From the NY Times:Hundreds of buildings, from the South Bronx to central Brooklyn, whose renovation and rescue from ruinous debt were critical to the rebirth of blighted neighborhoods, are again in severe financial trouble. That poses a dilemma for the city, which began unloading the properties in the mid-1990s as part of an arduous effort to divest itself of thousands of decrepit buildings seized because of tax delinquencies.
Filled with unemployed tenants unable to make rent or mortgage payments and squeezed by soaring city fees, about 442 buildings are in serious default on property taxes and far behind on municipal bills.
As the number of imperiled buildings grows, the city, struggling with its own cash shortage, faces unappealing choices. Seizing the buildings is not an option. The city’s previous role as a master landlord was widely deemed a disaster, with many buildings locked in chronic states of disrepair.
Instead, housing officials must either force deadbeat owners to pay their debts, or else foreclose on the buildings and find new owners in a harsh real estate climate. A total of $140 million is owed on the buildings, and nearly half of them have arrears of at least $3,000 of debt per unit, according to the city’s housing department.
Many of the buildings are now slipping into the kind of shoddy conditions from which they had been saved.
While the debt-ridden buildings are found across the city, the most are clustered in Bedford-Stuyvesant and other parts of central Brooklyn, the South Bronx and Harlem. All are owned by private or nonprofit groups overseeing buildings that were already deeply distressed and populated by the poorest of residents, giving owners razor-thin margins to operate on. People bought co-op apartments for as little as $250, according to the city, while renters pay as little as $90 a month.
7 comments:
did ACORN and its supporters in government initiate this accident waiting to happen ?
give a shout for the community organizers.
Paranoia strikes deep.
Into your life it will creep.
This is the socialist utopia Obama and his liberal friend want for all of us.I wonder how that hope and change is working for ya?
Sarah said...
This is the socialist utopia Obama and his liberal friends....blah-blah
My "Sarah" you are a stupid one. I guess all that snow and inbreeding up there in Alaska done you wrong. Betcha.
The real story behind this is the fact that in the early '90's NYC owned approx 2200 both vacant and built.
When "Gualini took over he set about selling as much of the as he could. Aside from the usual con-servative motives to turn public property private, there was the thinly hidden agenda to preclude any call for construction of large scale NYCHA housing on any of these sites as had been called for during the Dinkens adm.
The best properties went to his landlord buddies in "auctions" while the remainder that were either in too bad condition and/or located in areas not likely to support their F'ing ideal of market rents went to non-prof's, sweat equity etc.
These buildings were -not- given tax abatement and with those and other fixed costs (fuel-electricity for common areas-insurance-repairs) they operated on a razor's edge even in the best of times.
We give these ridiculous religions complete tax exemption while they sit on billions worth of realestate, yet these housing units that actually -provide- an essential service are treated like any other business.
The City must ultimately face reality here, either subsidize more truly affordable housing such as these or face a further social and economic bifurcation that leaves us with only wealthy living in the core city and it's servant class crowded into units far from convenient employment.
where have you been riding your delivery bike lately?
don't you know that the wealthy,successful workers are leaving New York,because they are fed up paying most of the high taxes,in order to support the free loaders who pay nothing for government services.
they are as smart as senator john kerry who is legally evading paying taxes for his 7 million dollar boat to the state of Massachusetts,that elected this liberal phony. it is reported he cost his state $500,000.00 in taxes.
btw d.dinkins evaded his taxes for four years.
"don't you know that the wealthy,successful workers are leaving New York,because they are fed up paying most of the high taxes,in order to support the free loaders who pay nothing for government services."
Old man, the only people who have left in my building and those nearby are Wall-st and banking hotshots who lost their jobs and their $3-3.7 million dollar apts in my building.
A year ago we had eleven empties. Now only one, the jobs are back, prices (slightly) more realistic.
Like it or not, Obama and his team are fixing the mess your gop shits made of our economy.
You are free to move down south..plenty of cheap trailer homes left over from Katrina.
"don't bank on n.y.c.'s "early" recovery" by nicole gelinas,7/26/10,n.y.post
Washington money is keeping the private sector from helping the city heal,too. Walk around core Manhattan, and you see dozens of new high-rise condo buildings--with lights out in the evening. Owners and their lenders are holding out for bubble-era prices rather than realize losses and sell to people who could help the city wean itself off Wall Street.
The lenders ,flush with federal cash,think they can wait out reality ,too--but they prevent new people from moving in, providing tax dollars that don't come from finance.
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