The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board was created in 1973 to support innovative solutions to New York City’s housing crisis. Once-stable neighborhoods were on the brink of collapse, buildings were burning, tenants were fleeing. While city officials responded with policies of demolition and diminished services, activists from UHAB supported another approach: self help housing. The central idea was helping tenants living in city-owned buildings take control of their property and become home owners with a long-term stake in their neighborhood.

UHAB’s founders were a group of young architects, urban planners and inner-city activists living and working in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in lower Harlem. One of them, 20something Philip St. Georges, even coined the term “sweat equity” to represent the value of resident involvement in the renovation of run-down buildings.  In UHAB’s early days, homesteaders across the city came to the organization for assistance with the physical labor involved in bringing their buildings back to life. UHAB’s founders also joined forces with city officials to support the growing interest in urban homesteading. Within a few years, they helped create the city’s Division of Alternative Management Programs,  which legalized and financed an array of community-based housing solutions.

At this point, UHAB’s role shifted. As the walls went up and homes were created, it quickly became clear that true community building requires much more than bricks and mortar. UHAB developed expertise in training the people who live within self-help housing, providing them with practical skills to run their buildings. This training is considerably quieter than UHAB’s original work —  consider the hum of a busy classroom compared to the buzz of an electrical saw —   but its impact is much deeper. It offers tenants the skills to become the owners of their apartments, and while doing so develops leadership, expands employment opportunities and spurs civic participation.

For more than two decades, UHAB has honed this training with residents in the two programs we worked with the city to create. They are the Urban Homesteading program, which enables residents to take title to abandoned buildings, and the Tenant Interim Lease program, which creates ownership opportunities in occupied city-owned buildings.

TIL, which is the larger of the two, requires tenants to form an association and apply to become the owners. During a period of trial self-management, they  attend UHAB classes in financial management, maintenance and repair and democratic decision-making. They also collect rent, pay for minor repairs and file financial paperwork to prove they can run the building as a co-operative. If the building leaders do a good job, they qualify for city-financed repairs of up to $50,000 per apartment. They are eventually eligible to purchase their apartments — at an unbeatable price of $250 each.

In the early 1980s, UHAB developed a concept called Neighborhood Networks. We did a lot of door-knocking, phone-calling and organizing, and eventually helped establish local and city-wide coalitions of co-op leaders that use their energy and strength to make a difference beyond individual buildings. Neighborhood Networks are now active on issues like reducing crime, cleaning up parks and creating fuel co-ops to save money. A City-Wide Coalition of co-op leaders is also active in the political arena. These grassroots, resident-led organizations are now proudly independent of UHAB, but we continue to provide support as requested.

More recently, UHAB has emerged as New York City's largest non-profit developer of affordable housing co-ops. We are taking advantage of opportunities for the creation of affordable co-ops posed by a range of new city disposition programs for city-owned and tax-delinquent housing. As of 2002, UHAB has forty buildings - with over 1,000 units - in various stages of the co-op development process, through six different, non-TIL programs or sources.

UHAB’s role before, during and after the process of co-op creation spans community organizing, development, management training, technical assistance, and emergency support programs. In all of our work, we strive to remain true to our core philosophy. We start with respect for the experience and knowledge of tenants, and we offer assistance that enables them to develop the skills and confidence to run their own institutions.