Archive for reference

These pages are provided as an archive of the NAG blog on a previous system. Commenting is no longer available.

Affordable Housing Forum: Saturday April 25th

Saturday, April 25th, 2009
10 am-4:30 pm
Boricua College, Northside Campus,
186 North 6th Street (between Bedford & Driggs)

Speakers, Workshops, Community Resources & Food!

Come hear community leaders speak about the future of your neighborhood (and the history too!)

• Forming tenants associations
• Rent over-charges for stabilized units
• Legal issues
• Maintenance and services
• Loft issues
• Stories from the neighborhood
• Literature and hand-outs available
• Some sessions in Spanish and Polish

UPDATE: SCHEDULE FOR CONFERENCE HAS BEEN RELEASED

Sponsored by the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Tenant Anti-Displacement Collaborative

• Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG)
• People's Firehouse
• Los Sures
• St Nicholas NPC
• Churches United
• Brooklyn Legal Services Corp A
• North Brooklyn Development Corp

With generous support of many local businesses

Planning the April 25th Housing Forum

Saturday, April 25th, 10am-5pm at Boricua College (186 N 6th Street), we will be holding the neighborhood's first housing forum in conjunction with our neighborhood partners from the affordable housing collaborative. We will be bringing together all segments of the community to learn tenant laws, how to deal with troubling housing situations, and how to find affordable housing through existing programs.

We need help promoting the forum and especially need Spanish and Polish speakers to help translate materials and to help facilitate portions of the forum.

If you can help, contact Wilneida Negron at wilneida@gmail.com or call the NAG office at 718-384-2248.

Thurs. Apr 2nd- 6pm: Forum Planning Meeting
Backroom @ Teddy's. (N 8th Street & Berry)
The main focus of this meeting will be helping to advertise and promote the Housing Forum.

Tues. Apr 14- 7pm: Forum Planning Meeting
NAG offices (101 Kent Ave @ N 8th Street)

Tues Apr 21- 7pm: Forum Planning Meeting
NAG offices (101 Kent Ave @ N 8th Street)

Sat Apr 25- 10am-5pm: First Annual Greenpoint-Williamsburg Affordable Housing Forum
Boricua College. 186 N 6th Street

Details About Affordable Housing Application Process

As noted Thursday, we pleased to announce that the Edge located on the Northside waterfront of Williamsburg is now accepting applications for their 346 "affordable" rental units. Applications will be accepted (by mail) until DECEMBER 3, 2008.

We want to ensure that the information about any of these "affordable" units is spread far and wide and we want to help people fill out the applications to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to participate in the housing lotteries. But please be aware that we are not renting any apartments ourselves, we have no part in the decision process in who gets the affordable units, have no input in the income levels, and are not a rental agency.

Details about the process in applying for one of these apartments can be found after the jump in the full post

Read more...

---

The apartment size, household size, rent, and income qualifications for the apartments are as follows

There are 77 studio apartments available for single households with an annual income range of $37,370 - $43,000.
The monthly rent will be $886.

There are 95 one bedroom apartments available for single households with an annual income range of $41,919 - $43,000 and households of 2 with an annual income range of $41,919 - $49,150.
The monthly rent will be $995.

There are 174 two bedroom apartments available for households of 3 with an annual income range of $50,287 - $55,300 and households of 4 with an annual income range of $50,287 - $61,450.
The monthly rent will be $1,198.

To get a sense of the layout of the buildings and where the affordable rental units are in relation to the units for sale, check out the design plans (click on "neighborhood" to see the site plan). We do not have any information of the layout of the plans for the rental units as of yet. Unfortunately, the tenants in the rental units will not have access to the EDGE amenities like the pool and screening rooms.

Ok, so you think you are qualified and you want to apply. Applications can be downloaded from www.williamsburgcommunityapartments.com

Feel free to come into the office for help with the applications. We can download the application for you, help you fill it out, and make copies of the completed application for your records. I have really neat handwriting and would be more than willing to help you fill out the application or answer any questions about the application.

Please remember, that you cannot submit more than one application. If you do, you will be disqualified. We are still waiting to hear back from HPD to learn their official definition of "household". Please give us a call if you have any questions about how to define your household and how to apply.

As always, we will be running our walk-in hours from 4-8pm on Mondays & 2-8pm on Tuesdays (except holidays). If those times do not work, you can make an appointment for a time that better suits your schedule by calling Ryan Kuonen @ (718) 384-2248.

Completed applications must be returned by regular mail (that's right, no priority, certified, over-night or registered mail will be accepted) to the PO Box listed on the application. Applications must be postmarked by December 3, 2008.

Applications will be randomly selected by lottery. Preference will be given to New York City residents. Preference for 50% of the units will be given to people who currently reside in Brooklyn Community Board 1 (that's pretty much all of Greenpoint and Williamsburg; 11211 & 11222) or can prove they lived in the neighborhood on or after October 4, 2004. There are other preferences for eligible applicants with mobility impairments (5% of units), visual and/or hearing impairments (2% of units), and City of NY Municipal Employees (5% preference).

And if you do not meet the income qualifications on this project, I am sorry to say that right now, this is the only project in the Greenpoint-Williamsbug area that is offering "affordable Units" for rent. We will contact you immediately when new offers arise...

-Ryan Kuonen, NAG Tenant Services

137 Oak: Tenant Organizing Meets the Greenpoint Historic District

NAG is broaching new territory (for us, at least), in organizing the residents of 137 Oak Street in Greenpoint. The building has a long and storied history. Many of the residents of Oak Street (a pretty close knit block, even for Greenpoint) are protective of the older men who live in the building. But the residents are actively trying to be pushed out by a new landlord who is willing to harass tenants and evade the law to get what they want.

137 Oak St (a/k/a "Greenpoint Home for the Aged") is an "eclectic brick mansion with Italianate massing and Romanesque Revival arches" that is a part of the Greenpoint Historic District. The building was originally built by the Guernsey family as an elderly care facility. It also seems to have been at some point a home for unwed mothers and a "cathouse." In 1953 it was officially converted into an SRO building.

Perhaps the writing was on the wall back in March of 2007 when the announcement that the Greenpoint Home for the Aged was hitting the market found its way onto Brownstoner. The author's comments about the current residents were clear: "Getting free and clear of the SRO tenants would take at least three years, we'd think; we're not even sure a developer could get them out."
Read more...

The Brownstoner post of course spurred a litany of nasty comments about smelly old men and chatter defending the rights of tenants. The building sat on the market for over a year, selling for $500,000 (according to the deed) in April of 2008. After years of requests for repairs being ignored and a couple years of complete neglect, the tenants were hopeful that the new owner would address the building's deterioration.

Unfortunately, that has not been the case. First came the harassment-- in a move typical of slumlords trying to get rid of tenants, the people of 137 Oak found that the new landlord was not cashing any of their rent checks (Landlords use this technique of hoarding rent checks and then cashing those months later, hoping the checks will bounce and rent will be owed, putting the tenant in a precarious position). The landlord also filed to evict some tenants, claiming they were not legal residents on the grounds that they were employees of the previous landlord. Tenants who had worked hard to help maintain the house in the past were now being punished for their work.

The tenants reached out to NAG & North Brooklyn Development Co. to help form a tenants association, approach the landlord, and initiate a dialogue. Together with the tenants NAG inventoried the needed repairs and sent a letter requesting a meeting. It was ignored. A request was made in person. It was denied. Meanwhile, the new landlord started to initiate some construction work on the site, completely disregarding the landmark status and the rules that apply to the building, which importantly include having plans from an architect or engineer before work can be done. Fortunately, thanks to NAG, the NYPD 94th precinct, and a DOB inspector, the illegal work was stopped. The tenants are still waiting for the Landmarks Preservation Commission to come out and inspect the property and to help determine a course of action.

NAG's tenant organizer, Ryan Kuonen, is continuing to help the tenants of 137 Oak fight for their rights. A majority of the tenants have been in the building for over a dozen years and some have lived there over 40 years, creating a community that may seem like just a "bunch of crazy old men" to people on the outside, but is really a nice group of neighbors who really love their house. These are people who worked on the docks and walked the streets of Greenpoint before they became hip. They love their home, their street, their neighborhood and have the right to have honest dealings with a landlord who treats them with respect and dignity, informing them of the future of their house.

More Information
Why we have to be vigilant about landmarked properties
Bridge and Tunnel Club walk down Oak Street
AIA listing of the building

Image courtesy Bridge and Tunnel Club.