4 The Courier sun • JUly 2, 2015 for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com City agency no-show at Hamilton Beach meeting BY ANGELA MATUA [email protected] @AngelaMatua Hamilton Beach residents were stood up. The Department of Design and Construction (DDC) failed to make their appointment at the June 25 Hamilton Beach Civic Association meeting, turning what should have been an informative session on a capital project into an airing of residents’ grievances. The DDC was scheduled to unveil designs for a project to repair major corrosion and tidal flooding on James Court after residents rejected the first plan. However, the agency cancelled only a few hours before the meeting was set to take place, according to Hamilton Beach Civic Association President Roger Gendron. Gendron said the project manager retired earlier this month and that the DDC was not sure if they could bring someone who could update residents on the specifics of the plan. “We can talk about it all we want but DDC is not here to answer for themselves tonight and that’s the problem,” Gendron said. “I don’t care if they stood a guy in here with a target and said, ‘We don’t have anything, take your best shot,’ but they didn’t do that and that’s wrong.” Residents decried the last design plan, which was presented to them at a Jan. 22 civic meeting. The plan called for adding a bulkhead to the end of the street and up to two feet of asphalt to some parts of the roadway, thus elevating the street bed. This heightened road would force homeowners to bury or reconstruct the first few steps leading to their home if the steps are located on the sidewalk. Patricia McCabe, a representative of state Senator Joseph Addabbo, relayed the lawmaker’s disapproval over the DDC no-show. “He’s very, very upset with DDC,” McCabe said. “This is what his exact words were: ‘Make sure everybody at the meeting knows, he will be back at the district tomorrow, he will speak to the commissioner. They will get answers within the next week. They’re going to hold them to the time frame of this project.’ He’s as angry as you are.” Rich Lynch, a Hamilton Beach resident who lives on James Court, said that the project manager had a responsibility to inform residents of the plan before his retirement. “It’s kind of embarrassing from their point of view that it was a changing of the guard but the guard didn’t know he was in charge or something,” Lynch said. Craig Chin, borough planner for the Department of Transportation, was in attendance but could not update residents on the plan because the DDC didn’t provide the DOT any updated plans. “It’s DDC that we have to hold their feet to the fire,” Gendron said. “And believe me when I tell you I will.” A DDC spokesperson reportedly told Gendron that they will attend the next Hamilton Beach Civic Association meeting on Aug. 20 to unveil the plan. The DDC did not respond to requests for comment. THE COURIER/Photo by Angela Matua The Department of Design and Construction did not update Hamilton Beach residents on a capital project to improve James Court. Bank employees partner with Habitat for Humanity to build home in Hollis BY ANGELA MATUA [email protected] @AngelaMatua Employees from a local bank put on their hard hats on June 26 to help build a home for a family in Hollis. Partnering with Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that builds affordable housing for lowincome families, Amalgamated Bank is also giving its customers a chance to donate to the nonprofit with its “Donate the Change” campaign. For every purchase using a bankissued debit card that is $10 and over, the bank will donate 10 cents to Habitat for Humanity NYC. Keith Mestrich, the bank’s president and CEO, said Amalgamated Bank has a long history of providing affordable housing to New York City residents. “Our bank for a long time has done a lot for affordable housing, really going back to the ’20s when the Parent Union, which owns our bank, probably built more affordable housing in the city than any other entity in the history of New York and so this is just part of our mission,” Mestrich said. Habitat for Humanity NYC is working to build 12 single-family homes in Queens in neighborhoods including Hollis, Rosedale, St. Albans, Springfield Gardens and Queens Village and are working with the New York City Housing Authority to buy and repair another 15 houses in the borough. “It’s a very unique program within New York City,” said Matthew Dunbar, vice president of government relations and advocacy for Habitat for Humanity NYC. “New York has a 32 percent homeownership rate which is extremely low. It’s about the exact opposite of the rest of the country. So our work is critical and there’s very few, if any folks currently building homeownership opportunities.” Serina Sacasa, who lives in the Bronx with her three children, will soon become a homeowner in Laurelton. Sacasa applied to the program a year and a half ago and will be moving into her home in November. “About a year and a half ago I decided it’s time for us to get a bigger place,” Sarcasa said. “New York City is a hard market for housing and my kids wanted a home, they wanted a backyard so I researched and found some things but they didn’t really work out. Then I found Habitat. They provide education courses so you’re not just going into the homeownership process completely blind and you also have to give a little sweat equity.” According to Dunbar, homeowners accepted by the Habitat for Humanity program must spend 250 hours building their home and helping to build other homes purchased by Habitat for Humanity. They must also have a credit score of 650 or higher. Homeowners receive a lowinterest mortgage and help with every step of the homeownership process. The construction in Hollis will be completed sometime in the fall and another family will be able to call themselves homeowners. “Habitat is great,” Sarcasa said. “I’m just glad that there are programs to combat the housing crisis.” THE COURIER/Photo by Angela Matua Amalgamated Bank employees and Habitat for Humanity NYC partnered to build a home for a family in Hollis.
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