HUD Pamphlet a Phonetic Fumble

By MILDRADE CHERFILS Associated Press Writer

MIAMI (AP) - Federal officials hoping to inform Haitian residents in the Creole language about subsidized housing have delivered a pamphlet written in an imitation Jamaican dialect.

It's a tough read:

``Yuh as a rezedent, ave di rights ahn di rispansabilities to elp mek yuh HUD-asisted owzing ah behta owme fi yuh ahn yuh fambily,'' the pamphlet states.

What the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was trying to say was: ``You as a resident have the rights and the responsibilities to help make your HUD-assisted housing a better home for you and your family.''

The pamphlet, titled ``Rezedents Rights and Rispansabilities,'' came to the attention of government officials after a citizen questioned its contents. It had been signed by HUD's top executive, ``Sekretary Andrew M. Cuomo fella.''

The pamphlet was intended to inform residents in Section 8 HUD housing of their rights, responsibilities and the resources available from HUD. Translations were printed in nine languages and Braille.

Haitian Creole, the national language of Haiti, is based on French, while Jamaicans read and write standard English. The presumed language of the HUD document is the spoken Jamaican dialect - translated phonetically.

More than 5,000 copies of the supposed Creole pamphlet were printed this summer, according to the Government Printing Office, the official printing arm of the U.S. government commissioned by HUD to do the work.

``We don't translate and we don't print,'' said HUD spokeswoman Ginny Terzano. ``That's why we pay the government offices to do the services and do them properly.''

About 719 copies were sent to federal government document depository libraries. Neither HUD nor GPO knew if others were distributed to the general public.

Leonie Hermantin, executive director of the Haitian American Foundation in Miami, said she was thankful government officials were at least trying to include the Haitian community in government documents.

But, she said, the printing mix-up raised another issue altogether.

``They really don't know about the resources in the community such as certified Haitian translators in Miami and in New York who could have provided the services with more accuracy,'' she said Tuesday.

Once HUD drew up plans for the pamphlets, the printing office then hired a private contractor in Buffalo, N.Y., Thorner Press, to translate and print them.

Thorner subcontracted for the translations with Cosmos Translations and Interpretations, a Toronto, Ontario-based translator. The supposed-Creole translation was then sent back to GPO, which relayed it up to HUD.

``To the best of my knowledge this appears to be a Haiti-type Creole. OK to print,'' HUD employee Silvia A. Millier wrote on the proofs, according to the GPO.

Andy Sherman, a GPO spokesman, said that once HUD signed off on the pamphlet's proofs, the final authorization had been given to print the documents.

``We're printers, we're not linguists,'' he said. ``When a customer says, `OK to print,' they're saying `This is what we want.'''

HUD withdrew the pamphlet immediately after it came to their attention. Only $1,000 was spent on the imitation dialect printing, Sherman said.