Background

Hope Community, Inc. was founded in 1968 when a grassroots group of East Harlem residents banded together to preserve their block on East 104th Street. Collectively they purchased and renovated an abandoned tenement, converting it into eight attractive, affordable apartments. Thirty-five years later Hope has grown into one of New York's most dynamic community development and preservation organizations.

Hope Community is committed to building better communities and enriching the lives of the people who live and work within them. With New York City's East Harlem (First Avenue to Fifth Ave, between East 96th Street and East 143rd Street) as our focus, we sponsor, construct, and operate attractive and high quality affordable rental housing and sponsor homeownership opportunities. Through the creation of new and revitalized commercial spaces, we encourage the growth and success of neighborhood businesses.

We believe that personal responsibility, combined with collective action, is the key to effecting lasting community change. Working collaboratively with other organizations, and in partnership with our constituents, Hope Community forges the ties that bind people together into economically and culturally diverse neighborhoods. By providing quality architecture, public art and dynamic public spaces – and by providing referrals to an array of community services, we demonstrate our commitment to building better communities and enriching the lives of the people who reside and work within them.

Accomplishments and Programs

Hope’s 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: The agency 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 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

In recent years, Hope Community’s primary institutional goal has been to enhance its Property Management operations. Under the direction of a highly accomplished property manager department, the agency 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

Hope Community coordinates a wide range of initiatives and projects designed to enhance the lives of East Harlem’s residents. One of the agency’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.

Hope staff has also worked with residents to organize tenant associations in buildings that serve as a vehicle for communicating with the agency's property management team regarding building-related issues. We have also been active in the East Harlem/El Barrio Anti-Displacement Task Force and other local initiatives.

Cultural Programs

The agency also sponsors a range of artistic and cultural projects and activities. In 2006, Hope Community commissioned artist Manny Vega to create an outdoor mosaic of Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos. In 2007, we created a large public mural addressing youth-related themes in partnership with the Groundswell Community Mural project, and each summer Hope sponsors an outdoor poetry reading sessions, Poetas con Café.

Economic Development

In 2008, Hope 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.