This Group Wants to Help Lower NYC Rents by Buying Real Estate as a Collective

[KamaAina]

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/this-group-wants-to-help-lower-rents-by-buying-real-estate-as-a-collective-7726013

“Things are getting a little ridiculous in New York City!" says Rafael Jose, Queens-based real estate agent. "Fifty or sixty percent of what people make goes to housing. Working-class people who have done all the right things — gone to school, saved money — are still getting priced out of the neighborhood."

While wages remain stagnant in contrast to soaring real estate prices, Jose adds, the situation is unsustainable — and he's not the only one frustrated by this truism. He is now among more than 300 New Yorkers who have joined the NYC Real Estate Investment Cooperative, a group whose stated goal, according to their website, is to “secure permanently affordable space for civic, cultural, and cooperative use in New York City.” Translation: they want to form a collective to buy up real estate throughout the five boroughs to help price low- and middle-income residents, as well as small-business owners and community organizations, back into the market.

But they're starting small. Requiring an initial $10 investment from each member, the co-op has, since launching in April, banked more than $3000 at the Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union and has more than $1.3 million in pledges for future investments. They aim to finance at least one property by 2017 (with a guaranteed return of everyone’s $10 if the goal isn’t met) and make further investments for the mutual benefit of the co-op’s member-owners and their communities. They are also considering a ten-year project.

The REIC isn’t the only organization in New York working toward cooperative real estate goals. Founded in 1973, the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board has preserved over 1,700 buildings and created 30,000 home-ownership opportunities, while getting to know New York’s low-income co-op community. And in March, the community organizing project Greater Brooklyn formed the “NYC Cooperative Housing Exchange” a Facebook group of now almost 800 members, designed to “aid in the creation of new cooperative houses, link people up to houses with vacancies, and to assist in the exchange of resources between co-ops.” The REIC however focuses on affordable commercial space, with efforts comparable to the Small Businesses Jobs Survival Act to "level the playing field for business owners when negotiating fair lease terms," or the Artist Studio Affordability Project, which advocates for legislation to keep studio space affordable.

Can we do this in the Bay Area? Please?

[Paka]

1. Great Idea!

And yes SF needs it as well. And a whole lot of other choice urban locations.