NYC Council Reso. 669: CB9M Chair Testimony In Support

Hon. Jordi Reyes-Montblanc
Chair
Community Board No. 9 - Manhattan

Before

The Council of the City of New York

Committee on Technology in Government
Hon. Gale A. Brewer, Chair

Committee on Housing and Buildings
Hon. Madeline Provenzano, Chair

November 22nd, 2004



Oversight: The Feasibility of Wiring New Affordable Housing Development For Broadband

Reso. No. 669

By Council Members Brewer, Boyland, Comrie, Gennaro, James, Liu, Martinez, Nelson, Palma, Rivera, Sanders, Serrano, Vann, Weprin and Jackson


Title

Resolution calling upon all relevant City Agencies to use their funding and regulatory power to support and encourage the provision of affordable high-speed Internet service and computer purchases for the benefit of residents of affordable housing




Mesdames Chairs, Honorable members of the City Council, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, Chair of Community Board No. 9 Manhattan comprising the neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights in the Ville of Harlem. Our District is home to 140 HDFC cooperatives and 45 TIL buildings in the HPD DAMP pipeline for conversion to HDFC cooperatives. Therefore my District is home to the largest concentration of HDFCs in the City of New York.

Our Board and I, strongly support the actions proposed by Reso. 669 proposed by Chair Brewer and co-sponsored by our Councilmember Robert Jackson and so many of our friends in the Council.

Those of you who know me, know I can speak for hours on any subject that interest me; but I will be as brief as I can and convey our comments as directly as I can.

As stated, we strongly support Reso. 669 but we are concerned that a large number of affordable housing is being excluded, not intentionally I am sure, but excluded none the less.

I am speaking of the already existing 140 HDFC cooperatives within CB9M, of which over 120 received none to little improvements prior to being sold by the City to the Tenants Associations that converted the buildings into HDFC cooperatives.

By limiting income to 80% of the median area income you are also excluding the future HDFCs that should include those currently in the pipeline of HPD DAMP Tenant Interim Lease (TIL) Program. Those are now fixed at a maximum of either 120% or at 165% of median area income in order to create a mix of low to moderate income households that ensures success of the future cooperatives.

Now regarding the existing HDFCs. We propose that Reso. 669 includes some provisions to facilitate and promote Broadband wiring of their buildings. This facilitation can take many forms. Some readily available are the J-51 program, low interest or even forgivable loans to the HDFC cooperatives that wire their buildings for Broadband and obtain computers for their resident tenant-owners and renters.

Finally, we propose that positive consideration be given to expanding Reso. 669 to include computer peripherals such as printers and scanners.

Respectfully submitted,




J. Reyes-Montblanc
Chair
Community Board No. 9 Manhattan
November 22nd, 2004