Carroll Gardens Association Fights Proposed Budget Cuts

A representative from the Carroll Gardens Association wrote in to publicize the organization’s concerns about some of Governor Cuomo’s proposed budget cuts. The CGA is protesting proposed cuts to the Neighborhood Preservation Program, which provides funds to nonprofit housing organizations in New York that develop, rehabilitate and manage affordable housing. The Carroll Gardens Association receives funding from the program and wrote a letter to the governor describing the impact the proposed cuts will have on Southwest Brooklyn-based residents and businesses. We inquired how much of CGA’s budget is actually dependent on the funding but didn’t receive a response. Read the letter after the jump…
Pic: A health fair hosted by the CGA via

Dear Governor Cuomo:

For over 40 years Carroll Gardens Association, Inc. has provided affordable housing and economic development, workforce training, tenant services and benefits assistance to the residents of South Brooklyn. In order to continue much-needed work to revitalize the community and boost the local economy, the Neighborhood Preservation Program in the NYS Homes and Community Renewal Budget is essential to Carroll Gardens Association, Inc. The proposed elimination of the Neighborhood Preservation Program in the Governor’s Budget for FY 2012-2013 will have a decimating impact on the services that the organization provides to residents and businesses in our community.

The organization will no longer be able to provide assistance to local merchants who are struggling to keep their businesses open. We will no longer be able to have a vibrant place to live without the Annual Street Fair, the Holiday Tree Lighting, the Toy Drive and Restaurant Week. Elimination of
the Neighborhood Preservation Program would also mean that Carroll Gardens Association could no longer continue with the Free Computer Training Classes and other workshops that train the local workforce to become better prepared to find jobs. Low-income residents and the uninsured will also
no longer be able to come to the Health Fairs where they receive free health services and information on free or low-cost health benefits. The organization could no longer to conduct Entitlement Workshops that inform the needy of benefits that could assist them to survive. Elimination of the
Neighborhood Preservation Program could possibly lead to the closing of an organization that has been a beacon of help to low-income residents in a gentrifying community for more than 40 years.

Governor Cuomo, we ask that you fully fund the Neighborhood Preservation Program and allocate sufficient funding to the Housing & Capital budget so that Carroll Gardens Association, Inc. could continue its services to our community. We are aware of the enormous fiscal crisis that the State is
facing, but the Neighborhood Preservation Program is a cost-effective economic program with a well-established return on investment. Help us preserve and maintain affordable housing and a thriving community.