From: <YoungDemsNYC at aol.com> To: <thomas.acosta at ssmb.com> Date: 1/25/01 10:58PM Subject: FYI
YOUNG DEMOCRATS
OF NEW YORK CITY, INC. ********************************************** Cordially Invites You To A Luncheon Forum On:
The Harlem Brownstone Mortgage Scandal
Saturday, January 27, 2001 (12pm - 2pm) @ Harlem Windows Restaurant 163 West 125th Street, 3rd Floor (Harlem State Office Building) $75 Per Person - $25 For YDNYC Members Free for New Members who sign up in January Annual Membership is $150 Complimentary Buffet
Please mail your contribution, payable to Young Democrats of New York City, Inc., to 927 Columbus Avenue, NYC 10025. Political contributions are not tax deductible for income tax purposes.
GUEST PANLISTS (partial listing):
Hon. William A. Allen President - Greater Harlem Coalition for Community Ownership, Inc. Democratic District Leader (70th AD - Harlem)
Hon. Joseph J. Haslip Chief of Staff - Office of New York State Senator David A. Paterson Democratic District Leader (70th AD - Harlem)
James E. White, Esq. Harlem Brownstone Fraud Victim - YDNYC Member
Kemba Johnson Contributing Editor, City Limits - New Yorks Urban News Magazine
R. Kenyatta Punter President/ CEO - R. Kenyatta Punter & Associates President - Harlem Real Estate Board, Inc.
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******* Kimberly Peeler-Allen, Executive Director Young Democrats of New York City, Inc. For membership information: 212.531.2736 Email Address: youngdemsnyc at aol.com
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*******
The Harlem Brownstone Mortgage Scandal (Adapted from a New York Times article dated November 26, 2000 - "Inquiries on Mortgage Deals Crimp Harlems Realty Boom")
Federal housing officials say real estate speculators, mortgage lenders and nonprofit groups were involved in a complex scheme in which they pocketed millions in rehabilitation money and profits from selling and reselling Harlem brownstones in quick succession. The speculators worked in concert to defraud the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, through the federally insured Section 203(k) Home Rehabilitation Mortgage Insurance program. The United States attorney's office in Brooklyn is investigating charges of criminal fraud and is expected to seek indictments.
The over 150 brownstones that had flooded the Harlem market have something in common: they were bought by real estate speculators in 1998 and 1999 and resold days or weeks later at inflated prices to obscure nonprofit groups with scant experience in rehabilitating housing. Like St. Stephen's Baptist Church, a California nonprofit that bought 41 properties in Harlem. The existence of these properties was first reported last year by City Limits, an urban affairs magazine.
A search of real estate records for the Harlem brownstones turned up a widespread pattern of buying a property and reselling it quickly for a much higher price, a practice known as flipping. Sometimes, a property was flipped more than once. On Sept. 22, 1999, a brownstone at 215 West 123rd Street was sold for $117,000. On Oct. 14, it was sold again, for $220,000, to a buyer calling itself One Rescue Inc. The same day, it was resold to a nonprofit company called Advance Local Development, for $308,000. The loan amount was listed as $388,500.
As the investigations continue, HUD officials have met with banking officials to try to save these houses from foreclosure. Instead of foreclosing, the banks would turn the properties over to HUD, which would pay off the loans and resell the houses to ''responsible'' owners.
>>> rosserjb at jmu.edu 02/13/01 02:53PM >>>
Doug,
Hey, I'm teaching Urban Economics right now. I am aware that Harlem has a long way to go in terms of gentrification. But, I have no doubt that Slick Willie will end up in one of the gentrifying sections, if not already fully gentrified. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 2:28 PM Subject: Re: Slick Willie heads uptown
>J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. wrote:
>
>>Ah, but Harlem is a far cry from what it was in
>>1960. It is getting semi-gentrified these days, a
>>fancy slum, as it were.
>
>Barkley, if you ever tire of academia, you've got a future in real
>estate. There are pieces of Harlem that are getting gentrified, but
>it's got a long long way to go.
>
>Doug
>