Rents are skyrocketing across New York City. Meanwhile, bad landlords allow apartments to fall into disrepair and families who have called their community home for generations are forced out. In Central Brooklyn, this crisis has reached a fever pitch.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a lifelong Brooklynite and New York Attorney General, and as the Executive Director of IMPACCT Brooklyn<\/a>, we both know firsthand what our neighbors are up against. We are seeing too many families spending over 50% of their income on rent<\/a>, and Central Brooklyn families are especially at risk of displacement<\/a>. As if soaring rent prices were not enough, many tenants are also facing a lower quality of life due to landlord neglect, resulting in buildings in dire need of investment and repair.\u00a0<\/p>\n 57 families living in a cluster of four affordable housing developments in Bedford-Stuyvesant were enduring this unlivable reality. We stepped in to fix it.\n<\/p>\n For years, these tenants fought in housing court just to secure basic repairs of unsafe conditions. Their landlord, Food First HDFC, Inc.\u2014a nonprofit that had fallen deep into debt\u2014tried to sell the four buildings out from under them: first through an illegal auction, and later through a bankruptcy proceeding that would have handed the properties to a buyer with zero experience in managing affordable housing. Rather than fix the buildings and address tenants\u2019 most pressing needs, Food First tried to wash their hands of these tenants entirely, in violation of state law.\u00a0<\/p>\n When affordable housing developments fail to meet the standards outlined by the law and demanded by our morals, those of us with the power to do something must act. That\u2019s why the Office of the Attorney General (OAG)\u2014working alongside the Legal Aid Society and Legal Services NYC\u2014 fought to ensure a new, experienced owner would take over and keep these families in their homes. That new owner is IMPACCT Brooklyn.<\/p>\n For IMPACCT Brooklyn, stepping up to own and manage the properties is a natural extension of the work we have done in Central Brooklyn for decades. Preserving quality affordable housing encompasses far more than simply keeping a building up to code.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n We understand that housing preservation enriches and uplifts our communities. When an affordable apartment is lost, families leave the neighborhood where they work and shop, where their children go to school, where they come together to worship, and where generations of their family may have lived.\u00a0<\/p>\n This outcome was possible because a group of tenants living in one of the neglected buildings came together and personally sought out IMPACCT Brooklyn to act where their previous landlord had not, and OAG stepped in to ensure the buildings would remain affordable. After years of uncertainty for this community, these families can finally look ahead, knowing that they can remain in their homes for years to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n As the new owner and manager of these buildings, IMPACCT Brooklyn will oversee their complete rehabilitation while ensuring the 57 units remain affordable for at least the next three decades. The OAG ensured these units would remain affordable and secured funding from the New York State Homes and Community Renewal and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development to renovate the four properties, so the tenants finally have the safe conditions they deserve.\u00a0<\/p>\n Our city\u2019s housing crisis will not be solved overnight. But preserving these four buildings shows what is possible when tenants, elected leaders, legal advocates, and community organizations come together to protect affordable housing. Each building we preserve is a family that gets to maintain their stability and a community that remains whole. Together, we will keep working to make sure every family has access to a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.\u00a0<\/p>\n Letitia James<\/a> is Attorney General of New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n