Citgo spokesperson Fernando Garay.

But the next phase of the program – inspired by Chavez’ Venezuelan social policies – goes far beyond below-market-rate oil.

Each of Mount Hope’s buildings will be represented by one or two tenants, who will serve as resident advocates, as part of what building administrators are calling the Community Ambassadors Program.

The program bears a resemblance to local governance policies that Chavez and Petroleos de Venezuela have instituted in Venezuela and in other countries that receive Venezuelan oil, Garay said.

Rep. Jose Serrano (D-Bronx), who escorted Chavez during his 2005 visit to the Bronx, is a big supporter of the program. While there has been some criticism over accepting aid from Chavez due to his hard-left leanings and his fiery language (last year, he referred to President George W. Bush as “the devil”), Serrano has no problem with a company cutting low and middle-income communities a break.

“The Citgo heating oil program over the last two winters has been a success in the Bronx, providing residents with rent reductions and building improvements,” said Serrano in an email.

“People who criticize this program because of its linkage to Venezuela and President Chavez are missing the point,” he added. “The program serves low-income people struggling to make ends meet and serves them well. There is no shame in a political agenda which helps the poor to lead a better life in any nation.”

Pamela Babb, Mount Hope’s vice president of development and communications, recalled a 2006 trip to Venezuela that proved pivotal in Chavez’ bid to go beyond cheaper oil distribution – and get involved in American anti-poverty programs.

“We got a chance to talk to Chavez for two days,” said Babb, who traveled with a group of U.S. tenants and housing advocates. “We were invited to the presidential quarters [in Caracas] so he could meet everyone and talk about why the oil program was so beneficial.”

“Chavez asked one tenant, ‘What are your circumstances?’” Babb recalled. “She said her finances were very tight, she had two children, and she had a hard time finding work. It was at that moment that Chavez said, ‘Hmmm, we have to do something about it.’ All the [government] ministers started writing.”

“Chavez said maybe there should be some economic development programs,” Babb added. “That’s how the second part of the program was decided. Just that woman explaining her situation.”

(Citgo has also awarded grants to eight other Bronx organizations including Youth Ministries for Youth & Justice, Rock the Boat, South Bronx Food Cooperative, and Servicio de Educación Básica.)

Brenda Jones, the Mount Hope employee who pitched the Community Ambassadors idea, sees a real need for social programs that require local involvement. “They’re very much into co-operatives in Venezuela,” said Jones. “Ideas that they use for countries in the South are applicable to low-income communities here in the North.”

“To design an intervention to do something about poverty, you have to have the participation of the people you’re trying to help,” she added.

Pow, who has lived in her apartment for 14 years, will be among the new ambassadors. She found a flyer for the program under her door recently, and called right away to volunteer.

“They haven’t divvied up the jobs yet, but I’ll be advocating for the building, representing it in a positive way,” Pow said. “I was like, wow, you know how long I’ve been waiting for something like this?”

 

 

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2 Responses to “Mount Hope Housing Company to Benefit from Citgo Grant”

  1. New York City News Service - CUNY Graduate School of Journalism » Chavez and Citgo Fuel Bronx Activism on August 13th, 2008 1:24 pm

    [...] in: Mount Hope Monitor Expand Photo + SIGN OF THE TIMES: In addition to providing discounted home-heating oil to [...]

  2. Chavez’s Heating Oil Program Goes Up in Smoke : Mount Hope Monitor on January 6th, 2009 4:31 pm

    [...] people struggling to make ends meet and serves them well,” Congressman Jose Serrano told the Mount Hope Monitor in 2007. “People who criticize this program because of its linkage to Venezuela and President [...]

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