465 Eastern Parkway HDFC

“We set the tone in our building” says former Board President Barbara Johnson, an original shareholder of 465 Eastern Parkway HDFC. “People come by and just gaze at the building. You couldn’t find a better group that is interested in maintaining the building.” The Board of Directors and shareholders living at 465 Eastern Parkway HDFC in Brooklyn are proud of each other and proud of their building.

Life in this 21-unit building has not always been so easy for the five-member Board and shareholders. The family of the original owner of the building moved him when he became too elderly to maintain the building. Soon after he left the City took ownership of the building and placed it in HPD’s Private Ownership Management Program (POMP). POMP assigned a managing agent to the building, and lo and behold they did not run the building well. Ms. Johnson joined a city tenants’ association along with residents of other buildings unsatisfied with POMP and marched on the homes of State Senators in protest of their placement in the program. The shareholders went to court seeking removal from POMP and entrance into HPD’s Tenant Interim Lease program (TIL), which trained residents to collectively own, govern and manage their building. The shareholders won their court case in 1996. Ms. Johnson recalls, “I had to go door to door for days to collect the 11 signatures needed to enter the TIL program.” Thanks to Ms. Johnson’s perseverance and no-nonsense attitude the residents entered the TIL program and received new floors, refrigerators, stoves and a full paint job from the City as part of their rehab. The HDFC residents elected a Board of Directors and they have been working together ever since.

Each Board member has a role to play in the success of the building. Some Board members have lived in the building since 1979 while others arrived as recently as 2008. Ms. Johnson, who has lived in the building since 1979 and raised her children there, has, in essence, passed the torch to Elizabeth, the current President and a working mother with two young boys, a new generation growing up in the building. Ms. Johnson observes, “We have a lot of children and young teenagers and we try to look out for them. They need that community, that village. I call it “building a village”, where the residents work together as a family and care about their neighbors.”

As President, Ms. Maletz organizes the Board’s monthly meetings, special meetings for the shareholders and focuses on long-term planning. As she says, “I am always looking for ways to improve our lives here, ways to make our common ownership more useful for us.” The Board recently installed storage units for each resident in the basement.

Joyce Richardson, the Secretary, lives on the first floor. As a retiree, she is home during the day and plays a key role in working with contractors, observing their work and following up on issues with shareholders. Many of the shareholders work during the day so Ms. Richardson accepts their packages; it is these little acts of care that set the tone in the building.

Cordell White, the Vice President and Carol Russell, the Treasurer, manage the finances of the HDFC. According to Ms. Maletz, “Ms. White and Ms. Russell are well-versed in UHAB’s financial management tools including Connected Books and work very hard to keep the maintenance low.” Charles Phillips brings energy and enthusiasm to the Board. He is always willing to help his fellow Board members with different tasks as they come up.

The Board is constantly approached by individuals looking for apartments in the building and even parties interested in buying the building, but they would never want to sell the building even if they could. As Ms. Johnson explains, “We are rich in transportation, churches, schools, parks and museums. We are in prime real estate. The community is trying to expand, but we help each other get ahead.” As Ms. Maletz explains, “We own three apartments in the building which we rent to tenants. We could rent them for much more than we do but we have long-term tenants in there so we try to keep them affordable.”

The Board is very proud of their most recent group effort to grow a garden in the front of the building. As Ms. Richardson describes, “we made a group effort to go out and plant flowers together this past June. Many of the residents came out to participate.” Mr. Phillips has an optimistic vision for the future of 465 Eastern Parkway HDFC, “we know that we are doing our best, but the best is yet to come!”