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I'm doing research on the relationship between homelessness and housing abandonment.
We at Crown Heights North Assoc. are aware of dozens of abandoned buildings in the landmarked areas of Crown Heights North. Our suspicion is that many of these were once occupied by low income families, perhaps some of whom are now homeless.
Does anyone know of case histories that support this idea? That is, now vacant buildings that you know once housed families or individuals with limited income? Especially interested if those families or individuals are now homeless.
How about research that documents and supports this concept?
All help welcome.
Brooklynian » Forum » Crown Heights and Prospect Lefferts Gardens »
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Captain you may want to contact the Legacy Group
http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/pr2010/pr-9-15-10.shtmlMy friend was in a shelter and she is now in one of their new apartments and they are very very nice, I know from meeting some of her neighbors that they fall into the category you are looking for.
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I'd call someone at the Furman center and/or read their recent materials for Crown Heights
http://furmancenter.org/research/sonychan/
or, perhaps better yet, get in touch with someone who works to preserve the private, non-OMH, Non-HPD supervised, SRO market.
http://www.goddard.org/srolawproject.html
My suspicion has always been that low income, market rate, non-program housing follows the following downward trajectory: Low income families then SRO, then abandonment.
City Limits covers such stories pretty regularly, and may be able to help out as well.
More Ideas:
a. DHS runs homeless family prevention programs throughout NYC: "Home Based". These offices likely collect statistics on how many of the families are coming from situations in which the landlord effectively abandoned the buildings, yet HPD declined to take over management of the buildings ....and they had to seek shelter as a result.(as you are aware, the city ends up owning such buildings when the landlords don't provide heat to tenants ....HPD then fixes the boiler and sues the landlord. If the landlord doesn't come up with the cash, the city ends up with the title to the building after a court process, yet the city doesn't want to be a landlord, so it sells it at auction.... fun for all!)
b. So, maybe HPD also keeps data on how many people become homeless as a result of it not being able to "take over" buildings that are in states of repair that are too miserable for even HPD to take on....
c. CAMBA and Black Veterans for Social Justice are two of the major providers of homeless services in Brooklyn. They likely track where their clients lived immediately prior to needing shelter. In addition to "eviction", I am confident "released from drug rehab, prison, jail, psychiatric care, etc." are often frequent causes.
For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor. -
NYC has a great online real property records database. Plug the name of it (ACRIS) into google and it'll come right up. (an annoying feature: you have to use MS Explorer to view documents) W/ that, you'll be able to research the ownership of the houses going back decades, and can see deeds, mortgages, transfers, and so on. On top of that, you can check out NYC HPD's records; if it's there's a slumlord or something, you should be able to infer it from the violation history. Finally, you could review the property on NYC's Dpt of Finance site and see the history of the property values.
There's a ton of materials out there for NYC real property.
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Nobody in my experience wants to take over occupied buildings. Not the city and certainly not the private sector.
So the "will be delievered vacant" is a prime attraction for potential renovators.
In fewer than five family buildings, there are no rent controls, so the market does what it will be folks living in them, which is usually eviction. Once a building has not had significant repair and renovation for 10 or 15 years, it will need a major renovation, and that is almost impossible to do with tenants in the building.
So, my question is: who tracks what happens to 1-4 family buildings that are being renovated. If they were deliberated vacated, where did those people go?
This is a very specific type of building, and because they are small, they often go off the radar is my guess. It's a lot of research to look at 30 buildings who house maybe 70-80 families, versus one building that houses 70-80 people. But the larger buildings are protected by rent control.
In aggregate I believe the homelessness caused by vacating smaller buildings could be greater than that caused by larger buildings, where tenants get relocated and moved back post renovation, usually at their old rents, thanks to City subsidies.
On my block we had three 8 family buildings renovated by the City. Tenants were relocated and moved back at subsidized rents. At the same time at least five 2-4 family buildings have been vacated in the past 8 years. In all cases, the old families have been lost and replaced by either no one or higer income families.
If it happened here, I'm sure it's happening all over Crown Heights.
Still looking for good leads on how to document this phenomenon. -
capt planet » So, my question is: who tracks what happens to 1-4 family buildings that are being renovated. If they were delivered vacated, where did those people go?
If I were a landlord of such a building and planned to sell it in the near future, wouldn't I tell my tenants they could no longer get a lease from me, and would instead be on a month to month basis?
.....then, once I found a buyer, serve the tenants with notice that I was going to terminate their occupancy as of 3 months from now?
I'd also imagine that the landlords of these smaller buildings tend to be less experienced, and have less capital ....and therefore more likely to abandon their building in the event of some "unexpected" expense, such as:
-new roof needed
-1920s plumbing finally fails
-fire
-HPD boiler "no heat" or numerous violations scenario I discussed
-tenant who won't leave, won't pay rent, and decides to terrorized other residents ....who then flee
-water bill going back to 1995 that city has decided to collect on.
For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor. -
The last place I lived for nearly 20 years was a 5 family brownstone. One day we came home to a century 21 for sale sign. The landlady didnt even have the decency to tell us so we were really vex and formed a tenants association and got a lawyer. He told us to list all the violations which turned out to be 97 between all the apartments and common spaces! Warning though, doing this violation thing is more of a pain in the ass than anything but it does buy you time. It got to the thing that I forget what it is called where the landlord is not taking care of the building and someone takes it over. But they wouldnt. This was on a very prime block. So in the end, this whole thing bought us 9 months extra time, 7 months free rent and homelessness and the bitch got to sell the piece of shit building for 1.5 mil. We all had to struggle very hard tomfind places in the peak of the market before it crashed and could easily have ended up homeless. So yes this can happen very easily.
One tenant they found lead paint in his walls and almost got forced to vacate immediately! If they find certain things they just force people to move out that day.
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gee, at least the 1.5 million compensated the landlord for all the shit the tenants did. Hard to feel sorry for you.
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Capt-
In addition to the government entities we have mentioned, and the ones you are likely already familiar with (i.e. DHS's Home Based, HPD, DOB, and DHCR), how about contacting the various tenants rights groups in Brooklyn that help people facing eviction and substandard housing?Surely these organizations are contacted by tenants seeking help in such situations, only to have to tell them "sorry, you are not protected because you are a month-to-month renter in a building that is below the size covered by rent stabilization"
Legal Aid Society? http://www.legal-aid.org/en/las/findus/locations/brooklyn.aspx
Organizations such as Make the Road by Walking? http://www.maketheroad.org/whatwedo_housing.php
http://www.maketheroad.org/article.php?ID=1440Hopefully they record such requests.
...on the flip side, and slightly off topic, I can't imagine REBNY and the small landlords sitting idly by if rent stabilization efforts were to be expanded to cover smaller buildings. Those hearings are always ugly....
For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor. -
Tsarina tha fuck is wrong with you? You have great paying on time tenants for 20 years, you dont fix the building and dont even have the courtesy to let your tenants know you selling the building just let them come home to a century 21 sign and a legally wrong stupid one month notice letter???!!! Plus she gpt the building for free???!!! Greedy bitch deserve all she got and then some minus the 1.5 mil. Tsarina please do not evrr speak to me again. I will ignore you as well and am now going to look if there is an ignore feature on this site.
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Calm down, please. Try to maintain some degree of civility, both of you!
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Look I almost got homeless in the same way the thread is talking about. I shared my story, how no city agency can really help you, the only course of possible action which is just a temporary bandaid, and the final result. Then I get a foul comment. Many would not be so lucky to find places in time as we all did.
Who I really feel bad for though are the new tenants with the new owner because he just gave the bulilding a little facelift but did not fix the major problems which would require gutting. He just made it took pretty. So the new suckers are paying $2200 an apt and 2500 for the garden floor to deal with the same problems we did.
This city really needs to upgrade the laws on housing!
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You lived in somebody else's house for twenty years, not your house. Somebody paid for the building and then did what they wanted to do with their property (presumably left it to her). Why do you feel entitled to determine what she does with the building? Do you feel you are entitled to live there for as long as you want? Of course you don't state how much rent you paid. But I guess it was cheap enough to put up with all the problems, until you realized that it was going to come to an end.
I'm not being foul, I'm merely stating fact and commenting on some renters feelings of entitlement.
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She did not pay for the building she got it for free and used it as her cash cow leaving her HIGH paying tenants without heat or hot water for days and weeks, begging to crash on our couches and having no type of manners. People rent and these are their HOMES especially when they live there for 20years and put in kitchens the landlady too cheap to and thousands of dollars of plants in the yard and especially when she specifically told you you can live there as long as you want. Manners are manners and you TELL your nice tenants you are going to sell the building not let them come home to a century 21 sign. You also dont send them a totally illegal broken english handwritten one month notice. Nor do you try to freeze them out. Nor do you let them live with mold and vermin and a whole heap of other atrocities. If the building had only had 6 apts we would still be there actually. We should own the building for all we went through and were actually very close! Like I said NY needs SERIOUS rent law overhaul. Renters should have rights too especially long tem ones. People like you are fucking with and ruining peoples lives. I cant wait til they overturn the less than 6 apts law so people like you cant get away with your fuckry any longer. Mamanyema.
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Oh btw this stupid bitch didnt see a penny of the 1.5 mil cause the idiot triple morgaged the building she got for free out of greed. LMFAO!!!
In all seriousness though, it is very easy for people in small buildings to end up homeless quickly and something needs to be done about it.
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1) Well if you were high paying tenants why didn't you move to get more bang for your buck.
2) If she got the building "for free out of greed", how does that make her any worse than you who also wants to get the building for free?By the way, is your name Marcus?
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Capt-
I hope you got all the ideas you needed from this thread, as it is now veering off course.Good luck on your research project.
Please report back CHNA's findings.
...interesting stuff.
For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor. -
<<off topic alert>>
Discussion of nofay's former living arrangements are getting off-topic. It's an interesting story that nofay argues is potentially related to the thread - in that it almost left them homeless - but it's no longer in the spirit of the thread.
Any continued discussion of this will probably just be deleted, so please think before spilling any more ink on it.
Brooklynian on Twitter: http://twitter.com/brooklynian
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brooklyniancom/35509627419 -
jpe said:
NYC has a great online real property records database. Plug the name of it (ACRIS) into google and it'll come right up. (an annoying feature: you have to use MS Explorer to view documents) W/ that, you'll be able to research the ownership of the houses going back decades, and can see deeds, mortgages, transfers, and so on. On top of that, you can check out NYC HPD's records; if it's there's a slumlord or something, you should be able to infer it from the violation history. Finally, you could review the property on NYC's Dpt of Finance site and see the history of the property values.There's a ton of materials out there for NYC real property.
not always true :p, when i brought my building it had tons of violations and off course pay them to come over and do a inspection. they freaking forgot to take off 1 apt's violation which is like a page full. i'm not paying them again. the reason he forgot is, the whole building had violations. i had tons of keys to go through to show each apt. so one of the apt's i can't find keys to right away, we just went to the next one and came back near the end of his inspection. he saw it and few months later. he claim he had no access to apt. bastard!!
Fight white guilt and injustice by smoking tax free guilt free Reservation Smokes or go gamble in a Native Casino.
I like to stick it to The Man, The Man happens to be Liberal in NYC(power Structure). -
Very interesting. I'll follow-up all the leads as best I can. I'm talking to a major foundation that does work with the homeless. They want hard evidence that small building abandonment is a significant cause of homelessness.
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Capt-
Mrs. Whynot was just jabbering about something that is exactly on this topic.
As per her source, an area in Greenpoint-Williamsburg was recently zoned and the residents successfully got the Dept of Planning to created an "Anti-Tenant Harassment Zone".
As she explained it, the new zoning would allow developers to build housing units of more than 6 units on properties that were previously zoned for less than 6 units.
In exchange for this favorable zoning change, developers and landlords who are found to have engaged in "Harassment" (defined as operating a really run down building and/or allowing it to be overrun by drug dealers, etc.) are prohibited from must provide assistance to the residents displaced in the the process, EVEN THOUGH THESE RESIDENTS ARE NOT PRESENTLY COVERED BY RENT STABILIZATION OR RENT CONTROL.
Here's a graduate Urban Planning paper written on the topic:
http://policy.rutgers.edu/academics/projects/studios/Williamsburg07r.pdfMy sense is that the North Brooklyn Alliance (the group got this additional requirement put in place) must have had their acts together, and therefore is likely a good place for you to get the research you seek.
For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor. -
Interesting, innovative approach by North Brooklyn Alliance. Greenpoint Williamsburg though has a very different housing stock than Crown Heights North. Not much of historic significance in the former to my knowledge. CHN on the other hand, is largely landmarked. Meaning a zoning boost wouldn't work too well. Buildings must conform to the historic character of the community. Knocking down an historic brownstone or building a 4 story addition on top of it just wouldn't fly.
I wonder what other benefit the City could provide that wouldn't actually cost the City money?
Any ideas? -
I agree, and I don't think asking for tenant protection in exchange for "up zoning" is gonna fly in CH for the reasons you mention.
I was mostly impressed that they were able to get more tenant protections at all.
I guess that NBA was able to do it is a testament to how profitable the up zoning was perceived to be; "fine we will agree to your tenant protections".
My head remains pretty empty as to how you could get more tenant protections for low density housing in CH. ....but I'll talk to the Mrs., and some friends I have who are Urban Planners.
For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor. -
SRO designation makes property very hard to sell. Have seen a few buildings around CH that have SRO filing but nobody has used it in years..to reverse the SRO status is an act of god. Helping hand can turn into doom when you try to sell your brownstone or small apt building if it ever had SRO in it's paper trail.Buyers beware, start your title search before anything goes very far. If it's a bigger place and has no fire escapes or is subdivided into a two family the banks and everybody else don't care. If it was 3 or 4 family w and SRO they look at it as something that could get messy and make it impossible to get a loan..A question nobody normally asks a realtor. Was this place ever used as a group home or SRO dwelling. If the answer is yes run don't walk out
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well with sro's you can get the place much cheaper :p, if you don't mind the problem and waiting along time for the certificate of no harassment :p.
Fight white guilt and injustice by smoking tax free guilt free Reservation Smokes or go gamble in a Native Casino.
I like to stick it to The Man, The Man happens to be Liberal in NYC(power Structure). -
It can be faster, just pay an "expediter". They, um, know how to fill out the forms.
sshhhhhh.
For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
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