Bill Lindsey - The Slum Buster

This article describes the work of ECU alum Bill Lindsey. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.

Citation for this article is: Edmiston, Karen. "The Slum Buster," ECU Report, Volume 17, No. 2, June 1985.

---

ECU graduate Bill Lindsey, famous for his success in cleaning up the slums of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, returns to Greenville to share his story.

Thirteen years ago Bill Lindsey moved into the slums of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as a VISTA volunteer. His assignment was to assist the tenants of Citrus Park, a rundown, single story apartment complex, in their efforts to get the landlord to make improvements on the building.

Although located only three miles from Fort Lauderdale's white sand beaches and fancy hotels, Citrus Park was a haven for crime and blight. "At one point in time the violence in our neighborhood was so bad, if you called 911 the police told you they didn't answer calls there," Lindsey said.

Lindsey found Citrus Park, but it wasn't easy. the cab driver was to frightened to enter the neighborhood, so he dropped Lindsey off at the corner.

Lindsey spent his first night on the couch in the living room of the complex's maintenance manager. It was a wonder he got any sleep at all -- the room was unbearably hot and reeked of garbage. The sewage was backed up; sounds of rats and roaches were scurrying in the dark were interupted only by the violence -- guns being fired, people running, glass breaking, thugs fighting.

Lindsey made it through the night only to be stopped by the police the next day. they were curious -- what was a white man doing in the midst of a black ghetto?

"I was told I'd be dead in three days," Lindsey said. Instead of being frightened by the policeman's remark, however, Lindsey was challeneged. He remained in the slum, and with the help of a few people, began to wage his war against the blight.

The battle was far from easy. Lindsey was robbed so many times that he got rid of everything he owned except a few articles fo clothing. He was beaten, threatened, even knifed.

Eventuallly, Lindsey's persistence began to pay off. The garbage that once filled the yards was replaced by trees and flowers. Abandoned apartments were cleaned and repaired, security fences and lights were installed, and drug pushers and other hoodlums were evicted from the neighborhood. Now only the natives -- and Lindsey -- know where the slums used to be.

SLUM BUSTER

Lindsey's success in cleaning up the slums promoted a Miami Herald reporter to describe him as a "slum buster." The term was coined several years ago, long before the spin-offs of the popular movie Ghostbusters began to appear.

With Lindsey's approval, the title stuck. "It's catchy," he said. "I keep asking people who they're gonna call, and they say 'slum-busters!'."

State and national magazines, newspapers and television stations were the first to call the slum buster once they had heard about his exploits. In 1982 he was featured on Sunday Morning , Charles Kuralt's CBS television program. In 1984, Reader's Digest ran "Saga of a Slum Buster" in its October Issue. In January, Lindsey was included in Time magazine's "Man of the Year" issue as one of seven people who best exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit of America.

Even the federal government began to take note. In 1983 Lindsey received a special grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to prepare a handbook explaining his formula for community revitalization, something he calls the oasis technique.

That same year he established the Oasis Institue, a non-profit research, education and training organization for the purpose of transferring the oasis technique to other cities in the U.S. and abroad. This year the institute received a $200,000 grant to fund a national demonstration on how to create oases in slum areas.

This much sought-after ECU graduate returned to Greenville in March to share his story with the university community. While in town, Lindsey was presented the 1985 Oustanding Alumni Award, the highest honor the ECU Alumni Association can bestow upon any individual.

"Lindsey is being commended for uncommon dedication and service to his community, state and nation." said Donald Y. Leggett, director of alumni relations.

"There are thousands of sociologists working in similar situations to improve the quality of life for everyone," commented Dr. John Maiolo, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Economics. "In so many of our contemporary problems we blame technology or industry or the government. but always the trouble boils down to poeple problems. Lindsey has found a method that works."

THE MAN

It was 1974 when Lindsey applied for the director's job of Fort Lauderdale's Housing Authority. He was living in the slums at that time, had a beard and kept his long hair pulled back into a ponytail.

"The media has made a big deal out of the fact that I went to my job interview in cut-offs, clogs and a purple t-shirt," Lindsey said. "But they were the only clothes I had and they were clean. Fortunately the people that I talked to understoodthat."

Lindsey got the job, beating out 180 applicants. "I'm not quite sure how that happened," he admitted. "But I don't look back; I always look foward."

The long hair and beard are gone now, but Lindsey is no closer to fitting the stereotypical bureaucratic mold than he was when he moved into the slums. He delivered his public lecture at ECU wearing tennis shoes, jeans, a polo shirt, and a corduroy jacket. "I didn't wear my coat and tie becauseI only have one, and I saved that for tomorrow," he told the crowd.

Lindsey still curses, with apologies and embarassed blushes when ladies are present. He's still stuborn, refusing to be stopped by anyone or anything. "If someone tells you that a problem is unsolvable," Lindsey said. "It means the people who are responsible to solve it don't have an answer."

Most of his spare time is spent reading, but only non-fiction works. "I never want to read fiction," Lindsey said. "I don't want to have to worry about what's real and what's not real."

ECU GRADUATE

Lindsey is an army brat. He was born in Denver, Colorado, and grew up in Germany, Japan, Texas, Georgia and North Carolina. His father was stationed at Fort Bragg in 1964 when Lindsey decided to come to ECU to major in chemistry. "The college had a good reputation in the natural sciences," Lindsey said.

Instead of going into medical research upon graduation in 1968 as he had planned, Lindsey decided to seek a master's degree in sociology at ECU. "I realized that we had advanced technologically much more rapidly than we had in areas of being able to live together," Lindsey said. "I felt we needed to focus our resources on helping people live better together."

In 1971, with a master's in sociology under his belt, Lindsey went to the University of Kentucky to further his education in urban studies "because I flet like I needed to learn more." Before completing the Ph.D. requirements, however, he decided it was time to "immerse" himself on the streets. So he joined VISTA, Volunteers In Service to America, the domestic version of the Peace Corps.

Perhaps it was his Army brat training, years of adapting to one school and community after another. At any rate, Lindsey knew what he had to do to survive on the streets, which he proved while training in Atlanta, Georgia.

"the first thing I did was buy a bottle of wine. Then I went down on the corner and got drunk with the brothers to find out what was really going on," Lindsey said. "I also learned to make friends with the biggest, baddest people I could find as fast as possible, so if you hurt me you had to deal with the men, not the boys."

In addition to his knack for survival, Lindsey also knew how to get things accomplished. A VISTA training session was held on the beach not long after his arrival in Fort Lauderdale. Lindsey was angered by the blight he had found there and was eager to begin eradicting it. He was told by his superiors, however, only to observe for the next six weeks.

Lindsey had a suprise for his superiors at their next meeting. "I took the rats that I had caught in the house I lived in and threw them on the floor."

RENT STRIKE

As a VISTA volunteer, Lindsey was also forbidden to organize a rent strike, which was the next thing that he did. Only six of the 96 tenants participated in the strike at first, Lindsey said. But after six months, over half of the tenants were handing their rent money over to him instead of to their landlord. The money was used to paint the buildings and remove the garbage. Street lights and security fences were also purchsed and installed.

Lindsey's efforts to eradicate the garbage problem at Citrus Park were ignored by the city, largely because the garbage collectors were too afraid to enter the slum. So Lindsey took action.

"We said, let's do some consciousness-raising. Let's take the rent strike money. Let's rent a tractor-trailer. Let's take the garbage truck downtown," Lindsey said. "Everybody thought we'd dump the garbage and block city hall."

But Lindsey's objective was not to break the law. He parked the in front of city hall, put money in the parking meter and just sat there. "They had a SWAT team, the 'urban assualt vechicle' (a tank) and all we had was a truckload of garbage," he said.

When the police came, Lindsey drove the truck to the beach and to a grocery store "where rich people shopped" to let them enjoy the odors of the maggot-infested trash.

Although the slum's sanitation services were not inproved, the event was covered by areaand national newspapers and television stations, making everyone aware of the situation in Citrus Park.

Lindsey was also able to come up with a solution to the problem of absentee landlords. After he threatened to show up at their churches on Sunday morning with photographs of their decayed buildings, the landlords suddenly became willing to improve their property. "They were prominent business people," Lindsey said. "They weren't looked at as slumlords."

GOOD vs. BAD

Lindsey became the director of the Housing Authority in 1974, but continued to live on the streets for the next five years, "if for no other reason than to make a statement to the people that we weren't there to springboard ourselves into better jobs; we were there to win."

Winning for Lindsey meant creating areas of decency in the midst of slums so the people who wanted to live better could stay in the neighborhood. "Most people who live in the slums and blighted areas are good people," Lindsey said. "They just don't have a lot of money. In particular, they don't have much money to leave."

Good people to Lindsey are those who are willing to pay their own way, take care of where they live, and behave. He realized that the neighboorhood's bad people (murderers, pimps, drugdealers) made the good people want to leave.So Lindsey took it upon himself to get rid of the bad people by making "house calls." With bodyguards in tow, Lindsey visited the bad people, gave them a chance to change their ways, and made them leave if they refused.

"They were told that whatever they were doing that impinged on the rights of the good people had to stop. If it didn't stop, they had to leave," Lindsey said. "There were a couple of options by which they could leave. They could leave by walking or not walking."

"I caught a lot of flack for that," Lindsey admitted, "but it worked."

Lindsey doesn't care what happens to the bad people once they are thrown out of his neighborhood. "I don't think the bad people deserve a decent place to live," he said.

With the bad people out of his way, Lindsey focused his attention on developing programs of independence to get the good people involved. "Programs of dependence keep people needing to have more government and more federal expenditures," Lindsey said. "For example, where we are, if you're on welfare, you can't afford to work. It doesn't make sense to me. We set up a whole bureaucracy to administer the welfareprogram, but people can't afford to get jobs becuase they'd lose too many benefits. We spend $200 million a year on food stamps in our country, and we had no one to help anybody grow their own food."

With that problem in mind, Lindsey established the food gardens program, which provides technical support to families who are interested in growing their own food.

Alan Apartments, a complex that hadbeen abandoned, was renovated to accomodate 72 elderly and handicapped people.

A coping skills program was set up that enables neighborhood children in grades one through five to get together after school under the supervision of teachers for help with their homework. At the same time they are receiving academic help, the children are growing socially through their contact with positive role models.

"The parents that I knew when I lived on the streets wanted it to be better for their children, but they couldn't help them in school. They didn't have the educational level to counsel and tutor their children," he said.

Lindsey's Greenspace program provides residents with all the plants they need to beautify their yards -- as long as they bring back the pots.

The nursery gets its cuttings from the rich people; men from the slums who tend their yards bring their clippings back to the nursery instead of throwing them away.

The nursery's three cutting beds are located on what was once a junk yard. Lindsey hired a basketball team to help him clean up the debris. "If you guys will help me clean this area and make it a nursery. I'll support the basketball team," Lindsey told the youths. "thats all those guys needed; they won the YMCA championship and had a good time, and we ended up with a 40,000 square foot nursery that gave planting material to people."

Lindsey found that the good people were eager to beautify their whole yards. "We had two houses on a whole block where the people were good. we made the landscaping material available to them. All of a sudden, the neighbors are going, 'where's mine?'."

The neighbors expected handouts, Lindsey said, but were told to improve certain things before they could get the planting material. "You could see it run right down the block, " Lindsey said. "Now we have inner city areas that rival the beach."

RIVAL EFFECT

Lindsey began to apply those same principles to other areas in the slum. "What we were doing was creating oases of safety and decency in the middle of a bad neighborhoods," he said. "For a two or three block area around our oasis zone we started to see positive ripple effects from that area of stability.

Lindsey has been able to convince businessmen that investments in the inner city are good risks. "The ripple effects primarily are the private sector coming back in and reinvesting the property," he said.

The Alan Apartment renovation is a good example of what the ripple effect can accomplish. "Since the Alan Apartment renovation, the crime level has subsided, homes and business have returned to usefulness and the tax base of the area has improved significantly," Lindsey said.

"What has made this success so startling is that the Alan Apartments were financed by a major insurance company without the benefit of mortgage insurance. while the Fort Laudedale Housing Authority manages the units, the private sector has assumed the full financial risk in an area of town that traditionally scares off private reinvestment."

The mental poverty of the people in the federal government was Lindsey's greatest stumbling block in cleaning up the slums. "Those poeple were convinced that nothing could be done abd that things will never get better," Lindsey said. "It took us five years to get the federal government to believe in what we were trying to accomplish in the area that I lived in, even though we had all the money lined up through the private sectors."

For that reson Lindsey believes local government should take on the responsibility of improving the quality of life of its residents. "Too many times federal programs plan for people and do activities to people, but they eliminate working closely with people," Lindsey said. "In almost every city we've been in, the focus is on spending federal money in which compliance with federal regulations, which isn't necessarily the same thing as doing comprhensive plans that are meaningful for the people."

A university can go a long way in improving the quality of life in areas like Greenville, Lindsey said. "I think the emphasis that Dr. Howell and the other administrators of the university have placed on providing service to the community and gettting the university faculty and students actively involved in meaningful projects in local communities is essential towards upgrading the quality of life in general."