About Us
In August of 1978 a small group of Fordham Bedford residents attended a meeting about housing at Our Lady of Refuge (OLR). This in itself was not unusual, since meetings about this Northwest Bronx neighborhood were being held several times a week at OLR. What was unusual was that these residents were meeting to talk about forming a new organization to fight housing deterioration and abandonment. Twenty-five years ago, The Bronx was being destroyed by arson and abandonment at a frightening pace. During one 70’s winter nearby Morris Heights lost 50 apartment buildings to abandonment. Thousands of homes were being destroyed and the fiber of many Bronx communities was literally in flames.
Residents of Fordham Bedford were right to be concerned. The City of New York had just taken ownership of several local buildings for unpaid taxes. Banks were refusing to issue new mortgages -- even on stable, profitable buildings. Tenants were seeking relief from deterioration in Bronx Housing Court and administrators were being appointed by the Court to try to save threatened buildings. Locally, fires had engulfed a few small apartment buildings and a growing number of wood frame private homes. This community stood at a crossroads. The tenant and community leaders who met during that long ago summer decided to take some small but important steps.
They began to explore ways to bring new private and public resources into the housing stock. They also decided to create community-sponsored Housing Company to use these new resources and help tenants save their homes. The new company would not only provide technical assistance but would also take over ownership of properties headed for abandonment. It would take another 18 months to complete the incorporation of the new Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, which immediately took title to its first building on 194th Street. It would take another six months for the Housing Corporation to obtain a grant from the Campaign for Human Development along with funds from the now defunct federal CETA program needed to hire staff. But the two years of volunteer efforts to stave off abandonment set the direction for efforts that continue to this day on a greatly expanded level.
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