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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Ariel Hirsch, Director of Policy and New Projects at UHAB
1:54:08
·
4 min
Ariel Hirsch from UHAB testified about the challenges of using Housing Connect for affordable homeownership opportunities, particularly for HDFC cooperatives. She highlighted the system's limitations in handling resales and the need for improvements to better serve potential homeowners.
- Housing Connect is not well-equipped to handle HDFC cooperative resales, lacking features to collect asset information and screen for interested participants.
- The mini lottery process for HDFC cooperative resales has been ineffective, causing delays and additional costs.
- Hirsch called for a rethinking of Housing Connect to address the specific needs of homeownership and HDFC cooperatives.
Ariel Hirsch
1:54:08
Hi, Chair Sanchez, members of the committee.
1:54:11
Good to see you.
1:54:12
I'm Ariel Hirsch.
1:54:13
Thanks for the opportunity to testify.
1:54:15
I'm the director of policy and new projects at UHUB.
1:54:17
For fifty years, UHUB has empowered low to moderate income residents to take control of their housing and become homeowners in the buildings where they already live.
1:54:24
I'm going to submit larger written testimony.
1:54:27
And so I'm going to go over like a really quick summary of points.
1:54:29
And I'll try to keep it brief.
1:54:30
I might go over, but we'll see.
1:54:33
And we want to really appreciate the attention to this topic for this hearing, but also wanted to call attention to one aspect of HPD marketing and the Housing Connect process that I don't think we've talked about too much today, which is the subset of Housing Connect that works for homeownership and specifically HDFC cooperatives, which are the vast majority of buildings that we serve and also to help develop and create.
1:54:57
Especially with this waiver process, which includes re rentals as well as resales.
1:55:02
I think that this is a really good opportunity for us to have this conversation.
1:55:07
The sort of broad scope here is that most HDFC cooperatives, around like 80% of the 1,200 in the city, don't have any requirements to market using Housing Connect.
1:55:18
They use other means.
1:55:19
They use a known broker who understands HDFC cooperatives in compliance perhaps with their monitor and their property manager.
1:55:27
UHUB has a marketing and match program that works very well.
1:55:31
And so there we know that there are other ways to do this fairly and to do this in compliance with all laws and regulations.
1:55:37
There are also some HDFC cooperatives that now have this requirement because of the regulatory agreement.
1:55:43
And there are a subset of new HDFC cooperatives that are being created through programs like ANCP, Opendoor, TPT that will have these requirements going forward.
1:55:53
Generally, for buildings that are coming out of those programs, newly created HDFC co ops, we find that the issues with Housing Connect mostly have to do with the development process and have, you know, it's a little messy.
1:56:04
There's some coordinating that needs to happen.
1:56:06
But for the most part, things work smoothly.
1:56:08
I'm at time.
1:56:09
So may I continue?
1:56:12
Yeah.
1:56:12
Thank you.
1:56:13
Where we see real issues are for resales, as I think has been illuminated a lot during this hearing.
1:56:20
There is that one lump category for, you know, when you're creating your application, you check a box and you say, I would be open to re rentals.
1:56:28
That box also includes resales for home ownership units throughout the five boroughs, which is a huge category.
1:56:35
And so the issues that you are well aware of in having marketing agents working on re rentals go through thousands and thousands of applicants are also true for resales of HDFC cooperative apartments in The Bronx, in Upper Manhattan, in Brooklyn.
1:56:51
And it is just not necessarily set up or equipped to handle these applications.
1:56:57
Housing Connect also doesn't collect critical information around like asset information for homeownership to understand whether an applicant has sufficient savings for closing costs and down payment.
1:57:07
And it doesn't screen for folks who are affirmatively selecting to participate in an HDFC cooperative, which is something that requires participation.
1:57:16
It requires maybe stepping up to be on the board one day and requires some education and training.
1:57:21
We want an affirmative sort of pool of folks who have self selected to do this and are interested in participating, interested in homeownership.
1:57:29
But the current system that we have is not getting us those folks and also is not helping those folks find the housing that they want and deserve.
1:57:37
I also wanna illuminate that the mini lottery process that's been in place for the last five years has not worked for a single resale
1:57:45
an HDFC cooperative in all three examples that we have worked on, and I believe those are the only three examples that have taken place, it is not possible.
1:57:53
And each HDFC that went through this process needed to exhaust a full six month attempt to market through the mini mini lottery with HPD before they were granted a waiver to go to the private market and work with their marketing agent to do this.
1:58:08
It's added cost.
1:58:09
It's added time.
1:58:10
It's added headache.
1:58:12
And where there are hardships, someone needs to sell quickly for whatever reason.
1:58:16
Or you have a vacant unit that's owned by the HDFC Cooperative where they're not getting that essential maintenance to keep a building running on slim margins, this really makes a difference.
1:58:26
And so just to say that with this opportunity to really rethink Housing Connect and our HPD marketing system, I want to call attention to the specific needs and challenges of homeownership and HDFC cooperatives and keep this conversation open.
1:58:39
Thanks.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
1:56:11
Please conclude.
UNKNOWN
1:57:45
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