2010 Annual Report

New York City

Building Sustainable Communities

LISC NYC has increasingly focused on non-residential development that complements our traditional investment in housing – a reflection of our multi-faceted and comprehensive approach to community development. Our initiative spans four neighborhoods where we have substantial investments: South Park Slope/Gowanus, Cypress Hills, and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, and West Harlem in Manhattan.

Preserving Affordable Housing

LISC NYC works to ensure that housing already under the stewardship of our CDC partners continues to be affordable, well-maintained and financially viable. We also seek to preserve at-risk, privately owned affordable housing – including federally subsidized developments and financially over-leveraged apartment buildings facing foreclosure – through acquisition, rehabilitation and long-term stewardship by responsible owners. In 2010, we assisted in the preservation of over 1,300 affordable housing units.

Building CDC Capacity

Over the past three years, LISC NYC has reinvented how we approach building the capacity of CDCs. The First Responder Initiative has been integrated as the new model for capacity building. We have developed a toolbox of resources that focuses on providing direct technical assistance to partner CDCs that goes beyond affordable housing development to include organizational restructuring, board development, fundraising strategy, and financial management.

Greening Housing and Neighborhoods

LISC NYC’s Green Initiative encompasses a comprehensive approach to developing environmentally sustainable communities by reducing energy consumption and costs, improving residents’ health and preserving long-term affordability. We launched our initiative with a weatherization program to retrofit over 2,000 affordable units in neighborhoods across the city. In two of our targeted Sustainable Communities, CDCs are implementing holistic environmental sustainability plans. Retrofit Block by Block aims to bring the benefits of energy-efficiency retrofits to small home owners, and also includes street tree planting, community gardening, and green job apprenticeship and training programs.

Linking At-Risk Youth to Housing and Services

Every year in New York City, close to 1,000 young adults "age out" of the State’s foster care system. Independence Starts at Home connects youth aging out to supportive services with workforce development and educational opportunities, and affordable housing units developed by our community-based partners. In 2010, the program supported 37 young people via three of our CDC partners in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Providing Educational Opportunities

LISC NYC provides funding to charter and alternative schools in low-and-middle income areas to help secure new buildings, renovate existing facilities, and create new programs for students. In 2010, LISC NYC celebrated the opening of the Cypress Hills Community School, a dual-language pre-kindergarten through eigth grade institution in an environmentally progressive building, for which we provided early technical and financial support.