|
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
We wanted to update you on Chhaya's accomplishments in 2009. We
look forward to seeing more of you in the new decade!
|
Chhaya CDC - 2009 Annual
Report
 Over the past year, Chhaya
has grown by leaps and bounds while deepening its expertise and impact. In
2009, Chhaya brought on three new staff reflecting the diversity and
talent in the community; became a certified Housing Counseling Agency by
the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), brought on new
leadership to its board, and convened its first leadership council
representing the communities it serves. We launched a full-scale
foreclosure prevention program through strategic alliances on the City,
State, and Federal levels and continued to organize tenants throughout
the borough to combat the displacement of residents due to gentrification
and predatory investments in the borough.
Volunteer or Donate Today!
|
|
Equality in Equity: Foreclosure
Prevention Education and Counseling
 After years of providing
homeownership education services, Chhaya's transition into foreclosure
prevention work was a natural response to the on-going crisis in our
communities. Through its own research, Chhaya had long been documenting
the problem of predatory lending and irresponsible real estate investment
in New York's South Asian communities - finding that as many as 60% of
total defaults in some zip codes in Queens are among South Asians. In
2009, Chhaya drastically ramped up its ability to provide foreclosure
prevention counseling by having its staff participate in nationally
recognized training programs and expanding our 'Equality in Equity'
initiative through strategic alliances with the Center for New York City
Neighborhoods (CNYCN), the Neighborhood Economic Development and Advocacy
Project, New York State's Division of Housing and Community Renewal and
the National Foreclosure Response Network (a partnership between National
Coalition of Asian Pacific American Community Development, National Urban
League, and National Council of LaRaza). Chhaya is now an integral
component of the coordinated City-wide efforts to combat foreclosure-
individuals dialing 311 for assistance are directly referred to Chhaya,
depending on their geographic location or the appropriateness of Chhaya's
linguistic and culturally competent services for them. Chhaya provided
individual foreclosure prevention counseling to over 100 families in
2009.
Addressing the dramatic increase in foreclosure rescue scams,
misinformation and false advertising in the last year, Chhaya has also
been aggressively doing outreach to target communities in the form of
advertisements in ethnic media, informational mailings to homeowners in
default, outreach at community venues and, most importantly, hosting free
educational seminars in different neighborhoods.
Click here to read New York Times coverage of our
foreclosure prevention work
|
|
Equality in Equity:
Homeownership Education and Counseling
 Chhaya continued to host its
biannual workshop series for first time homebuyers. The 2009 series of
workshops had a total of 80 participants with sessions being held at
public libraries across Queens, as well
as in our offices. Chhaya is now also an HPD HomeFirst counseling agency,
which means that qualifying households completing our homeownership
program may be eligible for down payment assistance grants for up to 6%
of the purchase price of their home
Click here to learn more about our homeownership
education program
|
|
Tenant Rights Organizing and
Counseling
 In January 2009, Chhaya
learnt of a rent-regulated building in Woodside, Queens
in which the primarily South Asian tenants were being overcharged and
denied repairs. After establishing initial contact with a few tenants,
Chhaya organizers went door to door informing tenants of their rights and
organized an initial building-wide meeting. After a month of organizing,
the tenants in the building established a tenants union and with the
assistance of Chhaya and the Urban
Justice Center,
filed an action against the landlord for repairs and lodged a
rent-overcharge complaint. Most of the tenants have already received
essential repairs while the overcharge complaint is currently pending
with New York
State’s Division of
Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). These tenants now represent a
knowledgeable and engaged group of community members who are also taking
an active role in the broader tenant rights movement.
Chhaya plans to replicate this success in other affected buildings in
Queens, as well as Brooklyn. Chhaya has
also been increasingly involved in the fight against what is commonly
referred to as 'predatory equity'. In essence, this has involved private
equity firms buying the affordable housing stock and then vacating as
many units as possible to obtain higher rents. In particular, Chhaya has
been involved in supporting the Queens Vantage Tenant Council, a tenant
union formed to combat the especially egregious anti-tenant and
anti-immigrant practices of the owners of a number of buildings in
Queens- Vantage Realty. The tenant union has so far been successful in
meeting with the investors and owners and has favorably negotiated a
number of their demands. Chhaya staff conducts trainings for union
members, does outreach targeting South Asian residents, and assists with
the overall coordination of the union's activities.
Chhaya played an important role in building up the capacity of the
leadership of the Queens Vantage Tenant Council. It organized a series of
leadership development trainings with the assistance of experts from
around the City including representatives of ANHD, United Neighborhood
Houses, and the New York Immigration Coalition. Chhaya has trained 30
community leaders on the basics of rent stabilization, leadership
development, strategic planning, and community organizing.
Click here to read Huffington Post coverage of our work
organizing immigrant tenants
|
|
Accessory Dwelling Units:
Research and Advocacy
In early 2009, Chhaya
published a groundbreaking research study looking at informal housing-
particularly the issue of illegally converted basement apartments in Queens. Chhaya conducted a survey designed to
estimate the amount of illegal units present in two census tracts in Queens, as well as to determine the physical
conditions present in these units and the demographics of the owners and
tenants involved. After surveying a total of nearly 450 homes, Chhaya
estimated that at least 35 percent of the homes surveyed had a unit that
could potentially be legalized safely. Based on observations during the
survey process, accepted research, and models across the country, Chhaya
believes that establishing an accessory dwelling unit code is a
reasonable and achievable means to create affordable and safe housing in New York City.
Along with its partners in the Immigrant Housing Collaborative, Chhaya
hopes to inform the development of an accessory dwelling unit code in New York City.
Chhaya has begun a series of community forums to gauge how broad-based
the support is for this advocacy. Two such forums were held in 2009.
Click here to read the report
|
|
Civic Engagement, Community
Outreach and Coalition Work
 To
encourage the local community to participate in the local elections in New York in November 2009, Chhaya spearheaded an
effort among South Asian organizations to convene a South Asian focused
candidate forum for the candidates for City Council from the 25th
District in Queens, which includes Jackson Heights.
This historic event, co-hosted by a coalition of South Asian-serving
organizations, brought together more than 170 community residents. Along
with the other host organizations, Chhaya staff and youth interns knocked
on doors of registered South Asian voters, made phone calls, and
distributed fliers in the district to encourage the community to
participate in the electoral process and raised awareness about the role
of City Council and other elected positions. On primary day, Chhaya
partnered with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
(AALDEF) to monitor the polls and conduct an exit poll survey.
As in previous years, Chhaya has focused its outreach efforts on the Jackson Heights,
Jamaica, Richmond Hill and Ozone
Park neighborhoods of Queens. Outreach involves flyering, advertisements,
and appearances at community events and street fairs. Nearly 5000
materials were distributed in English and Bengali.
|
|
Awards and Accomplishments
 Chhaya's
work in the borough of Queens has been
recognized by the mainstream media, elected officials and other
non-profit organizations. In July 2009, Chhaya was featured in a New York
Times article on the challenges facing foreclosure prevention work in the
city. In addition, our work as been featured in the Huffington Post,
Gotham Gazzette, New York Post, Queens Chronicle, Times Ledger, Desi Talk, India Post and Weekly
Bangalee newspapers.
September 9th, 2009 was declared 'Chhaya CDC Day' in the Borough of
Queens by Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall on the occasion of
the borough's official Annual Iftar Program celebrating the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan. Selected by a number of Muslim organizations across the
city, the honor recognizes Chhaya's leading role in fighting the subprime
lending and housing foreclosure crisis in Queens.
Also this year, the non-profit organization Adhikaar awarded Chhaya its
annual 'Community Leadership Award' for its work with Nepali immigrants.
|
Chhaya is always looking for volunteers, interns and community
members who are interested in getting involved with, or learning more about
our work!
Look for us on Facebook !
We also want to encourage everyone to give generously to support the relief
efforts in Haiti.
We recommend the following charity:
Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees (based here in New York City) -
http://haitianwomen.wordpress.com/
|
