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| The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board and the Development of Co-Operatives in New York City Anyone who has ever shopped for a place to live in New York City will tell you: housing costs are among the highest in the nation. These high costs stem from incredibly high demand in a very tight market, with the result being high rates of homelessness and squatting, and an increasing number of low-income households that are forced to spend over 30 percent of their incomes on rent. As an organization that recognizes the pressing need for affordable housing in Manhattan, the NYC Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) recently made news by helping to broker a deal between the City of New York and homesteading residents of 11 city-owned buildings on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Mayor Bloomberg's administration will sell the "vacant" buildings to UHAB for $1 each, and in turn, UHAB will oversee building renovations and help convert the buildings to permanently affordable, limited-equity cooperatives. This most innovative of real estate transactions was three years to negotiate and benefits all parties involved: the homesteaders, the City, and the local community. First, it allows the homesteaders to remain in their homes legally, giving them the same property rights as other co-op owners. Second, the arrangement helps the City in its drive to reduce its inventory of properties. And finally, the new residents can continue their positive impact on their community - a neighborhood that had previously been controlled by drug dealers and gangs. In addition to its standing programs, deals such as this one have positioned UHAB as a key player in the effort to create the largest community of limited-equity, low-income co-operatives in New York City - and in fact, the nation - by providing housing to approximately 27,000 families in roughly 1,300 buildings throughout the city. New York City's Tight Housing Market The vacancy rate in New York City has been consistently below five percent since 1974. A tight housing market has made the provision of affordable housing in New York not only more challenging, but also more critical, as low-income families continue to struggle with high housing costs. In addition, a series of tax policies enacted in the early 1970s led the City to take ownership of more than 11,000 residential buildings in 1978 alone. With New York now wanting to get out of the property management business and housing conditions tightening even more for low-income households, UHAB recognized an opportunity and has negotiated deals throughout the City to create homeowners while getting these buildings out of the City's hands. UHAB's Work In the Lower East Side negotiations, UHAB helped homesteaders who had been living in some of the targeted buildings for over 15 years broker a deal with the city government to pass ownership of the buildings through UHAB to the homesteaders. The squatters, who survived a number of government attempts to get them out of the building, had logged thousands of labor hours in rehabilitating the building. They approached UHAB for help in making their ownership legal because of the organization's belief in tenant ownership and its close working relationship with the City. After three years of confidential talks, an agreement was reached whereby the government will sell the buildings to UHAB as if they were vacant, for $1 each. UHAB will work with each building to finance renovations through cash equity, bank financing, and other sources of revenue. Once renovations are complete, UHAB will then flip the buildings to the squatters who will own and run them as limited equity cooperatives. Although UHAB has not traditionally worked with squatters in buildings the government considers to be vacant, the project's focus of helping homesteaders was not entirely out of the ordinary. Some of UHAB's more typical co-op work is through the Tenant Interim Lease program (TIL), a program developed with the City to create ownership opportunities in occupied city-owned properties by requiring tenants to form an association and apply to become the owners. During a trial period of self-management, tenants must take UHAB classes in financial management, maintenance and repair, and democratic decision-making processes. They must also collect rent, pay for minor repairs, and file financial paperwork to prove that they can run the building as a co-op. If the building leaders are successful, they can qualify for city-financed repairs of up to $75,000 per apartment and are eventually eligible to purchase their apartments at a price of $250 each. Recently, UHAB has begun taking advantage of New York City's property disposition policies for city-owned and tax-delinquent properties by acquiring the properties and developing affordable cooperatives themselves. Currently, UHAB has over 70 buildings with over 1,500 units in various stages of the co-op development process using funds from non-TIL programs or sources. UHAB's staff also runs training classes and seminars on all aspects of self-help housing and co-operative maintenance, including:
UHAB's staff stays in contact with tenants to help them cope with crises and provides additional training and assistance to help meet challenges such as tax problems and loan packaging. UHAB also provides services to its member cooperatives that include a group fire and liability insurance plan, computerized bookkeeping, and a myriad of online resources. New York City's Uniqueness and UHAB's Replicability Because UHAB believes in the value and replicability of its program, it is committed to passing on its expertise to organizations both nationally and internationally. In furtherance of these objectives, UHAB has trained and offered technical assistance to co-operatives in cities across the United States, as well as in the Russian cities of Moscow and Novgorod. Although many people argue that the uniqueness of New York City and its culture of multi-family housing make UHAB's work difficult to replicate, Andrew Reicher, Director of UHAB, defends the notion that the UHAB model is transferable. He argues that while cooperatives might not develop as readily in communities with highly affordable single-family homes, the affordability of multi-family dwellings to very low-income families and the "social capital" created by cooperatives would be highly valued in many disparate communities. Given political interest and a state or local financial commitment, UHAB believes its program can not only be replicable, but equally successful as well. It Takes More than Brick and Mortar UHAB was founded to offer assistance to city dwellers interested in rehabilitating their deteriorated buildings; one of the founders even coined the term "sweat equity." However, the organizers soon realized that it takes more than bricks and mortar to build a community. UHAB has used innovation and ingenuity to both increase the supply of affordable housing in New York City and to improve the quality of that housing while promoting community development. UHAB has leveraged the resources of the City and its own funds to create a ripple effect that allows others to apply the knowledge and experience it has gained along the way.
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