[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 23, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
          A TRIBUTE TO NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOOD SELF-HELP GROUPS

 Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to 
three exceptional New York neighborhood self-help groups that are 
revitalizing Harlem, Brooklyn, and Rochester. Each of these groups 
worked in partnership with a major New York financial services 
institution and for this reason were honored by the social compact in 
conjunction with the 1993 outstanding community investment awards 
competition, which brings national attention to outstanding 
partnership-based strategies that are strengthening disadvantaged 
neighborhoods. The honorees are: the Harlem Restoration Project, in 
partnership with Chase Manhattan Community Development Corp.; Coalition 
of North East Associations, in partnership with Chase Manhattan Bank in 
Rochester; and Mutual Housing Association of New York, in partnership 
with Chemical Bank in Brooklyn.
  These partnerships used very similar strategies in each of their 
diverse communities; namely, the acquisition and rehabilitation of 
existing properties. The Harlem Restoration Project serves the 
neighborhood in west Harlem, where there is a great number of old, 
abandoned or neglected buildings, making the housing supply perilously 
inadequate. The project currently manages 11 large apartment buildings 
under the authority of the city of New York, and is being honored for 
its rehabilitation of the property at 270 Nicholas Avenue. By replacing 
the building's roof, installing a boiler, and a new plumbing system, 76 
apartments were restored and 100 percent occupancy maintained, insuring 
that there would be one less abandoned building in west Harlem. The 
Chase Community Development Corp. was an invaluable partner, providing 
$474,410 in loans to the Harlem Restoration Project for mortgage and 
construction costs. The New York City Department of Housing 
Preservation and Development also joined this partnership to completely 
cover costs.
  The Chase Corp. was also honored for its work in Rochester with 
Coalition for North East Associations [CONEA]. CONEA serves the Upper 
Falls area of Rochester, and rehabilitated a run-down drug house 
located on the neighborhood's most violent commercial strip, turning it 
into CONEA's new office space and low-income housing. The two adjacent 
lots are also being used to building a community center. This 
achievement impacts the community in two ways: It rids the neighborhood 
of a crackhouse and locates CONEA in the heart of the neighborhood, 
close to schools and other community groups. Chase Manhattan of 
Rochester donated construction materials, a $1,000 grant to cover 
interest payments on the building and a $30,000 line of credit, which 
allowed the project to be completed within a year.

  Finally, Mutual Housing Association of New York [MHANY], which serves 
the east New York, Bushwick, and Crown Heights neighborhoods of 
Brooklyn, is being honored with Chemical Bank for its ongoing process 
of acquisition and rehabilitation of small buildings. These 
neighborhoods are some of the most socially and economically distressed 
communities in New York City, characterized by widespread poverty, 
crime, drug abuse, and small abandoned buildings. MHANY's 
rehabilitation program has resulted in the complete renovation of 55 
units that are now occupied by low-income families. Chemical Bank 
provided a $200,000 recoverable grant through the nonprofit 
intermediary Consumer Farmer Foundation, which was used to acquire the 
various MHANY buildings.
  The successes of these projects bear witness to the fact that 
demolition or simply ignoring the problem are not the only ways to 
react to urban blight. The social compact seeks out the most innovative 
and effective examples of affordable housing, community, and/or 
economic strategies that are carried out by partnerships between 
financial services institutions and neighborhood-based nonprofit 
organizations. MHANY, CONEA, the Harlem Restoration Project, Chemical 
Bank, and Chase Manhattan Corp. deserve the commendation of being 
chosen as 3 of the 16 honoree partnerships recognized in this 
nationwide competition for proving that the economic use of existing 
resources can benefit an entire community.

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