Month: April 2017

East Harlem Gets Robbed!

Dear El Barrio Unite Supporters,
 
Our sponsor, N.E.R.V.E., Inc. (founded 1975) submitted an affordable housing proposal to HPD to develop 711 low rent apartments at the city site – 112th Street to 111th, from Madison Ave to Park Avenue.  It was a sustainable energy producing stand alone development utilizing new technology to keep operating cost low forever to keep rents low forever. The financing was to come from available NYC HPD and NYS subsidies with US Federal Low Income Tax Credit funds that would guarantee the construction and operational and maintenance cost for this proposal.  N.E.R.V.E., Inc. co-sponsored and co- developed the 136 unit building right across the street from this Madison Avenue site- “Los Tres Unidos” back in 1981.  This is remarkable not for profit development that was developed for the community by the community.  
 
However; and surprisingly, the City recently opted instead to select a downtown developer to do this job, offering less affordable apartments and less commitment to the East Harlem community.  Why? These are the same developers who were awarded the 108th Street and Park Avenue site known as “Lexington Gardens II” with no apts available to households earning less than $30,000 until we testified at the City Planning Commission hearing and demanded real affordable units for our low income families and friends.  Consequently HPD was forced to change that project financing to accommodate the demands of our East Harlem supporters.  So don’t expect anything from these downtown developers because they are only interested in their profit, leaving us behind…
 
Read the article highlighting the City’s housing development decisions that are affecting our communities and our local community development not for profit sponsors and developers:
 
 
 
and let us know how you feel about this.  If we can’t depend on each other, then who else can we depend on?  Look around- you tell me.
 

Pushed Out of Our Neighborhood

Dear El Barrio Unite Membership & East Harlem Residents,

We hope that all of you are doing well and are in the best of spirits. The enclosed article points out what we have been saying all along about our fears while everyone else lent their faith in a system that is corrupt to its bones, offering nothing to the lower income households of East Harlem.  Who will be accountable for what little they have settled for while so many families with great need of a safe, decent place to live have been discounted from participating in simply because they had insufficient representation?… 

Check out our attached PowerPoint presentation on our archives that highlights the displacement caused by the 2003 rezoning of East Harlem, with available information from the Regional Planning Association- RPA, who also just let out their excellent March, 2017 Report “Pushed Out: Housing Displacement in an Unaffordable Region” featuring Ray “Last Man Out” on page 19: http://library.rpa.org/pdf/RPA-Pushed-Out-Housing-Displacement-in-an-Unaffordable-Region.pdf

Members and friends, kindly share our response with all your friends and contacts because this fight for Affordable Housing in East Harlem/ NYC is happening now, and we must all demand an active participation for all households- not just the richest, but to the poor and very poorest.  What sense does it make to give away our available city land resources while receiving the most minimal benefit from it all.  This shameful action must be stopped with a furious opposition to the Mayor’s Rezoning Plan, and his subsequent MIH Plan like what we instigated back in November, 2015 when CB11 voted these down. But that the CB11 Chairperson decided not to report this vote to the Manhattan Borough President, so our local concerns were never counted into the record as it should have been and was expect to be. Actually, not one single Community Board ever supported these plans, yet the Mayor, some City Council members and some of our own community groups are acting as it is a fait complei in favor of a scam that will not be soon forgotten when the community wakes up to this travesty.  Don’t be fooled. Beware of Geeks bearing gifts!

El Barrio Unite PowerPoint: http://www.elbarriounite.org/east-harlem-cannot-afford-rezoning-powerpoint/