The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property, police and fire protection, most public agencies, and enforces all city and state laws within New York City.
Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is a public development corporation which provides public housing in New York City, and is the largest public housing authority in North America. Created in 1934 as the first agency of its kind in the United States, it aims to provide decent, affordable housing for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs of New York City. NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments. NYCHA developments include single and double family houses, apartment units, singular floors, and shared small building units, and commonly have large income disparities with their respective surrounding neighborhood or community. These developments, particularly those including large-scale apartment buildings, are often referred to in popular culture as "projects."
The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy is a joint center at New York University School of Law and the NYU Wagner School of Public Service. The Furman Center was established in 1995 to create a place where people interested in affordable housing and land use issues could turn to for factual, objective research and information. Since that time, the Furman Center has become an authority on such matters in New York City. The Furman Center has a three-part mission, including providing objective academic research about land use, real estate, housing and urban affairs, with a particular focus on New York City, promoting intense debate and productive discussion among elected, academic, and industry leaders, and presenting essential data and analysis about the state of New York City's housing and neighborhoods.
The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is the department of the New York City government that enforces the city's building codes and zoning regulations, issues building permits, licenses, registers and disciplines certain construction trades, responds to structural emergencies and inspects over 1,000,000 new and existing buildings. Its regulations are compiled in title 1 of the New York City Rules.
Shaun Lawrence Sarda Donovan is an American government official and housing specialist who served as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2009 to 2014, and Director of the US Office of Management and Budget from 2014 to 2017. Prior to that, he was the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development from 2004 to 2009 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
John Avalos is an American politician. He served two terms as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2008 to 2016. Avalos represented District 11 in San Francisco, consisting of the Crocker-Amazon, Excelsior, Ingleside, Oceanview, and Outer Mission districts. Avalos was elected on November 4, 2008 in the 2008 San Francisco election and took office on January 8, 2009. He was re-elected in the 2012 San Francisco election with 94 percent of the vote, and termed out of office in January 2017.
Village Preservation is a nonprofit organization that advocates for the architectural preservation and cultural preservation in several neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Founded in 1980, it has advocated for New York City designated landmark status for a variety of sites like the Stonewall Inn and Webster Hall. The organization and its Executive Director, Andrew Berman, have been described as influential in New York real estate, while some of its activities to prevent development and to support restrictive zoning have attracted criticism.
Women in Housing and Finance (WHF) is a membership organization of professionals in the area of housing and finance located in the greater metropolitan area of New York City. Founded in 1981, WHF promotes and supports the professional growth of women in housing, finance and development and provides a vehicle through which members share knowledge and experience.
The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), formed in 1974, is a city-wide non-profit housing and tenant advocacy group in New York City.
The John Haynes Holmes Towers is a public housing project for low income residents of the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side located just south of the neighborhood's northern limit at 96th Street, in New York City, New York, United States. The neighboring Isaacs Houses and the Holmes Towers border East Harlem, which has the second highest concentration of public housing in the United States. The two public housing buildings, designed by Architects Eggers and Higgins, were completed in 1969, are 25 stories tall and contain 537 apartments. The project is located between 92nd and 93rd Streets from 1st Avenue to York Avenue and the FDR Drive.
American Tax Funding (ATF) is a private company based in Jupiter, Florida that engages in the purchasing and servicing of delinquent municipal real estate tax lien sales. Originally formed in 1997 as Transamerica Municipal Finance (TMF), a division of Transamerica Corporation. In August 2000 the founders completed a form of a management buyout of TMF, creating ATF. ATF currently buys and services real estate tax liens in over 14 states and has provided over $1 billion in relief to local governments. Many ATF tax liens are secured by either Wells Fargo Foot Hill or the Harris Nesbitt Corporation. The process of privatizing the municipal tax foreclosures process and outsourcing to out of state third party, for-profit, private companies has drawn criticism from housing advocates who argue that a for-profit tax foreclosure process leads to more foreclosures, displacement and vacancy. The other argument is that third party purchases of tax liens enables local governments to pay for essential services such as salaries for teachers, health care, police officers and firefighters. To date, no study has shown that the sale of tax liens to third parties leads to any increase in foreclosure activity. In fact, the sale of liens to third party purchasers often extends redemption periods and allows flexible repayment agreements for delinquent tax payers.
Ritchie John Torres is an American politician from New York. A member of the Democratic Party, Torres is the U.S. representative for New York's 15th congressional district. The district covers most of the South Bronx. It is one of the smallest districts by area in the country, covering only a few square miles. Torres represents the poorest Congressional district in the United States.
Vicki L. Been is an American lawyer, public servant, and professor who served as the Deputy Mayor of New York City for Housing and Economic Development from April 2019 to December 2021. She previously served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. She is a law professor at the New York University School of Law and has served as director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.
Elizabeth Street Garden is a one-acre (0.40 ha) community sculpture garden in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, located on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Spring Streets. The garden is managed by the eponymous Elizabeth Street Garden (ESG), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and open to the public for general use and community events.
The 421-a tax exemption is a property tax exemption in the U.S. state of New York that is given to real-estate developers for building new multifamily residential housing buildings in New York City. As currently written, the program also focuses on promoting affordable housing in the most densely populated areas of New York City. The exemption is granted for any buildings that add multiple new residential units, and typically lasts for 15 to 25 years after the building is completed. Longer exemption periods apply in less densely populated areas of the outer boroughs and upper Manhattan.
Alicia Glen is a civil servant who served as Deputy Mayor for housing and economic development for the City of New York from 2014 to 2019. She was appointed by Bill De Blasio, and stepped down in early 2019.
Maria Torres-Springer is an American government official and former nonprofit executive who is the Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce for New York City. Previously the vice president for U.S. programs at the Ford Foundation, Torres-Springer was commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services and its Department of Housing Preservation and Development. She was also the president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
Carmel Place is a nine-story apartment building at 335 East 27th Street in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Completed in 2016, it was New York City's first microapartment building. The project won a competition sponsored by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development to design, construct and operate a "micro-unit" apartment building on a city-owned site and pilot the use of compact apartments to accommodate smaller households.
