Living just enough for the city? Or are you living just enough for the bubble? I went to the meeting of the HPD, the New York Housing Preservation and Development Agency. At SOBRO, in the South Bronx at 555 Bergen Ave. It's some desperate people trying to get a piece of the pie, the $11 billion a year that New York City spends on housing. That sounds like a huge amount, but in today's market, one 50-story skyscraper can cost $1 billion or more.
The speaker was Reginald Evans, from HPD. He said the goals of the HPD is to increasse home ownership in the City of New York. They work with for profit but also non-profit corporations. One non-profit is organizing and financing housing for foster children, who upon reaching the age of 18, have no place to go, which is certainly a laudatory effort.
HPD is the city agency reponsible for dealing with housing violations, in terms of bad structure, leaks, problems with heating, etc. They are the ones who respond to code violations when you make a complaint by calling telephone #311.
The City of New York currently has a 10 year plan for spending $755 billion to build or renovate 165,000 units of housing. The focus of the lecture was how contractors can apply to work on these city contracts for HPD. The city has about 300,000 employees, so it's a big economic factor in general. Contractors can bid to satisfy city procurement in goods, construction, construction related contracts, human services and so on. The city signs 48,000 contracts a year with various companies and entities.
Twenty-five percent of procurement is with minority firms. The city has a new law from 2005, which is "Local Law 129", which tracks MWBE, which is Minority, and Women owned Business Enterprises. "Minority" is defined as people of Black, Hispanic or Asian ethnicity.
Mr Evans made a big emphasis that it is definitely worthwhile to be certified as a MWBE if you qualify. There is background checking that this is real ownership, meaning substantial and authoritive by Minorities and Women, not a dummy corporation. This law is something that Mayor Bloomberg brought back, after the former affirmative action program was removed by
Former Mayor Guiliani. If you are certified as a MWBE, it is a big marketing benefit, because they also check that you are a bonified construction operation, not some fly-by night company.
If you want to get this business, go to the New York City Record online, at http://a856-internet.nyc.gov/nycvendoronline/home.html and see what is available to work on.
Now if only the real estate bubble is reorganize so the whole thing doesn't go and collapse.
