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Table of Contents
UNHP Launches
Housing Resource Fairs
Each fair will also have a different theme, including the March 9 premier of Filing Your Taxes as a Homeowner/Making Sure You Receive the Earned Income Tax Credit. Representatives from community organizations and the housing industry (including banks) will be on hand at each resource fair to discuss buying and/or renovating a home, tenant rights, lead hazards, programs for senior citizens, credit and other topics for both homeowners and renters. These resource fairs come on the heels of a number of homebuyers workshops UNHP and Fannie Mae did last year along with Neighborhood Housing Services and Bank of New York. Over 110 Bronx residents benefited from the homebuyers workshops in 1999, including at least 5 of whom are already experiencing the benefits of homeownership. Other upcoming themes
include Buying a Newly Renovated Home Through Neighborhood Homes and
HomeWorks on April 6, and Protecting Homeownership: Holding onto and
Improving Your Home, Including Refinancing and Renovations on May 4.
All of the fairs last from 5:30pm – 8:00pm and are at Concourse
House: 2751 Grand Concourse (corner of 196th St.) in the Bronx. For
more information, call (718) 933-3101 or email mail@unhp.org
DEP Proposes
New Water Regulations DEP acknowledges the concerns that have been presented regularly for the past 10 years by owners, bankers, managers and community organizations involved with multifamily affordable housing. A wide variety of such organizations have stated that the cost of water and metering has had and will continue to have a negative impact on that housing. To address those concerns, the Water Board has established two remedial programs that have been utilized by many property owners: the transition program has allowed many metered buildings to be billed on a fixed charge basis (currently $409.93 per apartment per year) and others (considered ineligible for the transition program) to be charged under a bill cap program (approximately $520 per apartment per year). If enacted, this proposal would terminate these programs for buildings of 6 units or more; the bill cap program would be maintained for 1-5 unit buildings. Under the proposal, which the Board hopes to consider during this spring’s hearings, buildings of six units or more may elect to be billed on a fixed annual rate per apartment. To be eligible, the building must be metered and must achieve certain mandatory conservation goals including 70% low flow toilets, low flow shower heads and faucets as wells as laundry room washers with 9.5 gallons/cubic foot water efficiency. Eligible buildings would have three years (until 12/31/2003) to elect the fixed rate charge program. Buildings being billed on metered, transition or cap bases will have the opportunity to opt for this program. If the fixed charge option is taken the owner can switch back to metering at any time. However, the choice is irrevocable. The Board is trying to balance the demands of the affordable multifamily housing community while maintaining their metering commitments and their revenue requirements. DEP staff and Water Board members met with representatives of the Affordable Housing Coalition for Water/Sewer Reform in January to present the proposal and get feedback. While questions about the price range of $400 to $420 per apartment were raised, there was general support for the direction in which the Board is heading. The Board was asked to consider reopening the Low Flow Toilet Program (which ended a couple of years ago) which would offer owners a capital source of funds to replace toilets, and to reconsider the irrevocable choice of metering. A proposal from HPD for lower rates for certain types of housing does not appear to be on the agenda for the Board this year. If the Board decides to proceed, it will be accepting comments on the proposal at its spring rate hearings. Comment on the
Cost of Water Issue: Metering in some ways disguised that point. First, people began to focus on metering as the problem as opposed to the cost of water; and second, the property owners who benefited from metering enjoyed a decrease in expenses. This created a perception of a pro-metering constituency that the City does not want to incite. The decade long battle to get protection for affordable housing has been a wearing one. Participants in the meetings have 1) dealt with and overcome the official DEP position of the early 1990s that water protection and conservation took precedence over the impact on affordable housing; 2) dealt with alternative rating system proposals that sought to combine a fixed rate and metering formula; and 3) advocated for the creation and preservation of several programs to provide relief for affordable housing. As a result, an increase in water charges of approximately 500% (from $85 per unit in the late 1980s to between $400 and $420 in 2001) in a 10-12 year period starts to look good because at least there would be a firm, albeit high, number in the water budget line in buildings. As the proposal
moves forward, a capital program to provide financial assistance to
building owners to accomplish the replacement of toilets and plumbing
repair/replacement should be a part of the new program. A program to
provide additional relief to certain types of affordable housing should
also be developed. New Federal Lead
Regulations Begin This September What housing
is affected? The following housing is excluded from the new rule: housing exclusively for the elderly or people with disabilities (unless a child under 6 is expected to reside there); zero bedroom dwellings including efficiencies, SROs and dormitories; property found to be free of lead based paint by a certified lbp paint inspector; property where all lbp has been removed; unoccupied housing that will be vacant until demolished; nonresidential property; and any rehabilitation or improvement that does not disturb a painted surface. The new regulation consolidates all of HUD’s Lead Based Paint regulations into one part of the Code of Federal Regulation: 24CFR Part 35. A major focus of the new regulation is the clearance requirement in the regulation, which involves testing dust for lead contamination after hazard control work. What must be
done as part of the new regulation? We can note that the regulations will impact the multifamily housing that has been and is being renovated in the Bronx with low-interest City loans. There will be a significant impact on ongoing maintenance in these buildings. A change in regular maintenance practices will be required. Clearance tests will be required in all repair jobs except for small jobs. Clearance tests include dust testing and must be done by trained people. A small job is described in the following way in HUD’s accompanying question and answer guide: “...when the deterioration is limited to hairline cracks or small nicks, scratches or nail holes.” In addition, “safe work practices” (i.e., occupant protection, worksite preparation and specialized cleaning) must be used during stabilization or abatement only when the area of paint being disturbed is greater than:
Clearance examinations must be done by someone other than the person who did the hazard control work and who is certified to perform lbp paint inspections, risk assessments or clearance exams in the state in which the housing is located. The exam involves a visual assessment to assure that there are not any deteriorated paint surfaces or visible amounts of dust or debris remaining on the property as well as dust testing to assure that the standards for lead in dust have been complied with. Dust testing cannot occur until after passage of the visual assessment. If the dust tests fail, there should be another cleaning of the spaces represented by the failing dust samples. The clearance examiner must prepare and sign a report documenting that the housing passed clearance. A clearance test can be done by a person trained but not certified as a clearance technician provided a certified lbp paint inspector or risk assessor approves the work of the clearance technician and signs the report. Interim controls must be done by a trained person who is either supervised by a certified abatement supervisor or has completed one of several training courses that explain how to conduct work safely so as not to contaminate the environment or expose occupants to lead. HUD’s Estimated
Costs: The real costs per
apartment will vary. We encourage managers and contractors to let us
know what they expect costs to be. Daycare Providers Tackle Taxes
Update on HPD’s
Lead Regulations Since November Detailed information can be obtained from HPD and the Department of Health via their websites: www.nyclink.org/hpd for HPD and www.nyclink.org/health for DOH. The Department of Health Lead Poisoning Prevention hotline is (212) 226-5323. The HPD regulations state that the required notice to tenants to determine the presence of children under 6 should be given annually in English and Spanish between January 1st and January 15th. Both current and new occupants are to be given a notice in both languages when signing a lease asking if children under six live in the apartment. At that time, occupants are to be given the lead paint pamphlet that has been recently designed by the Department of Health. For more information on the regulations, read our November issue of Notes. Nonprofits to
Sell and Renovate Bronx Homes Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation (FBHC) and Neighborhood Housing Services of the South Bronx (NHS) are both working with HPD in the Bronx under two similar programs. Both programs require an approved buyer to be secured before the renovations can commence. FBHC’s homes are being renovated and sold through the Neighborhood Homes program which has both minimum and maximum income limits. NHS is working within the HomeWorks program which only requires that a buyer qualifies for the mortgage and has no maximum income limits. NHS is partnering with Fleet Bank on the project while FBHC is open to any bank. The buildings range from single family to four family homes, located in different parts of the Northwest and South Bronx. Both programs require the buildings to be owner-occupied. To learn more about the programs, attend UNHP’s second Housing Resource Fair April 6 or contact UNHP (718) 933-3101, FBHC (718) 367-3200, or NHS (718) 992-5979. |
