Data Dump: New On-Line Info Tells Us Where and How We Live and Rent

New data sources highlighting housing and population trends in our borough and city are now on-line, including a great new database and interface from the Furman Center. The NYU housing research center recently debuted their brand new Subsidized Housing Information Project, also known as SHIP, that has a wealth of information about more than 2,500 properties in the city that have some form of subsidy that keeps rents affordable for tenants. The New York Times Real Estate Section recently profiled the new database.

Properties generally fall into at least one of four categories, including HUD Insured (e.g., a Section 202 Senior Housing project), project-based Section 8 (as opposed to the voucher program), low income housing tax credits (responsible for much of the affordable housing created in NYC the past two decades) and a state moderate and middle income program known as Mitchell Lama that includes buildings such as Tracey Towers and Keith Plaza.

About 675 subsidized properties fall in the Bronx, though more than 80 of these have already opted out of their affordability requirements and now offer market rents. (You can find out this type of information pretty easily on their website.)

One of the main purposes of the SHIP database is to help advocates identify properties where affordabilty requirements will expire in the coming years and develop strategies to preserve these homes as affordable for current and future tenants. Citywide, 329 properties with 66,000 units have already opted out of their affordability programs. While new affordable units are created every year and counted as part of the mayor's 10-year 165,000 unit plan, it is much more cost effective and efficient to preserve an apartment as affordable than to build a new one.

Rent stabilized properties are not included in the SHIP database as they are not subsidized, merely regulated. (Indeed, any apartment where a family pays half of their income on rent cannot be considered affordable, as is the case for nearly 40 percent of Bronx renter households.

You can get this data on the same Furman Center site under the "Neighborhood Info" tab.) Yet the loss of cheaper rent stabilized apartments greatly exceeds the loss of subsidized units, and the Bronx is ground zero for families struggling to make rent each month in a nation where real wages for the bottom 50 percent declined by 12.6 percent between 1980 and 2007, and have managed just an 0.7 percent annual growth for those in the 50-95th percentiles (see page 18 of this research paper by the Fiscal Policy Institute).

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office just released a report on the growing income gap that is fueling the sentiment behind Occupy Wall Street and related movements. The Census Bureau has also been releasing a steady stream of data on this hot topic and the Pew Center has done a great job analyzing and condensing this data while posting a series of articles including this one on the growing poverty rate numbers. A similar report delves into the topic of multi-generational households, and how more and more relatives are doubling up to reduce housing costs. They break this data down by household type, age, gender, ethnicity and place of birth, and populations that predominate in the Bronx are those whose rates of doubling up are the highest nationally.

Finally, for more Bronx-specific Census 2010 data, don’t miss Lehman College’s Bronx Data Center page. Professor William Bosworth has begun to map the new data on race and ethnicity at the micro level in the Bronx (census blocks) and at the neighborhood level for the City.

New Webster Ave. Plans Bring Cheers and Jeers

Editor's Note: This article first appeared in the latest edition of the Norwood News, on the streets and online now.

Construction has begun at 3600 Webster Ave. on a four-building
affordable housing complex. (Photo by Jeanmarie Evelly)

By JEANMARIE EVELLY

Change is coming to Webster Avenue.

The gritty, industrial stretch that runs through the neighborhoods of Norwood and Bedford Park was rezoned by the City Council this past March, with a plan designed to encourage more retail stores and residential housing in an area now largely composed of parking lots and auto body shops.

Though not necessarily a direct result of the city’s change—zoning plans are more like gentle hands that shape a neighborhood, and depending on market conditions, it can take years before any real changes are seen—new projects already underway or in the pipeline along Webster are a portent for what the street could look like down the road.

Two developers are eyeing the avenue as the site of separate affordable housing complexes. One is already underway, in a lot technically located in Community Board 12, along the south end of Woodlawn Cemetery and just north of Gun Hill Road. Jackson Development Group is constructing over 400 new apartments in four buildings, calling the massive development “Webster Commons,” and advertising the rentals for low and moderate-income tenants.

City Officials Mark Affordable Housing 'Milestone' in the Bronx

This affordable housing development in West Farms Square is one
of thousands that was financed this year by the city. (Photo: Jeanmarie Evelly)

Bloomberg administration officials gathered in the courtyard of a West Farms apartment complex this morning to celebrate what they say has been a landmark year for the city's affordable housing stock.

Officials announced that the city is ahead of schedule in Mayor Bloomberg's New Housing Marketplace Plan, which aims to "create and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing by the end of 2014."

The number of units financed in the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, puts the city three-quarters of the way towards hitting that goal number, a fact hailed by officials as a major accomplishment in light of the recession and the budget restraints of the last few years.

West Farms Residents Get Free Home Makeovers

Editor's Note: This article was first published in the June edition of the Tremont Tribune, out now.

Volunteers from Rebuilding Together NYC repair homes on Bronx Park Avenue and East 178th Street, part of the nonprofit’s “Neighborhood Rebuilding Day.” (Photo by F.G. Pinto)

By FAUSTO GIOVANNY PINTO

They came in the early morning in droves brandishing tool belts, saws and a dumpster. Before most people were up they were busy hammering, painting, and repairing in an all-day extreme remodeling session.

As Deadline Nears, A Final Push for Stronger Rent Laws

Bronx legislators at a rally for stronger rent laws on Thursday (photos by J. Evelly)

Housing advocates and local elected officials are making a last-ditch campaign to strengthen the state’s rent laws, which technically expire on Wednesday. Just this afternoon, dozens of protesters--among them Bronx Assemblyman Jose Rivera and Harlem State Sen. Bill Perkins--were arrested for blocking the entrance to Gov. Cuomo's office during a rowdy rally.

The Emergency Tenant Protection Act guarantees rent-stabilized status for over a million apartments across the city, and hundred of thousands in the Bronx. Sunday night, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos moved to extend the law’s deadline to this Friday, June 17, in the event that a deal isn’t reached before Wednesday.

New Bedford Park Housing Complex is a Bridge for Young and Old

The new Serviam Gardens complex sits on the campus of Mt. St. Ursula Academy in Bedford Park. (Photo by Adi Talwar. See slideshow below for more.)

The seedlings in the raised garden beds behind the campus of the Academy of Mount Saint Ursula have just begun to sprout; lettuce and tomato plants sowed over the last few months by an unlikely team: the seniors who live here and the teenage girls who go to class next door.

Residents call this scenic spot the "Intergenerational Garden" because it straddles the space between the historic all-girls' high school and a brand new, $65 million affordable housing project for seniors that officially opened yesterday. Here, the students are encouraged to stop by after class to mingle with the older residents or volunteer their time to help out in the garden.

"The girls love coming over here," said Sister Mary Alice Giordano, a teacher at Mount Saint Ursula's and a member of the Ursuline Sisters, the group that runs the Bedford Park school. "One of them said to me the other day, 'I love learning about the old days from someone who actually lived through it.'"

The Ursuline Sisters leased the property surrounding an unused former convent to the Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, which, recognizing the neighborhood's need for more senior citizen housing, spent the past several years converting the space--which includes two newly built buildings--into a stunning 296 unit apartment complex, named Serviam Gardens.

Residents Split Over Phipps’ Housing Plan

This lot, at East Tremont Avenue and Lebanon Street, is the proposed site of a controversial affordable housing project. (Photo by J. Evelly)

Editor's note: This article first appeared in the December issue of the Tremont Tribune, which is on the streets and online now.

By JEANMARIE EVELLY

A not-for-profit developer’s plans to build three affordable housing complexes in the West Farms neighborhood has upset a number of residents who live nearby.

The project, approved by Community Board 6 at a tense public hearing on Dec. 8, is planned for lots on both sides of East Tremont Avenue, bordered by East 178th and Lebanon streets, on what was once the site of train tracks owned by the MTA—steel trestles still sit on the property’s overgrown grass lot.

Phipps Houses, the developer, is one of the city’s largest affordable housing owners. Its affiliate group, Phipps Community Development Corporation, runs a number of social service programs in the immediate area, like GED courses and career training.

The proposed developments have pitted nearby homeowners, who are worried about an influx of new neighbors and the buildings’ heights—eight to 10 stories—against other community members who praise the organization for its work in the neighborhood.

“I know Phipps. I’m a product of Phipps,” said Sandra Carter, who said she lived in another Phipps-owned building. “They develop the community. They’re good for people. If they don’t get the application, someone else will, and we’ll get some shelter. We have enough of that here—we need affordable housing.”

But a group of homeowners adamantly opposed the plan, saying that the proposed 141 affordable housing units will decrease their property values and add to already serious litter and crime problems around their homes.

“With more units comes more people, and with more people comes more crime,” said Stefan Leonard, who lives on nearby Bronx Park Avenue.

BxNN's Housing Resource Page

As we mentioned last week, we're trying out some new features on the site this month, including the navigation bars you see at the top of this page.

Among these: our new housing resource page, which we hope to build into your one-stop shop for all things Bronx housing. Right now, you'll find a link to the BxNN's housing archive--all of our current and past coverage of Bronx real estate, rent issues, tenant/landlord disputes and more.

You'll also find a list of important New York City agencies for information on tenant's rights, emergency rent assistance programs, home loans, who to call to report a violation or where to look for building records. There's a directory of local organizations throughout the borough that offer affordable housing, foreclosure counseling and other support for renters and homeowners.

Visit the page here, or by clicking the "Housing" tab on the navigation bar above. As always, if you think there's anything we missed, let us know in the comments section, or drop an e-mail to bronxnewsnetwork@gmail.com.

Bronx News Roundup, May 5

Happy Cinco De Mayo! Now here's some BX news for you:

Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas was back in the courtroom yesterday after going AWOL for a couple of days. Villegas is facing a law suit filed by a former law school colleague that claims Villegas owes her $500,000, which he borrowed to pay back a gambling debt.

Special needs students from the New York League for Early Learning's Harry H. Gordon School got a taste of Little Italy yesterday as the pre-preschoolers ventured through restaurants on Arthur Avenue.

The Bronx district attorney's office has dropped all charges against the four Bronx boys who were accused of hitting an off-duty police officer with a snowball.

Eighth graders from the Learning Tree Cultural Preparatory School in the Bronx took a two-week trip to Kenya to trace President Obama's roots.

Just for a day, the chronically ill teenagers from the Children's Hospital at Montefiore were able to forget their pains and enjoy their first Prom Night.

During his battle with the state legislature over the state's financial crisis, Governor Paterson offered lawmakers the choice of either giving him authority to furlough more than 100,000 state employees or face a shut down of New York's government.

As part of "Affordable Housing Day," city officials announced in the Bronx on Monday that 100,000 affordable homes have been completed. They have a goal of completing 165,00o by 2014.

The city announced it will be building a new complex in the Melrose that will have green roofs, along with a series of gardens where residents can plant vegetables.

Bronx News Roundup, March 30

A  New York's Court of Appeals ruled today that Mazin Assi, who attempted to bomb a Bronx synagogue in 2000, is guilty of a hate crime. The court said that the stricter penalties of a hate crime applied to Assi, even if his crime was directed towards a building and not a person.

All this heavy rain caused a mudslide near the Riverdale Metro-North station early this morning, disrupting service on the Hudson line. Train times were back to normal a little after 11 a.m.

Some seasonal exhibits at the Bronx Zoo will officially reopen this Saturday.

The Daily News reports on a the popularity of hydroponic gardening--growing plants in liquid instead of soil--and how it's perfect for Bronxites who don't have the space for a traditional garden.

New low-income housing near Union Grove Baptist Church, on Hoe Avenue, broke ground on Friday. The buildings will be named after long time pastor Rev. Dr. Fletcher Crawford, who conceptualized the development.

Some Bronx politicians, like Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, are supporting--and even calling for expansions of--the proposed tax on sugary sodas, according to the Daily News' Bob Kappstatter.

Sen. Eric Schneiderman and other City officials are fighting to have prison inmates who are originally from New York City counted as city residents in the census. Current practices count inmates as residents of the regions where they're incarcerated, often upping census numbers for smaller towns upstate that house large prisons.

Starting April 10, the Parkchester 6 train station will be partially closed for repairs and renovations, which will take about three months to complete.

More on "Whatever it Takes," a documentary that chronicles Edward Tom, principal at the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics, in his goal to have all of his students graduate and go to college. More details on the film, which premieres tonight at 10 p.m., here.

Espada: Housing Bill Will Freeze Rents

Sen. Pedro Espada announces his bill at City Hall on Feb. 17

A new housing bill introduced by State Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada, Jr., which proposes to freeze rent increases for close to 300,000 qualifying city households, has riled some housing advocates who say the bill is pro-landlord legislation in disguise.

Espada said his bill would provide relief to rent-stabilized households that make less than $45,000 a year and spend at least a third of their annual income on rent. But many housing advocates say the bill could actually work against tenants and is typical of Espada, who serves as Senate housing chairman but has earned a reputation for being cozy with landlords.

"Hallelujah!" Tenants at Embattled Sedgwick Building Have Hot Water for First Time in 3 Months

Scenes from inside and outside of 2285 Sedgwick on Tuesday evening, where tenants were without hot water, gas and heat for more than 3 months.

[All photos by Adi Talwar]

“Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, God is good,” exclaimed Caroline Loja over the phone just minutes ago as she happily reported that hot water had returned to her all but abandoned building on Sedgwick Avenue.

After three months of no heat, hot water, cooking gas or answers, Lojas and other tenants at their deteriorating apartment building in University Heights recently took matters into their own hands. They banded together, attracted attention to their plight and forced the city to intervene on their behalf.

But the situation, which exploded onto the media landscape as the week progressed (we went there on Tuesday, but are just now getting this up online), serves as an extreme example of what can happen to a good building run by a bad landlord in a struggling economy.

Before Juan Romero took over as owner of 2285 Sedgwick, a six-story, 54-unit complex just south of Fordham Road, the building was a shining star in nice neighborhood. While the block remains stable – it includes several single-family homes decorated for Halloween right now – 2285 Sedgwick has steadily deteriorated.

For years, residents say Romero has skimped on maintenance efforts and patched together repair work using unlicensed workers (mostly his super did everything, residents say).

Then, in early July, a fire ripped through a first floor apartment that was being used as a yoga studio. Thanks to on-the-spot firefighters, the blaze was contained, but the gas lines were damaged, prompting Con Edison to shut off the building’s gas supply until repairs were made.

The building has lacked hot water, gas and heat ever since.

Soon after the fire took place, Romero, who is in the final stages of foreclosure proceedings after defaulting on the building’s mortgage payments, made at least one attempt to repair the gas lines, but again used unlicensed workers who didn’t do a proper job. This was followed by a vicious cycle of tenant 311 complaints, followed by the courts ordering Romero to do the work and him promising to do so and then not doing it.

Finally, last weekend, tenants began organizing themselves and decided to do something. They draped big poster boards and sheets out of their windows and from their fire escapes calling for help. The whole building was a like sinking ship throwing out desperate distress calls. “Help!”

On Sunday, dozens of tenants marched to a rally held by the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition at St. Nicholas Tolentine Church, just a few block away on Fordham Road. There they received some badly-needed attention from the media (first by News 12, which had also done a story on the building during the summer, a week after the fire.) and local politicians. Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., Assemblyman Nelson Castro and State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. all stopped to offer their help.

Finally, on Thursday HPD sent out licensed workers to make all the appropriate repairs. Eariler today, both the Buildings Department and Con Edison gave the repairs the green light and just minutes ago, Loja was able to launch into her own personal Hallelujah chorus.

[There’s a lot more to this story and you can read all about it in the next Norwood News online and on streets next Thursday.]

Bronx News Roundup, Oct. 29

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden were in the Bronx yesterday to watch the Yankees game. Beforehand, they visited a veterans center in Kingsbridge Heights.

A four-alarm fire destroyed several businesses on Southern Boulavard in Longwood last night.

In the South Bronx, there are dozens of unfinished condo buildings. The dour economy has forced many developers to abandon projects, or at least put them on hold.

The Bronx teen arrested in connection with the shooting death of 92-year-old Sadie Mitchell in Williambridge on Oct. 20, has been indicted on second-degree murder charges.

Two architecture students from Columbia University have won a design competition in which applicants had to present their vision for the future of the Grand Concourse. There were nearly 200 entries from all over the world. The seven best proposals will be displayed at the Bronx Museum, starting this Sunday.

Tenants living in a 54-unit apartment building on Sedgwick Avenue say they've been without heat and hot water since July.

Worshippers at a mosque on Virginia Avenue are asking the police for a sound permit so they use loud speakers when announcing "adhan," the call to prayer. Some of their non-Muslim neighbors oppose the plan, saying it'll cause unnecessary noise.

Rent News

As Jordan wrote this morning, Senator Espada gave some hope that he may actually back changing or repealing High Rent Vacancy Decontrol on Sunday. While we will all have to wait and see if he will walk the walk, the timing of Espada's verbal reversal coincides with major rent decontrol news across the City.

First, here are a few excerpts from my recent op-ed on why Espada Must Reconsider Vacancy Decontrol, despite the fact that he is correct to assert that most rents in his district are in danger of going above $2,000 per month just yet:

High-rent vacancy decontrol has helped to fuel speculation throughout the city during this past boom decade, especially in neighborhoods succumbing to gentrification pressures... As a result, the number of neighborhoods where working class families can afford to live within city boundaries continues to shrink. Rents remain within reach of these families in few New York City neighborhoods outside of the west Bronx...
In addition to increasing economic segregation, vacancy decontrol is making it harder to find a decent apartment in the west Bronx as competition for lower rent units gets fiercer. Most of Espada’s district overlaps with community districts that rank among the city’s highest for percentage of households paying more than half of their income on rent...
Vacancy decontrol has also helped spur on the aggressive tactics used by many landlords, including certain private equity investors, to attempt to achieve higher rates of turnover and thus higher rents in their recently acquired properties. The practices, many of which could qualify as harassment, have been pursued most notably in upper Manhattan, but have also been well documented in the Bronx – including in Espada’s district – going back to Norwood News’ coverage of the Botanical Square properties in October 2005.
In having owners’ sights set on the magical $2,000 rent mark, vacancy decontrol has also encouraged speculation throughout the five boroughs. Speculative investment has, in turn, greatly inflated the city’s real estate bubble over the past decade. We are now beginning to see how devastating the effects of this bubble bursting are, as buildings go into foreclosure, and some are even abandoned in the process. Many more buildings are at risk for foreclosure in the coming years and are currently suffering from cuts in services as owners struggle to make huge mortgage payments. The tenants in these buildings – many of them the Latino constituency Espada claims to be representing, both in and out of his district – are the ones suffering the effects of the speculative market the most.

Speaking of foreclosures, there's more news on the Ocelot/Fannie Mae buildings. Crain's is reporting that Senator Schumer and Rep. Serrano implored Fannie in a letter to not continue selling its mortgages on these properties. "After backing off an earlier attempt to sell the buildings' mortgages via an online auction, the agency now wants to unload them through a competitive bidding process." Instead of just shifting the problem to new hands, the letter requests that Fannie complete the foreclosure process and then work towards moving the 14 buildings to responsible ownership.

While it's not clear whether the subject will be these same Ocelot/Fannie buildings, a United Nations rapporteur has been appointed to look at affordable housing in the City, including speaking with tenants whose owners are in foreclosure in the Bronx. Her overall task is "to to tour New York City and six other places in the United States and to report back to the United Nations General Assembly about housing rights violations and advances."

Now, on to the biggest news item: the court decision reversing rent deregulation at Stuy Town because they received tax abatements. You can read more about the decision in City Limits and see how the Daily News is reporting that the decision may have an affect in a building in Morris Heights.

While the Stuy Town decision will only accelerate foreclosures in a number of properties, most of these buildings were likely headed there regardless. The decision also represents another strike against speculative investing and may help build more momentum in the quest to change or repeal vacancy decontrol laws. Since Espada is up for re-election a year from now, we won't have to wait long to see where vacancy decontrol goes.

Bronx News Roundup, August 4

Construction on a new, large-scale housing development on Eagle Avenue in the South Bronx starts today. The development will be called St. Ann's Terrace and it will have eight buildings with 640 affordable housing units.

As Bronx BP Ruben Diaz approaches his decision on whether to support The Related Companies' plan for the Kingsbridge Armory, Bronx residents hope he will improve the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). Diaz hopes to include stronger enforcement mechanisms for the CBA.

Today, the United States Senate will begin to debate Judge Sonia Sotomayor's appointment to the Supreme Court. The vote for Sotomayor is expected to be confirmed by the end of this week.

The New York Daily News suspects that Bronx Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo and her daughter, City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo will soon be arrested for benefiting from their relatives stealing $20,000 from a nonprofit organization.

Riverdale Avenue between 254th and 260th Streets has a variety of affordable shops and restaurants recently profiled in the New York Daily News.

On the Housing Front

Here are a few Bronx-related housing stories for the beginning of summer:

The main topic for 2009 that will likely continue on for the foreseeable future is the issue of foreclosures in apartment buildings, especially those owned by private equity investors who gambled on increasing rents dramatically.

In the Gotham Gazette, Bronx-based freelance reporter Eileen Markey documents the Foreclosure Threat that Looms Over Thousands of City Apartments, including many in the Bronx.

Included in her piece is the worst-case scenario being played out a number of Bronx buildings owned by private equity investor Ocelot Properties, where the owners have walked away, the buildings are in complete disarray and a number of them have gone vacant.

Earlier this month, City Limits reported on the situation in these buildings and the efforts by the City and housing advocates to get the lender, Fannie Mae, to "take a more active role in ensuring upkeep of the properties."

University Neighborhood Housing Program has warned about these types of scenarios for years at our affordable housing forums. Two years ago at our forum on Shrinking Affordability, panelist Frank Anelante of Lemle & Wolff warned about the condition of much of the City's housing stock and that we would be seeing more and more buildings falling down, such as what happened in Brooklyn yesterday.

(The report from this year's forum on Envisioning the Future of the Red Zone contains an extensive collection of maps and charts focusing on the west Bronx including new housing, demographic, economic and real estate data.)

Finally, NY1 has a segment on how the City's housing department (HPD) is buying foreclosed homes to rehab and sell them at below-market prices.

More Housing Gloom

The transitional "cluster-sites" are just one of the many housing stories in the west Bronx in early 2009. The number of 1-4 family foreclosure notices filed continue to rise, half-built 3-family houses sit vacant on lots where occupied larger single family homes once stood, and the question of over-leveraged apartment buildings that sold at the peak of the housing boom looms over many neighborhoods throughout New York City.

In Harlem, the 1,228 unit Riverton went into foreclosure on February 3, and the Times is reporting that a State Supreme Court judge appointed a receiver to oversee the complex yesterday. Harold Shultz of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council is quoted extensively in the article, pointing out that the tenants are not likely to suffer since the owner did not contest the foreclosure.

For buildings in the Bronx that are similarly over-leveraged (meaning someone can't afford their mortgage payment based on the building's income), things may not be so rosy. The article continues:

Or, if the lender is unable to sell the property quickly, Mr. Shultz said, Riverton could languish with a “hands-off” managing agent that knows that it will eventually be replaced by a new owner. In those instances, the lender would have every incentive to cut operating costs and defer expensive maintenance projects until the complex is sold. And that may take some time, given that financing for large real estate investments is tough to come by these days.
Mr. Shultz, as well as tenant advocates, say that landlords at dozens of other poor and working-class tenements purchased in 2006 and 2007 are already putting off repairs and deferring maintenance. They say a cycle of disinvestment could quickly envelop the surrounding neighborhood as the buildings deteriorate.

UNHP is tracking code violations and city liens in buildings throughout the City to help identify properties at-risk for foreclosure in an effort to be pro-active. Based on past history of foreclosure waves in Bronx apartment buildings (see: Freddie Mac 20 years ago), don't expect things to turn out so wonderfully. In fact, some landlords who can't make their mortgage payments may try to increase their revenue by turning their buildings into cluster-sites.

New Housing Commissioner Named

We've just learned from Enterprise Community Partners that Rafael Cestero has been named as the new Commissioner for the City's Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD). Cestero currently serves as the senior vice president, regional executive of the eastern region for Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., a national nonprofit that has worked extensively with local groups building and renovating affordable housing in the Bronx over the past two decades. Enterprise was recently named Fast Company magazine's Social Enterprise of the Year and you can read about it on Amazon.

Cestero has worked for Enterprise since 1993, except for a stint from 2004 to 2007 as an assistant commissioner HPD under new HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Enterprise is obviously happy about the appointment:

"New York City is fortunate to have someone with Rafael’s expertise in the housing and community development field and his passion for affordable housing to lead HPD. Enterprise looks forward to continuing its partnership with the city of New York and to work along side our longtime colleague and friend."

The west Bronx will hopefully benefit as well, as Cestero has a history of working closely with a number of Bronx housing nonprofits.

The New York Observer is also confirming the appointment.

Update: Here is the official press release from HPD regarding the appointment.

Housing Struggles Continue in the Bronx

Even as many in the Bronx celebrate the inauguration of the Barack Obama as our 44th President, tenants across the borough are struggling. At 808 E 175th Street, yournabe.com reports how Con Edison shut off common area electricity and the boiler room earlier this month, leaving tenants to walk in the dark to their freezing apartments. A former predatory equity building owned by OCG VII (a subsidiary of Ocelot), the City had threatened to have a court-appointed administrator take over the building in October. Ocelot, in response, sold the property and the deadline for the new owner, DDF Bronx Portfolio LLC, to fix the many C class violations is fast approaching. Meanwhile, the City has restored heat and power to the building.

Patrice O'Shaughnessy also takes an in-depth look at the housing affordability crisis that led to the illegally partitioned walls in the building where two fire-fighters perished four years ago.

Back when Arias moved in, rents in that area were still within reach for the working poor. But in the last three or four years, people have been forced to leave their neighborhoods because their rents have almost doubled. A rent of $1,500 to $2,000 for a large apartment in low-income neighborhoods is no longer rare.

Just look at this building, which is owned by 234 E. 178th St. LLC, out of an office on Lydig Ave. It was valued at $369,000 on Jan. 15, 2005, a week before the fire. On Jan. 15, 2007, the value had jumped to $2,030,000. It's a reflection of how building values in low-income neighborhoods are skyrocketing, and affordable housing for the working poor is shrinking. It has led to families doubling up, illegal subdivisions,
overcrowding.

In 2008 the Department of Buildings issued 838 violations for illegal conversions on 688 properties, up from 701 violations on 641 properties in 2005.

Bronx political leaders and someone from the mayor's office should be at this trial. They would hear how poor people find a place to live these days.

Arias never got a receipt for her rent payments. She testified that she never received mail at the building. She was undocumented by Con Edison, by city agencies.

Thousands of people are virtually invisible. We find out about them when there is a tragedy.

So while Bronxites rejoice in the history made today, the everyday struggles continue for many in our borough.

Is the Bronx Real Estate Bubble Finally About to Burst?

Opinion by Gregory Lobo Jost
The morning after the 2000 election, when many of us were learning about the fascinations of the electoral college and wondering who would be our next president, University Neighborhood Housing Program convened a forum at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus on the early signs of a housing bubble in the Bronx. While no one knew just when such a bubble might burst, we were able to document a growing disparity between sales prices and the profitability of apartment buildings or, in other words, the emergence of a speculative bubble. With the help of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, we refined the research and in 2003 released a report, A Real Estate Bubble in the Bronx? that showed it was impossible to prove we weren't experiencing a speculative bubble.

Fast-forward to 2007 and the release of another UNHP report on the topic, Shrinking Affordability, documented how the disparity between profitability and sales prices was continuing to increase to previously unimaginable levels, fueled primarily by private equity investor groups. In the west Bronx, private equity groups such as SG2, Pinnacle, Prana, Ocelot and Normandy have purchased large numbers of rent stabilized buildings, often paying significantly more per unit than other owners. In 2007, for instance, Private Equity groups paid on average about $83,300 per unit while the rest of the purchasers paid an average of about $76,000 per unit. Adjusted for inflation, the overall average sales price had more than doubled since 2001. Yet the buildings themselves are only about as profitable as they were back in 1990, as the operating expenses have climbed at least as fast as rents (according to Income and Expense Studies from the Rent Guidelines Board).

Our main concern on this issue has been the potential for owners to cut back on services to buildings in order to handle their huge debt service (mortgage) payments and rising operating costs (e.g., fuel, water, insurance). The worst case scenario involves a building going into foreclosure -- a losing situation all around not just for the owner, investor and lender, but more importantly for the building, the tenants and the neighborhood. As we saw in the late 1980s with the rash of multifamily foreclosures in Bronx buildings overfinanced by Freddie Mac, these properties often fell into serious disrepair and communities as a whole suffered.

Is history about to repeat itself? A story in the New York Times earlier this week discusses how the owners of the Riverton, a large middle income and mostly rent stabilized housing complex in Harlem, are warning their lenders that "they are in imminent danger of defaulting on their mortgage." While a number of small Bronx apartment buildings (6 - 15 units) have already gone into foreclosure in recent years, the Riverton may signal a wave of larger defaults stemming from faulty logic made by private equity investor groups in the West Bronx and Upper Manhattan, as a follow-up article in today's Times discusses:

Until a few years ago, places like Upper Manhattan and the Bronx held little allure for investors in residential property. But as the New York real estate market heated up, major real estate companies began competing vigorously for rent-regulated buildings in these neighborhoods in the belief that they could manage them more professionally and, hence, more profitably.

The recent disclosure that the owners of Riverton Houses, a 1,228-unit apartment complex in Harlem, might default on their loan has shocked the real estate industry. And it has raised fears about other apartment building deals from the not-so-distant past, when the frenzy in the market was reaching its peak.

The strategy in these types of investments has been to achieve high levels of turnover in apartments (i.e., force/encourage as many tenants to move out as possible, especially the ones with lower rents) in order to take advantage of rent stabilization laws that allow for a 20% increase in an apartment's rent upon vacancy. Coupled with increases from Major Capital Improvements and the allotted annual increase approved by the Rent Guidelines Board, getting a tenant to move out of an apartment could easily translate into a 25 - 35% jump in the allowable rent for the next tenant. In a gentrifying neighborhood (e.g., northern Manhattan), creating high levels of turnover could dramatically increase a building's income, thereby justifying the high price paid for the property.

With the example of the Riverton leading the way, we are able to see how this strategy might not pan out the way the Private Equity groups are hoping for. First and foremost, tenants are being organized and educated about how to keep their apartments and avoid being forced out. As long-time owner/manager of Bronx and Upper Manhattan buildings Frank Anelante points out in the same Times article today, turnover in his units is closer to 2%. By way of contrast, private equity groups have documented in their filings with the S.E.C. plans to reach turnover rates as high as 30% of the apartments in the first year and 10% percent annually in the following years. With the example of the Riverton, we are beginning to see what may happen to more owners when they can't meet this outlandish target.

And if private equity groups are having a hard time in gentrifying upper Manhattan, their troubles may end up being even worse here in the west Bronx where tenants already typically pay half of their income on rent. For the sake of our neighborhoods, let's all hope for a soft landing.