Feds Halt Major Housing Sale

March 2nd, 2007 in Brittany Oat, New York, Spring 2007 Newswire

Story published on ABC News.com

By Brittany Oat
March 2, 2007

The federal housing secretary halted the proposed $1.3 billion sale of Brooklyn’s Starrett City — the nation’s largest federally subsidized apartment complex — to a firm with a history of housing violations.

Alphonso Jackson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments, said the purchase of the 5,881-unit complex by Clipper Equity would have put its mainly low- and middle-income residents at risk of losing their homes and way of life. HUD could block the purchase because about 90 percent of Starrett City’s residents receive federal rent subsidies.

“This is one of the model housing programs in the country,” Jackson said. “We cannot stand by and watch the story dissipate, watch as churches and synagogues are razed, replaced by new high-rise buildings.”

The proposed sale comes during a historic residential real estate boom in New York City that has made it difficult for many to afford the rising costs of low- and middle-income housing. Last year Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village — two subsidized housing complexes in Manhattan — sold for $5.4 billion. Some residents there now face rent increases of more than 30 percent.

Even though it is half as large as those complexes, Starrett City has its own shopping center, schools, churches, synagogues, power plant and armed security force. Most tenants pay between $200 and $400 a month for the federally subsidized apartments and live on annual gross incomes of about $20,000 to $40,000.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Attorney General Andrew Cuomo — a former HUD secretary — and Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) pressured Jackson to void the sale to Clipper, because they feared the lofty sale price would drive up unit costs.

Clipper Equity, led by New York landlord David Bistricer, agreed to purchase Starrett City for $500 million more than the next lowest bidder, which could have raised the average unit cost from $90,000 to $200,000, according to Schumer.

Schumer said he is concerned that transactions like the proposed purchase of Starrett City will make New York City a place for the very rich and the very poor.

“New York has always provided ladders for people to climb their way up,” Schumer said. “And Starrett is one of those ladders.”

Cuomo said they also had serious concerns about Bistricer’s record as a landlord. Bistricer had at least 8,792 uncorrected housing violations and in 1998 was barred from selling real estate securities in New York state.

“My office has been arguing strenuously that the proposed purchaser, who has a 6-inch file in this office of complaints and court orders for abuse … of tenants, was not a bona fide purchaser,” Cuomo said.

Jackson said Starrett could still be sold, and a new proposal from Clipper would be entertained if it preserved the affordability and quality of life of the development’s residents.

“I’ll listen to that proposal,” he said.

And all future bidding for Starrett is going to be clean, clear and fair, assured Schumer. He said this past bidding was unfair because the sellers — Starrett City Associates — charged $200,000 just to bid, which left out many community groups that could not afford the fee.

“They are not the only ones involved in this sale,” Schumer said. “The goal cannot be just about how much money the owners make.”

Governator Seeks Money on Washington Trip

February 28th, 2007 in Brittany Oat, California, Spring 2007 Newswire

Story published on ABC News.com

By Brittany Oat
February 28, 2007

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an election pledge in 2003 to be "the Collectinator" and get more money for California from the federal government.

For the third year in a row, Schwarzenegger said he did just that.

In a two-day series of meetings with members of Congress and Bush administration officials, he lobbied for Californians to recapture more than 79 cents on every federal tax dollar they send to Washington.

"It's all about fighting for money," he said, standing alongside Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "We want to get as much as we can for California."

And, as he often stressed on this annual trip to the nation's capital, cooperating in a post-partisan fashion.

Pelosi agreed.

"We had a very positive discussion about how we can work together in a bipartisan way on issues that affect people of our country, but specifically on some issues where California is leading the way," she said.

One such issue is more funding for universal health-care coverage.

Schwarzenegger said California had been developing a $12 billion universal health-care initiative over the last year and a half that relied upon $5.74 billion in new federal money each year. The plan, however, is meeting resistance from congressional Republicans and Democrats.

"We could lead and all the other states could follow," he said, when asked of the national significance of a universal health-care initiative in California.

Also on Schwarzenegger's request list is assistance for victims of the January 2007 crop freeze and major increases in the federal budget to pay for incarcerating undocumented prisoners.

In meetings with California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, the governor discussed the ongoing needs of those devastated by the massive loss of crops during the recent citrus freeze, which did an estimated $1 billion worth of damage.

Feinstein and Boxer have introduced the Emergency Farm Assistance Act of 2007, which would allocate $1.3 billion to those affected. California members of the House of Representatives vowed to push forward a similar piece of legislation.

"The effects of this frost cannot be underestimated," Feinstein said. "There were thousands and thousands of acres damaged and no one can estimate those costs."

In the spirit of bipartisanship, Schwarzenegger also mentioned a plan to have California's districts redrawn to make races more competitive. He has a plan to have local election officials pick citizens to be in commissions and draw the districts.

"We would have people draw it," he said. "Out of the hands of legislators and out of the hands of Congress."

Feinstein said she'd have to think about the plan and do some research of her own.

"People? How many people?" Feinstein responded, laughing. "I think I ought to study it."

Senator Casey Questions Former Secretary of State at Hearing

January 1st, 2007 in Brittany Oat, Pennsylvania, Spring 2007 Newswire

Brittany Oat

The 110th congress has had a record 52 hearings on the war in Iraq so far this session. At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Pennsylvania democratic Senator Robert Casey questioned Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright about the urgent need for diplomacy in Iraq.

Erie Residents Attend Anti-War Protests in Washington, DC

January 1st, 2007 in Brittany Oat, Spring 2007 Newswire, Washington, DC

Two buses and two carloads of war protesters left Erie before the sun came up to join more than 100,000 people in an anti-war march at our nation’s capital. Brittany Oat marched along with a group from the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie.