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| Water
Rates: 4% Proposed; Hearings Scheduled in each Borough This Time |
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| The New York City Water Board is proposing a 4% water rate increase for the coming fiscal year. The number started around 4.9% and came down to 4% by the time of the last Water Board meeting. The annual rate hearing process is in full cycle right now. This year there will be hearings in each of the five boroughs: |
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To register for the hearings, call the Water Board at (718) 595-3601. The actual Water Board vote on the rate increase will take place on Friday, May 1st, at 9:00AM at the College of Insurance at 101 Murray Street. At a meeting with representatives of the real estate, non-profit and banking communities, DEP and Water Board representatives indicated that the Water Board anticipates extending the transition program which allows buildings to continue paying rates of approximately $380 per apartment at this time. A number of multi-family buildings have utilized this program. The city is continuing to wrestle with the cost of water and its impact on affordable housing and HPD and DEP are talking about hiring a consultant to evaluate pricing options while maintaining the existing transition programs. We encourage people to take the opportunity to comment either
in person or in writing to the Water Board and DEP about their
concern about water rates and their impact on affordable housing.
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Partnership with Fannie Mae Results in Commitment of $25 million to Bronx Small Multi-family Buildings Fannie Mae Vice-chair Jamie Gorelick came to New York last week and announced a new source of financing for small rental developments in the Bronx developed in coordination with UNHP. The program will be made available to small multi-family buildings of more than 5 units with loans between $100,000 and $750,000. The financing will be fixed rate 30 year mortgages; they will not allow cashing out, but they can be used for acquisition, renovation and re-financing.
The program was developed in discussion started last spring via the National Training and Information Center and the NW Bronx Coalition and Fannie Mae. UNHP tapped a group of for-profit and non-profit owners and managers for advice on the credit needs of small building owners. This informal group met and toured Fannie Mae officials through a wide-variety of smaller apartment buildings in the NW Bronx and explained some of the problems they have experienced in obtaining loans for that type of building.
People interested in obtaining this type of financing can contact Danny Ouk at UNHP at (718) 933-3101.
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Reserves for providing Section 8 rental subsidies to Low Income tenants may be re-directed to provide disaster relief in the US and Bosnia Does this sound familiar? It should; in July of last year, $3.6 billion of Section 8 reserves were stripped away to provide disaster relief and funding for Bosnia operations. On March 31st, the House of Representatives passed legislation allocating $2.2 billion from Section 8 reserve accounts to once again provide disaster relief and funds for Bosnia operations.
Why is so much of the disaster relief stripped from housing? The answer appears simple; Washington thinks no one will care.
The Senate has yet to vote on this and Congress will return from their Easter break on April 10th; if you want to register your feelings on this topic, this would be a good time to contact our Senators D’Amato (202) 224-6542; and Moynihan (202) 224-4451; U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510 since the Senate has yet to approve this action.
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UNHP’s Fifteenth Anniversary Celebration Continues: The first affordable housing forum on the City’s new vesting policy was a great success. More than 60 people gathered in Fordham University’s Walsh Library to discuss the new program. (See Vesting article on page 3). The next forum is scheduled for May 8th (See page 4). The celebration is scheduled for Wednesday, May 27th at 5:30PM in the McGinley Center Ballroom of the Rose Hill campus. The participants in the Tremont-Anthony deal, a community ownership project that closed in the spring of 1997 will be honored. Tickets for the reception are being sold for $200 per person.
UNHP is sponsoring an anniversary journal. The ad rates are as follow:
Inside Front Cover $ 2,500 Inside Back Cover $ 2,500 Back Cover $ 2,500 Full Page $ 1,000 Half Page $ 600 Quarter Page $ 350 Contributor Listing $ 150 Corporate Sponsorship: Full Page Ad and Ten Tickets $ 2,500
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UNHP Sponsors Meeting For Family Day Care Providers: Monday, April 20th at 7:00PM at Concourse House UNHP has been working on this issue for a number of months. As we reported in our December issue, upon receipt of the list of Family Day Care Providers in several zip codes in the NW Bronx, UNHP staff began contacting those on the list to discuss the providers’ view of the program.
(To become a family day care provider, caregivers watching more than 2 children in their home must undergo a self-certification process, called registration, which requires the completion of 15 hours of training within the first year and 15 hours in each subsequent two year period. They must also provide references and a health form and agree to be cleared through the State’s child abuse registry. Registration is administered through the City’s Department of Health. Providers may or may not be involved in a family daycare network. A network is an organization that offers trainings and support services to a group of providers in a community and may assist them in becoming regulated. Home based care, with oversight can quickly provide excellent and cost effective care for infants, toddlers and school age children. Because the work is done in the home and requires minimal capital, it may offer a rare entrepreneurial opportunity for low income individuals. ACD maintains a list of trained providers.)
The phone surveys of the providers indicate that there is much interest in trying to discuss ways to improve the program. We will provide an update in our next issue of NOTES.
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New Lien Sale Starts: On April 13th, the Department of Finance published the latest list of properties that are scheduled to have their liens sold on June 15, 1998.
The Department of Finance can be reached at (718) 935-6736 or you can visit their web site at http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/finance and seek additional information.
Distressed apartment buildings can be withdrawn from the program. Distressed properties are identified as buildings that have more than a 15% lien to value ratio and either an average of 5 or more hazardous violations or an outstanding Emergency Repair lien of $1,000 or more.
In the past 2 sales, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development prepared the list of distressed buildings with input from Neighborhood Preservation Companies around the City.
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The Forum on the Selective Vesting is Well Received: UNHP’s First Affordable Housing Forum was attended by more than 60 people. The topic was Local Law 37 of 1996, which allows the City to transfer title of tax debt ridden property to pre-selected third parties. The City is starting the program in the Tax Section 10 in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx.
UNHP coordinated a panel presentation about the program that included a presentation of the work of three NYU Law students (Brian Kavanagh, Jonathan Springer and Sarah Stevenson) analyzing Local Law 37, and presentations by HPD official Ted Weinstein and Enterprise Foundation Vice-President William Frey. The forum was chaired by UNHP President Joseph Muriana.
Those issues that were left unanswered in the presentation were addressed in the question and answer period that followed.
The City is describing the Tax Section 10 vesting as a pilot project to be replicated and refined in other neighborhoods around the City. Legislation passed in 1997 allows the City to take areas as small as city block as oppossed to an entire Tax Section. In tax section 10, the City is currently awaiting a judge’s signature on an action to start the transfer process to a third party.
This signature will start the block on a 4 month period during which the owner can get his property out of the action by coming in and paying his taxes or entering an installment agreement, putting at least 50% of his debt in a down payment. During this 4 months, the City must accept payment from the owner.
At some point, the City will issue a Request for Qualifications to identify third party owners to which the properties can be transferred. The City must identify the specific owner who will receive specific property/ies and submit those names to the City Council. The City Council has 45 days to specifically pass legislation rejecting specific owners; if they take no action, the transfers proceed as per the City’s recommendation.
After the four month mandatory redemption period, there is an additional 4 month period during which the transfer must be completed other wise the action is voided. During this four months, the City does not have to accept payment from the owner.
To circumvent this time frame and to better protect the occupied buildings, the City is considering transferring the properties to an intermediary third party who will coordinate operation of the buildings while renovation plans and loans are finalized.
The City is currently targeting $30 million to the program from HPD and the Housing Development Corporation.
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UNHP Fifteenth Anniversary Affordable Housing Forum on
Filling the Gap: What's Needed to Continue to Preserve Affordable Housing
Friday, May 8th from 9:00AM-11:00AM In the 12th Floor Faculty Lounge at Fordham University's Lincoln Center Campus* Registration and refreshments start at 8:30AM Background:
Putting an affordable housing project together requires coordination of a variety of financial sources; city, state and federal money, bank money, rental subsidy money have played roles in such deals. The loss of rental subsidy money and other changes in financial sources have made it more difficult than ever to keep putting these deals together.
- The Agenda for May 8th:
- Necessity has fostered creativity, but creativity alone cannot solve the affordable housing crisis. New resources and better use of existing resources is the answer. There are 3 areas of concern that can affect the affordability of housing.
- Income: Rental Subsidies - John M. Reilly of Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation will talk about a proposal to stretch existing, tenant based Section 8 dollars;
- Expenses: Private managers will talk about successful strategies to reduce operating costs; speakers will address water & sewer and real estate tax proposals for affordable housing;
- Sources of Funds: UNHP and Fannie Mae will unveil details on a new loan program targeted at multi-family buildings in need of loans as low as $100,000.
- Who Should Attend?
- Bank representatives, private lenders, developers and managers of affordable housing -- both non-profit and for-profit; tenant and community organizations, anyone with an interest in preserving affordable housing.
- * The Lincoln Center Campus is easily accessed from the D and #1 train stations at 59th Street. The entrance is at 113 West 60th Street; use the Columbus Avenue entrance on the corner of 60th and Columbus.
- Since seating is limited, we are requesting that people register prior to the forum. To register, please click workshop registration.