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Assistance to Other Community Groups
UHAB is committed to promoting self-help housing locally, nationally, and internationally by passing on our expertise to other groups that create and assist low-income co-ops. We have trained and assisted organizations in cities across the United States, as well as in the Russian cities of Moscow and Novgorod. Every city is a different story, but the essential formula behind UHAB’s success is easily replicated .
Our work with other organizations includes:
Training
UHAB has conducted seminars for housing groups from scores of U.S. cities including Omaha, Des Moines, Santa Barbara, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Newark, Washington, Pittsburgh and Boston. We conduct seminars in our offices in New York City, and our staff also travel to other locations. UHAB also creates customized training seminars on request.
For groups interested in low-income co-ops, UHAB’s seminars include an introduction to the principals of co-operative ownership as well as in-depth training for groups or individuals seeking the skills to become technical assistance providers. Almost all of our seminars include an explanation of UHAB’s adult education approach, the Small Group Activity Method. This method respects the knowledge of adult learners, provides techniques to overcome language and education barriers, and models the ideal co-op process. For groups working with tenants in rental housing or social service programs, UHAB provides training to encourage participant involvement in decision-making.
Full description of UHAB's seminars.
| “UHAB has just been tremendous.They’re exactly what you need for support and technical assistance. They have the knowledge that the developer and shareholders need.”— Carla Lerman, director of Episcopal Community Development in Newark. | Technical Assistance
UHAB has acted as a technical assistance provider and consultant to a number of nonprofit groups that develop or work with low-income co-ops. We offer assistance with all stages of the co-op development process, including feasibility analysis, financial packaging, structuring the co-op corporation, and resident training. Groups that have recently received technical assistance from us include the St. Paul’s Community Development Corporation in Paterson, N.J., which has developed the first low-income co-op in N.J. to receive state financing, and two local groups in Russia, whom UHAB assisted in establishing a School for Local Citizen Initiatives in Moscow.
| “In many ways, the Russia project was an enormous success. The partership between UHAB and the two groups in Moscow was very strong. The capacity of both partners in Moscow was built considerably and they achieved the goal of creating a Citizens’ Academy. Among all the participants, the project generated a huge amount of interest in community development.” — Dr. Helene Clark, evaluator of UHAB’s work on the Russia project. Clark is the director of the New York office for the Association for the Study and Development of Community. |
Program Development
UHAB has assisted local governments in creating programs to create and support low-income co-ops. In the late 1970's, we played a role in the creation of New York City’s Tenant Interim Lease program, through which tenants in city-owned buildings can become cooperative homeowners, and we helped set up a similar program in Jersey City, N.J., in the early 1980s. In the last two years, we helped develop a blueprint for a comprehensive housing privatization program for the city of Novgorod in Russia.
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