United Tenant Interim Lease Coalition of
Harlem (UTILCH)
Neighborhood Assessment
The Edna McConell Clark Foundation for UTILCH
Objectives UTAP worked with the United Tenant Interim Lease Coalition of Harlem (UTILCH) to develop a strategic plan to effectively monitor, observe and improve affordable housing stock in Central Harlem. UTILCH principle purpose is to provide assistance to tenants living in City-owned buildings participating in the Tenant Interim Lease (TIL) program administered by New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). The TIL program allows tenants in City-owned buildings to manage, rehabilitate and eventually purchase their apartments to form a limited equity cooperative. This project was funded by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.
Context The housing stock of South Central Harlem, like that of much of Upper Manhattan, was a result of speculative residential construction that followed the extension of the elevated transit lines into Harlem near the turn of the last century. By the 1920s, Central Harlem had established itself as the heart of the African-American community in New York City, attracting households seeking to relocate from elsewhere in the city and from the South. Severe housing disinvestment in the 1970s initiated an abandonment process in which many landlords "walked away" their run-down buildings by stopping all maintenance and repairs and refusing to pay tax assessments and other charges to the City. The City's utilization of the In-Rem foreclosure process resulted in the legal action of 'taking' properties from delinquent owners, placing the City in the role of landlord to nearly 40% of all property in Central Harlem by the early 1980s.
Results During the process of developing a strategic plan, UTAP assisted UTILCH
integrate research and analysis to achieve a more wholistic approach to
tenant assistance. In addition, UTAP's work helped identify five blocks
in the area on which tenant assistance should be focused. This area provides
UTILCH with the opportunity to create home ownership units through the TIL
program while addressing community issues that expose current residents
to homelessness. UTILCH has gone on to establish short- and long-term organizational
objectives and goals in specific programmatic areas in addition to Housing:
Urban Design; Economic Initiatives; and Social Services.
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