In Brooklyn, Displacement of Low-Income Families Occurs amidst Habitat for Humanity's Expansion
In 2010, Habitat for Humanity's New York City affiliate received a significant $21 million federal grant to address the foreclosure crisis in a neighbourhood of New York City. The charity's most ambitious project in its 32-year history was set to focus on buying and renovating abandoned apartment buildings in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a historically poor neighbourhood in central Brooklyn.
However, questions have been raised about the methods used by Habitat for Humanity during this initiative. In late January 2011, Walter Tatum, a resident of 786 Madison St., complained to the city about the lack of water and heat in his building. Tatum was later paid a $50,000 settlement to vacate the property shortly afterward.
Seven families were pushed out of their rental apartments in Bed-Stuy between 2010 and 2011, most of whom relied on federal housing subsidies or New York's rent regulation laws to afford their units. None were evicted in court, and three ended up homeless. It's unclear if these families were directly affected by Habitat's initiative, but four of the nine properties Habitat acquired were still occupied shortly before the charity moved to buy them.
Over $8.4 million was spent by Habitat to buy six properties from Isaac Katz and limited liability corporations he represented. Katz, who had been involved in questionable real estate practices in the past, sold the buildings to Habitat in quick and lucrative flips. For instance, he sold the building at 203 Marion St. to Habitat for about $620,000, having purchased it earlier that day for about $380,000 from Lena and Percy Spellman.
One of the families affected was Tashemia Tyson, a single mother of three, who rented a third-floor apartment in one of the buildings Habitat purchased. Tyson alleged that Katz began pressuring her to leave around three months before Habitat began discussions to acquire the building. Katz's attorney denied Tyson's allegations, stating that his client "never spoke to Tyson" and that all the units were vacant when he facilitated the sale to Habitat.
The building at 849 Halsey St. had complaints of bedbugs, mold, and a broken banister registered by a tenant in June 2010, 15 days before a Habitat official first visited the property. Internal Habitat documents show that Habitat first targeted the property for acquisition in June 2010, when it was still owned by the Spellmans.
The deals with developers, including Isaac Katz, left some inside the charity so upset that at least two employees emailed anonymous complaints to the nonprofit's international headquarters in Georgia. Michael Kozek, a real estate lawyer, who reviewed the documents for ProPublica, agreed that the Spellmans may have cause for complaint, as it appears they were deprived of the full value of their property.
Despite these controversies, Habitat spent $43 million on the Bed-Stuy housing initiative, with privately raised funds heaped onto the $21 million grant. The majority of families who bought Habitat's renovated homes earned around $50,000 a year, almost double the median income for renters in the neighbourhood. However, this was still significantly less than the disability income of some tenants who were displaced and ended up living on the streets.
It's important to note that no verifiable details about an investigation in 2010 into Habitat for Humanity’s Bed-Stuy housing initiative concerning the displacement of low-income tenants and the use of federal stimulus funds can be provided at this time, as these sources do not document or discuss such an investigation.
This article aims to present factual information about the controversies surrounding Habitat for Humanity's Bed-Stuy housing initiative in 2011. Further investigations may be required to fully understand the events that took place during this period.
- The controversy surrounding Habitat for Humanity's Bed-Stuy housing initiative in 2011 extended to their methods of investing in real-estate, as questions were raised about their dealings with developers like Isaac Katz, particularly the quick and lucrative flips of properties.
- Although Habitat for Humanity's focus on finance and business aimed to address the foreclosure crisis in New York City, the charity's questionable practices in the real-estate sector, such as the displacement of low-income tenants and the use of federal stimulus funds, have drawn considerable scrutiny.
