In addition, he said, the families will be required to help manage the complex, join tenant councils and develop leadership skills.

She is no carpetbagger, living as she does in the Gowanus Houses, where she is on the tenant council.

Bonnie Rodgers, vice chairman of the tenant council, said: "Don't send us somewhere else.

As one of eight women in the 29-unit hotel, she is a member of the tenant council that helps to make basic decisions about the temporary home.

She established a children's tenant council to help maintain the building.

"Some folks claim that they don't know what people in their homes are doing when someone is caught dealing in drugs," said Mrs. Jackson, who is also a member of the citywide tenant council.

There is a big difference, said Linda M. Love, the president of the tenant council, between living in a home with a yard and living in a crowded high-rise.

"In the age of rights, antipoverty, and power campaigns, black women in community-based and often women-centered organizations, like their female counterparts in nationally known organizations, harnessed and engendered Black Power through their speech and iconography as participants of tenant councils, welfare rights groups, and a black female religious order."

King Towers is not the worst project in the city nor is it the best, but friends and family tell me that a strong tenant council is trying to keep the project from falling into disrepair and people are beginning to take pride in the place again.

It started a successful effort to revamp the tenant councils financed by the housing authority, which are intended to oversee each development.