CM Joseph questions HPD on COPA accountability, financing, and renovation timelines

Thank you, Chair.

Good morning.

Happy to see you all.

Excited about Prospect Park South rezoning.

Very excited.

Community is excited.

As we talk about making sure that we're keeping our communities in place, we also have to hold bad actors and bad landlords accountable.

And you've seen in my district, you came for a walkthrough, you see the dilapidated conditions that my community is in.

So I'm looking forward to see how we can escalate and move those complaints forward.

But today my question is, and some of those buildings we walk through could benefit from a COPA, right?

So I would love to see where we can, you know, meet halfway.

But my few questions is, what is the role of the council member, if any, in the process of holding qualified entities on the preservation buyers list accountable?

How do we do that?

I'm sorry, the question is how would the council members also hold those?

And how would you, how does the entities on the preservation by list, how are they held accountable?

Yes, understood.

So as we sort of discussed earlier, the list will be in, like, when the bill passes, like the first list would be issued based on the criteria I outlined, but then we will revisit that list every year.

So it is not just because you get on once you automatically stay on.

Obviously, these are nonprofits, and so, you know, we feel confident that we'll be working primarily with mission-based organizations, but that isn't to say that they don't.

Sometimes turn the wrong corner.

So we will refresh that list every year.

And if we find that there's an owner who's fallen out of compliance or into financial instability, right, they would no longer be included in future lists.

And then we would also work to make sure any buildings that they have already acquired through COPA are addressed either through code enforcement or through our preservation initiatives.

Okay, thank you.

What kind of private financing to pair with HPD acquisition and preservation tools?

What is their lending capacity for COPA eligible building acquisition?

So we got to talk money.

Yeah.

We do have to talk money.

So as I said, I think there is going to need to be some private-public partnership here to make COPA truly effective.

So one of the things we've been talking about is gathering all of the different partners we have at CDFIs.

So CPC is a good example.

Enterprise is a good example.

So these are entities that also finance affordable housing.

I think having a sort of version of the acquisition loan fund, which was meant to be exactly this, quick acting capital that responsible landlords can use to acquire projects,

even if that means we would do a second stage closing with HPD specifically around renovation, I think that will be critical to expanding the capacity under COPWA.

And those buildings we've seen in dilapidated conditions, is there a timeline as to what the renovations would look like?

It's a very good question.

You know, it depends on the depth of distress, right?

So sometimes we're doing what we call like a moderate rehab.

Other times we're doing a substantial rehab.

Other times still a gut rehab.

So hopefully we're not in that third category very often and we're getting to the buildings before it turns into that.

I would say on average from the time we close a construction loan to the time we complete a rehab scope is usually around 18 months, sometimes a little faster, sometimes a little faster.

And is there a plan if you do move out the tenants as to where they will be placed and upon?

Well, we don't start, yes, we don't start renovations if relocation is necessary.

Optimally, you would not have to move tenants out at all, or alternatively, you might have the ability to checkerboard if there's enough vacancies in a building, meaning they don't actually have to leave the building, just perhaps their unit.

But we don't start renovations until we've identified acceptable relocation options.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Joseph.

Anybody for a second round?

All right.

Here we go.

My favorite part where I just ask forever.

No, I'm kidding.

Those who...

who are going to be testifying, I will be brief so that you can testify.