Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958
Deirdra Picou (212) 863-5176 (HPD)
Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Chief Financial Officer Ed Lloyd, Special Advisor to the Mayor Herman Badillo, and South Bronx community leaders also joined the Mayor at today's announcement, held at the corner of Cauldwell Avenue and 165th Street in the South Bronx.
"The Safe at Home program that we are announcing today is an integral part of the continuing effort to rid our City's neighborhoods of drugs," said Mayor Giuliani. "When drugs are the problem, a stable, thriving community is the solution. Government cannot do everything to help a community get back on its feet, but we can do a great deal to help people help themselves. Safe at Home will bring together the efforts of concerned community members, the City's Housing and Police Departments and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation to promote the simple idea that long-term drug prevention is best achieved by strong, safe and stable communities.
"Safe at Home delivers the resources that the people of the South Bronx and Bedford Stuyvesant need to help themselves," the Mayor continued. "It will solidify communities one family at a time, by encouraging the construction of new housing, the preservation of older housing and the renovation of buildings that have become candidates for foreclosure and abandonment because of landlords' neglect. This pioneering urban renewal strategy brings together law enforcement and housing development in a way that will mark the beginning of a new chapter in our nationwide fight against crime and drugs. In doing these things we look to eliminate conditions that drug dealers and other criminals seek out so they can prey upon a community and its residents," the Mayor concluded.
Through the Safe at Home initiative over the next three years the City will spend more than $88 million in new development and preservation activity in the Morrisania section of the South Bronx along the Boston Road Corridor, and in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn along Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue. When combined with previous housing investment and rental subsidies, the City investment in the target areas totals more than $184 million.
"By generating new housing, providing home ownership opportunities, encouraging private investment, and building community pride, the City is encouraging neighborhood revitalization and helping to further reduce crime," said HPD Commissioner Richard T. Roberts. "We've targeted areas where we have made significant housing investment and quality of life improvements."
The City will oversee the construction of 300 units of home-ownership housing for moderate and middle-income families and the renovation of 110 City-owned buildings containing approximately 1,200 units, all of which will be transferred to responsible neighborhood-based private owners.
"We have seen a reduction in crime of 52 percent in the 42nd Precinct over the past five years," said Police Commissioner Howard Safir. "To ensure that crime continues to go down we are launching a new anti-narcotics initiative in this area that will target and dismantle the drug gangs that cause so much harm to our neighborhoods. Our experience shows that when the community works closely with the Police Department and other agencies, crime stays down. When you bring the public and private sectors together in a program like Safe at Home, everybody wins."
In addition, the City will target delinquent landlords whose negligent actions have led to the deterioration of neighborhoods. The City will target more than 140 private buildings in the South Bronx and Bedford Stuyvesant that are at risk of tax foreclosure and future abandonment. The City will encourage the owners to pay their taxes and upgrade their buildings by offering training and technical assistance, lower-interest loans and voluntary repair agreements to remove code violations. If the owners refuse, their buildings could be subject to foreclosure actions that would result in the transfer of ownership to new, responsible owners who would be willing to correct the outstanding conditions and manage the properties more responsibly.
LISC, a national organization that provides resources and support to locally initiated housing programs, will provide a community-based liaison to work with neighborhood organizations and residents. The liaison will also attend monthly neighborhood meetings with the NYPD and other City agencies to monitor the community's ongoing progress. LISC will also provide a security consultant who, working in coordination with the NYPD, will provide technical assistance.
Paul S. Crogan, President and CEO of LISC, said, "LISC is happy to participate with its community partners in the Mayor's Safe at Home initiative. It is a great idea whose time has come. It combines serious policing with community participation and re-investment, which will insure that crime is reduced and stays reduced."