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Anniversary Celebration Continues With Second Forum UNHP’s Second Forum entitled "Filling the Gap" was held on May 8th at Fordham’s Lincoln Center Campus. 70 people from a wide variety of organizations gathered to hear the presentations.
UNHP Program Development Director Guillermo Franco opened with a comparison of an affordable housing deal completed in l992 and one under consideration in l998. Guillermo highlighted the significant changes at the conclusion of his presentation: a) the loss of tenant based Section 8 means that rental assistance is not available to low income tenants and limits some flexibility in determining loan amounts; b) the scopes of work seem substantially higher due to years more of deferred maintenance and neglect and a greater sensitivity to lead poisoning issues and c) the public funding can’t be stretched far enough to provide deep enough assistance to protect tenants from high rents, pay reasonable acquisition prices and cover the major rehabilitation needs of the buildings.
Income
John Reilly of Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation talked about a Capped Section 8 proposal intended to target a portion of rental subsidy money to spread it to benefit more people and more apartments. Many of the buildings Fordham Bedford works with would benefit from a subsidy of $200-300 per month; many subsidies cost substantially more.
Expenses
Kevin Alter of Dougert Management covered the value of heat computers in holding down operating costs; he credited the computers with a 30% savings in fuel costs. Jim Buckley discussed the costs of water urging people to monitor their day to day use while participating in efforts to hold water costs down.
Capital
Charles Jones of Fannie Mae’s New York Partnership Office outlined the $25 million loan program targeted at small multi-family buildings in the Bronx. The program has been developed in collaboration among UNHP, FannieMae, and a number of private owners and non-profits. The program will be officially kicked off in June with a press conference.
Matt Kelly of Chase presented an outline of the resources available to non-profits from the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, the Housing Trust Fund and the bank.
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Water Rates: 4% This Year; 5.4% increases in each of the next 4 years anticipated The cost of water will increase again on July 1st by 4%. The Water Board is anticipating 5.4% increase in each of the next four years. This year’s increase will raise water and sewer costs by approximately $25 per apartment. The Water Board approved an extension of the transitional program that has kept many apartment buildings on a fixed rate charge.
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UNHP Meeting For Family Day Care Providers Held on Monday, April 20th UNHP sponsored a meeting for family day care providers in the community. The meeting followed a UNHP survey of providers in the 10458, 10468 and 10467 zip codes that attempted to determine how the proviers felt about their program. Over 50 providers attended and discussed a range of issues. Home based care has expanded significantly since funding for center based care has not increased despite the severe shortage of child care in the city. Family day care can offer a rare entrepeneruiral opportunity for low income women because the work is done in the home and requires minimal capital. However, a majority of the providers at the meeting reported major difficulties in running a successful program. Some of these difficulties include:
- a) a lack of children during the school year and summer;
- b) an inability to joint a network or agency due to long waiting lists for provider membership;
- c) the need for benefits, including health insurance;
- d) English proficiency;
- e) Outreach and marketing skills.
The providers have decided to organize as a group to address these issues. They participated in a lead poisoining prevention workshop sponsored by UNHP and plan to meet on a regular basis to devise a family day care plan for the neighborhood. Some initial ideas include forming a network, compliling a list of names and numbers of providers to circulate and applying for group insurance. Anyone intersted in more information can call UNHP at (718)933-3101.
(For your information, 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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Lien Sale Date Gets Closer 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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Selective Vesting Clock Starts As discussed in our last issue, the City’s Selective Vesting Program has been started. The judge signed the order to commence the taking of properties on the City’s list for back taxes in Tax Section 10. The owners have a mandatory redemption period of 4 months from the signing of the order to come in and settle up with the City. After the four months, then the City will begin transferring buildings and property to pre-selected third parties.
At our April 3rd Affordable Housing Forum, a number of questions were raised with regard to the program. The City will still be finalizing the method of transfer during the mandatory redemption period.
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Fannie Mae Mini-Loan Program Announcement Being Planned for June Owners and managers, whether for-profit or not-for profit with smaller multi-family building lending needs should contact Danny Ouk at UNHP to discuss whether their building might be eligible for the new program.
The program is aimed at apartment buildings of at least 5 units with lending needs between 100,000 and 750,000. The financing is fixed rate with a 30 year term. The money can be used for acquisition, renovation and re-financing. Owners cannot use the program to refinance with the hopes of getting large amounts of cash out of their building.
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UNHP Workshops Build Awareness on Quality of Repair Work Tenants in a Grand Avenue building had a staff person from UNHP present information on lead poisoning. When they complained that they were concerned that the owner would not do repair work properly, they worked with UNHP to develop a one page form letter to send to the owner requesting that work be done in the apartment and notifying him that there could be a lead condition. The letter refers the owner to the Department of Health’s workshops on lead poisoning prevention in case they need assistance in determining the appropriate way of dealing with potential lead hazards during the repair. The tenants have reported that the work is being done.
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