50 Years of UHAB

Thank you for making our 50th anniversary benefit a huge success!

Thank you for joining us at the Party of the Half-Century!

On March 30th, around 350 of our partners, community members, friends and family joined in celebrating 50 Years of UHAB at our annual benefit.

Thank you to NYC Comptroller the Hon. Brad Lander for joining us in honoring UHAB’s Executive Director Emeritus Andy Reicher with the Lifelong Cooperator Award, and to our NYC HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. for introducing Margy Brown, UHAB’s new Executive Director.

We are also grateful to the National Cooperative Bank for presenting the annual Chuck Snyder Community through Cooperation award to the Center for an Urban Future, the Green Guerillas, Diego Beekman Mutual Housing Association, and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Special thanks to our amazing alumni network who contributed to a surprise video for Andy in celebration of his leadership and mentorship over the years. Dina Levy, UHAB’s former director of organizing and current Senior Vice President at NYS HCR helped us present Andy with this surprise.

It’s not too late to support UHAB’s work and help us further our impact in 2023. Make a 100% tax deductible donation today to support our mission

Celebrating 50 Years of UHAB and 44 Years of Andy Reicher’s Leadership

Congratulations to the 2023 Chuck Snyder Community through Cooperation Awardees

Honoring Andrew Reicher

We’re proud to honor Andrew Reicher, our outgoing Executive Director of 44 years.

A quiet, self-effacing hero, Andrew Reicher has devoted his entire career to improving the lives of people struggling to rise from poverty through access to stable, affordable housing. Andy’s efforts have helped create programs within the New York City government crucial to fostering the development of housing cooperatives for low-income New Yorkers. Through his leadership at the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), Andy has brought homeownership to thousands of city residents and is generous in sharing his expertise with others in the U.S. turning to the cooperative model as a source of homeownership for low-income residents.

Andy’s unique combination of persistence, creativity and leadership has paved the way for cooperative development through many cycles of New York’s housing landscape. Andy’s career developed in tandem with UHAB, which was founded in 1973 during New York City’s economic crisis to help residents without stable housing reclaim abandoned buildings in New York City and help rehabilitate those buildings as their homes. During his four decades at UHAB’s helm, New York City’s low-income, resident-run and resident-owned housing cooperatives have grown from several dozen to more than 1,300 buildings, providing homeownership and permanent affordability to more than 30,000 households, most of them small buildings redeemed from abandonment. This is unique and unprecedented in the U.S. and is a significant chapter in New York City’s story. In 2021, Andy was inducted into the Co-op Hall of Fame, a lifetime achievement award that celebrates individuals who have made outstanding contributions to co-ops.

More recently, Andy has steered UHAB’s programs towards climate and social justice goals through access to share loans and expanded use of renewable energy in low-income communities and communities of color. Because of Andy’s selfless dedication, constant innovation and high achievement, low-income housing cooperatives in New York City exist and thrive. Strongly rooted in the communities he serves, Andy’s insight, experience and tireless efforts has had a lasting and profound impact on the lives of thousands.

50 years of affordable housing

UHAB began 50 years ago with a simple notion: with the right tools and resources, everyday New Yorkers can and will stand up to steward their own housing and rebuild their neighborhoods. Fifty years later, we’ve accomplished more than we could have imagined. With help from our amazing community of tenants, co-op members, supporters, and friends, we’ve converted over 30,000 apartments from disinvested, neglected rentals to permanently affordable cooperative homes. We’ve organized thousands of tenants from Harlem to Eastern Brooklyn to stand up to slumlords; guided first-time homeowners to purchase an affordable co-op; and empowered countless residents to take an active role in stewarding, maintaining, and fighting for their housing.

Learn more about UHAB’s history here.

The 2023 Chuck Snyder
Community Through Cooperation Awards

The Chuck Snyder Community through Cooperation award was created in partnership with the National Cooperative Bank to celebrate the impact of cooperation between grassroots movements, local organizations, and volunteers. Each year, the award is presented to valued partners and community-driven programs that make a positive impact on our mission. This year, in Andy’s honor, we will celebrate four institutions of which he has been a founding or long-standing board member:

Jose de Diego Beekman Houses was developed in the 1970’s under the Model Cities Program. The complex is a scattered site development that provides affordable housing in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx for 49 years. The project consists of thirty eight buildings with 1,238 apartment units.

In 2003 after years of tenant organizing, the operation and ownership of the buildings was transferred to the Diego Beekman Mutual Housing Association in 2003. Since taking over, the resident-led board has taken dramatic steps to successfully reposition the complex by restructuring debt, filling vacancies, and implementing an energy conservation and upgrade plan including new energy efficient elevators and solar on all 38 buildings.

Founded in 1996, the Center for an Urban Future (CUF) uses fact-based policy research to elevate often-overlooked issues onto the radar of policymakers and spark policy changes that expand economic opportunity for all New Yorkers, lay the groundwork for a more equitable economy in New York City, strengthen low-income communities across the city, and improve the lives of New York’s most vulnerable residents. CUF’s reports do not sit on a shelf; they are action-oriented documents that routinely spur policy changes and serve as an invaluable resource for government, advocacy organizations, nonprofit practitioners, and business and philanthropic leaders as they design and implement policies to make New York a stronger and more equitable city.

Founded in 1996, the Center for an Urban Future (CUF) uses fact-based policy research to elevate often-overlooked issues onto the radar of policymakers and spark policy changes that expand economic opportunity for all New Yorkers, lay the groundwork for a more equitable economy in New York City, strengthen low-income communities across the city, and improve the lives of New York’s most vulnerable residents. CUF’s reports do not sit on a shelf; they are action-oriented documents that routinely spur policy changes and serve as an invaluable resource for government, advocacy organizations, nonprofit practitioners, and business and philanthropic leaders as they design and implement policies to make New York a stronger and more equitable city.

Also celebrating 50 years, the Green Guerillas was founded as a volunteer organization by Liz Christy. Volunteers threw “seed grenades” over the fences of abandoned lots and provided direct technical assistance to community gardens and gardeners. The Green Guerillas have been fierce advocates on behalf of community gardens and their gardeners to protect green space throughout the City.

Today, Green Guerillas engage youth volunteers to join the greening movement through composting, rain harvesting, wall murals, food production, and more. During the pandemic, Green Guerillas advocated for the continuing protection of community gardens and farm gardens.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance builds local power to fight corporate control to create thriving, diverse, equitable communities. They are a national research and advocacy organization that partners with allies across the country to build an American economy driven by local priorities and accountable to people and the planet. 

ILSR has not been afraid to take on some of largest waste hauling and incineration companies, energy companies, communication giants, bookstore chains, and corporations like Walmart and Amazon on behalf of small local retailers, independent book sellers, co-ops of all kinds, community recyclers, community composting programs, local broadband, and community scale energy producers. 

Golden Anniversary Committee 

GALLAGHER / James Fenniman
MDG DESIGN+CONSTRUCTION / Michael T. Rooney
NATIONAL COOPERATIVE BANK / Casey Fannon

FORSYTH STREET

COMMUNITY PRESERVATION CORPORATION / Robert Riggs
CON EDISON / Kyle Kimball
DIEGO BEEKMAN MUTUAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION / Arline Parks
ESKW/Architects / Andrew Knox
Charles Laven
M&T BANK / Steve Flax
The Reicher Family
WORKFORCE HOUSING GROUP 
/ John Warren

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