Views from the Northwest Bronx

​Judi Kende, Vice President and New York Market Leader for Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., authored this post. Enterprise creates and preserves quality affordable homes, incubates programs, and scales these solutions through policy change.

Sheila Garcia, Deputy Director at Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA), authored this post, with contributions from UNHP staff. CASA’s mission is to protect and maintain affordable and safe housing through collective action. The Bronx Coalition for a Community Vision believes rezoning and development on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx is possible without displacement, if guided by four principles: real affordable housing, real community engagement, union jobs and local hire, and strong anti-harassment and anti-displacement policies.

John M. Reilly, Executive Director at Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation (FBHC), authored this post, with contributions from UNHP staff. FBHC strives to provide safe and sound housing at affordable rates for low- to moderate-income families.

Appraisals are sometimes viewed as just another item on a development deal’s to-do list. But far from being innocuous and inconsequential, appraisals based on recently overvalued properties and questionable net income projections can have a major impact on rental prices, ownership incentives, and housing affordability.

​The history of community development in the Bronx offers many lessons on the crucial importance of the deep involvement of community members in charting a path forward for their own communities.

Over the years, UNHP has contributed to the conversation about what’s actually happening in the Bronx—in particular the Northwest Bronx. We are planning to do that in this space over the next few months through a series of blog posts. The new 2017 blog series will be subtitled "Views from the Northwest Bronx." We hope you will read and share.