Hundreds of homeowners in NYC have been defrauded out of their homes (WPIX 11)
NEW YORK -- Hundreds of homeowners throughout New York City have been defrauded out of their homes. Now, elected officials are calling for a federal investigation into the matter, including whether a city program may be partly to blame.Van Walker can't go back to his Halsey Street Home in Bed-Stuy because he'd likely get arrested.
Despite still having the property, and mortgage in his name, he says Marshals evicted his family over the summer.
"It was about 4 to 6 of them with guns," Walker said. "You would think my house was some kind of criminal activity going on. I'm embarrassed about that too."
Walker says, even though his home was never foreclosed on, the court ordered him to sell the property to pay overdue fees.
But he says if it hadn't been for $40,000 spent defending his home, that wouldn't have been a problem.
"I could have been caught up already," Walker said.
"There needs to be a moratorium on taking houses from these homeowners until we can make sure that somethings not unethical, illegal, or immoral," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.
Adams says his office has heard dozens of similar stories over the past year: homeowners in rapidly gentrifying areas, like Bed-Stuy, forced out of their homes. He says it's usually been one of three causes:
- Forced foreclosures
- Deed fraud
- City's third party transfer program
Which is why he and City Council Member Robert Cornegy are calling for a stop on all property seizures pending federal, state, and city investigations. For it's part the city's office of Housing Preservation and Development, which runs the TPT program, says it's unfair to lump it in with other illegal activities scamming people out of their homes.
"We are deeply committed to protecting homeowners, especially from the very real threats of fraud scams and deed theft, but the Third Party Transfer Program is neither of those things," said Spokesperson Matthew Creegan. "TPT is a tool of last resort to improve living conditions for tenants, while guaranteeing their right to remain in their homes as rent stabilized tenants. We are absolutely committed to preserving homeownership wherever we can, but cannot and should not do so at the expense of vulnerable tenants."
New Yorkers lost out to flippers and limited liability companies, a new report finds
Nearly two-thirds of affordable homes were purchased by investors in 2017, according to a report released this week. That's nearly double the share since the foreclosure crisis and a sign that homeownership is increasingly unattainable for most New Yorkers, the study's authors contend.
The Center of New York City Neighborhoods found that 62% of affordable homes—which it defines as a property a household making the median income could purchase with a mortgage—were purchased mostly with cash in 2017 by limited-liability companies, frequent buyers of homes, or entities that flipped the property within a year.
"Affordable homeownership is key to building a more inclusive and equitable New York, and as inequality in our city grows, preserving affordable homeownership has become more important than ever," the nonprofit's chief executive, Christie Peale, said in a statement.
New York City has lost over 400,000 affordable apartments since 2005
New Yorkers ‘lose hope’ while applying again and again for city’s affordable housing lottery
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Buyouts have long been part of New York City’s real estate lore, but as offers have become more common, buyouts have become instruments of illegal harassment and a growing threat to the stock of affordable housing, The New York Times writes Tenant groups cite illegal harassment and a growing threat to affordable housing, while landlords say buying out longtime tenants in low-rent apartments is lawful.* SWEATING IT OUT: Brownsville tenants live without hot water and electricity (NYDN)
BerlinRosen Isn’t Registered As A Foreign Agent, Either (Bronx Chronicle)
How NYC is Losing the Middle Class
Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Gets Its Turn(NYT) The neighborhood has finally overcome a reputation for intolerance and violence that had plagued it since the 1991 riots between blacks and Hasidic Jews. In fact, residents credit the successful post-riot reconciliation between the two communities with being one of the drivers of Crown Heights’ rapid transformation — or gentrification, depending on one’s perspective.
Along Franklin Avenue, signs saying “Moving to Flatbush” have appeared on many businesses in the last couple of years, and while longtime residents don’t tack up signs, there are indications they have also been leaving in large numbers as new arrivals replace them in this community of about 140,000 people.
Who do billionaires turn to when they want to buy apartmentcomplexes? The U.S.taxpayer (Bloomberg) Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group and Stephen Schwarzman’s Blackstone Group LP are in talks with Freddie Mac to finance two transactions totaling more than $10 billion, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. Those discussions come after the government-owned mortgage giant already agreed to back Lone Star Funds’ $7.6 billion deal to buy Home Properties Inc. and Brookfield Asset Management Inc.’s $2.5 billion takeover of Associated Estates Realty Corp. The mortgage guarantor -- which along with its larger counterpart Fannie Mae was rescued in a $187.5 billion taxpayer bailout in 2008 -- is boosting its multifamily lending as their regulator eases restrictions on that part of their business. Cheap debt from the U.S.-backed companies is helping sustain a five-year surge in values for apartment buildings and fueling some of the biggest real estate deals since the financial crisis.
Anonymous, Inc (60 Minutes) See what happens when hidden cameras capture New York lawyers being asked to move highly questionable funds into the U.S. Steve Kroft reports. If you like crime dramas and movies with international intrigue, then you probably have a basic understanding of money laundering. It's how dictators, drug dealers, corrupt politicians, and other crooks avoid getting caught by transforming their ill-gotten gains into assets that appear to be legitimate. They do it by moving the dirty money through a maze of dummy corporations and offshore bank accounts that conceal their identity and the source of the funds. And most of it would never happen without the help -- witting or unwitting -- of lawyers, accountants and incorporators; the people who actually create these anonymous shell companies and help move the money. In fact, the U.S. has become one of the most popular places in the world to do it.
Tonight, with the help of hidden camera footage, we're going to show you how easy it seems to have become to conceal questionable funds from law enforcement and the public. You need look no further for evidence than the changing skyline of New York City, where much of the priciest residential real estate is being snapped up not by individuals, but by anonymous shell companies with secret owners. There's nothing illegal about it as long as the money's legitimate, but there's no way to tell, if you don't know who the real buyers are. It is one of the reasons Global Witness, a London-based nonprofit organization that exposes international corruption, came to New York City 19 months ago. It wanted to see how helpful U.S. lawyers would be in concealing questionable funds. * NYC attorney: "We run the country * Investigative report from @globalwitness targets lawyers advising foreigners on how to move shady money into US. * Top real estate lawyers offer advice on moving shadymoney into US: report (Real Deal) Gerald Ross, John Jankoff and Marc Koplik among attorneys caught on camera
Housing TPT program is also an issue in the Bronx and Queens
put a moratorium on and investigate the 66 properties that were bundled together and taken through in rem foreclosure proceedings and judgment in December 2017.
The city’s Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD), through its Third Party Transfer (TPT) program, filed a request for the foreclosure judgement on Nov. 27, 2017, and State Supreme Court Judge Mark Partnow signed a judgement of foreclosure on Dec. 5, 2017.
KCP has found four property owners that produced compelling evidence of improprieties in the seizures of property. All say they received no notification of a court proceeding, and only learned of it after notices of new ownership was sent to tenants in the building. Further all four property owners were either black or brown, owned their properties free and clear with no mortgages and lived in increasingly gentrifying neighborhoods where property values are now worth in the millions of dollars.
The letter also went out to the Hon. Lawrence K. Marks, Chief Administrative Judge of the Courts New York State Unified Court System, and to the Hon. Janet DiFiore, Chief Judge New York State Court of Appeals
The letter goes on to question the city’s current TPT initiative to fulfill a purpose other than that which was intended by New York City Local Law No. 37, as adopted in 1996, and by the authority given by the state to the city to engage in in rem foreclosure proceedings in the prior decade.
The letter notes that most of the properties taken were in rapidly gentrifying, black and brown communities such as Bedford Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Brownsville, Bushwick and East New York where displacement of working families and seniors from these communities is at an all-time high
A single misstep in a program such as this is one too many when it can result in one of our constituents losing their home, and the families’ equity and investment in such properties, unjustly or unfairly,” wrote the lawmakers.
However, the State Court System denies any wrongdoing and believes that the City has to be charged with the responsibility of preserving homeownership across the five boroughs.
“We have nothing to do with New York City’s Third Party Transfer program – you would have to speak with the City. In regards to the in rem foreclosure process, we are solely the venue, the statutes were promulgated by the state legislature and the process [is] the same in every county,” said Lucien Chalfen, the Public Information Officer for the Office of Court Administration.
Housing TPT program is also an issue in the Bronx and Queens
put a moratorium on and investigate the 66 properties that were bundled together and taken through in rem foreclosure proceedings and judgment in December 2017.
The city’s Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD), through its Third Party Transfer (TPT) program, filed a request for the foreclosure judgement on Nov. 27, 2017, and State Supreme Court Judge Mark Partnow signed a judgement of foreclosure on Dec. 5, 2017.
KCP has found four property owners that produced compelling evidence of improprieties in the seizures of property. All say they received no notification of a court proceeding, and only learned of it after notices of new ownership was sent to tenants in the building. Further all four property owners were either black or brown, owned their properties free and clear with no mortgages and lived in increasingly gentrifying neighborhoods where property values are now worth in the millions of dollars.
The letter also went out to the Hon. Lawrence K. Marks, Chief Administrative Judge of the Courts New York State Unified Court System, and to the Hon. Janet DiFiore, Chief Judge New York State Court of Appeals
The letter goes on to question the city’s current TPT initiative to fulfill a purpose other than that which was intended by New York City Local Law No. 37, as adopted in 1996, and by the authority given by the state to the city to engage in in rem foreclosure proceedings in the prior decade.
The letter notes that most of the properties taken were in rapidly gentrifying, black and brown communities such as Bedford Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Brownsville, Bushwick and East New York where displacement of working families and seniors from these communities is at an all-time high
A single misstep in a program such as this is one too many when it can result in one of our constituents losing their home, and the families’ equity and investment in such properties, unjustly or unfairly,” wrote the lawmakers.
However, the State Court System denies any wrongdoing and believes that the City has to be charged with the responsibility of preserving homeownership across the five boroughs.
“We have nothing to do with New York City’s Third Party Transfer program – you would have to speak with the City. In regards to the in rem foreclosure process, we are solely the venue, the statutes were promulgated by the state legislature and the process [is] the same in every county,” said Lucien Chalfen, the Public Information Officer for the Office of Court Administration.
