Shrinkage for $2 Million Tenant Displacement Fund

Back in 2005, when the DCP was working on the rezoning of the Williamsburg/Greenpoint waterfront, part of the lure for reluctant residents was a kind of renter protection fund: $2 million to prevent tenant displacement. Well, more than a quarter of that fund &#8212 $550,000 &#8212 has dried up, reports the NY Daily News. “You’re going to see a lot more low-income people being forced out,” Marty Needelman, director of Brooklyn Legal Services, told them. “You’re going to see an increase in harassment and neglect to get these people out because there will be no enforcement, nobody there to help them.” The North Brooklyn Tenant Anti-Displacement Collaborative, which aids tenants facing eviction or harrassment and helps families apply for Section 8 vouchers and affordable housing, will see $300,000 of its $1.3 million grant slashed, forcing them to lay off workers. It was Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff who pledged to create the fund (he’s since gone off to work in the private sector), as some 2,500 people could be displaced by the rezoning and the development along the waterfront. So what happened to the cash? Here’s one explanation. “Seth Donlin, a spokesman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said the agency got stuck footing the bill after plans to pay for the fund by selling air rights over an MTA bus lot were delayed.”
City Cuts 500G from Pledged $2M Fund to Protect Renters [NY Daily News]
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