 From
The Association
Previous Front Page Stories - 2006 and earlier
Other Years: [2016-2013] [2013-2011] [2010] [2009-2007] [2006 and earlier]
AFFECTED BUT NEGLECTED:
The Impact of 9/11 on Community Health and A
Call for Federal Action
THURSDAY • SEPTEMBER 7, 2006, 6:30-8:30pm
St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway Between Fulton & Vesey Sts.
Ground zero workers have suffered severe 9/11 health impacts and our
government must take immediate action to meet their needs. Less
recognized is the health impact of 9/11 on the community. After 9/11,
medical researchers found the rate of respiratory illness among downtown
residents had tripled. What are the health needs of people exposed to
contamination from the destruction of the World Trade Center? Shouldn’t
there be a federally funded screening and treatment program for all affected
residents, office workers, students and visitors?
Join us, as we hear from medical experts and community members on the
health effects of 9/11 contamination and launch a drive for the federal
government to address these unmet community health needs.
Speak out from the audience about your 9/11 health experiences and
concerns.
[More information] [Downloadable
PDF]
For IPN Tenants: Assistance With Your Recertification
Papers Now Available from IPNTA
The IPNTA office will be open during the following hours:
Monday, April 24th & Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
10 AM to 12 (noon)
2 PM to 4 PM
7 PM to 8 PM
The IPNTA Tenants Office is located in the Lobby Level of 310 Greenwich
Street and accessible through the door on the left as you face the elevators.
Please stop by with your papers and Vicki and other volunteers from
the IPNTA will work on them together with you.
•Where We Are Now: J51 and Other Issues
Here’s a summary of developments concerning our landlord’s
participation in a tax-abatement plan known as J-51, IPNTA’s response,
and its implications for tenants at IPN. For new tenants who have not
been informed of these issues, J-51 requires that certain benefits be
given to tenants, such as keeping rents in accord with state regulations,
as opposed to market demands.
The IPNTA has taken time – maybe more than some of us anticipated
– to thoroughly research the law and rights afforded under J-51
abatements. Though we can never be 100 percent certain of any situation’s
outcome, we must not move forward on issues that affect all the tenants
without doing our homework and first knowing the worst case and best
case scenarios. [full story...]
•Voucher Issues: An Update
The latest info for those of us receiving vouchers is that there is
no news as far as federal funding for vouchers being withdrawn. So at
this time, no news is good news! Interim rent statements, documentation,
inspection.... For help and information, see full
story.
•Spotlight on Townhouses
Townhouse living is a mixed experience of independence and isolation.
Detached from the IPN community, the sixty-nine townhouse units, which
range in size from studios to 4 bedrooms, are dispersed over the two
plazas, the walkway facing BMCC, the area behind the federal row houses
on Harrison St., and along the two blocks of Greenwich Street from Duane
to N. Moore.
This large area makes it difficult for residents to meet and greet
one another as tower residents do in their lobbies and elevators. As
someone who has lived both in a tower and in a townhouse, I have a perspective
on the advantages and disadvantages of both and want to share my perspective
with those of you who don’t know townhouse life. [full
story...]
•CERT Training
The New York City Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program trains
neighborhood and community-based volunteer teams. [full
story...]
•Report on Building Services: Rats, Pigeons,
Elevators...and much more
IPNTA’s Building Services Committee (BSC) monitors the delivery
of services by management to tenants. The disruptions of the last few
years, including elevator and window replacement, balcony and plaza renovation,
and the renovation of vacant apartments, along with reduced maintenance
staff, make our job feel like swimming upstream, but if swimming upstream
makes changes, that’s just what we’ll do.
Our tenants have experienced inconvenience to the breaking point. Management
needs to hire enough staff to supervise and execute renovations while,
at the same time, provide daily maintenance of services so that tenant
quality of life is not reduced.
Currently, one Stellar management person is in charge of both jobs,
and though he is working hard and tries to accommodate our requests,
he is doing double duty. We have requested additional supervisory staff
and may need to take stronger action to get it. [full
story...]
Got Problems? IPNTA Continues To Help Tenants Resolve Transition
Issues.
As everybody knows by now, the agreement reached between IPNTA and Laurence
Gluck, the new owner of Independence Plaza North, will keep the home of
every tenant in good standing affordable.
With all such agreements, there’s a lot of paperwork involved.
Most tenants have submitted the required papers, and have received notice
that they will either get a government voucher (which requires that they
pay 30% of their income for rent), or will be designated a “LAP”
tenant (which stands for landlord assistance program), under which they
will pay rent mostly in accord with rent stabilization.
Nevertheless, some tenants have been wrongly designated; some have received
no notice whatsoever from the City; some have even received wrongful eviction
notices!
IPNTA has been working ceaselessly to help tenants work through this
bureaucratic snafu. But not every problem has been resolved. Here
are our recommendations.
Late Fees
Before IPN exited the Mitchell-Lama program, the former landlord allowed
tenants to take up to ten days after the first of the month to pay rent.
Many, if not most, tenants assumed that this policy would continue under
the new owner. Unfortunately, that is not the case. [story
continues...]
A word from our new President
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the next phase in our ongoing struggle
to keep our homes affordable and comfortable.
We are now in the so-called transition phase, moving from Mitchell-Lama
to a private complex. As with any transition, it is not easy, but we —
IPNTA — are still actively dealing with, frankly, a hellish situation.
So far we have been addressing over 300 individual tenant problems:
lease issues, voucher issues, LAP issues, pet issues and so many more
we can barely enumerate them. We try to contact every single tenant who
has notified us of their situation. It seems that there is a new crisis
every day. [letter continues...]
Saving Mitchell-Lama? It Would Not Work for Us
Many of us have read about a new HPD program to save those Mitchell-Lama
buildings that have not yet exited the program. Some IPN tenants have
argued that the new “law” — which gives owners more
financial incentives—would have worked for us.
They are misinformed. First, the program is just that — a program,
not a law. In fact, it is hardly a program, just a proposal. [story
continues...]
City Comptroller Warns Of Possible Affordable Housing
Shortage, NY1, Feb. 18, 2004
City Comptroller William Thompson warns New York could lose more than
40,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade if all of the
city’s low-cost developments slated to retire their subsidized mortgages
in the next 10 years decide to withdraw from the programs. [continues...]
IPNTA's Response to the Comptroller's report:
We welcome the Comptroller's report. Clearly, it represents a lot of
good work, and shines yet another spotlight on the twin crises in affordable
housing: first, protecting tenants who are now threatened with these monstrous
buyouts; second, making sure that future generations of working and middle
class people can afford to live in New York.
The problem we have is with the Comptroller's recommendation that this
should be on the City's legislative agenda in Albany. Punting this New
York City problem to Albany hasn't worked in the past. We have little
confidence that it will work in the future, at least not soon enough to
help the tens of thousands of people who are now threatened with the loss
of their homes.
The Republican administrations in Washington, in New York City, in Albany
are the problem--not the solution.
As of right now, Only Speaker Miller and his City Council colleagues
have a real plan. Intro #5. Politics aside, we call on all Democrats --
and all fair-minded people to unite behind this bill. It needs to be enacted
immediately.
Rally/Press Conference 10-29-03,
Comments from IPNTA Executive Board
 Legislation
Hearing and Rally at City Hall, Oct 29, 2003
• Comments about the Hearing
and Rally
• Photos of the Rally
• To read the newspaper coverage, see In The
Press.
- For Immediate Tenant Action: Send Mayor Bloomberg
Letters, E-Mails, Phone Calls!
Mayor Bloomberg has said publicly that he supports affordable housing.
Let’s hold him to his public statements! What
To Tell Him>>>
Read the Mayor's Oct 29th Press
Release: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg Proposes State Legislation to
Provide Protection to Mitchell-Lama Development Tenants and Tax Relief
to Owners
- Oct 16 Tenants Meeting, at which IPN owner Laurence Gluck spoke:
[Photos] [Tribeca
Trib] [Downtown
Express]
- Remember what you have built...
We need to show the political forces that it is a crime and a total
lack of conscience for the government, who owns 95 percent of IPN, to
turn their backs on over 3,500 people -- the people who literally built
the Tribeca neighborhood. Our tenants have helped all of downtown for
the past 30 years. We were here, even when there weren't many other
people living here. We have been good neighbors and dedicated New Yorkers.
We have helped build Washington Market Park, P.S. 234, Hudson River
Park, the downtown little league, and supported our neighbors during
the loft law campaign to make loft living legal.
Now, the powers that be would like to eliminate us from New York City.
Please share our message with your neighbors, other Mitchell-Lama tenants,
and residents of New York City. How anyone can turn their backs on this
issue? Imagine looking back and remembering that over 3,500 people at
IPN were forced out of their homes because someone who never had anything
to do with creating Tribeca wants to cash in on our hard work here.
- Important press coverage: IPN continues to get more press.
National Coverage: See The Washington
Post article, N.Y. Tenants Feel Squeezed...
The Village Voice recently detailed IPN's situation in its article,
Zero
At Ground Zero. For a full list of IPN and Mitchell-Lama stories,
see In The Press.
- City Council Bill Protecting Mitchell-Lama Tenants
Announced at City Hall... [Photos]
[IPNTA Newsletter Aug 03] [In
The Press].
- Keep NYC Mitchell-Lama Rental Housing Affordable. Tell the
City Council to pass Intro 523.
Brief Summary: The Mitchell-Lama Conversion Protection Bill, Intro 523,
will give tenants more power to:
1) require landlords to comply with the Mitchell-Lama program (i.e.,
doing timely repairs, building upkeep) and
2) negotiate fair deals with landlords who want to get out of the
Mitchell-Lama program by providing meaningful incentives for owners
to negotiate fair deals with tenants to retain affordable housing.
- Thanks to all IPN Tenants who turned out for the City Hall press conference
announcing the bill, sponsored by City Council Speaker Gifford Miller.
[Press Release
PDF or Press
Release HTML]
- About the Independence Plaza North
Tenant Association, IPNTA was formed to represent the interests
of IPN tenants....
- Summer 2003, Neil Fabricant and
our lawyers met with Laurence Gluck and his lawyers...
- Now that the Buyout is For Real,
Join the Fight, What a meeting we had on June 25...
- IPN Gets National Attention!
- Resolution in favor of IPN passed
by the Tribeca Committee of the Community Board, CB 1, January 21,
2003
- Ya Basta! Enough Is Enough!
An open letter from Neil Fabricant, IPNTA President
- 9/11 Survivors Fight Eviction Effort
IPNTA Press Release, Dec 5, 2002
- What is the Mitchell-Lama Program? The NYS
Division of Housing & Community Renewal provides a detailed
description. [http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ohm/progs/mitchlam/ohmprgmi.htm]
IPN Gets National Attention!
IPNTA VP Diane Lapson was invited to speak at the Johns Hopkins Center
for Civilian Biodefense Strategies.
September
11th and the Role of the Neighboorhood Association by Diane Lapson
Diane's presentation, "Community Organizations Acting During
Crisis: 9/11 and Neighborhood Associations" was part of a national
summit entitled, The Public As An Asset, Not A Problem. A Summit on
Leadership During Bioterrorism, held on February 3-4, 2003.
IPNTA is serving as a model for the importance of strong community organizations
during disaster. The mobilization, activities, and cohesiveness of Independence
Plaza North tenants during September 11 are now recognized nationally. |
