Urban Homesteading Assistance Board

UHAB was formed in 1973 by Harlem residents who self-managed vacant and abandoned buildings. It was sponsored by the liberal Episcopal bishop of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in East Harlem. It was initially supported by John Turner, a major proponent of self-help housing, and recruited former employees of the Housing Development Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).[2][3]

UHAB began in 1974 by working with ex-convicts in a sweat equity program where UHAB purchased abandoned tenements for $1 and the ex-convicts renovated them, learning construction skills and building housing equity.[4]

In 1978, the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) began the Tenant Interim Lease (TIL) program based on recommendations from UHAB. UHAB began providing training and support to help tenants self-manage and eventually attain ownership of their buildings as cooperatives for a moderate investment.[2][5][6][7]

In 1977, HUD awarded UHAB a $3 million dollar grant to support a technical assistance program for lower-income New Yorkers and test the efficacy and potential of sweat equity homesteading.[8]

In 2002, after three years of negotiation with the city administration and HPD, UHAB purchased eleven squatted buildings in the Lower East Side for $1 each, including ABC No Rio, Bullet Space, C-Squat, and Umbrella House. The twelfth squat in the neighborhood, 272 E. Seventh St., was not accepted into the program. UHAB promised financing to bring the homes into code compliance and helped each building form a Housing Development Fund Corporation. The units would be purchased for $250, have a property tax exemption, and have limits on the resale price.[6][9]

Problems developed, as UHAB took out loans from the National Consumer Cooperative Bank that accrued a large amount of interest that the homesteaders would be obligated to pay, jeopardizing their efforts at home ownership. The homesteaders stated that the contractors UHAB hired had been terrible and that eight buildings sued the city and UHAB under adverse possession. Complaints about the resale limit led to them being adjusted upward, as the homesteaders pointed out the market value added to the building through their labor.[6][9][10]

Since 1998 UHAB organizers have reached out to and engaged thousands of tenants in over 650 buildings across New York City.[11]