New York Council for Housing Development Fund Companies
is a social purpose corporation (SPC) committed to the conservation of the over three thousand HDFC cooperative and rental properties as low-income housing by expanding and strengthening the rights of shareholders and tenants in HDFCs.
A Special Note to Original Purchasers in HDFCS: When loopholes created by the Giuliani administration combine with the complicity of HDFC boards to divert these scarce low-income housing resources to the City’s affordable housing market, NYC HDFC is there to provide original purchasers with wealth management consultation that allows the early generation of HDFC shareholders to successfully transfer these non-market entities to higher income earners without being harmed by the predatory forces of the real estate market.
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HDFC HOTLINE
NYC HDFC partners with entrepreneurs, organizers, professionals, academics, latin brides, practitioners, facilitators, developers, clinicians, and artists in business, academia, technology, and government to navigate the social terrain of the housing market in New York City. Through these creative and strategic partnerships, we develop products, policies, and practices that foster shareholder advocacy, encourage capital improvement, and command a rigorous application of corporate governance. NYC HDFC intervenes at all levels in the creation, operation, and oversight of HDFCs. Through research, advocacy, and commerce, we promote fiduciary integrity and fiscal health as well as statutory, regulatory, and code compliance. As the HDFC watchdog, NYC HDFC commits itself to protecting these scarce housing assets from dysfunction and harmful influences.
The NYC HDFC Advocacy Hotline provides callers with detailed responses to their queries. During each call, we explain options and suggest solutions and best practices. We share referrals with our callers to professionals and officials in governmental departments and agencies, service providers, mission-driven businesses, and affordable housing attorneys. While we make no claim to work miracles, and provide no formal legal advice, we can help callers develop strategies and tactics that will make them better advocates for themselves and their HDFCs.
Our response team is intimately familiar with law and legislative history of Article XI and Article XV of the Private Housing Finance Law (PHFL), Business Corporate Law (BCL), New York City Local Laws, and all of the pertinent HDFC governing and regulatory documents, including: offering plans; certificates of incorporation; co-op conversation; share certificates; by-laws; proprietary leases; security agreements; regulatory agreements as well as housing and building codes that inform the State’s warrant of habitability.
SENIORS in hdfcS
PERMANENT MAINTENANCE FREEZE FOR SENIORS IN HDFCs
MAKING BATHROOMS SAFE FOR SENIORS IN HDFCs
PERMANENT RENT FREEZE FOR SENIORS IN HDFCs
THOUGH NYC HDFC, SENIORS CAN APPLY OR RENEW THEIR APPLICATION TO THE SENIOR CITIZEN RENT INCREASE EXEMPTION (SCRIE). TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THIS PERMANENT RENT FREEZE, SENIORS MUST: 1) BE AT LEAST 62 YEARS OR OLDER; 2) EARN $50,000 OR LESS ANNUALLY AND 3) PAY MORE THAN ONE-THIRD OF THEIR INCOME IN RENT.
BATHROOM UPGRADE FOR DISABLED AND AGING IN HDFCS
NYC HDFC HAS PARTNERED WITH LOCAL CONTRACTORS AND PLUMBERS WHO WILL EXTEND INTEREST-FREE LINE OF CREDIT TO UPGRADE BATHROOM FOR SENIORS IN HDFCS. TO QUALIFY: THE SHAREHOLDER SHOULD BE PREPARED TO PAY THE COST OF EQUIPMENT AND REDEVELOPMENT FEES AND AGREE TO PAY THE BALANCE OVERTIME. the cost of project is a sliding scale based on income.
HDFC LEGAL CLINIC
FREE LEGAL CONSULTATIONS in Estate Planning, Corporate, and Real Estate Law. Call (212) 470-04 or email [email protected] to schedule a consultation.
We have developed strategic partnerships with seasoned HDFC attorneys who volunteer their time to provide legal consultations:
shareholder derivative action
trusts
transfers
wills
probate
tiitle
article 78 proceedings
closings
small estates
HDFC POLICY: STATE
Expand the State’s Rent Laws to Protect Renters in HDFC Cooperative Housing
Define Low-Income Earners in Article XI of the Private Housing Finance Law (PHFL)
We urgently call for legislation to protect renters in HDFC cooperatives. In some HDFC cooperatives, there are more renter-residents than shareholder-residents, and while many of these tenants pay rents that fall well below the market and are consistent with affordable housing standards, some renters endure predatory practices that contradict the letter, if not the spirit, of the HDFC law.
The State legislature needs to provide a more concrete definition of low-income earners in Article XI of the Private Housing Finance Law (Housing Development Fund Company Law). Presently, Article XI tacitly defines low-income earners as persons whose housing needs cannot be met by private enterprise alone. That loose construction of low-income earners has allowed the City of New York to include persons earning as high as $99,825 for individuals or 165% of the Area Median Income (AMI). For 2015, the United States Department of Housing Urban Development (HUD) calculated AMI as $60,500 for an individuals. Without a clear definition of low-income earners in the Housing Development Fund Law, the City of New York is able to define low-income as high 105% to 60% above the federal low-income maximum. By defining low-income as 120% to 130% of AMI, the City of New York has essentially violated the legislative mandate that HDFC corporations provide housing exclusively for low-income individuals and families by diverting these scare housing resources to moderate and middle income earners. For a more detailed discussion of income eligibility click on or go to the link: www.nychdfc.org/restrictions.
HDFC POLICY: Federal
Area Median Income (AMI) Violates the Disparate Impact Clause of the Fair Housing Act (FHA)
Our Beef with AMI
There’s no mystery; it’s pretty straightforward: AMI includes high-income neighborhoods and suburbs, and results in higher definitions of income averages and medians than if more narrowly defined geographic units, Community Board or neighborhood boundaries, are used. In advancing the FHA argument, we compare who would be eligible, by race, if the AMi is used to determine eligibility, as compared to those eligible by race if a Community Board or Census Tract definition is used. Using the AMI reduces the number of black income earners eligible, and that can be objectively shown and should be known to any agency making the decision to use AMI. AMI violates the FHA’s disparate impact rule, and our thesis holds true whatever percentage used. Now, granted we could simply fix the eligibility level arbitrarily lower, but we want to have some actual representation of the differences among different communities, some rational basis for the eligibility level used. There’s no magic thinking here: whatever geographic area is used; it must simply be one that more accurately reflects the existing distribution of minorities in the target area. One would not make the fair housing argument in an area in which the AMI is in fact lower than what a different choice would provide.
HDFC RESTRICTIONS
INCOME AND PRICE RESTRICTIONS
THE NEW LOW INCOME
RESALE PRICE RESTRICTIONS IN HDFCS
Presently, HDFC cooperatives in New York City have no statutory or regulatory restrictions on HDFC resale prices. That policy could change soon. As the City’s DAMP tax exemption to HDFCs to expire in 2029, the City is giving serious consideration to created reforms that controls resale prices on HDFCs
The few HDFC corporations with price caps on resales are: 1) HDFCs organized under the Membership Corporation Law (MCL); 2) HDFCs with price caps added to their corporation by-laws; and 3) federally-funded HDFCs, organized the early seventies and regulated, until recently, by Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
INCOME RESTRICTIONS IN HDFCS
All HDFC cooperatives have income restrictions.
For HDFCs with no regulatory agreement with the City of New York, Section 576B, Article XI of the Private Housing Finance Law (PHFL) provides that: (maintenance + utilities) x 6 x 12 should be used to determine income restrictions.
For HDFCs with a regulatory agreement with the City of New York, the regulatory agreement establishes the income maximums at either 120% or 165% of the Area Median Income (AMI), though most incomes average around 80%AMI. The 2015 AMI, as determined by the federal government, for New York City is $63,700.
As special corporations, some argue, public purpose corporations, enacted by the State to address the needs of its low-income earners, we urge HDFC shareholders and officers to established income maximums more consistent with the federal government’s definition of low-income earners as 60%, AMI, although that figure is 50% lower than the City’s definition of low-income, it’s more consistent with original intent and spirit of the HDFC law: to provide the housing for the State’s low income earners.
THE NEW LOW-INCOME
federal government low-income maximum 60%AMI or $38,220
city government low-income maximums at 120%AMI and 165%AMI or $76,440 and $105,105
state government defines low-income as persons whose housing needs cannot be met by private enterprise
personal assets are not used to determine eligibility: this loophole allows persons with substantial cash assets to purchase HDFCs
HDFC DATABASE
Our databaseis a critical resource from NYC HDFC that contains information on over eighty-five thousand units of low-income rental and cooperative housing in New York City.
We havecollected data from multiple public and private sources to provide information on the 33,000 units of HDFC limited-equity cooperative housing and 56,000 units of HDFC nonprofit rental housing in New York City. Our database contains financial, physical, demographic, operational, regulatory, historical, bibliographical, legal, legislative, pictorial, and narrative content on HDFCs.
Werely on data, which we update regularly, from New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), New York City Department of Finance (DOF), New York City Department of Buildings (DOB), New York State Homes and Community Renewal (DHCR), New York City Department of City Planning (DCP), New York City Housing Court, Manhattan Community Board 10, New York State Supreme Court as well as the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), New York University Furman Center, and Citizens Housing Planning Council of New York City (CHPC) and the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library and Urban Planning Program at Columbia University.
PLEASE NOTE: Academic, independent, and student researchers, who are seeking access to this resource, must be willing to collaborate on a project that expands or enhances our database.
For access send a query that briefly explains your research interest, question, or problem to: [email protected]
HDFC WATCH LIST
Scores of HDFCs Placed on the Annual List of the 100 Worst Landlords
http://landlordwatchlist.com/#/landlords
113 HDFCs Issued Notices of Foreclosure for Unpaid Municipal Debts
At present, there are over three hundred (300) distressed HDFC cooperatives. Each of these HDFCs could be dissolved by the City government through it’s Third Party Transfer (TPT) program. HDFCs with low performance rating: code violations combined with tax arrears that exceed 2500 per unit are vulnerable to TPT, and once these Corporations fails and enters TPT are immediately transferred to Neighborhood Restore, a nonprofit holding company HPD created to transfer failed HDFCs it acquired to private developers and owners from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors for a pittance with the understanding that the new owners would redevelop these “distressed” properties into mixed income rental housing. The former shareholders in these HDFCs lose all their equity, unfortunately and become rent stabilized or Section 8 renters..
This year marks the beginning of the Tenth TPT Round and there 113 buildings that have received Notices of Foreclose from the Department of Finance. While most of the buildings are in the Bronx and represent the lion share of the over sixth-two million dollars in tax and water HDFCs owe, there are a good many West Harlem and some gens Crown Heights. .
Using best practices in business as well as strategic and tactical planning, NYC HDFC will assist vulnerable HDFCs with identifying untapped revenue streams that will provide their organizations the means to remove the threat of dissolution and create a more sustainable foundation from which these organizations can fulfilling their public service of providing affordable housing to the City’s low income earners.
We work with ‘distressed” HDFC to pay municipal debt, begin capital improvements, and establish a reserve fund, by providing the managed care and training to eliminate the financial and physical distress that threaten these scare housing assets.
HDFC TASK FORCE
FROM ANALYSIS TO ACTION
NYC HDFC is hosting a CONVENING meeting:
to examine the effacy of hdfc by-laws to empower shareholders and tenants
to encourage a more rigorous application corporate governance
to create advocacy enforcement triggers that protect shareholder and tenant rights
to pass a Citywide Resolution on regulatory and statutory compliance
to make policy and practical recommendation the corporation and governments.
HDFC properties
The only HDFC brokerage in New York City.
training, and certification for HDFC facilitators
dossier service
development rights consultancy
monitoring, management, and maintenance
A licensed real estate broker currently registered under Gabel Consultants
HDFC EMPOWERMENT POP-UP
Whether it’s strategically planned or a pleasant surprise, throughout the fiscal year, we pop-up at HDFCs citywide to listen to residents concerns and provide residents of pertinent information about HDFC reform. During our visit we make an assessment of the needs of the residents as well as examine the the physical structure of the building, and we prepare an internal report on the health of the Corporation.
conversational model of participatory organizing and collaborative leadership
by-laws
the HDFC Cafe is a space, created by NYC HDFC, where shareholders and tenants in HDFC cooperative and rental properties can come together, identify affinities, and exchange thoughts and ideas while absorbed in conversations about the things that matter to most to them concerning HDFCs. by sharing one’s experience, one’s own empirical experience with others who have their own experiences to share allows residents from different types of HDFCs from different types of neighborhoods the opportunity to collaborate and pool resources. empowered residents are better advocates for themselves and their HDFCs. The longevity of HDFCs as low-income housing projects depends upon participatory and collaborative leadership that expands and strengthens shareholder and tenant rights.
hdfc EMpowerment Cafe
friday, August 19
6pm
Refreshments served
RSVP TO ENTER A FREE RAFFLE
TWO DRAWINGs
not only are we repeating the raffle but we are doubling the opportunities to win!
WIN two REPRODUCTIONs OF WATERCOLORs FROM NYC HDFC ARCHIVE
(SEE LINK BELOW)
EMPOWER SHAREHOLDERS
ENFORCE DIRECTORS
PROTECT TENANTS
HDFC CONFERENCE Call
Through a free conference call, NYC HDFC creates a space where meaningful conversations among shareholders, directors, and officers in HDFCs can lead to commitment and results around the things that matter to the conference call participants.
Our Conference Calls require broad participation among HDFC residents. All of the conversations are hosted by NYC HDFC staff, and, on occasion, we invite residents from other HDFCs with similar experiences as well seasoned professionals from a variety of fields and disciplines to join the conversation.
At the scheduled date and time of the confirmed conference call, dial into the conference line. When prompted, enter the Access Code followed by the pound key.
NYC HDFC dial-in number: (515) 739-1///
NYC HDFC access code: 438318
HDFC SPOTLIGHT
110-116 Cambridge Place HDFC
Incorporated in 1984
Historic Clinton Hills District
Landmark Designation
8A Restoration Loan
110 and 116 Cambridge Place HDFC is two five story apartment buildings designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Cohn Brothers, one of Brooklyn s major twentieth-century firms specializing in apartment house design, . Built for Morris Jarcho, these structures with rusticated ground stories and much detailing of limestone and the upper stories of brick would replace four earlier wooden houses in 1914. The ground-floor entrances have decorated surrounds and foliate paneled piers below heavy consoles which support projecting cornices each with two lion’s heads. At the upper stories, the end bays have double ana1 triple windows with patterned brickwork between stories. Even the fire escapes of this magnificent structures are decorative and ornate. At the top story, the windows with stone-tympana are topped by brick and stone pseudo-gables.
Landmarks Preservation Committee, Clinton Historic District: Designation Report, (1981), 31.
