Tag Archives: Urban Homesteading Assistance Board

by | April 17, 2013 · 11:00 am

Press Release: Organized Bronx Tenants Visit Housing Court to Demand Freedom From Harrassment

On Wednesday, April 17th tenants from the 1058 Southern Boulevard Tenants’ Association and their allies outside of Bronx Housing Court demanding that their landlord immediately discontinue unjustified housing court cases against the residents.  The tenants are being supported by their Councilmember, Maria del Carmen Arroyo, the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, and the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center.

In January, tenants made their landlord, Miriam Shasho, aware of their plans for file a 7A action. If successful this would remove the building from the landlord’s control. Since that time, organized tenants have felt harassed at the hands of their management company, including threats of eviction, unlawful refusal to renew leases, and summons to housing court. Following the rally, tenants who have received non-payment petitions will join together to answer their cases before a judge.

In addition to bringing their landlord’s tactics into the limelight, tenants are hoping to draw attention to the systematic inequalities within the Housing Court. Tenants often lack representation and as a result are shut out of the complex and alienating Housing Court process. According to a new report released by CASA and UJC, tenants are frequently even denied their right to go before a judge, signing confusing stipulations in the hallways rather than in a courtroom.

“The tenants from 1058 Southern Boulevard have been brought to court over and over again. Our building is in terrible condition and we desperately need repairs. We didn’t have heat or hot water all winter. We feel our landlord is harassing us and we would like the court to recognize these tactics are unfair and harmful to tenants.” said Lisa Ortega, representative of the Tenants Association.  

Tenants in this 55 unit building have lived side by side with housing conditions that threaten their health and safety for years, including no heat and hot water, black mold and mildew, severe leaks, rats, and roaches. The building was recently entered into HPD’s Alternative Enforcement Program, an aggressive enforcement tool reserved for the city’s 200 most distressed properties.

“Once again, I congratulate the tenants of 1058 Southern Boulevard for their diligence and efforts to ensure the owner of 1058 Southern Boulevard provides quality and safe housing,” said Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo. “In their latest efforts, they have joined forces to answer the landlord’s claims that tenants owe rent and in most cases, they do not owe back rent.  I support the tenants in their efforts and will continue to work with them to ensure the owner is held accountable for improving the deplorable conditions of the property.”

 

“We have seen buildings where landlords employ harassment tactics to try and discourage tenants from organizing,” said Kerri White Director of Organizing and Policy at UHAB. “The tenants of 1058 Southern Boulevard know their rights. They will stand up for their homes and families, no matter what obstacles they may have to face.” 

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by | January 7, 2013 · 2:59 pm

The Story of UHAB!

105thStRooftop

A few weeks ago, Urban Omnibus published an illuminating interview with Andy Reicher, UHAB’s execultive director since 1981.  The interview tells the fascinating tale of building abandonment in the 1970s, and the way that UHAB developed as an organization.

Andy recounts that

In this context of wholesale abandonment, UHAB was founded on the idea that local people are able, with their own hands and some technical assistance, to solve their own housing problems, to stabilize their neighborhoods, and to build up the urban fabric within those neighborhoods… The idea was to work with people who wanted to take over vacant, abandoned housing in New York, turn them into homes, and become owners.

The idea that tenants have a say in determining the future of their buildings has always been one of UHAB’s guiding principles – no matter how radical that may have been – as Andy recounts:

I think engaging residents was a new idea. Engaging communities or neighborhoods in urban renewal projects was already widely discussed. But the notion that residents of multi-family apartment buildings have the capacity to help themselves when it comes to housing needs – that was somewhat unique.

Americans have always built and renovated their own houses, but the idea of renovating apartment buildings was new in the 1970s. Before that, you would just tear a building down if it fell out of use or into disrepair. You wouldn’t do these major gut renovations. That whole idea was new, especially for larger apartment buildings.

In the organizing department, we primarily work with buildings that are not co-ops  (yet). Our role at UHAB is borne out of the idea of “engaging residents,” or as we call it around here, “tenant choice.” As Andy mentions in the article, the housing landscape has changed dramatically since the 1970s. New York City is no longer facing a battle of abandonment, but rather the struggle between foreclosure and displacement known as predatory equity.

Though these fights are different than UHAB’s early days, we are still guided very much by the tenant-choice model.  Like abandonment in the 1970s, we see foreclosure as a juncture: yes things are bad,  but it is also a unique moment in which tenants can forcefully advocate for a say.   When we begin organizing in a building, we encourage tenants to think about what they want for their building’s future (through thinking about various models of ownership), and to rally around that.

Fight! Fight! Fight! Housing is a Right!

To read the full interview, click here!

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by | May 8, 2012 · 11:34 am

The Wall Street Journal: “Bank Makes a Profile-Altering Deal”

The Wall Street Journal published an article on Sunday highlighting a new relationship between New York Community Bank and housing advocates (including us, the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board.)  To long-time readers of our blog, this is old news. In the years leading up to 2008, NYCB was the largest lender on rent regulated multi-family buildings in New York City and were known for lending to high-profile predatory equity players, like Pinnacle Group, and well-known slumlords, like Frank Palazzolo.  After years of organizing on our part along with along with a coalition of housing advocates, New York Community Bank came to the negotiation table in December. In March, the Mutual Housing Association of New York purchased four distressed notes in Brooklyn.

What’s changed? While the bank has long denied wrongdoing, it was displeased with the attacks and agreed to a pact under which it plans to give landlords and nonprofits a first shot at every distressed mortgage it sells in New York City.

Under the voluntary agreement reached earlier this year with two leading housing advocacy groups, New York Community Bank intends to offer to sell assets first to nonprofit developers and landlords approved by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development as having good track records.

Under the “First Look” program, approved developers will get get an exclusivity period of 2 weeks in which to make an offer on distressed NYCB assets before the bank begins to actively market them. We are hopeful that this agreement willprove useful in recapturing large scale amounts of NYC affordable housing stock — perhaps through an Interim Facility. As we move forward, to different campaigns with different banks, we hope to reproduce this model and create healthier relationships between the non-profit and NYC banking communities to benefit rent regulated tenants.

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by | April 27, 2012 · 12:10 pm

Opportunities for Large Scale Preservation: The Interim Facility

Negotiating a note sale on a distressed multifamily building is a long and complicated process and is associated with a significant amount of risk for note buyers. By the time a responsible developer has become a note holder, they have already completed months of work: of due diligence, of negotiating the originating lender down on price, of securing subsidy and financing from HPD.  Up until this point, we have only been successful in completing building-by-building preservation through note sales, and only in a very few number of cases. But a portfolio by portfolio approach does not take into adequate account the severity of the foreclosure crisis, and a programmatic response is needed to secure large-scale preservation. In order for the New York City affordable housing community to accomplish this, we will need to greatly enhance our development capacity. We believe we have developed a tool to do just that.

We now believe that this can be done through the creation of an “Interim Facility” that would have the capacity to conduct a bulk note sale, manage properties in the interim of the foreclosure, and secure permanent, community minded disposition for the buildings. In some cases, the Interim Facility would work with tenants to develop a limited equity cooperative. In all cases, the entity would practice the tenant-choice model of ownership and engage residents in final disposition.

Click here to view the Interim Facility, a graphic we developed to demonstrate one way we have envisioned such a entity capable of bulk note purchases. We are also playing with other ideas, such as a joint venture between several neighborhood groups. Stay tuned for how this exciting idea plays out, as it represents a real opportunity to exit the foreclosure crisis with a strong tool for preservation and the possibility for long term affordability for NYC tenants.

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by | July 19, 2011 · 3:56 pm

The Wall Street Journal: Developer Plans Harlem Building

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about real estate developer Joseph Tahl and the lot that he is gunning to buy in East Harlem. Here’s an excerpt:

Tahl Propp’s push to build more apartments in the neighborhood has raised concern among some neighbors, who fret about the company increasing its share of Harlem’s affordable housing market.

“We are increasingly worried about the rent stabilized buildings being converted to luxury condos,” said Emily Goldstein of Tenants and Neighbors, a housing advocacy group.

Joseph Tahl, president and co-founder of Tahl Propp Equities, described his company as a long-term owner and operator of residential buildings with no interest in forcing out tenants to raise rents.

He said about 90% of the 3,500 apartments owned by the company are “affordable” housing units, meaning rents are below market rates or are subsidized.

The article goes on to report that in exchange for the vacant lot, Joseph Tahl would maintain use agreements on four of his other buildings for the next twenty years. In exchange, he would be allowed to purchase a vacant lot in Harlem for $1.

Lets start with what we know. We know that Joseph Tahl is not the champion of affordable housing he says he is. Tenants in affordable units report being pressured to move out. Its noticeably harder for them to get the services that market rate tenants in their building receive easily. And the “90% affordable” figure he swears by? Not quite accurate.

We also know that Joseph Tahl’s “offer” to maintain affordability in these buildings is a not quite what it seems. Some of these buildings already have  Land Disposition Agreements which require him to renew the affordability contracts  for the next 20 years.  Worse, Tahl’s offer to the reluctant-to-sell City of New York looks like it might actually get City support.

Let’s all join together is wishing Joseph Tahl a big GOOD LUCK in his attempt to offer up nothing, and in return get the chance to drive up rents, push out tenants, and change the landscape of an entire community.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal Online.

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