Daily News from New York, New York • 165

LOCAL SPORTS New school already has winning tradition Page 26, Thursday. Oocombor 19, 1903 ACTION LINE Reader's hopes buckle in showdown Page 3 DAILY NEWS I if nil jii.jj. I 24 families spared p'TV5: By RICK1 FULMAN Daily News Staff Wntef A city Housing Court judge dismissed eviction proceedings yesterday against 24 lower East Side squatter families who have been living in a city-owned building, which they rehabilitated from burned-out shells into apartments. Coping aid Help with problems ranging from coping with drug abuse to locating a nursing home for a parent is available at the Jewish Information and Referral Service. The service has 35 trained volunteers who help callers solve a range of problems.

It is staffed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays; and when it is closed, an answering machine takes messages. The phone number is 753-2288. Sl vf I U)' city's ever-increasing homeless population.

But Joseph Shuldiner, deputy commissioner in charge of HPD's Office of Property Management, said yesterday he sees no way at this time for tenants to buy the building at 278 E. Seventh St "We have set priorities on whom these apartments go to," he said, "and right now It's the homeless families living in hotels and shelters." Asked whether the squatter families qualified to rent the apartments, if eviction renders them homeless, Shuldiner answered that if the building is habitable, the apartments should be assigned to those homeless families who have been living in hotels and shelters for the last two or three years. "Hotels and shelters are no place to raise kids," he said, "and if people have been living in them that many years, they should get the apartments first" He also said the city used to rent Its apartments to the elderly and disabled, but because of the crisis in housing Randolph M. Scott McLaughlin, a lawyer from the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing 19 of the 24 families at 278 E. Seventh said yesterday he had won the first round.

He said Justice Lewis Friedman of the city's Housing Court upheld his motion to dismiss eviction proceedings against the squatters. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 7. Meanwhile, the future of the building and the families remains uncertain. The residents have attempted to meet with officials at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development since 1981, to find a way to buy their apartments, which they have made livable through their own labor, according to Kwame Adansi-Bona, one of the organizers of the tenants' association which includes the families at 278 E.

Seventh St as well as 48 other squatter families living at 272 and 274 E. Seventh St The residents have said that if they are evicted they will be forced to join the By JOAN SHEPARD nootm aosammjo daily ncws St submitted a homesteader application last year, but Hl'D rejected it. "because their proposal was not as good as 17 others. Minted and a promise for self Imposed fines of $1 million for any landmarking violation. According to Geto, the theater owners want to work out a preservation packacc with the city that would include the rteht to build over any existing theater, the revision of the Landmarks Commissions guidelines which regulate designated theaters, the liberal transfer of air, rights, and a theater tax policy.

Right now, Geto said, tax1 must be paid whether the theater is used or not. "The Virginia Theater has been 'dark (or empty) for U2 weeks," Geto said. "The last show there, 'On Your closed over a year and a half ago." He added, "Even under the landmarks law, a theater like the Virginia could be demolished under a hardship Nf A Sr TENANTS at 278 E. Seventh St. for the homeless, those cate- gories have been pushed down on the priority list Shuldiner added that tenants from 274 E.

Seventh 'Even under tho landmarks law. a theater like tho Virginia could be demolished under the hardship provision.9 Ethan Geto, The three corporations making the offer own the major Broadway theaters between 39th and 51st Sts. In seeking the moratorium, they have offered a guarantee that no theater owner will alter a theater in any way without approval of the Landmarks Commisson v- f. v. If-' )V, Denefit show Peggi BIu Blu Pearl, Carmen Patena, and Alberto Rocchi will team up for a special dinner show as part of a gala benefit planned for Dec.

27, at the Ball Room of the Waldorf-Astoria. The proceeds will benefit the Police Foundation of New York; the Play School Association, and the Ad Hoc Committee for the Filipino Community Center. Tickets are $100 and $150. For reservations or information, call 751-7257. Viet vets The New York Chapters of the Vietnam Veterans of America will hold their Christmas-tree lighting ceremony at 7 p.m.

tomorrow night at 55 Water St, the site of the Vietnam Memorial. Costume display A costume exhibit featuring 31 original costumes, worn in 14 different productions of Shakespeare's plays, at the Stratford Festival in Canada, will open tomorrow at the Main Gallery of The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, on Amsterdam Ave. and 65th St The exhibit will be on view through Feb. 22. Hours are 10 a.m.

to 8 p.m., Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays; noon to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. City people People in Manhattan move to many different beats.

Some spend their working days behind desks from 9 to 5. Others soar in the sky, moving to their own rhythm, their feet barely touching the ground. A feature column focusing on some of the borough's very diverse "characters" debuts today on Page 3. Manhattan Cultural Affaire Editor Three of the city's most powerful theater owners and producers will ask the Board of Estimate today to place a one-year moratorium on landmarking of Broadway theaters. In exchange, the three, the Shubert Organization, the Nederlander Organization, and Jujamcyn, have promised that no theater will be demolished during the moratorium.

The Board will hear testimony on three theaters the Virginia, the Ambassador, and the Alvin which have been designated as land-" marks by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Board of Estimate must affirm all designations made by the Commission. Last week, the Landmarks Commission adopted a set of guidelines for regulating landmark-designated thea ters that allow owners to modify the theaters for productions without first getting the Commission's approval. "We need a year," said Ethan Geto, a spokesman for the Jujamcyn and the Nederlander theater chains, "in order to work out a comprehensive plan with both the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the City Planning Commission." However, Jack Goldstein, the executive director of Save the Theaters, a division of Actors Equity, will testify at today's Board of Estimate hearing in support of continuing the theater landmarking process..