Community Land Trusts & Mutual Housing Associations

Academic /

There are many existing housing programs in New York City aimed at affordability for low-income tenants. This paper will outline two particular programs known as the Tenant-Interim-Lease (TIL) Program and the Affordable Neighborhood Cooperative Program (ANCP) in order to assess their affordability for low-income New Yorkers and their ability to offer a long-term and cost-effective housing model. This research paper will present community land trusts (CLTs) and mutual housing associations (MHAs), as extensions of the TIL and ANCP programs, and alternative solutions to the affordable housing crisis in New York City. This paper will examine historical and current housing policies to provide context for the current system. The shortcomings of these policies will be discussed in order to explain the necessity of alternative policy implementation. A realistic approach to the shortcomings of our policy proposal will be discussed, as well as the roadblocks to implementation. We will look to examples of CLT and MHA enactment within New York City and nationwide in order to determine how it can be successfully replicated on a larger level.

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Tenant Records and Evictions: A Policy Response for the Twenty-First Century

Academic /

By Amy Holodak

This report will address residential tenant evictions in New York City, their prevalence, and the deep and long-term impact that an eviction can have on a single tenant and his or her family. This report will discuss current and upcoming social services, legal aid, and tenant support programming that is being utilized to address the eviction problem for low-income and housing insecure New Yorkers. Finally, this report will address the eviction problem through the lens of tenant screening reports and record keeping in Housing Court, which are unreliable, inaccurate, and place tenants at a disadvantage for securing future housing. Finally, this report will offer several policy solutions: hold Housing Court responsible for the depth and reliability of content of the daily court schedule prior to handing over their information to tenant screening agencies, institute a reasonable tracking system containing specific demographic information of Housing Court litigants, offer Portable Screening Reports as an alternative to Tenant Screening Agencies, provide screening reports to all prospective tenants during the rental application process, and expunge housing court record if the tenant won the case.

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South Asian Small Business Initiative: Needs Assessment

Academic /

Hunter College Graduate students Adam Steele, Amy Holodak and Valerie Duchon participated in the following research project as a requirement for the Urban Development Workshop I course. William Spisak, Asset Building Manager for Chhaya Community Development Corporation, retained our services to conduct a needs assessment of immigrant small business owners in Jackson Heights, Queens.
Chhaya CDC seeks to expand their Small Business Development Initiative by providing comprehensive and relevant business support services, workshops, and trainings to local immigrant entrepreneurs and business owners. This needs assessment will address challenges South Asian business owners experience as well as how they seek assistance and support. This will help the agency to enhance current programming to help local businesses stay competitive and avoid displacement in the face of gentrification.

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East Harlem Neighborhood Plan: Next Steps for Economic Development and Community Participation

Academic /

By Amy Holodak

At the beginning of his term in 2014, Mayor de Blasio released his ten-year housing plan, “Housing New York,” to the public. Through the construction of mixed-use and mixed-income development, housing preservation, and neighborhood revitalization, the stated goal was to create or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing city-wide by 2025. In order to create the space necessary to reach this goal, over a dozen neighborhoods, including Hunters Point, Hamilton Heights, and Cypress Hills, have been identified as sites for major rezoning efforts (Housing New York, p. 30). Significant community investments, including an earmarked $1 billion, will be dispersed throughout these communities to help facilitate new projects (Navarro). East Harlem, along with Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, West Flushing in Queens, and East New York in Brooklyn, have been prioritized for the first round of rezoning.
Two years after the introduction of the Mayor’s housing plan, the East Harlem community stands on the cusp of major economic, developmental, and social changes. City planners have already begun surveying and identifying streets and avenues fit for rezoning. Phase Two of the Second Avenue subway line will begin construction within the next few years, with Phase One opening on January 1, 2017. El Barrio is evolving to keep pace with the development and population growth impacting all five boroughs.

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