AmeriCorps*VISTA

Description

Help support NYC's low-income co-op community, now numbering over 1,000 and providing affordable housing and pride of ownership to 27,000 families.

Since 1973, UHAB has assisted low-income tenants in distressed and abandoned buildings to take control of their housing and become cooperatinve home owners. UHAB also provides on-going training, technical assistance and support services to buildings and residents after they become co-ops. This project will ensure the long-term sustainability of NYC's low-income co-ops by up-grading and expanding UHAB's Co-op Member Services -- the low-cost products, services and management aids that UHAB offers our nearly 500 member co-ops. We aim to keep co-op operating costs low through economies of scale, and to provide the support and technical assistance the co-ops need in order to sustain themselves financially and administratively over the long term. UHAB's Co-op Member Services include: a group fire and liability insurance purchasing plan (shortly to be superceded by the start-up of a community-owned Mutual Insurance Company), a professional legal assistance network, a fuel buying plan, a buying club for building/cleaning supplies, bookkeeping services, a quarterly newsletter, and a new computer/Internet technology initiative.