No Good Deed Goes Unpunished - Strycker's Bay Faces Eviction

I promised you a blog post on Strycker’s Bay losing its program at 61 West 87^th Street. Well here it is.

There are, of course, two sides to every story. Here on Neighborhood Commons I will share with you the version that will force Strycker’s Bay to leave the boundaries of the West Side Urban Renewal Area after a 50 year history here. It will have to be abbreviated because our role in creating the low-income cooperative that now seeks to evict us is too long to go into here. However, anyone who is interested in the details of the story should feel free to contact me.

You should take note before getting down to the nitty gritty of this story that:

·        The annual property taxes for the five unit low-income coop are $67,191.

·        However because of the J51 Strycker’s Bay worked so hard to secure for the building there is an annual abatement of $62,098.

·        Therefore the adjusted annual property tax for this building is $5,093.

·        Without the tax abatement benefit,  the monthly maintenance fee for each of these cooperative units would have to increase by more than $1,000 per month making it unaffordable to MOST of the shareholders there.

So here are some of the facts:

1.      1959 - Strycker’s Bay – Founded by Father Henry Browne

2.      1959-1975 -- Strycker’s Bay’s works with its membership (the council) to insure that urban renewal does not uproot and displace area residents and supports efforts to keep “mom and pop” stores from being pushed out of the neighborhood

3.      1975-1999 – worked with tenants of occupied city owned buildings to win the right to manage, renovate and purchase their buildings (debt free) as low-income housing develop fund corporations HDFCs) under Article XI of the NY Private Housing Finance Law. The buildings, as long as they remain low income according to income guidelines, would continue to benefit from J51 tax abatement that, yes Strycker’s Bay facilitated.

4.      2005 – Thanks to the support of two very committed residents of the 61 West 87^th Street HDFC, Strycker’s Bay renovated and got the certificate of occupancy for the basement of their building.

5.      2005 – New shareholder buys into the 61 West 87^th Street HDFC. A recent immigrant to this country working to build a good life from him and his family was welcomed to the neighborhood and the building by the same two supportive tenants that helped Strycker’s Bay secure affordable office space in their building.

6.      2005 – New shareholder becomes HDFC officer.

7.      2005 – Strycker’s Bay seeks 10 year lease. New HDFC Officer blocks this from moving forward. When asked why during a meeting between the Strycker’s Bay board and the 61 West 87^th Street HDFC, he said “because I don’t want you here.” The result was a compromise 5 year lease with Strycker’s Bay hoping for a change of heart.

8.      2010 March  – Strycker’s Bay pleads with the HDFC to offer us another lease

a.      “Strycker’s Bay has been on the West Side for the last 50 years and has provided a vehicle for the community to resolve common problems. We have been instrumental in creating and preserving more than 600 units of affordable rental and cooperative housing for the West Side Community. The cooperative ownership of your building is the result of several generations of Strycker’s Bay activists’ commitment to the preservation of affordable housing. We are turning to you, the owners of a building we helped preserve, for reciprocal assistance. The programs and services we offer are of great value to the people who live on the Upper West Side and the space we now occupy is essential to our continued assistance.”

9.      2010 – May 31^st (Memorial Day) Strycker’s Bay was served with a 30-day notice to terminate our tenancy notice of termination.

Post to be continued….