Organizational History and Mission

Hope Community, Inc. is committed to building better communities and enriching the lives of the people who live and work within them. Hope seeks to rebuild the physical infrastructure of East Harlem by creating attractive, high-quality affordable rental and owner-occupied housing. Hope seeks to strengthen the social fabric of the neighborhood by contributing to the growth and success of neighborhood businesses, by assisting local residents enhance their lives and incomes, by organizing community events and activities, and by sponsoring improvement projects.

Hope Community was created in 1968 by a group of East Harlem residents who jointly acquired an abandoned tenement building on East 104th Street and renovated it, creating eight attractive, affordable apartments. From this modest beginning, Hope Community has grown and expanded into one of New York City’s largest and most dynamic community housing organizations. Our major accomplishments over our thirty-eight year history include developing and managing seventy properties with over 1,400 units of high-quality, affordable housing; sponsoring numerous cultural and artistic projects; fostering local economic development, and generating a stronger sense of community among East Harlem residents.

Accomplishments and Current Programs

Hope’s current programs fall into three programmatic areas: housing development, property management, and community building.

Housing Development

Hope continues to create high-quality housing and commercial space affordable to local East Harlem residents through rehabilitation and new construction. Current projects and recent accomplishments include:

• Lancaster and Calvert Homes: This innovative mixed-income housing project, scheduled to go into construction in 2007, will involve the creation of 69 units of housing on ten scattered sites. The housing created will include both homeownership (co-op) and rental units. The project will feature a very high level of environmentally friendly design, including amenities such as green roofs, high efficiency windows, and bamboo flooring, which will qualify it for a LEED Silver rating. The project was awarded to Hope and its for-profit partner, the Bluestone Organization, by the City of New York through the final, competitive round of the Cornerstone program.

• Hope Crossroads: This project involves the gut rehab of two partially occupied brownstone buildings to create 12 units affordable to low- and moderate income households. Hope acquired these properties through the city’s Third Party Transfer program, which transfers ownership of tax delinquent buildings to responsible owners. Construction is scheduled for completion in December 2006.

• The Palm and Rio: This project involves the new construction of 110 one- two- and three-bedroom homeownership units affordable to moderate- and middle-income households. The project is developed in partnership with the Briarwood Organization through New York City’s Cornerstone program. Construction was completed earlier this year, and the buildings are almost fully rented up.

• Hope Hall: Hope will renovate this four-story building, our original headquarters, to create 37,000 square feet of office space for cultural and non-profit organizations. We have created floor plans, and are currently in discussion with potential anchor tenants.

Hope is aggressively seeking additional development opportunities in order to further our mission to create and preserve high-quality affordable housing in East Harlem. In a market context where sale prices are extremely high and the stock of city-owned land is almost gone, Hope is exploring a wide range of innovative acquisition strategies. These include responding to RFPs for the remaining tracts of publicly owned land, working through the city’s Third Party Transfer program, partnering with social service agencies, assisting “expiring use” Section 8 properties, and buying land at market prices and then securing subsidies to keep rents affordable.

Hope is extremely experienced in working with a wide range of Federal, city and state subsidy and financing tools. We are exploring ways to use new vehicles, such as the recently-created Acquisition Loan Fund.

Property Management

During the past two years one of Hope Community’s primary institutional goals has been to enhance its Property Management operations. Under the direction of a highly accomplished property manager, the department has implemented new and much more effective property management software, increased rent collection rates to above industry standard, and worked to ensure the highest possible level of customer satisfaction. Hope has also created a new, three-person compliance unit to ensure that Hope remains in full compliance with all city and state regulations.

Hope’s medium-term goal is to develop our property management department to the point that we can market its services to a wide range of other uptown property owners.

Community Building

The Community Building department coordinates a wide range of initiatives and projects designed to enhance the lives of East Harlem’s residents. In this calendar year alone, Hope Community has launched dance, after-school tutoring, and English as a Second Language programs in its buildings; renovated three community gardens; and hosted many community activities and events.

One of the department’s primary goals is to provide referrals to entitlement and benefit programs so that tenants can effectively address problems related to lack of adequate income, child care, health, education, and special needs through. Hope staff also work with tenant leaders to organize tenant associations in Hope buildings that serve as a vehicle for communicating with the Hope property management team regarding building-related issues.

Hope sponsors a range of artistic and cultural projects and activities. During the 2006 calendar year Hope Community commissioned artist a high-profile mosaic of Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos, created a large public mural addressing youth-related themes in partnership with the Groundswell Community Mural project, and sponsored our annual outdoor poetry reading sessions, Poetas con Café.

Finally, this year, Hope has secured funds through the New York State Main Street program to implement streetscape enhancements, including new awnings, murals, tree plantings, planter boxes, and/or minor façade renovations, in the “Gateway” area along Lexington Avenue between 103rd and 106th Streets.