Margert in the News

Billionaire Eyes Rockaway For Charter School
The Full Story

January 11, 2008

By Howard Schwach

The eighteenth richest man in America, a Far Rockaway High School graduate, has filed an application to the State University of New York to build a charter school on the peninsula.

And, although a school site in the Far Rockaway area has not yet been finalized, corporate raider, financier and equity investor Carl Icahn, who once lived in Rockaway, has pro posed to build and operate a 250-seat elementary charter school.

The plan was outlined at a public hearing that was hastily called for Wednesday night at Beach Channel High School.

At that hearing, officials of the Foundation for Greater Opportunity, and Icahn Scholars Program, leaders in the charter proposal, outlined a program that would include small class size, extended day programs, an extended school year, individual attention, targeted assistance in math and literacy, student mentoring, a core knowledge curriculum and a nurturing environment.

The school's board of trustees would include such luminaries as Icahn himself; Julie Goodyear, the executive director of the Foundation for Greater Opportunity; Sy Fliegel, a former teacher and principal who was, for a time, the superintendent of Community School Board 28; and Edward Shanahan, the headmaster at Choate/Rosemary Hall and former dean of students at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

The school, to be called the Carl C. Icahn Charter School Far Rockaway, will rent space somewhere in Rockaway while attempting to find a site for a permanent school, officials say.

It would be the second school to be named after the former Rockaway resident. The first, located in the Bronx, has had success with high-risk students, its proponents say.

"More than 80 percent of its students have achieved proficiency or higher in the state English tests," Jeffrey Litt, the Bronx school's principal, told a sparse group of locals who attended the meeting. "In mathematics, 97 percent of the students have scored slightly above state standard each year."

The school plan must be approved by the State University of New York, which has granted its initial approval, officials say.

The Department of Education hearing that was held at Beach Channel High School on Wednesday night was required by state law.

The fact that the meeting was called without any advance public knowledge angered many locals, and they took that anger out on the DOE representative at the meeting.

Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer, whose representative, Joann Shapiro spoke at the hearing, gave her qualified support to the school.

"I support increasing educational opportunities available to area students," she said.

"As a benefactor of the New York City Public School system, Icahn has firsthand knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses that have to be addressed in any school in the city," Pheffer added. "As a Far Rockaway High School alumna, I would have hoped Rockaway to be his first choice for a charter school, not his second, but if it's to be a quality educational institution, we will welcome it."

Pheffer told The Wave that the Department of Education asked her to make a statement, but refused to allow her to see the complete proposal.

"It's hard to give total support to a proposal when they won't allow you to see it," the Assemblywoman said.

Local activist Les Mullings told the officials that they would not get community approval until they actually presented their program to the community and got it involved in the process.

"You come here without telling us about the meeting and tell us you are coming, but you don't know where, and you don't even let us have input into the process. What kind of good neighbor are you going to be?" Mullings asked.

"I'm quite dismayed. There are no parents here tonight because there was no notification. You don't have a location. This doesn't constitute a legal hearing and you have to come back," he added.

The Department of Education representative, however, defended her department's actions.

"The notification for this meeting was done in the standard way," she said. "I can't comment on the notification, but it was done in an adequate manner under our guidelines."

Andrew Baumann, the president of Community Education Council 27, said that he was notified on Friday night of the Wednesday meeting.

Assemblywoman Pheffer got her email on Monday.

The Wave found out about the meeting on Tuesday afternoon, when Pheffer issued a statement about the plan. Wave editors had to contact her office to find out what she was talking about, because the paper got no notification whatsoever from the Department of Education.

And, although the proposal is a public document, the DOE refused to provide it to any of the locals, including the Assemblywoman and the president of the local education council.

The officials from the Bronx Icahn charter school, who came from the Bronx to present their vision, were embarrassed by the department's lack of notification.

"We came here to tell you about our successful program," said Goodyear. "We were invited and we came. We expected to see a full auditorium and to answer the community's concerns. We had nothing to do with the lack of notification."

The school officials promised to return to Rockaway for another meeting whenever it could be scheduled.

top^

Water Shut-Offs on the Horizon
The Full Story

6,000 Single-Family Homes in Danger of Water Shut-Off Unless Homeowners Act Quickly!

1/08 NEDAP Community Alert:

WHAT'S THE STORY?

The NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has recently implemented a plan to shut off water service for certain single-family homes that are delinquent on their water bills. This is a new tactic to try to collect water bills that are more than a year overdue and amount to at least $1,000. There are over 6,000 single-family homes slated for possible water shut-off in the coming months, with many of these properties concentrated in communities of color - those same neighborhoods already at the center of the foreclosure crisis.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

DEP is offering these homeowners a one-time affordable payment plan, called the Payment Incentive Plan, to avoid service termination and to bring them back into good standing. However, this offer expires on February 21. According to DEP, few of the households currently delinquent on their water bills have taken advantage of this offer. Termination of water service would be a serious public health risk for these families.

HELP SPREAD THE WORD!

Community groups are advised to alert and assist single-family homeowners more than a year delinquent on water bills to contact DEP immediately to sign up for a payment plan. If your organization is interested in getting involved in addressing this issue, please contact NEDAP via email . Areas with high concentrations of potential shut-offs include Jamaica, Queens; Wakefield and Williamsbridge in the Bronx; Mill Basin and Canarsie in Brooklyn; and much of Staten Island.

For more information about DEP's Payment Incentive Plan, call their customer service line at 718-595-7000 or visit: www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/water_and_sewer_bills/pip.shtml.

top^

New York State Coalition Implements 2008 Legislative Agenda
The Full Story

Governor Raises Funding for Affordable Housing in State of the State Address

National Low Income Housing Coalition

New York State has provided operating support for community-based nonprofit housing organizations since 1977. The legislation creating the Neighborhood Preservation Program (NPP) recognized the value of resident involvement in neighborhood preservation activities, and acknowledged that the “efficient and effective use of federal and state funds…would be promoted by the active involvement of nonprofit neighborhood organizations.” Beyond mere recognition, the legislation provided these organizations a reliable stream of funding to cover the administrative and planning costs necessary to run a broad-based program designed to preserve and promote housing opportunities for low and moderate income people.

NPCs develop and rehab housing in areas where household incomes are below 90% of the area median income. NPCs also manage affordable housing, assist first-time home buyers, organize tenant associations, provide tenant counseling, provide job training, and deliver many other services.

In 2007, NPP provided $10.5 million in operating support for 156 NPCs across the state, enabling them to complete 2,826 home improvements, initiate 1,018 substantial rehabs (completing 785), and begin construction on 2,066 new units. More than 4,700 evictions were prevented. The NPP also has a rural component, which in 2007 provided $4.7 million in operating support to 67 Rural Preservation Companies (RPCs). Another NLIHC partner, the New York State Rural Housing Coalition, works with RPCs.

Although New York’s NPP is a model for other states to emulate, the Coalition’s 2008 legislative agenda seeks to improve it in a number of ways. First and foremost, the Coalition is seeking an NPP budget increase to $15 million so that NPCs can finally receive an adequate amount of operating support – $125,000 per year. In 2007 the legislature supplemented the NPP budget, enabling NPCs to get $87,000 each. (For the previous 20 years, NPCs only received $65,000 per year.) Governor Spitzer’s 2008 budget, however, would again reduce the annual operating assistance to $65,000. Consequently, the Coalition is working to secure a legislative add-on to raise the amount to $125,000 per NPC.

At the January 29 joint hearing, Joe Agostine, Executive Director of the Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, also urged the legislators to support a new $400 million Housing Opportunity Fund proposed by Governor Spitzer, saying “The Neighborhood Preservation Coalition believes that the established network of NPCs and RPCs are best equipped to deliver the services that this new initiative will provide, and again ask that you provide them with the operating support they need to make this initiative successful.”

The proposed $400 million Housing Opportunity Fund was announced by the Governor during his January 9 State of the State Address. Advocates noted that this was the first time in recent memory that affordable housing was mentioned in a State of the State address. “The key to making a community livable is good homes…In too many parts of our State, our children cannot afford to come back to the neighborhoods that they grew up in, and their parents cannot afford to stay in the homes where they raised their families,” said Governor Spitzer. “I will propose the biggest housing initiative in a generation.” $100 million will be targeted to upstate housing projects and come from excess reserves in the state’s Mortgage Insurance Fund (previously transferred to the general fund). The other $300 million for downstate projects will come from the sale of state property around New York City’s convention center.

The Coalition will advocate not only for using some of this new resource to adequately support NPCs, but will also press for a portion of the Housing Opportunity Fund be used as the first truly dedicated source of money for the state’s existing Housing Trust Fund.

For more information about the Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, go to: www.npcnys.org.

For more information about the Neighborhood Preservation Program, go to: www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ocd/progs/npp/ocdprgnp.htm.

top^

Bankers' Group Raises Concerns About Legislative Proposals to Keep Owners in Homes
The Full Story

By CHRIS CHURCHILL, Business writer

ALBANY -- New York bankers believe it already takes long enough to foreclose on a house.  But the Spitzer administration disagrees -- and wants legislation that would require mortgage holders to send a "pre-foreclosure" to struggling borrowers, letting them know that trouble looms.

State Banking Superintendent Richard Neiman, speaking Monday to the New York Bankers Association's annual meeting and legislative conference, said the notice would include a list of housing counselors that troubled borrowers could contact.

And a borrower who responds to the notice and indicates a desire to rework his mortgage would benefit from a grace period, of sorts, during which a mortgage company could not move ahead with foreclosure proceedings.

The association is the advocacy group for the state's financial services industry. John Scarchilli, president and chief executive of Pioneer Bank in Troy, serves as chairman and Thomas Hoy, president and CEO of Arrow Financial Corp. in Glens Falls, is vice chairman.

The bankers' annual meeting, which continues today the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Albany, is designed to help push legislative goals, which this year include opposition to tax increases; support for targeted regulation of subprime lending; and opposition to any legislation that would extend the length of mortgage foreclosures, among other positions.

But with many state lawmakers concerned about rising numbers of foreclosures, holding off legislation aimed at delaying foreclosures may be difficult.

Rising foreclosure rates are frequently linked to subprime loans given to borrowers with relatively low incomes or shaky credit histories. Many of those borrowers have struggled to keep up with their mortgage payments.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told the bankers that new measures addressing rising foreclosures are necessary, although he did not specify what the legislation should include.

"We cannot have thousands of New Yorkers losing their homes," he said.

The bankers association describes New York's current foreclosure law as the most protective in the country, and says the average foreclosure in the state already takes 445 days.

top^