Dear HDFC Shareholder,

The focus of the meeting on Monday, October 15th hosted by New York State Assembly Member Al Taylor (AD 71) will be REGULATORY AGREEMENTS FOR HDFCs.  EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO ATTEND. This event (NEW LOCATION) will be held at New York City College, North Academic Center [NAC] Building, 160 Convent Ave [@ 138th street] from 6 pm to 8 pm.

If you plan to attend the meeting, please call Al Taylor’s office at (212) 234-1430 or sign up at this link:

www.eventbrite.com/o/15996233266

Sincerely,

The HDFC Coalition

P.S. Don’t forget to sign up on the HDFC Coalition mailing list by clicking here

Save the date! On April 26, 2018, at the New York City Council, the Housing Committee will hold a hearing and HDFCs will be on the agenda.  Details to follow.  Please check back here for updates and for information on how you can attend this hearing and show the Council Members that HDFC shareholders will fight to preserve our housing, our freedom and our autonomy!

Representatives from the HDFC Coalition met with HPD officials and staff at their offices on February 13, 2018 to discuss our alternative proposal and HPD’s next steps.  Our proposal that we gave to them can be see by clicking here.  We urge you and your fellow shareholders to send out proposal to elected officials, especially City Council members, and take it to your local Community Board’s Housing Committee as well.  There is strength in numbers, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease!  Find your local City Council Member here, and your community board here.  Please also send to your NY State Senator and NY Assembly Member and tell them you support it!

Transcript of Q&A from Brian Lehrer Show Friday, January 19, 2018:

Question to Mayor de Blasio from HDFC shareholder Anita:

I live in a low income co-op in West Harlem that the City has put into the foreclosure process but we have been working for years to turn around our building and do everything right. I’m asking the Mayor because the problem is that we are not alone. The City is foreclosing on almost 100 low income co-ops. That’s over 2,000 dwelling units all over the City in four boroughs. The human and financial cost of foreclosure is horrible. It’s really serious. Many owners are working to save their buildings. Can the Mayor halt this and offer alternatives?

Mayor de Blasio responds:

Anita, I know about this issue and I can tell it’s heartfelt for you and I appreciate that. But I don’t think the way you’ve described it gives us the whole picture. First all these are buildings that the City has been providing finical support to for many, many years and in some cases decades. There are a number of buildings where there are big, outstanding finical issues. The City has been trying to work with the residents to address those issues building by building. When you use a word like foreclose and a lot of people use it, I don’t blame you but I think it is the wrong word in this case. It suggests that somehow that things are going to be taken away from people. I disagree with that. We have said to the residents of these buildings – work with us on a payment plan, work with us on a way to address the finical problems of the buildings, if we can work that out we are happy to and continue what’s going on in the co-op. But if we can’t, if there is no viable finical way forward the City will step in but it will also guarantee that the people who are living there continue to live in affordable housing as long as they are there. And then we would make sure that it remains affordable housing thereafter. What we don’t want to see is these buildings collapse financially and we don’t want to see them privatized and become market housing. So we’ve invested a lot over the years. But Anita, to be clear, the folks who live there now, in affordable housing will get to keep that affordable housing under our vision. And any co-op that says we have a new plan, we have a new idea on how we can address our finical problems – we will invite them in immediately and see if we can make that plan work. Lehrer: Anita, thank you for your call.

Link: https://www.digital.nyc/content/transcript-mayor-de-blasio-appears-live-brian-lehrer-show-6

Hosted by CM Salamanca who has invited the HDFC Coalition Anti-Foreclosure Committee. See attached flyers in English and Spanish.

HDFC Forum in Harlem! Wed. Nov 15th, 6:30pm 163 W 125th, 2nd floor. #StopNYSbillS6543 Big Thank You to @NYSenBenjamin @IE_Dickens @BillPerkinsNYC @MarkLevineNYC @HelenRosenthal from the @HDFCCoalition and reps from Neighborhood Housing Services.