NY Observer > Macon http://www.observer.com/taxonomy/term/30668/feed Articles from Observer.com en Feel Good Story of the Summer? http://www.observer.com/node/34974
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The Pratt Area Community Council has renovated and sold ten green (and affordable) Brooklyn buildings--thanks to a $2 million loan from the Enterprise Foundation and a $1.3 million subsidy from Housing and Urban Development (more on them soon). The homes have energy efficient ventilation, inuslation, and cooling systems, plus "room by room temperature control allowing for passive solar heating."

But according to this week's City Limits profile, the story hasn't always been a happy one. In the late 90s, HUD's 203(k) program was "designed to rehabilitate poorly kept buildings and sell them to owners who would live in them." Instead, speculators created bogus non-profits, leading to years of fraud. Meanwhile, the tenants of the already downtrodden Brooklyn buildings suffered.

In 2002, the NY Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development finally brought in non-sham groups like Pratt: since then, $168 million has been dedicated to fixing the 2003(k) mess. $1.3m is a good start.  read more »

A full list of the ten renovated buildings is after the jump. - Max Abelson ]]> http://www.observer.com/node/34974#comments Real Estate Brooklyn Lexington (Kentucky) Macon NY Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:06:00 -0400 Observer Staff 34974 at http://www.observer.com