On December 13, 1999 HPD Commissioner Richard T. Roberts and New York City Housing Partnership President Veronica M. White announced Round V of the award winning Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Program (NEP) which will develop 1100 units of affordable rental housing located in the South Bronx, Harlem and Central Brooklyn.
A Request For Qualification (RFQ) was being issued last month and a pre-submission conference will be held on Thursday, January 20, 2000.
"HPD continues to be proud of the role the City and its partners are playing in the revitalization of communities throughout the five boroughs. This latest round of the NEP Program will add to the thousands of units of housing we have rehabilitated and returned to responsible private ownership," said Commissioner Roberts.
Community based for-profit building owners and managers who wish to participate in the Program may obtain a copy of the RFQ in person from the NYC Housing Partnership at 24 Whitehall Street aka One Battery Park Plaza, 4th floor, Monday through Friday between 9 AM and 5 PM. Completed applications must be delivered by hand no later than 4 PM on Wednesday March 1, 2000 to the address given above.
To be considered, potential Entrepreneurs must either live, work or do most of their business in the South Bronx, Harlem or Central Brooklyn and they must have managed at least 50 apartments. Selection is based on property management experience; financial strength; rehabilitation experience; past work with government and nonprofit organizations; and the extent to which they are closely tied to the community. HPD and the NYC Housing Partnership jointly evaluate the responses and select the participants.
"Through NEP, hundreds of buildings have been turned from neighborhood eyesores into safe, decent and affordable housing," said Ms. White. "We are pleased to continue and expand our work with HPD on this community-based initiative."
The NEP Program, which was recently awarded the Innovations in American Government Award by the Ford Foundation and Harvard University, enables neighborhood-based property managers to own and manager clusters of occupied and vacant City-owned buildings. Buildings selected for NEP are sold to the NYC Housing Partnership which retains the entrepreneurs to manage the buildings, oversee their rehabiliation and purchase them upon completion.
Properties may be eligible to receive Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits, city and federal loans and local real property abatements to fund the moderate to substantial rehabilitation and other costs incurred by the project.
Over the past five years, under the NEP Program, over 2000 units of housing have been rehabilitated and returned to responsible private ownership and 1800 units are under construction. Another 2200 units are in various stages of development.
The NEP Program has saved the City millions of dollars necessary to maintain and manage its inventory of properties - an estimated $2.2 million per building. It has helped the agency reduce the amount of time buildings remain in City ownership from nearly 6 years to less than 1.5 years since 1994. NEP has also stimulated the investment of nearly $230 million in private financing in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
HPD's mission is to promote quality housing and viable neighborhoods for New Yorkers. The department is the nation's largest municipal housing development agency. Since fiscal year 1994, the agency has completed the construction or rehabilitation of nearly 58,000 units of affordable housing.
The NYC Housing Partnership works to promote the development of affordable housing, revitalize neighborhoods and expand participation by local residents and entrepreneurs in the economic benefits of community development. The Housing Partnership was established in 1982 by the City's premier business and civic organization, the NYC Partnership.