« February 2005 | Main | April 2005 »
March 29, 2005
A request
hi friends-
Our meeting for Sat April 9th is still set to have Lottie Cohen come speak with us. I should know times within a few days. We are still working on someone who could come speak with us on limited liability corporations. It looks like Jamie's friends may be able to do that - I'll keep you posted.
I have a request of you that meddles some in your private lives :)
Ms Cohen has requested that we compile an estimate of the total family incomes of the different families interested in some sort of communal arrangement. This will better enable her to give us a more accurate estimate of what sort of grants would be available to us were we to decide to do a housing cooperative. Pastor Anthony is working on getting me that info for members of his congregation. If I could have you all email me rough estimates of family incomes that would be great. Naturally, we won't give the amounts to her along with the names of the families. We'll just say, for instance, that we have 10 families in the 25,000-30,000 range; five families in the 30,000 to 35,000 range; and 5 families in the 20,000 to 25,000 range. Thanks for your response on this one, this will give her more of an idea of the financial feasibility of doing a cooperative as it relates to available grants.
Hope this email finds you all well. I look forward to meeting again.
Aaron
Posted by aaronfriberg at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2005
Speakers Coming
Hi friends-
Well, we're likely to have some more info meetings fairly soon. Jamie Gates is talking to some real estate friends this week who have experience in purchasing property under limited liability strictures. This would be the for-profit route. The advantages would be that it would be something we could likely do very soon (not having to jump through a lot of hoops like applying for different non-profit grants and loan arrangements that an affordable housing/non-profit arrangement would require). Scott has done some good work in looking at 8-10 unit apartment complexes around the area so we would likely move some families in these areas. We would probably be looking at around $120,000 for two room complexes. That comes out much more affordable than buying individually. Presumably, once we collectively build up some equity we could then more easily create something like a limited equity cooperative or some other model that would create non-profit housing.
I have also tentatively scheduled Lottie Cohen to come speak with us on April the 9th. She is the laywer who has lots of experience in LA working with both for profit and limited equity cooperatives in southern California. She comes highly recommended from the National Cooperative Housing Association as well and the National Cooperative Bank. After talking with her we will hopefully have a better idea of the feasibility of a non-profit project. I have forwarded you all with an article from the Los Angeles Business Journal that discusses some of her work in LA.
So, within the next month and 1/2 we should have some folks coming to speak with us. After that we should be in a better position to determine what we can and want to invest our time in. Thanks all for your support and concern.
Aaron
Posted by aaronfriberg at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2005
Weekend update
Hi friends-
Sorry for taking so long in writing an update on the housing cooperative. First some good news. Pastor Antony has mentioned that about 10 families are interested in discussing communal ownership together as are about 5 families from the Cambodian group. Interest for the project is definitely there.
As mentioned in the last email the objective right now is to find a developer who could assist us in at least exploring some form of cooperative living. About two weeks ago I met with Bob Kennedy of the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Diego to see if they would be interested in our project. This option doesn't look too promising. The city is not really interested in groups trying to establishing housing in which the potential tenants are largely predetermined. They would rather have anonymous applications to projects they complete so it doesn't look as if they will be able to assist us. This means that there are really no local options as far as housing developers who have experience in non-profit cooperative arrangements. We will have to see if there are potential developers who have experience located in other parts of the country.
To that end, a week ago I called the housing project developer from the National Cooperative Bank. She has not returned my call so I'll try to give her a ring again tomorrow. I have not contacted that housing cooperative lawyer again as I was seeing if we could contact someone locally but I will attempt to get in contact with her again this week.
Another option that both John Wright and Scott Borger have suggested as a possible course of action is to see if we can buy smaller units like 10 or so units at a time and not worry at this time about doing the non-profit thing since it takes a lot more technical assistance. (We could likely easily find a project developer in town if we are just buying an appartment complex collectively - a lot less hoops and expertise needed than the non-profit model.) Without talking it though with you, my first response is that this would certainly be a viable model as some families of lower incomes for whom buying single family homes is not an option would be able to participate. The equity people acquire could then possibly be used in buying a larger complex in the future that could possibly be a non-profit model.
At any rate, I will see if I can get ahold of some people this week. We should probably meet again soon to discuss possible ways of going forward. In general, what are good nights to meet for all of you? Or mornings and afternoons if Saturday? Look forward to hearing your ideas.
Peace,
Aaron
Posted by aaronfriberg at 10:09 PM | Comments (4)