On Friday, September 19, CDI staff Matt Meyer and NoĆ©mi Giszpenc joined experienced and new co-op developers at the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board for a tour of buildings in the Housing Development Fund Corporation program. UHAB provides consultation to boards and residents similar to what CDI’sĀ NEROC program does, preparing and counseling residentsĀ on their ownership rights and responsibilities. What we saw in New York is that some issues are the same–such as maintaining volunteer capacity or balancing operating costs with long-term investment–while others are very specific to the policy environment–such as the subtleties of selling a resident share when profits are split between co-op and seller, as they are in limited-equity housing co-ops. We also saw that where residents own and control their housing, pride of ownership leads to multiple improvements and enhancements, from beautiful shared garden areas to security arrangements.
A little background:Ā Since 1973 UHAB has assisted in the preservation of over 1,700 buildings and created homeownership opportunities for over 30,000 households.Ā Today, New York City has the largest community of shared-equity housing co-ops in the country. (See more atĀ http://uhab.org/history.)
Many thanks to UHAB for hosting this tour!
