NEW YORK -- Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson was greeted by thunderous applause Monday at a debate among Democratic candidates, while his rivals for the presidential nomination received only a lukewarm welcome.
The audience leapt to its feet and screamed its approval as Jackson, fresh from a stunning upset victory in Saturday's Michigan caucuses, was introduced at Fordham Univesity in the Bronx.
His two opponents in the debate, Sen. Albert Gore of Tennessee and Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois, received only polite applause.
Before the debate, New York City's top Hispanic leader criticized Masschusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis's decision to stay out of the forum. The governor instead traveled to Washington, D.C., for a fund-raiser.
Jackson told the packed crowd of 2,500 that one of the major problems facing New York and other cities -- the dilemma of the homelessness -- can be solved with quick government intervention.
'We simply cannot say to the homeless we cannot build' housing because we have a budget deficit, he said.
He took aim at President Reagan for cutting spending on housing, saying, 'The only public housing he wants to keep up is the one he lives in.'
But Gore warned against stopgap measures, saying they are often too expensive.
'The cost of emergency responses is more than the long-term expense,' he said. 'Just look at the incredible expense of welfare hotels.'
Simon said another major problem facing cities is what he called 'economic desegregation.'
'Middle-income people in ghetto areas have left. ... When you desegregate on the basis of economicsyou compound the problem.'
Asked about the war on illegal drugs, all three candidates criticized the Reagan administration's foreign policy for failing to crack down on drug trafficking into the country.
'The drug crisis is first a foreign policy crisis, not an inner-city crisis,' Jackson said, calling for a stronger border patrol and U.S. Coast Guard.
Gore blamed the Reagan administration for allowing Panamanian Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega to remain in power despite his alleged drug trafficking andalso rapped Vice President George Bush for his part in the administration's failure to beat the drug problem.
Gore drew boos from the crowd when he praised Mayor Edward Koch for his efforts to fight the drug crisis.
The candidates also were asked about the controversial New York program to provide clean needles to intravenous drug users in an effort to combat AIDS.
'I have some concerns we may be encouraging addiction,' Simon said, but he added he favored leaving such policy decisions up to state and local governments.
Gore said he opposed the idea and Jackson said he favored it 'only under close medical supervision because it feeds the crisis.'
Speaking of Dukakis's pass on the debate, Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, who moderated the debate, said, 'Any absence from this urban issues debate doesn't assist my endorsement decision.'
He said Massachusetts governor's knowledge of Spanish, a skill that netted him Mexican-American votes in Texas, was not enough in New York, where an April 19 primary will determine the second largest block of delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Only California has more.
'I don't think his Spanish speaking by any stretch of the imagination is going to be the deciding factor here,' Ferrer said.
Earlier Monday, Gore and Dukakis went to Brooklyn to testify at a Senate hearing on the plight of the homeless.
The candidates luxury cars roared into the desolate Brownsville neighborhood for the hearing, where Dukakis blamed homelessness on the Republicans.
'We didn't have a homelessness problem under the last Democratic president and we're not going to have a homelessness problem under the next Democratic president,' the Massachusetts governor said at the hearing.
Still courting a Cuomo endorsement, Dukakis lauded the Empire State's governor as 'one of the first to seize the initiative' in state-supported housing. He ignored the drubbing Cuomo got recently for inflating his administration's housing record by about 600 percent.
Dukakis also called for a 'national partnerhsip' for affordable housing and new leadership to combine the efforts of state and local governments with building developers.
Meanwhile, Simon sought upstate delegates during a swing through Rochester and Syracuse then moved on to Long Island.
Still, Dukakis appeared to have comfortable lead heading into the New York primary.
A Daily News poll of New York voters conducted last week gave Dukakis 45 percent, Jackson 29 percent, Gore 5 percent and Simon 5 percent. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.
However, no polls predicted Jackson's surprise win in Michigan, his first victory in a northern industrial state.
