Harlem Residents May Lose Homes To Debt They Didn't Take: Report

HARLEM, NY — Harlem residents are facing foreclosure on their apartments for debts they had no input on taking after buying into their co-op through a city program created to provide renters with an affordable opportunity for home ownership, according to reports.

About 150 residents at 936-938 St. Nicholas Ave. bought shares in their building through a housing development fund corporation, of which building management was eventually transferred from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to a third-party company. Now, an investment firm is moving to foreclose on a loan taken by that third-party manager in 2006, the Daily News reported.

The residents who bought into the HDFC stand to lose their stake in the building during the foreclosure, according to the report.

"We’d miss the opportunity to create generational wealth, to shape the destiny of our children and their children," building resident Carlton Burroughs told the Daily News.

Residents are fighting the foreclosure by claiming that the third-party company that took out the nearly $2 million loan never delivered on planned building renovations, and that residents can't be held responsible for debt stemming from incomplete work.

A city HPD spokesman said that the city will work with the residents of the St. Nicholas Avenue HDFC to work out a financing plan. Similar efforts made back in 2017 were rejected by owners because they would not be absolved of the debt.

Read the full Daily News article here.