Columbia Spectator - Long Battle Resolves With New Building Ownership

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COLUMBIA SPECTATOR
Online Edition March 24, 2005

Long Battle Resolves With New Building Ownership
By Tanveer Ali
Spectator Staff Writer

March 24, 2005

For the senior citizens living in the Logan Gardens apartment complex in West Harlem, their nine month battle for the building’s deed is finally over.

Community Assisted Tenant Controlled Housing Inc., a non-profit company, has acquired the building located on 131st Street and Convent Avenue and is now beginning what will be a multimillion dollar renovation. The building had been severely plagued by poor maintenance and a lack of consistent heat and hot water.

The acquisition was not only a victory for that building’s tenants, but may have a major impact on other Section 8 assisted living housing projects, which provide affordable apartments to senior citizens, in moments of foreclosure and other similar circumstances.

“This is the first step of a long road of recovery,” said Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, vice chairman of the board of directors of CATCH. “The tenants are buoyed by the victory and are cognizant of the tough road ahead and how their partnership with CATCH will benefit them.”

The building’s former owner was St. Philip’s Housing Development Fund Corporation, which was issued a foreclosure notice in May 2004 when it failed to provide adequate housing for the tenants and fell behind on the necessary $11 million debt for repairs and its mortgage.

Under the law, the building was repossessed by the government, then put up for what is usually an open auction.

Instead, HUD took what Reyes-Montblanc said was an historic first step by restricting the auction to non-profit and government agencies only. The property was sold first to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and then to CATCH, the tenants’ handpicked owner.

“HUD has always stated that they could not or would not restrict the auctions to nonprofit bidders,” Patricia Lewis, the president of the tenant’s association, said. “We knew they could have and should have.”

The transfer was the result of lobbying efforts by tenants, tenant advocacy groups, and elected officials such as Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Congressman Charles Rangel (D-Harlem). A busload of building tenants went to the County Supreme Court to lobby the Department of Housing and Urban Development in person.

At a press conference announcing CATCH’s acquisition last Friday, Schumer referred to the larger positive implications this transfer could have.

“If HUD continued with its original plans, these tenants would have been thrown out in the cold. At the last minute, with a lot of encouragement, HUD decided to do the right thing,” Schumer said. “We worked hard to get this done, now we have to make sure that HUD does the right thing for the thousands of other tenants who live in the nearly 80 other at-risk properties.”

According to Lewis, the transfer might be a signal of what may happen in the future. “This is not the end of it,” she said. “This simply opens the door for other buildings. This Section 8 thing is so much bigger than us, but thank God we could be a precedent.”

She added that the residents of her building are currently deliriously happy about their new landlord and expects the days of heating her apartment with an open oven are over. Lewis said that a replacement of the building’s windows and its boiler will be among the major repairs in the building’s future. CATCH promised to invest promises to invest $7 million dollars with the aid of city agencies, banks, and foundations.

“CATCH has immediately taken over and has moved to commence taking care of all the little things that must be accomplished now, as well as seeing to it that major repairs take place as soon as possible,” Reyes-Montblanc said.