Want to own your NYC apartment? This nonprofit is helping renters buy their units.

How would you like to own your apartment after years of renting?

One Brooklyn community group is trying to make that happen for tenants of a four-story building in the Cypress Hill section of East New York through an innovative housing program.

The East New York Community Land Trust bought the 21-unit, rent-stabilized apartment building on Arlington Avenue for just over $3 million late last month and plans to help tenants convert to co-op units in the coming years. Under the “community land trust” model, residents own or lease their homes at permanently affordable rates while the nonprofit owns the land below. But there’s a caveat: Residents can’t sell their apartments for big gains down the road, which ensures that the units remain affordable for the next occupants.

It’s the first time a community land trust has purchased an apartment building from a private landlord in New York City, and comes as property owners and investors consider unloading stabilized apartments where they say rising costs and caps on rent hikes are limiting profits and repairs. Gov. Kathy Hochul and other top officials have touted the model as a way to preserve affordable housing, but the Brooklyn deal marks an important test for whether it can grow in the five boroughs.

“We’re making sure that it’s affordable in perpetuity and making sure any fixes that our people need, both emergency and long-term, are getting done and being planned for,” said East New York CLT President Boris Santos. “We see our role as stewards.”

Santos said his organization approached the previous owner, a limited liability company tied to investor Philip Knoll, about buying the building last June. Knoll was willing to discuss the idea and negotiate the sale in just a few months.

“Throughout the process we both engaged in good faith and came to a mutually beneficial sale agreement,” Knoll told Gothamist. “We wish the new owners and the community the best of luck.”

Knoll’s company purchased the property in 2018, just before state lawmakers enacted new measures significantly curtailing landlords’ abilities to raise rents on stabilized units. Tenants in the Arlington Avenue building pay an average rent of about $1,200 a month, according to East New York CLT records.

But the community land trust says it can handle renovations and routine maintenance with low-cost financing, and without the need for higher rents. It raised more than $1 million in private donations and is seeking additional funding from government sources. It plans to reinvest rent money into the building without taking a cut, the way a typical landlord would, Santos said.

That’s good news for tenants who have been complaining that past owners weren’t keeping up with repairs in the nearly century-old building.

“There were water leaks. We didn't have any hot water or any heat,” said Cathy Mercado, a first-floor tenant who began organizing her neighbors and reaching out to community groups three years ago. “And that's how we all started advocating around the community.”

Mercado moved into her unit in the late 1990s and said she was just looking for help getting improvements when she first connected with the East New York CLT. She said she never imagined they might end up buying the building and initiating a plan to turn the apartments into co-ops.

“I wouldn’t have ever thought this,” she said.

‘Active participants’

The four-story building rises alongside stately two-family homes on a street where prices have soared in recent years. The elevated J and Z train tracks run along Fulton Avenue a block south of it, while leafy Highland Park stretches up a hill to the north.

First-floor tenant Eva Marte said she loves her home and the neighborhood.

“This is a building with a great foundation and history,” said Marte, who moved in 17 years ago. “Most of the tenants have lived here for decades, they have raised their families here and it holds special memories.”

But she said the site has its share of problems. A window on the front door is broken. Tenants want to install a new gate and fix the busted lock on the entryway.

“We are hoping that with this transition we can finally have the opportunity to be active participants in the direction of the building going forward,” Marte said. “We just want a safe and comfortable living space.”

Then there’s the ancient, oil-fired boiler that’s been breaking down for years, leaving tenants without heat on chilly nights.

Building residents and the CLT board are trying to tackle those issues first. They are planning to elect tenant representatives and a maintenance committee to decide how to best upgrade the security and building system after a consultant performed a physical needs assessment. The report found that the building is in decent shape but recommended about $2.8 million in upgrades, including an estimated $500,000 for a new heat pump.

Not everyone agrees on how to move forward.

Before the sale, tenant Jay Powell said he wanted to sue the previous landlord for repairs in his apartment, like a broken door frame — even though litigation may have complicated the deal.

Powell said he’s now thinking of moving out but is curious about how the new ownership structure will work.

“I wish them the best of luck,” he said on his way into the building earlier this month. “I don't know how they’ll handle that, but they seem like they're willing and able to take on the challenge.”

Santos said the organization is prepared for a more democratic decision-making process. He said East New York CLT and the residents hope to complete the upgrades and convert to co-ops in three years.

“Building that consensus is a work in progress and it will always be, but that's what democracy is about,” he said. “This is just the beginning, but we can do it.”

Scaling up?

The Brooklyn effort reflects a larger push from community groups and progressive policymakers to create new approaches for building and preserving affordable housing, or for reviving decades-old models that proved successful.

Community land trusts aren't a new concept, and have had a modest presence in New York City since the early 1990s. The idea dates back to the Civil Rights Era, when activists purchased land in Georgia to house Black farmers, including sharecroppers who were evicted after registering to vote.

Over the past several decades, organizations bought land in various cities, like Oakland, and leased or sold homes at affordable prices. Two groups in New York City — the Cooper Square Community Land Trust and the East Harlem-El Barrio Community Land Trust — manage about 450 units in buildings they acquired from the city.

One crucial part of the arrangement is that residents can’t sell their homes for high prices later on; instead, they agree to a resale formula that allows them to make some money from the property. This ensures that the units always remain affordable for low- and middle-income residents, said New Economy Project Senior Program Associate Will Spisak. His organization coordinates the New York City Community Land Initiative, a citywide network of CLTs.

Spisak compared the structure to other affordable housing initiatives like the Mitchell Lama program, which allow residents in hundreds of complexes to sell their units at any price once affordability requirements expire.

In those programs, he said, “only one generation of residents benefits from buying at a subsidized rate and selling at market rate. The CLT guarantees permanent affordability.”

Although the concept is still a long way from going to scale citywide, the Arlington Avenue purchase is a crucial step for the growing movement, Santos said.

“People have been talking about this for a while, and finally we’re doing it,” he said. “There's enormous pressure to expand and do more of this.”

City and state policymakers have publicly supported community land trusts as a way to foster affordable homeownership. The state’s Division of Homes and Community Renewal awarded the East New York CLT tenants association a $19,000 grant to assist with planning for the co-op conversion. City councilmembers have allocated discretionary funds to CLTs for several years and the city began directing hundreds of thousands of dollars to various organizations in the budget starting in 2019.

Ilana Maier, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, praised the CLT effort, but the agency has not committed to funding future plans.

“The East New York Community Land Trust pulled together an impressive amount of private resources to make this purchase,” Maier said. “We’re excited to build on conversations we started with the CLT years ago.”

Still, the East New York CLT's success could have big consequences for other groups in the future.

If it succeeds, the city and state may be more willing to fund or finance similar projects, said Regional Planning Association Vice President Moses Gates.

“If community land trusts are going to be able to scale, they’re going to need to be able to buy private buildings, so the fact that they did it is a big step,” Gates said.