Banking on Vacancy - Homelessness and Real Estate Speculation

7/28/2019 Banking on Vacancy - Homelessness and Real Estate Speculation

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BANKING ON VACANCY Homelessness and Real Estate Speculation

a report by

PICTURE THE HOMELESS

HOMELESSNESS AND REAL ESTATE SPECULATION

BANKING ON VACANCY


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PICTURETHEHOMELESS.ORG

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

BACKGROUND

FINDINGS

ANALYTIC METHODOLOGY

ORGANIZING METHODOLOGY

RECOMMENDATIONS

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

SOURCES

Vacant building and newly-constructedcondo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

CONTENTS


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BANKING ON VACANCY Homelessness and Real Estate Speculation 3

MISSIONPicture the Homeless was founded on the principle

that homeless people have civil and human rights re-

gardless of our race, creed, color or economic status.

Picture the Homeless was founded and is led by home-less people. We refuse to accept being neglected and

we demand that our voices and experience are heard

at all levels of decision-making that impact us.

We oppose the quality of life laws that criminalize

homeless people in any form by the city, state and

national governments. We work to change these laws

and policies as well as to challenge the root causes

of homelessness. Our strategies include grassroots

organizing, direct action, educating homeless people

about their rights, public education, changing media

stereotypes, and building relationships with allies.

Our motto is Dont Talk About Us, Talk With Us!


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PICTURETHEHOMELESS.ORG4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Te ollowing report exposes the extent to which vacant buildingsand lots permeate our landscape, concentrated in the very commu-nities hardest hit by gentrifcation and homelessness. We believevacant property can create housing, parks, urban arms, commer-cial and cultural space, and jobsand this report will prove justwhat a transormative impact this property could have.

Private PropertySo What! Te majority o vacant build-ings and lots in NYC are privately owned, and the trend towardprivatization continues. While we envision dierent strategies orthe transormation o publicly owned vacant buildings and lotsvis a vis privately-owned vacant property, both types beg the samequestion: who benefts rom vacancy, and does that beneft out-

weigh the social and economic costs o the housing emergency?

If Picture the Homeless Can Do It, The City Can Do It!Picture the Homeless gathered nearly 12,000 addresses o vacantbuildings and lots in all o 2010 rom Freedom o Inormation Requests to 18 city agencies. We then partnered with HunterCollege to create a sound methodology combining scientifc andcommunity organizing practice. I the City o New York canconduct a scientifcally questionable count o homeless people onenight a year (Te Hope Count, costing tens o thousands o dol-lars), then surely they can count vacant properties: by upgradingand consolidating data they already have, and mobilizing a feldcount annually. Picture the Homeless did it or a raction o what

some elected ocials claim would cost millions o dollars.Catalyze Community-Based Urban Planning Communityboards with some o the lowest incomes in the City have thousandso vacant apartments, tens o thousands o square eet o vacantcommercial space, and hundreds o vacant lots. We look orwardto the day when marginalized communities throughout NYC de-velop alternate plans or the use o vacant spaces across NYC, andorganize or their implementation, or the beneft o all communitymembers including homeless olks.

SOLUTIONSHousing Creation is Jobs CreationA jobs creation pro-gram that partners with construction trade unions to provideapprenticeships to unemployed people would help convert vacantproperties in the communities hit hardest by the recession andhousing emergency. Every dollar o investment in housing devel-opment generates an additional two dollars in economic activity.1In the 1970s the CEA program unded job training or publicassistance recipients through employment in the rehabilitation ovacant buildings.2 Tese sweat equity models allowed people toreceive training to renovate and purchase properties through theirlabor during the 1980s, but were phased out in the 1990s. We need

to bring back past models with proven track records.End Vacancy Decontrol and Liberate Thousands ofVacant Rent Stabilized Units Ending vacancy decontrol orrent stabilized apartments, renovating them and renting themat the previous rents will create thousands o low rent apart-ments without rental subsidies. Te City can launch a programto cover the cost o renovation in order to avoid Major CapitalImprovement (MCI) increases passed onto tenants. Te City wouldbe better served unding housing development and job trainingor homeless olks than spending thousands per month on sheltercosts, per amily.

Mandate a City Wide Vacant Property Count Exposing

the extent o vacancy in NYC includes demystiying the owner-ship o properties and tracking the length o time they have beenvacant. Te city can take immediate steps to centralize, improve,and de-mystiy its property records, including the passage ovacant property count legislation by the New York City Council. ICon Edison were required to report electric and gas usage per unit,we would know exactly how many apartments are vacant in NYCand or how long. NYC has been in a housing emergency since1947. It is time to evaluate and place limits on the housing marketand to demand that government stop incentivizing real estatespeculation at the expense o the public good.

TOTAL FINDINGS
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dca/html/contact/foil_request.shtmlhttp://www.nyc.gov/html/dca/html/contact/foil_request.shtmlhttps://a071-hope.nyc.gov/hope/statistics.aspxhttp://www.econsult.com/articles/061909_Assessing_Housing.pdfhttp://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/50xx/doc5079/doc25-Entire.pdfhttp://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/50xx/doc5079/doc25-Entire.pdfhttp://www.econsult.com/articles/061909_Assessing_Housing.pdfhttps://a071-hope.nyc.gov/hope/statistics.aspxhttp://www.nyc.gov/html/dca/html/contact/foil_request.shtml


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THIS COUNT WILLHELP US FIGHTTO TURN THESEBUILDINGS INTOPROPER HOUSING.Arvernetta Henry,Picture the Homeless Member

PTH member and intern prepare toscout for vacant property.

Surveyor in action.

A vacant property count can bedone at minimal cost to the city.

City agencies already collect a lot of dataabout vacancy, but make no effort to cen-tralize and analyze that information to givea holistic picture of vacant propert y.

NYCs laissez-faire free-market strategy fordealing with empty buildings and lots harmscommunities and helps big real estate.

The same neighborhoods that send highnumbers of families into the homelessshelter system have the highest density ofvacant propertyin most of them, there

is enough vacant space to house ten t imesas many people as are currently housed inshelters in that district. Citywide, vacantproperty could house the entire shelterpopulation five times over.

Property owners hide behind a maze ofshell corporations and LLCs, making itnearly impossible for local communitiesto hold entities warehousing propertyaccountable.

KEY FINDINGS

These findings are the tip of the ice-berg. We counted 1/3 of the cit y, leaving39 community districts untouched.


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VACANT PROPERTY AND THE HOUSING CRISISHow vacant property is developed, and or whose beneft, is oneo the critical issues acing us as we seek to identiy solutions tothe housing crisis in New York City. Currently, housing is likeany other commodity. Investors (real estate speculators), buyand sell property the same as they would shares in a corporation.Speculating on neighborhoods gentriying is how many olks getrich in this city. It is all perectly legal, and even incentivized bygovernment policies.

Picture the Homeless believes that housing is a human right.From this perspective, the question o vacant properties vis a vishomelessness is simple. At what point does the promotion o thepublic interest in addressing basic human needs take precedence

over the gross accumulation o private wealth? What happenswhen human rights are in conict with property rights? Tissame question was at the heart o the nineteenth-century fghtover slavery.

New York City government actively supports the warehous-ing o vacant buildings and land. In 2005, in the early days oour Housing Not Warehousing campaign, we asked (then) NYCHousing Preservation & Development Commissioner SeanDonovan to address the problem o vacancy. He responded thatdevelopment in our city requires that some property be temporar-ily held o the market to assemble development opportunities...even though temporarily can be thirty years or more. AlthoughNew York City has been in a housing emergency since 1947, theCity places no restrictions on how long residential buildings orland can be kept vacant!

One example: in Harlem, the buildings on the west side oMalcolm X Blvd. between 125th and 124th streets stayed empty ordecades while the landlord purchased each one as it came on themarket. Je Sutton, head o Wharton Realty, kept the apartmentsin these buildings vacant while making proft on the ground-oorcommercial space. Tere was no shortage o people in Harlemlooking or apartments: Harlem has one o the highest rates ohomelessness in the City. Nor is it that Sutton couldnt aord torehab the building. It just wasnt ripe or making a killing, as theysay. Picture the Homeless held two sleep outs on the street in

ront o the buildings to educate the public about the connectionsbetween vacancy, gentrifcation and homelessness. We wrote toJe Sutton and asked or a meeting. In response, he demolishedthe buildings to construct a luxury hotel. Te lot remains vacantas o this writing. (See photo on page 7) Under current law, he cando whatever he wants with his property, regardless o communityneeds or impact on the city as a whole.

Through Housing Boom and Housing BustRegardlesso market conditions, two constants remain: a steady increasein homelessness and the privatization o vacant property, be-cause housing is a commodity. During an economic upswing,

gentrifcation produces higher rents. When the economy declines,

rents in low income neighborhoods dont go down. Unemploymentgoes up, and the city says there is no money to create housing.Trough it all, New York City has set record levels o homelessnessduring the past 10 years. Te number o homeless amilies enteringshelter each year has doubled since Michael Bloomberg took ocein 2002, and has reached 40,000 people as o todays writing.3 Tisdoesnt count street homeless, or olks doubled up in overcrowdedhousing, amilies in the domestic violence shelter system, or thehundreds o shelter beds provided by aith communities through-out the city.

ROOTS OF THE HOUSING (NOT HOMELESS) CRISISPolicies at all levels o government have created the housing crisis.

Since the Reagan Administration, dis-investment in housingdevelopment or the very poor, withdrawal o unds or rentalsubsidies such as the Section 8 voucher program, stagnatingand declining wages or low wage workers, and public assistancebudgets that relegate olks to extreme poverty, have contributedto more households experiencing homelessness in New York Cityand throughout the United States. How much rent can you aordi you make $10.00 per hour at a ull time job, or a pre-tax incomeo $1,733 a month? According to ederal guidelines, amilies payingmore than 30% o their income on rent are considered cost-burdened... so the most you could spend on rent is $519 a month.Imagine i you have children. What happens when you losethat job? Over 50% o households in the city pay more than 30% otheir income or housing!

Warehousing isnt just a New York City problem. Withunemployment and oreclosures on the rise and banks sitting oncountless properties acquired raudulently or immorally, the 2010census estimated that there are 18.6 million vacant homes4,and anestimated 3.5 million homeless people nationwide5... which equalsfve vacant homes in this country or every homeless person!Picture the Homeless learned that other cities, like Boston, surveyvacant properties, and we learned rom those models. We are alsoanchor members o the Campaign to Restore National HousingRights, leading a workgroup on addressing warehousing nation-wide, learning rom and providing support to allies nationally.

Shelter Money is Poorly Spent, Give Us Money to PayOur Rent!Picture the Homeless members decry the amount omoney spent on shelter, especially as compared to the absence omoney spent on housing development or rental assistance or thevery poor. We know that the claim by City ocials that theresno money to turn vacant properties into housing is a lie, becauseshelter residents get a monthly update o the exorbitant amountsthe City spends on shelter. In 2010, the citys budget or HousingPreservation and Development ($489 million) was only 63% owhat the city spent providing shelter to homeless people ($773 mil-lion Department o Homeless Services budget)6.

BACKGROUND
http://www.picturethehomeless.org/housing.htmlhttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2118939023068&set=oa.10150338349409196&type=1&theaterhttp://picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Flyers/Student_Turnout_Flyer_Sept_08_Sleep_Out.pdfhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/27985255@N05/sets/72157605818155443/http://www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/html/statistics/statistics.shtmlhttp://2010.census.gov/2010census/http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/How_Many.htmlhttp://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2009a%2Fpr193-09.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2009a%2Fpr193-09.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/How_Many.htmlhttp://2010.census.gov/2010census/http://www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/html/statistics/statistics.shtmlhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/27985255@N05/sets/72157605818155443/https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2118939023068&set=oa.10150338349409196&type=1&theaterhttp://www.picturethehomeless.org/housing.htmlhttp://picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Flyers/Student_Turnout_Flyer_Sept_08_Sleep_Out.pdf


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Inset: portion of actual NYC humanresources administration statement,showing how much the city pays forone person to be in a shelter for amonthprovided by a PTH member

BROOKLYN NEIGHBOR-HOODS ARE PLAGUED BYVACANT PROPERTY ANDDISPLACEMENT, ANDWERE LOSING MORE AND

MORE OF OUR PEOPLE TOTHE HOMELESS SHELTERSYSTEM. THE CITY NEEDSTO DO MORE. THE DATAWE GATHER WITH THISCOUNT WILL HELP US

CREATE REAL SOLUTIONSTHAT BENEFIT WORKING-CLASS NEW YORKERS.Letitia James, City Council Member


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Housing Not Warehousing Campaign History Picture theHomeless began our Housing Campaign in 2004, with a vacantproperty count in El Barrio/E. Harlem. Te count taught us thatmost vacant properties were privately owned, and the propertytaxes paid. Tis was a very dierent scenario than the abandon-ment o previous decades. Picture the Homeless members wereacutely aware o vacancy: the neighborhoods with the most vacantproperty are the same neighborhoods that send the most homelessamilies into the shelter system.

SHIFTING THE CONVERSATION AND TAKING ACTIONPicture the Homeless members were convinced that the develop-ment o vacant properties was key to solving the housing crisis,and the renovation o vacant properties a source o good jobs.Our vision to create housing and jobs through the rehabilitationo vacant buildings isnt a new idea. It has worked in the past.But vacant property is a hot commodity now, and much o it is inthe private market. Government ocials told us that vacancy is

a thing o the past, that the city doesnt keep records o vacancy,and theres just no way to prove its really a problem. Most housingadvocacy organizations also told us we couldnt do anything aboutprivately owned vacant property. We werent convinced. We real-ized that we had to shi the conversation by exposing the extentto which buildings and lots were being kept vacant. We conductedextensive outreach to homeless people, building our base to mobi-lize or town hall meetings and direct actions highlighting vacantproperty and its impact on the entire city, in the process buildingrelationships with dozens o grassroots groups and aith leaderswho elt that property warehousing needed to stop.

Participatory Research: The Manhattan VacantProperty Count We knew that we had to prove that ware-housing was pervasive and harmul to community and the Cityas a whole. We designed and conducted a block by block counto vacant properties in Manhattan in conjunction with theManhattan Borough President in 2006. Our report, HomelessPeople Count, proved that the total volume o empty housingunits in abandoned buildings in Manhattan exceeded the numbero homeless people in shelter and on the street citywide. 24,000potential apartments could have been developed out o all thoseproperties going to waste!7 And the housing crisis and economicrecession have increased both homelessness and vacancy sincethen. Te fnancial collapse o 2008 has also le countless condodevelopments stalled or lack o fnancing.8

Sleep Outs, Public Education and Relationship BuildingIn early 2006, in conjunction with launching the vacant propertycount, we began a series o sleep-outs, where we literally slept onthe sidewalk in ront o vacant buildings, engaging the community

in conversations around vacancy and homelessness and gentri-fcation. We also garnered extensive press coverage. Neighborsbrought us coee and warm soup. Tese public sleep-outs helpedbuild solidarity within our organization, and public support orour work. It was during the process o building support or ourfrst sleep out that members o PH met with olks rom the oceo Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. His oce part-nered with us on the block-by-block count o vacant buildings andlots in Manhattan reerenced above.

State Legislative Victory, City Legislative ChallengeOne policy change resulting rom our Manhattan count was a billintroduced by State Senator Jose Serrano and passed through both

chambers o the legislature, which eradicated a tax incentive thathad essentially rewarded landlords or keeping property vacantabove 110th Street in communities with high rates o homelessnessand rampant gentrifcation.

Picture the Homeless members reached out to every membero the New York City Council in 2006, seeking to cra and fnda sponsor or legislation to mandate a vacant property countand create incentives to develop housing or poor people. SouthBrooklyn Legal Services assisted us in the research and writingo the bill, which was sponsored by Councilman ony Avella. Bylate 2009, it was clear that the Council legal department wouldnot allow a bill to be introduced with provisions that includedelements such as duty to rent. We were in act told that bills

were not introduced at all i they werent likely to be passed! Manyo our members elt that council members should have had theopportunity to gather testimony, debate and vote on this bill,and preventing its introduction was a subversion o democracy.Indeed, we learned a lot about the legislative process along the way.

In February o 2010, a new bill was introduced by MelissaMark-Viverito. Intro 48 would empower the city to conduct anannual count o vacant buildings and lots throughout the fveboroughs. We believed that this was a strategic and pragmaticcompromise. We continue to be convinced that once vacant prop-erties are counted and the results publicized, it will ignite outrage

PTH members arrested at tent cityprote st on vacant lot, East Harlem, 2009.
http://www.picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Reports/Homeless_People_Count.pdfhttp://www.picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Reports/Homeless_People_Count.pdfhttp://urbanjustice.org/pdf/publications/People_Without_Homes_and_Homes_Without_People.pdfhttp://www.picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Flyers/Sleep_Out_Flyer.pdfhttp://picturethehomeless.org/Documents/PDFs_Other/Intro48.pdfhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/27985255@N05/sets/72157621677702369/http://urbanjustice.org/pdf/publications/People_Without_Homes_and_Homes_Without_People.pdfhttp://www.picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Reports/Homeless_People_Count.pdfhttp://www.picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Flyers/Sleep_Out_Flyer.pdfhttp://www.picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Reports/Homeless_People_Count.pdfhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/27985255@N05/sets/72157621677702369/http://picturethehomeless.org/Documents/PDFs_Other/Intro48.pdf


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vacantnyc.crowdmap.com, which allowed olks to text the addressto our Vacant NYC map, and created the See Something, SaySomething initiative in the late summer o 2010. We requestedlists o vacancies rom a range o city agencies, and uploaded thoseinto Vacant NYC, or a total o nearly 12,000 vacant properties

by December o 2010. Tis resulted in several things, includingthe partnership with Hunter College whose fndings this reportaddresses.

FALL 2010, TURNING UP THE HEATTroughout the all o 2010, we turned up the heat on the CityCouncil to take action on Intro 48. We engaged with allies, metwith electeds, and created public education and media opportuni-ties around the issue o vacant properties. Tese actions included amassive press conerence in support o Intro 48. Over 100 repre-sentatives rom dozens o members o the HNW! Coalitionjoined us.

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in the communities most aected bythe housing crisis and create additionalorganizing opportunities. While Intro48 garnered the majority o City Councilmembers as co-sponsors in less thana month, as o the end o 2011 it still

has not been calendered by the Chairo the Housing Committee o the CityCouncil. We reached out to the Councilspolicy division to see what was happen-ingand learned that they were gettingpush-back rom the Administration,who were concerned about the cost othe bill even aer extremely-modestcost estimates were provided.

Takeovers, the Housing NotWarehousing Coalition andUpping the Ante Faced with the bar-

riers to passing progressive legislationthrough the City Council, we knew wehad to raise the stakes in order to getany sort o anti-warehousing or vacant property legislation passed.With supportand homelessnessincreasing, we decided tocreate a Housing Not Warehousing! (HNW!) Coalition. Our intentwas to ormalize relationships with allies, build a structure toincorporate them into the work, increase our eectiveness to wina city-wide vacant property count, and build momentum to createhousing or extremely low income olks. Te HNW! Coalition in-cludes members rom sectors o the community and social justicemovement that we believe are critical to changing housing policyin New York City, including grassroots and community based or-ganizations, cultural workers, aith communities, labor, academics,and housing developers.

In 2009 we took over a vacant building in El Barrio, on thecorner o 116th and Madison, that had been vacant or de-cades. With critical support provided by members o the HNW!Coalition, we turned out hundreds o supporters in the rain.Tat night we slept on the sidewalk in ront o the building anddeepened our resolved to liberate vacant property. In the summero 2009, we held another public takeover o a vacant lot in El Barrioowned by Chase Manhattan Bank, where 10 o us were arrested,and hundreds turned out in support. Tese actions put even moreo a public spotlight on property warehousing, and they built

support internally or members to take up squatting as a orm ocollective resistance. It was within this context, and that o gov-ernmental inaction, that we embarked upon a mapping project toengage New Yorkers to partner with us to identiy vacant proper-ties city-wide and to show the city that the count could be done.

VACANT NYC: SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHINGIn the summer o 2010, we attended a workshop on open-sourcecrowd mapping as a means to map services or homeless olks.In our experience, homeless olks know where services are, sowe suggested using the technology to map vacant propertiesto educate the public about vacancy instead! We launched

THE POWERS THATBE DONT WANTTO COUNT VACANTPROPERTYBECAUSEIT WILL SHINE ANUGLY LIGHT ON

THEIR REAL ESTATEFRIENDS. Dwayne Austin,Picture the Homeless Member

Demonstration at City Hall,demanding action on vacantproperty, 2010.
https://vacantnyc.crowdmap.com/mainhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/27985255@N05/sets/72157625103518344/http://www.indypendent.org/2009/03/19/east-harlem-residents-and-housing-advocates-rally/http://picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Press%20Clips/PtH_TentCity_DN062409.pdfhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/27985255@N05/sets/72157625103518344/https://vacantnyc.crowdmap.com/mainhttp://picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Press%20Clips/PtH_TentCity_DN062409.pdfhttp://www.indypendent.org/2009/03/19/east-harlem-residents-and-housing-advocates-rally/


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NYC Vacant Properties Could House Every HomelessPerson and then Some! Tese results show the outstandingamount o under utilized housing stock that is available in just athird o New York City! Every homeless person in New York Citycould have a home with the amount o vacant space that currentlyexists. By pushing or rehabilitation o the existing vacant build-ings the city could create jobs and house people immediately.

Shelters Would Become Obsolete While the city chooses towaste money on the shelter-industrial complex, we have ound thatthe number o shelter beds in each district is signifcantly lowerthan the number o potential housing units in each community

district. Tere is space to house fve times as many people in vacantproperty as are currently in shelter citywide. Te city spends$3,500 a month to house someone in a shelteradding up to $856million a year, yet there is no plan in place to create real housingor the poor.

Neighborhood Vacancy and Shelter CorrelationResults rom our vacant property count demonstrate a pattern odisplacement. According to the Vera Institute o Justices reportUnderstanding Family Homelessness In New York City almosthal o eligible homeless amilies came rom 10 o the 59 communi-ty districts in New York City.10 Six o these ten community districtsare the same ones where we ound the highest rate o vacancy. Tis

correlation demonstrates that homelessness and warehousing gohand in hand.

City Data is a Useless Mess In advance o the count, wecompiled as much city data as we could, to identiy the commu-nity districts with the highest rate o vacancies using Freedom oInormation Law requests to many city agencies. We were unableto obtain a clear picture o vacancy in New York City. Once wetook on the challenge o walking block by block, counting thenumber o vacant buildings and lots, we obtained thousands osurveys reporting vacant properties. Comparing what communitymembers identifed as vacant properties to the inormation that

we obtained rom the city exposed an incomprehensible inconsis-tency between what the city records and what the community hasto live with. Our data demonstrates that city records-keeping isuseless or understanding housing conditions, and is in need o adramatic overhaul.

Warehousing with Commercial Space Walking throughblighted neighborhoods such as Harlem and Bed-Stuy one noticesmany storeronts that are active. What people generally do notnotice is the amount o empty residential units that are availableon top o these commercial spaces. Landlords warehouse theirresidential units because they can make enough money rom

extravagant commercial rents without any o the hassles o resi-dential tenants.

Available Commercial Space can Help Subsidize LowIncome Residential Units Within the thousands o vacantbuildings that this report has identifed, we ound 4,544 unitsthat are zoned or commercial or manuacturing use. Te CooperSquare Mutual Housing Association ocuses on providing a-ordable housing apartments on the Lower East Side through theCommunity Land rust/MHA model. Tey are able to keep rentsas low as $350 a month, in part by subsidizing their rents usingsome o the profts made rom their rented out commercial space.According to Valerio Orselli Executive Director o the Cooper

Square Committee, they are able to raise 27% o their total operat-ing cost by using the income gained rom their commercial spacesto maintain aordable units.

Affordable Housing is Not Really Affordable Te U.S.Department o Housing and Urban Development(HUD) usesArea Median Income (AMI) to identiy the range or aord-able housing guidelines. AMI in New York City is distorted byauent neighborhoods in the greater New York Metropolitan Areaincluding northern New Jersey and Long Island, pushing the AMIto $80,200.11 In order to provide real aordable housing, the cityneeds to mandate that the AMI be more locally determined. I a

FINDINGS
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building is being developed in the Bronx and is being subsidizedby public unds, the AMI should be appropriate to the medianincome o the neighborhood! Current practices encourage gentrif-cation and displacement while using public unds to do it.

The City Masks Vacant Lots as Parks In many instances

our surveyors identifed abandoned, garbage-flled, and weed-ridden lots that the city lists as public recreation spaces. Te cityneeds to distinguish between lots that are publicly accessible andsealed-o lots where the community could create a plan or properusage o the space. New Yorkers should not be living next to gar-bage and rat-inested lots that they claim to be recreational space!Tese spaces pose potential health hazards and devalue the qualityo lie or community members.

This Can be Replicated Te city stated that a count o vacantproperties in New York could not be done because it would costtoo much money. We have proven that through the use o volun-teers and partnering with a University a vacant property count can

be done. Using our Analytical and Organizing Methodology thisprocess could be replicated at a much lower cost than what cityocials claim.

Vacancy Affects Everyone When organizing this projectwe reached out to as many community members as possible. Wespoke at neighborhood events, rallies, protests, churches, highsschools and colleges, community organizations, shelters, citycouncil orums, and any other place where we could fnd an openear. While engaging the community about the issue o vacantproperties, we received unanimous concerns about vacancy beinga problem. Te staggering volume o empty buildings and lots thatwe identifed causes major harm on all aspects o city lie. People

who are in need o housing want these vacant buildings to be putin use. Community members who eel like there are not enoughparks and recreation spaces in their neighborhoods want thevacant lots to be turned into something useul. Homeowners livingnext to rodent-inested lots want the city to clean up the brown-felds that are ever-present across blighted neighborhoods inNew York City.

Hiding Ownership With LLCs and MERS As we collectedand analyzed the thousands o vacant properties ound in oursurvey, we came across great diculties in identiying their owner-ship. Te usage o Limited Liability Corporations allow landlordsto mask true ownership o warehoused and abandoned proper-ties. In cases where the properties are bank-owned or are going

through oreclosure, the usage o Mortgage Electronic RegistrationSystems, Inc (MERS) make it even more problematic to identiyownership and transaction history by community members. Inthe end, a community member would need a law degree and a sub-stantial amount o ree time to decipher the ownership o vacantbuildings and lots in their neighborhood and uncover slumlords,warehousers, and property-ipping schemes. Te city needs toclearly record property ownership and mortgage transactionsand have that inormation be easily accessible. By allowing thesepractices to persist the city is supporting predatory tactics anddisplacement processes.

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People housed is a speculative estimate, based on localzoning regulations on vacant residential buildings and lots,and contingent on development to the maximum oor/arearatio (FAR), following established city planning estimatesof 350 square feet per person. Instead of mandating that allvacant lots be developed into housing, our goal is to empow-er neighborhoods to ght for their own needscommunitygardens, parking lots, commercial use, housing development,etc. Our total gure is a potential maximum, subject in prac-tice to detailed site analysis and community decision making.

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DEVELOPERS,BUILDERS, ANDSPECULATORS SEEVACANT SPACES ASFUTURE WEALTH.THAT FUTUREWEALTH DOES USNO GOOD NOW,WHEN PEOPLE

ARE HUNGRY ANDSTARVING ANDHOMELESS.Owen Rogers,Picture the Homeless Member
http://www.mersinc.org/http://www.mersinc.org/


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MANHATTAN

COMMUNITY DISTRICT FINDINGS

CD 03 | EAST VILLAGE/LEStotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 222

> housing a total of 8,656 people

number of existing shelter units: 260

431 commercial/manufacturing units found within 172vacant buildings.3% of vacant property is owned by thegovernment; only 8% of the vacant properties we foundhad been identied as vacant in the city data we received.

CD 06 | MIDTOWN/GRAMERCYtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 51



643 commercial/manufacturing units found within 41vacant buildings. 0% of vacant property is owned by thegovernment; only 6% of the vacant properties we foundhad been identied as vacant in the city data we received.

CD 10 | HARLEMtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 327


number of existing shelter units: 1,223


CD 02 | SOHO/TRIBECAtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 297



1,585 commercial/manufacturing units found within 263vacant buildings. 1% of vacant property is owned by thegovernment; only 5% of the vacant properties we foundhad been identied as vacant in the city data we received.

CD 04 | MIDTOWN/CHELSEAtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 99



370 commercial/manufacturing units found within 172vacant buildings. 10% of vacant property is owned by thegovernment;only 6% of the vacant properties we foundhad been identied as vacant in the city data we received.

CD 09 | MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTStotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 105



50 commercial/manufacturing units found within 94vacant buildings. 5% of vacant property is owned by thegovernment; only 7% of the vacant properties we foundhad been identied as vacant in the city data we received..

CD 11| EAST HARLEMtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 143






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VACANT BUILDINGS

VACANT LOTS

These numbers are overall highlightsshowing relative density of vacantproperty. More comprehensive data isavailable on our website:picturethehomeless.org/vacancy.html.



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THE BRONX


CD 04 | MOUNT EDENtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 236



431 commercial/manufacturing units found within 172vacant buildings.3% of vacant property is owned by thegovernment; only 8% of the vacant properties we foundhad been identied as vacant in the city data we received.

CD 03 | CLAREMONT VILLAGEtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 161



1,585 commercial/manufacturing units found within 263vacant buildings. 1% of vacant property is owned by thegovernment; only 5% of the vacant properties we foundhad been identied as vacant in the city data we received.

CD 06 | BELMONTtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 157






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CD 04

169 VACANTBUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR

7,894PEOPLE67VACANT LOTS>HOUSING FOR

3,285 PEOPLE

CD 06

113 VACANTBUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR

2,030PEOPLE44

VACANT LOTS>HOUSING FOR

2,742 PEOPLE

CD 03

86 VACANTBUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR


3,309 PEOPLE

15

VACANT BUILDINGS

VACANT LOTS




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BROOKLYN


CD 01 | WILLIAMSBURGtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 349

> housing a total of 22 ,611 people


145 commercial/manufacturing units found within 188vacant buildings. 7% of vacant property is owned by thegovernment, only 10% of the vacant properties we foundhad been identied as vacant in the city data we received.

CD 03 | BEDFORD-STUYVESANTtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 466




CD 05 | EAST NEW YORKtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 531




CD 08 | CROWN HEIGHTStotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 182




CD 02 | DUMBO/CLINTON HILLtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 212




CD 04 | BUSHWICKtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 384




CD 06 | RED HOOK/PARK SLOPEtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 294




CD 16 | CYPRESS HILLStotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 307






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CD 03

419 VACANTBUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR4,161PEOPLE47VACANT LOTS>HOUSING FOR

6,215 PEOPLE

CD 01

188 VACANTBUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR


17,359 PEOPLE

CD 02

155 VACANTBUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR


3,556 PEOPLE

CD 06

134 VACANT

BUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR

975PEOPLE160VACANT LOTS>HOUSING FOR

3,792 PEOPLE

CD 08

117 VACANTBUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR


1,833 PEOPLE

CD 05

254 VACANTBUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR


6,817 PEOPLE

CD 16

154 VACANTBUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR

953PEOPLE153VACANT LOTS>HOUSING FOR

4,126 PEOPLE

CD 04

202 VACANTBUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR


4,011 PEOPLE

VACANT BUILDINGS

VACANT LOTS




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CD 01

362VACANTBUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR


7,472 PEOPLE

STATEN ISLAND

18 PICTURETHEHOMELESS.ORG

VACANT BUILDINGS

VACANT LOTS


CD 01 | NORTHERN STATEN ISLANDtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 612






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CD 14

211 VACANT

BUILDINGS

>HOUSING FOR


31,696 PEOPLE

QUEENS

19

VACANT BUILDINGS

VACANT LOTS


CD 14 | FAR ROCKAWAYtotal number of vacant buildings and lots: 605







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ANALYTIC METHODOLOGY

ASSESSING CITY DATAWe began by assessing what data the city already had. In the

course o our research we had learned that dierent city agenciescollect dierent inormation about vacant propertiesthe NYPDkeeps track o vacant property in which illegal activity has beenreported, the Fire Department monitors properties that they hadsealed up aer fre damage, and so on. In November o 2010 webegan an exhaustive campaign o Freedom o Inormation LawRequests to every city agency that could conceivably have kept rel-evant records. In the end we sent nineteen FOIL requests to elevendierent agencies. Many city agencies ignored or outright reusedto comply with our requests. Some provided data that was clearlyout o date, or ormatted in such a way as to make it impossibleto collate or compare with other city agency data. And then someresponded right away, with very helpul and thorough data.

Ultimately, by obtaining inormation regarding vacantlots and buildings rom various governmental agencies via theFreedom o Inormation Law (FOIL) as well as inormation report-ed through other governmental and non-governmental sources, westacked up a listing o over 40,000 properties. Our comprehensivedata set came rom the sources seen in Initial Findings.

We shared this dataset with our partners at Hunter College,who careully reviewed it. Tey removed duplicate and er-roneous listings. All vacant buildings and lots were mappedusing Geographic Inormation Systems (GIS) soware and theDepartment o City Plannings PLUO database. It quicklybecame apparent that the vast majority o the vacancies were

concentrated in a small number o communities. We concludedthat it would be most ecient and eective to concentrate timeand resources on these neighborhoods. A complete block-by-blocksurvey o the entire city would certainly have been possible, but wecould not justiy the additional time and resources it would requireto survey and map the relatively small number o vacancies inmany parts o the city.

In order to narrow down the areas to be surveyed, we had touse only the data that was up-to-date and available citywide. TeRight to the City Condo Count listings were taken out becausethey were dated and in only one borough. Te 4,000 partialvacate orders were removed, because the data was useless or our

purposes. Te city ails to document the extent o the vacancy in apartially-vacant property, meaning that every one o these proper-

ties was somewhere between 1% and 99% vacant. It would havebeen impossible to count or veriy partial vacancies in our feldsurvey without having access to the buildings.

IDENTIFYING CONCENTRATIONS OF VACANT PROPERTYWe considered mapping the concentrations o vacant property bycensus tract, zip code, Council District or inormal neighborhoodboundaries. We concluded that the best choice would be the citys59 community districts. Mapping these addresses in GIS, Hunterwas able to identiy the number o vacant properties per com-munity board. We used this fnalized list to identiy target areas.Hunter collected inormation regarding the size o each commu-nity district rom the Department o City Planning, and used this

to control or density and determine the number o vacancies persquare mile (mi).

Community districts were ranked rom largest to smallest inthree scenarios: total number o vacancies per mi, total numbero vacant lots mi, and total number o vacant buildings mi. Wethen analyzed and compared the top ten community districts ineach list. Because many community boards appeared in more thanone top ten, removing the repeats le us with a list o 18 com-munity districts. Tis list included all o the major areas o vacancyconcentrations, and ft our own collective knowledge o the citysneighborhoods. Because it was strategically important to cover allfve boroughs, thus truly creating a replicable model or a citywidevacant property count, we expanded our l ist to 20 by adding CD 1

in Staten Island and CD 14 in Queens, the areas with the highestnumber o vacancies per mi within their respective boroughs.

AFTER THE FIELD SURVEYData Entry Once the feld survey was done, the surveys werecollected and grouped by borough. Each physical survey was thenentered into a spreadsheet with columns or all o the inormationon the survey. We used Internet tools such as Te Open AccessibleSpace Inormation System (OASIS~oasisnyc.net) designed by theCUNY Mapping Service to identiy the addresses on each surveywhen a surveyor could not fnd an address or a particular proper-ty. OASIS uses City Planning inormation to create an online map


WE FOUND THATCITY RECORD-KEEPINGIS USELESS FOR UNDERSTANDING VACANCY,AND NEEDS A DRAMATIC OVERHAUL.
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/ccpdhttp://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bytes/applbyte.shtmlhttp://oasisnyc.net/http://oasisnyc.net/http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bytes/applbyte.shtmlhttp://www.hunter.cuny.edu/ccpd


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INITIAL FINDINGS

905 vacant lots and buildings reported by volunteers1,067 vacant buildings reported by the NYC Department ofHousing Preservation and Development (HPD)

3,121 vacant lots reported from Department of EnvironmentalRemediation

434 vacant city-owned lots reported by the Division ofReal Estate Services at the NYC Department of City-wide

Administrative Services (DCAS)

5,552 vacant buildings reported by the NYC Departmentof Buildings (DOB)

706 reports of stalled construction sites

697 buildings with full vacate orders, from the DOB

4,151 buildings with partial vacate orders, from the DOB

451 vacant lots and buildings from Right to the City VacantCondo Count (RTTCC)

30,080 vacant lots reported from NYC Department of CityPlanning (DCP) Pluto Data

41,176 total vacant buildings and lots

SECONDARY FINDINGS

1,808 Vacant Buildings from the Department of BuildingLists, and HPD Vacant Buildings7,771 Vacant Lots from the Department of City Planning Pluto,Department of Environmental Remediation (Brownelds), vacant

city-owned lots from Division of Real Estate Services, Department

of City Planning Pluto Data

9,579 total vacant buildings and lots

21


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Follow Up Research Aer compiling all o the surveys on aspreadsheet and obtaining the citys PLUO data or each address,we then did ollow up research to urther veriy the data. We usedGoogle Maps and OASIS which provides links to the Departmento Buildings and ACRIS inormation on each property. Te major-ity o the vacant buildings that were identifed by surveyors had aclear record o vacancy complaints or vacate orders according to

the Department o Buildings website, while other buildings werevisibly vacant. Te fnal set o data and maps combines the resultso our feld study with the valid data we received rom the city. Inmany cases the feld survey confrmed vacancies reported in citydata. However, our survey ound signifcantly more vacant build-ings. In part this is because our survey ound many completedresidential buildings with active ground-oor retail and residentialunits intentionally held o the market (and thus not listed in thecity data). In part it may have to do with a continuing growth invacancies since earlier this year. We believe it also reects the greatvalue o having on-the-ground community surveys conducted byvolunteers rom our neighborhoods.

One o the shortcomings o the feld survey, however, was the

ability to accurately identiyvacant lots. Since vacant lotsdo not have observable streetaddresses, surveyors usuallyhad to provide a reerence roma nearby building. We had tocheck local and on-line sourcesto come up with block and lotnumbers that best identifedthe vacant lots. Sometimessurveyors incorrectly identi-fed a city park or side yard as avacant lot and we were able tocorrect these mistakes. In theend, we ound that existing citydata shows many more vacantlots than ound in the survey.Nevertheless, we still ound alarge number o vacant lots thatwere not previously recorded.

Cost AnalysIs Te city-widevacant property count was

achieved through a partnership between Picture the Homelessand the Hunter College Center or Community Planning andDevelopment. Volunteers, including the volunteer labor o home-

less leaders o Picture the Homeless, helped to keep costs low. Teprimary costs were sta time or organizing and coordinating thecount, assistance with data collection and management, analysiso fndings, preparation o maps, as well as other resources likeprinting, ood or volunteers, and transportation. While objectionsto a city wide count include the claims that it would cost mil-lions o dollars12, we did it or approximately $150,000, less than$1 per person who could be housed in the property we counted.Considering the potential savings to the city and neighborhoods,and amilies impacted by homelessness and the housing crisis, thisis quite a bargain.

22

o New York City that provides city data on each property in allfve boroughs. We then transerred the addresses o each propertyinto its Borough, Block, and Lot location in order to extract theproperty inormation rom the city data on PLUO and map it viaGIS. Te bulk o the data entry and transer was done by ull-timeand part-time interns at PH and Hunter College.

Margin of Error While we provided numerous trainings or

volunteers, and partnered less-experienced counters with veteranvolunteers, working with non-proessionals will inevitably producea diversity o survey quality. Less than 5 percent o our surveyswere invalidated as incomplete, wrong, or identiying addressesthat upon ollow-up research were not vacant. In some cases, wesent experienced organizers out to re-count entire transects toveriy surveyor fndings. Tis is a conservative count. Suspiciousproperties without clear evidence o vacancy (boarded-up win-dows, padlocked doors, overgrown lots) were omitted, and in thecase o vacant condos we believe the quantity is signifcant. Anyerroneous entries serve to underscore the need or the city to con-duct an ocial citywide vacant property count as a matter ogood public policy.


PTH members and allies atManhat tan training.

WE MOBILIZED 295

VOLUNTEERS, FOR ATOTAL OF 1,475 HOURSSPENT COUNTINGVACANT PROPERTY.
http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/Scripts/Coverpage.dll/indexhttp://www.picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Press%20Clips/Intro_48_Rally_Daily_News_Sept_30_2010.pdfhttp://www.picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Press%20Clips/Intro_48_Rally_Daily_News_Sept_30_2010.pdfhttp://a836-acris.nyc.gov/Scripts/Coverpage.dll/index


23/32

Prior to the nancial crash of 1929, Blacks

could not live on the Fulton Street side

of Atlantic Avenue, only whites: doctors,

lawyers, teachers, businessmen. Blacks

were only allowed if they worked for the

white folks. When the crash occurred, life

changed in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

When they tell the history of the crash,

they dont talk much about how entire

neighborhoods changed hands. Bedford-

Stuyvesant is one such neighborhood.

Bankers stopped you when you exited

the train at Nostrand Avenue and Fulton

Street. Tey asked you if you worked.

Did you make $5.00 a week? Do you want

a house? We became proud owners of

beautiful brownstones. Te typical brown-

stone is three stories high. Te duplex

apartment on the rst two oors was

where the owner (white folks) had lived,

and the top oor apartment had been

for the help. Te owners of four story

brownstones were lucky and had an

extra oor.

When we purchased them during this

time, we turned most of them into board-

ing houses. Te new owner lived on the

rst oor and split the upper oors into

rooms. It became a strong, tightly-knit,

Black middle-class community.

In the 1960s, banks started not giving

home owners loans to improve their prop-

erty, although the property had been paid

for two, three times over. When band-

aids no longer work, they were forced to

sell the property for a fraction of its real

worth. Tis was the beginning of modern

day redlining in Bed-Stuy.

Te gentrication of Bedford-Stuyvesant

can be seen as the descendants of the

original owners reclaiming their neigh-

borhood. I see it as the destruction of a

proud neighborhood that lived as a com-

munity, not a group of people who just

owns property for prot.

NEIGHBORHOOD SNAPSHOT: BEDFORD-STUYVE SANTBy Kendall Jackman



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Simply put, there are people who beneft fnancially rom otherpeople being priced out o housing. Homelessness is an essentialpart o the housing market as it currently unctions, and the onlyway that is going to change is or people who are homeless toorganize and fght back and win. As an under-resourced grassrootsorganization, organizing and asserting the rights o an extremelystigmatized constituency, the only way we can impact largesystems such as the housing market is to creatively combine basebuilding, leadership development, participatory research, direct

action, civil disobedience, legislation, litigation, media and coali-tion work. We knew that our documentation had to be airtight orthis count. Tanks to our partnership with Hunter College, welearned a lot towards how to accomplish that.

Tis report exposes that there is enough vacant housing andland to house every homeless New Yorker, and then some. Inthe fve years since our Manhattan Count, Picture the Homelessmembers and sta have developed our vision or the use o vacantbuildings and lots. At the same time as weve learned a signif-cant amount about urban planning, housing fnance, cooperativehousing development, community land trusts and mutual housingassociations, as well as other strategies such as squatting or home-steading. Our organizing methodology stands on the shoulders o

past and present housing struggles. Communities have organized,conducted participatory research, demonstrated, created alterna-tive urban renewal plans, gotten arrested, squatted, renovatedbuildings, made gardens out o garbage strewn lots, and pressuredelected ocials and policy makers to resource aordable housingdevelopment at all levels o government. Tese and other tacticsinormed our Organizing Methodology.

Mobilizing volunteers was the most crucial piece o thepuzzle. 20 community boards is a third o the citya lot o blocksto walk up and down! We reached out to volunteers through ournormal outreach channels, meeting people at soup kitchens and

shelters throughout the fve boroughs to let them know about thisproject and our work and asking them to participate. We also wentto colleges and high schools in search o volunteers and interns.Te act that this project revolved around housing, a central issueto all New Yorkers, allowed us to attract a lot o support. In theend, we mobilized 295 volunteers, or a tota l o 1475 hours spentcounting vacant property!

As part o the mobilization eort, members and sta o PHdeveloped the curriculum or a ormal 2 hour workshop, ocus-

ing on how vacant property impacts not only homelessness, butdozens o other issues as well. We oered teach-ins to any group,class, or organization that would be willing to give us a space todiscuss these issues, and paid members to conduct the workshops.We were successul in scheduling requent teach-ins helping useducate the public while recruiting volunteers. At the same time,we conducted internal workshops to build our members capacityto be eective ambassadors o the vacant property countas wellas build broader skills that would help the count in a number oways, such as: public speaking, participatory research, internetsearching, organizational messaging, and more.

o collect viable data, volunteers needed training in how toidentiy vacant property. In the month leading up to the count,

Picture the Homeless organized trainings in every borough so thatvolunteers learned how to distinguish vacant buildings and lots,especially in cases that were less clear-cut than buildings with cin-derblocks in all the windows. Volunteers learned how to identiyvacancy, how to fll out a survey, and how to read a map or thearea that they were to cover. Volunteers got an additional orienta-tion and training on the day o the count.

In order to eectively cover all fve boroughs,we broke thevacant property count down by borough rom June throughAugust. Locations were spread out through each o the communitydistricts that we counted.

ORGANIZING METHODOLOGY

THIS REPORTDEMONSTRATES THATHOMELESS PEOPLE ARECAPABLE OF DOING WHASOCIETY SAYS THEYCANTAND WHAT CITYGOVERNMENT WONT.Dwayne Austin, Picture the Homeless Member

Partially-completedsurveyor map.


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Lots o organizations are fghting or justice in New York City,and were ortunate to have allies in lots o overlapping sectorso the strugglerom other groups that do community organiz-ing to aith communities with a commitment to social justice,progressive labor unions, immigrant rights groups, communitydevelopment corporations, nonproft housing developers, andmore. Many got their members to serve as volunteers. Some electedocials assigned staers to work with us. Dozens o our allies inour target communities opened up their oces to serve as Hubs,

so that volunteers could meet up on the day o our mass mobiliza-tions, receive training rom PH members and sta, get donutsand coee and a clipboard and survey orms, and head out intothe feld.

We broke up each community board into transects,smaller areas o 10 to 20 square blocks, and assigned these to ourvolunteers. First-time volunteers went out in teams, and moreexperienced vacant property counters on their own. eams hadfve hours to count their transects, and they highlighted each blockon their transect map as they covered it so that wed know it hadbeen counted. Later, interns and sta took these maps to go backand count the portions o each transect that the volunteers hadnot been able to get to. At the end o each count day, volunteers

returned to their hubs to hand in their fndings.Because we wanted to spread the word about our count ar

and wide, we put a lot o energy into getting media coverage.Troughout the months o May and June we held press conerencesin each Borough, announcing the kick-o o each count. Withhelp rom city ocials, Hunter College, and allied organizations,we were able to have fve successul press conerences that got uscoverage rom El DiarioNY1, Bronx12, Capital New York, NewYork Amsterdam News, Bronx News Network, WBAI, DNAino,New York Daily News, and manyblogs.

HOMELESS PEOPLEGET ARRESTED

FOR SLEEPING ONTHE STREETEVENTHOUGH ITS NOTAGAINST THE LAWBUTTHERES NOPUNISHMENT FOR

LANDLORDS WHOKEEP BUILDINGSVACANT FOR DECADES

Vacant building walkingtour, Chelsea, 2009.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27985255@N05/sets/72157626871160784/http://www.impre.com/eldiariony/noticias/locales/2011/7/31/si-hay-sitio-para-tanta-gente-265747-1.htmlhttp://statenisland.ny1.com/content/top_stories/142654/homeless-advocacy-group-searches-for-suitable-shelters?ap=1&MP4&r=9831873494http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2011/07/2643620/new-houses-jerome-street-left-rot-and-other-mysteries-east-new-yorkhttp://www.bronxnewsnetwork.org/2011/06/bronx-homeless-advocates-hope-to-reveal.htmlhttp://www.dnainfo.com/20110519/harlem/homeless-advocacy-group-count-manhattans-vacant-propertieshttp://www.picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Press%20Clips/PtH_VacancyCount_DN060311.pdfhttp://boogiedowner.blogspot.com/2011/06/picture-homeless-and-hunter-college.htmlhttp://boogiedowner.blogspot.com/2011/06/picture-homeless-and-hunter-college.htmlhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/27985255@N05/sets/72157626871160784/http://www.picturethehomeless.org/Documents/Press%20Clips/PtH_VacancyCount_DN060311.pdfhttp://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2011/07/2643620/new-houses-jerome-street-left-rot-and-other-mysteries-east-new-yorkhttp://www.dnainfo.com/20110519/harlem/homeless-advocacy-group-count-manhattans-vacant-propertieshttp://www.bronxnewsnetwork.org/2011/06/bronx-homeless-advocates-hope-to-reveal.htmlhttp://statenisland.ny1.com/content/top_stories/142654/homeless-advocacy-group-searches-for-suitable-shelters?ap=1&MP4&r=9831873494http://www.impre.com/eldiariony/noticias/locales/2011/7/31/si-hay-sitio-para-tanta-gente-265747-1.html


26/32


End WarehousingTe city needs toprioritize housing by investing in real

long term solutions to the housing crisis.Vacant-city owned properties identifed inthis report should be immediately turnedinto housing or low income New Yorkers.While many o the thousands o vacantbuildings are empty condos where peoplecould move right in, rehabilitation odistressed vacant buildings would providejobs or countless skilled homeless peoplewho have been laid o due to budget cutsand the economic recession. Low-income

people who are willing to put their ownwork into fxing a vacant property shouldbe granted ownership through the valueo their sweat equity. A massive shi inhow the city deals with housing needs totake place. Te current record numbers ohomeless people expose the dire need orhousing and this report shows that thereis more than enough housing available aslong as the city is made to do somethingabout it.

Pass Legislation that WouldMandate a City Wide Count TeVacant Property Count exposes the needor an annual census o vacant buildingsand lots to be coordinated by the city. Wehave exposed potential housing or 199,981individuals that is not being used whilethere are people suering brutal winterson the street. Counting these propertiesis an important frst step to transormingthem into housing or homeless people andfghting back against displacement. Anannual count would allow people to obtain

a clearer picture o the available housingand lots that could be developed with com-munity input.

Three Year Vacancy Limit on PrivateProperty Many o the vacant buildingsthat surveyors identifed have been vacantor numerous years by speculators waitingto turn a proft. o make sure that housingis made available, the city needs to imposea 3 year limit that a residential unit couldremain without tenants. Tere is not a

RECOMMENDATIONS

homeless problem in New York city, thereis a housing problem. By mandating use oresidential spaces the city would ensure a

higher rate o housing on the market anddecrease the amount o vacancy. Toseunits that become vacant or more than 3years should be taken over by the city andturned into housing or low incomeNew Yorkers.

Community Land Trust Te use oCommunity Land rusts and MutualHousing Associations would allow or longterm aordable housing that would beregulated by the tenants that live in them,and acilitate a shi rom a proft-based

housing system to one based on peoplesneeds. Since Community Land rusts arenon-profts, this model would also allowcity- and privately-owned buildings to begied to people that want to stay in theircommunities at an aordable rate, reduc-ing the high rate o homelessness anddisplacement. For more inormation onCommunity Land rusts, check out ourwebsite at: picturethehomeless.org/clt.html

Freedom of Information Many govern-mental agencies simply reuse to complywith the Freedom o Inormation Law.

We learned frsthand just how dicult itis to access the inormation that we need.Tis inconsistency is a major problem orNew Yorkers trying to get inormationabout their communities, or the actionso their elected and appointed ocials. Italso harms intergovernmental operationsoverall, and should be addressed throughan executive order mandating uniormity,promptness and transparency in eachagencys responses to FOIL requests.

Brooklyn vacancy.
http://picturethehomeless.org/Documents/PDFs_Other/PTH_CLT_Overview.pdfhttp://picturethehomeless.org/Documents/PDFs_Other/PTH_CLT_Overview.pdf


27/32


Affordable Housing for Low- andExtremely-Low Income New YorkersAny new development that is subsidized

by public unds should have real aordablehousing units. Right now the city uses apercentage o Area Medium Income thatis considerably higher than the medianincome o the neighborhood where thesedevelopments are being built. In order tokeep community members in their neigh-borhoods, the city must mandate that anydevelopment include aordable housingunits using a percentage that correspondsto the median household incomeo the community.

Usage of LLCs and MERS Te Cityneeds to create a better system or record-ing and reporting ownership. Te usage oLLCs and MERS allows building ownersand banks to hide how many propertiesthey actually own and makes it dicult tofnd them. People should be able to knowwho owns what in their neighborhood inorder to know who to hold accountable orcausing blight in their communities.

Partial Vacancy While this reportidentifes ully residential vacant buildings,it does not encompass partial vacancies.Surveyors were trained to only recorda property that was clearly unoccupied.Many landlords maintain tenants in abuilding in the process o emptying it out.Given the scope o this report we could notidentiy how many vacant apartments werein a building with partial vacancy. Furtherresearch needs to be done to clariy andquantiy partial vacancies in order to betterassess under utilized residential spaces.

WHY SHOULDPROPERTYRIGHTS TRUMPHUMAN RIGHTS?

In the middle of the count,PTH leaders traveled toChicago to support theAnti-Evict ion Campaignmoving a homeless familyinto a vacant home.


28/32


Picture the Homeless is a multiracial, city-wide, grassrootsorganization ounded in 1999. Our membership is comprised ohomeless and ormerly homeless New Yorkers. Members o Picturethe Homeless are living in shelters, doubled-up with riends andamily, sleeping on subways, parks and transit acilities. Some

have been unemployed or underemployed or the long term, someare juggling multiple low-wage or underground-economy jobs,others are union members who have recently lost work, others aredisabled or senior citizens. All o them are extremely poor. Mostare concerned with ending homelessness not only or themselves,but in working to make New York City a better place. Picture theHomeless works to build individual capacity and collective poweror homeless New Yorkers as community stakeholders throughgrassroots organizing.

We are a resource or homeless olks to identiy the rootcauses o homelessness and to develop solution-based organizingcampaigns. Te undamental causes o homelessness are con-nected to intersecting issues rooted in our economy: particularly

the commodifcation o housing and resultant housing exclusion,extreme poverty, racism, gender and sexual identity discrimina-tion, immigration, and other orms o economic marginalization.Issues that rame our work include the impact o homelessness onindividuals and communities, the fnancial and human cost o theshelter industrial complex, the intersection between governmentagencies such as the police department and homeless olks, andthe (mis) representation o homelessness and homeless people inthe media.

Picture the Homeless has worked since our ounding to placeending homelessness on the agenda o the broader social justicemovement, by pointing to the intersecting issues o racial, genderand economic justice. We sit on the coordinating committee o

the Right to the City Alliance-NY, the steering committee o theCampaign to Restore National Housing Rights, the steering com-mittee or the Campaign or Fair and Just Policing, Organizingor Occupation, and are involved in numerous other alliances. Weare recipients o the Union Square Award, the Samuel PeabodyAward o the Citizens Committee or Children, the Building theBlessed City Award rom Interaith Assembly on Housing andHomelessness, the Harry Chapin Sel-Reliance Award, and theRabbi Marshall Meyer Risk-aker Award by Jews or Racial andEconomic Justice. Ours was named one o the top 50 public policyblogs by the Policy Police.

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

City Hall demonstration, 2010.
http://www.righttothecity.org/http://restorehousingrights.org/http://www.unionsquareawards.org/social-justice-orgs/34-2002/245-picture-the-homelesshttp://www.iahh.org/http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonjashield/4102860417/http://www.unionsquareawards.org/social-justice-orgs/34-2002/245-picture-the-homelesshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/sonjashield/4102860417/http://www.iahh.org/http://restorehousingrights.org/http://www.righttothecity.org/


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Picture the Homeless conducted this groundbreaking, city widesurvey o vacant buildings and lots with the vision, participationand assistance o many riends and allies. We are grateul to eachand every one o them.

Tis report was written by Adrian Antonio Paling, SamJ. Miller and Lynn Lewis. Te Vacant Property Count that itchronicles was executed under the meticulous direction o AdrianAntonio Paling, Housing Not Warehousing organizer at Picture

the Homeless. Tis frst city-wide survey o vacant propertiesis the culmination o seven years o eorts by our Housing NotWarehousing campaign, originally staed by Sam J. Miller, whohas been the consistent staer o this work, since the campaignbegan. Tis participatory action research project is one o severalstrategies developed by our Housing Not Warehousing campaignto increase the supply o housing or the poorest New Yorkers, byidentiying and exposing the extent to which land and housing ismade unavailable by speculators. It represents the culmination oyears o creative organizing and relationship building with allies.Anika Paris, Chris Blow, Eric Brelsord and Mara Gittleman allhelped produce the Vacant NYC interactive online map o va-cancy that was the immediate orerunner o this project. Support

rom Picture the Homeless Executive Director Lynn Lewis, OceManager Anika Paris, interns Solne Junger and anaka Nyemba,and board member Ryan Gibbs were critical in dierent ways tothe success o the count.

We are extremely grateul to Dr. om Angotti, Directoro the Hunter College Center or Community Planning andDevelopment, or sharing our enthusiasm or this project, andthe belie that Housing is a Human Right. om committed theresources at Hunter College to help make this a reality. Angelaovar o Hunter College spent hundreds o hours on data entryand mapping, and participated in the feld research portion. Te

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

most important aspect o their contribution however, was theability o om and Angela to work with us as ull partners in thisproject. Tey gave direction where we needed capacity and theytook direction when we were clear about our goals or the project.Peter Marcuse was also instrumental in his enthusiastic support

or this project.Te city-wide report was conceptualized during the winter

o 2010 and throughout the spring o 2011. Picture the Homelessand Hunter College held several planning meetings to reviewproject goals and methodology, with Angela ovar, AdrianAntonio Paling, Genghis Khalid Muhammad, Kendall Jackman,Lynn Lewis, Sam J. Miller, om Angotti, William Burnett. At theweekly Picture the Homeless organizing team meetings, as wellas the weekly Housing Not Warehousing campaign meetings, thevacant property count enjoyed the brain power o dozens o home-less leaders and the entire Picture the Homeless sta. Members

Staten Island and Brooklyn volunteers.

Count coordinators KendallJackman (l) and AdrianAntonio Paling (r).
http://www.picturethehomeless.org/housing.htmlhttps://vacantnyc.crowdmap.com/mainhttp://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/urban/faculty.phphttp://www.marcuse.org/peter/peter.htmhttp://www.marcuse.org/peter/peter.htmhttp://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/urban/faculty.phphttps://vacantnyc.crowdmap.com/mainhttp://www.picturethehomeless.org/housing.html


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WE WANT TO

SHED LIGHTON THE HOMESWITHOUT PEOPLEAND THE PEOPLEWITHOUT HOMES.Frank Clark, Picture theHomeless Member

contributed in many other ways, including phone banking, meet-ing with ally organizations to elicit support, and training volunteersurveyors. Jerry Singleton and Ryan Gibbs, or example, madehundreds o calls to mobilize volunteers. Marina Ortiz providedcrucial support updating our website and social media work tohelp raise awareness and turn out volunteers or the count. Finally,the brilliant graphic design o this report is the work o DesignCorps, a project o the Pratt Institute. Laurel Ames, Crissy Fetcher,and Lizzi Reid produced the winning design as decided by a vote oPH members and sta.

Hundreds o volunteers spent thousands o hours walkingup and down the streets o every borough in the city all summerlong. Tey gathered the data that this report presents, helpedwith coordinating the count dates, prepared materials, acilitatedtrainings, and conducted volunteer outreach. We are grateul tothe generous allies and community based institutions who openedtheir oces to us to use as hubs, where count volunteers met ortraining and to pick up their survey packets, who mobilized theirmembers and helped to spread the word. CAAAV, Coalition to

Save Harlem, Community Voices Heard, Grace Church, InteraithAssembly on Homelessness and Housing, John Wesley UnitedMethodist Church, Neighbors ogether, Not an Alternative, PrattArea Community Council, Project Hospitality, Project Renewal,Queers or Economic Justice, Union Teological Seminary, numer-ous branches o the New York Public Library, and the oces oCouncil Members Margaret Chin, Letitia James, Jessica Lappin,Melissa Mark-Viverito, Diana Reyna and Manhattan BoroughPresident Scott Stringer.

Finally, without the fnancial support provided by the OakFoundation, New York Foundation and the Human Rights Fund,this city-wide vacant property count would not have been pos-sible. Essential campaign support was also provided by the Mertz

Gilmore Foundation, the Daphne Foundation, and the Ben &Jerrys Foundation.

Count volunteers in Staten Island (l); PTHmember demonstrating at City Hall (r).

http://caaav.org/http://www.cvhaction.org/http://www.neighborstogether.org/http://q4ej.org/http://council.nyc.gov/d35/html/members/home.shtmlhttp://mmviverito.com/http://www.mbpo.org/http://www.nyf.org/http://www.ushumanrightsfund.org/http://www.daphnefoundation.org/http://www.ushumanrightsfund.org/http://www.nyf.org/http://www.daphnefoundation.org/http://www.mbpo.org/http://mmviverito.com/http://council.nyc.gov/d35/html/members/home.shtmlhttp://q4ej.org/http://www.neighborstogether.org/http://www.cvhaction.org/http://caaav.org/


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1.*Assessing the Economic Benets of Public Housing, Econsult Corporation, 2007.

2. CEA raining Programs: Do Tey Work For Adults?Congressional Budget Oce, 1982.

3. Daily Activities Report,NYC Department of Homeless Services, 11/22/2011. nyc.gov/dhs.

5.How Many People Experience Homelessness?National Coalition for the Homeless, Fact Sheet.

6.FY2010 Executive Budget ProposalOce of the Mayor, New York City, 2010.

7. Homeless People Count, Picture the Homeless, 2007.

8.A Count of Vacant Condos in Select New York City Neighborhood, Right to the City Alliance, 2010.

9. New York State Senate Bill S.6207/2008 & New York State Assembly Bill 8666/2008.

10. Understanding Family Homelessness, Vera Institute for Justice, 2005.

11. Fannie Mae Area Median Income Calculator, efanniemae.com.

12. Building Census to Aid Homeless Wrong ack, Quinn Says,Frank Lombardi

and Mike Jaccarino,New York Daily News, September 30th, 2010.

4. U.S. Federal Census, 2010.

SOURCES

Photography: Marina Ortiz Design: Laurel Ames 12, Crissy Fetcher 12, Lizzi Reid 13 Design Corps, Pratt Institute, designcorps.pratt.edu
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/html/statistics/statistics.shtmlhttps://www.efanniemae.com/home/index.jsphttp://eastharlempreservation.org/docs/Photos.htmhttp://designcorps.pratt.edu/http://eastharlempreservation.org/docs/Photos.htmhttp://designcorps.pratt.edu/http://www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/html/statistics/statistics.shtmlhttps://www.efanniemae.com/home/index.jsp


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PICTURE THE HOMELESS

This report exposes the extent to whichvacant buildings and lots permeate our land-scape, concentrated in the very communitieshardest hit by gentrication and homeless-

ness. We believe vacant property can createhousing, parks, urban farms, commercial andcultural space, and jobsand this report willprove just what a transformative impact thisproperty could have.


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