INTRODUCTION

Here is what you need to know to take advantage of the lottery ending Dec 16 for studio and 3-bedroom apartments at Southbridge Towers in Lower Manhattan.
The instructions come first, and then a piece with background on the situation at Southbridge. I am a Southbridge resident who would like to see nice people with a sense of social responsibility get into Southbridge. I am posting this anonymously because I am strongly against privatization, much to the distress of some of my neighbors. Please read carefully and don't wait too long before acting. If you get in, it will make a huge difference in your life. Good luck.

Instructions for Lottery

SOUTHBRIDGE TOWERS LOTTERY FOR STUDIOS AND THREE BEDROOM APARTMENTS
DEADLINE: DECEMBER 16, 2008, 9AM
Southbridge Towers, located in lower Manhattan nesr the South Street Seaport, is a limited equity housing co-op in the NYState Mitchell-Lama program. This lottery is for a
place on the waiting list. If you are selected, you'll receive an application by mail.
WHO QUALIFIES: Studio: 1 or 2 people Three Bedroom: 4 to 6 people
Head of Household must be at least 18. All Household members must:
be living together
meet the household income and composition requirements and other selection criteria
at time of application and at time of apartment availability.


HOW MUCH?

Studio:
Maximum Income Limit $36,387.96 - $45,013.78

Equity (Price of Apartment): $15,818.06 w/o terrace ,$18,981.67 w/terrace

Maintenance Range: $329.10 - $410.97

3 Bedroom:

Max. Income: $85,057.28 - $105,388.64

Equity: $37,963.35 w/o terrace $40,883.61 w/terrace
Maintenance: $762.77 - $828.38



All carrying charges and equity are subject to change w/o notice. Allowable deductions include: $1,000 personal and dependent exemptions and $17,000 (or actual earnings if less) for secondary wage earner.


You'll be required to demonstrate income and assets to pay the equity and maintenance charges. A credit check and home visit will be conducted for which an additional non-refundable fee will be required. No pets, washing machines or dryers are permitted (note: everybody here openly has dogs and cats, including the board. Just don't parade them around during your home visit or talk about them as you're signing the stock certificates the way we did. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," said the clerk)


HOW TO ENTER:
Your lottery request must be mailed by FIRST CLASS REGULAR MAIL ONLY (No priority mail/special deliveries): in a standard business size (no smaller than 9 x 4 inches) WHITE envelope to the following address, written in BLUE or BLACK INK ONLY:
HBA
PO Box 984
Peck Slip Station
New York, NY 10272-0984
Also on the outside of the envelope, you must put:
in the return address section all household members' full names, including children.
in the lower left, depending on which you want, either "STUDIO" or "THREE BEDROOM".
Inside the envelope:
A letter stating the (1) full (first, last, middle) name (2) address, (3)phone number(s), (4) age, (5) date of birth and (6) social security number for each household member applying. If you have no social security or telephone numbers, you must indicate that on the lottery request.
CERTIFIED CHECK FOR $250.00 made out to SOUTHBRIDGE TOWERS, INC.
(the check will be returned to you if you don't get a place on the list. If you do, it's non-refundable.)
THIS MUST ARRIVE AT THE POST OFFICE AT 9AM ON DEC 16. IF YOU DON'T MEET ALL THE REQUIREMENTS, YOUR REQUEST WILL BE REJECTED.
THERE ARE 250 PLACES ON THE STUDIO WAITING LIST, AND ONLY 25 ON THE 3 BEDROOM LIST. THE SELECTED APPLICANTS WILL BE NOTIFIED BY MAIL. EVERYONE ELSE WILL GET THEIR APPLICATION, WITH $250.00 CHECK, RETURNED.

Background Information

Southbridge Towers Lottery Background

Southbridge is the bunch of ugly brown '70s towers right by the Brooklyn Bridge. As my sainted Aunt Billie used to say, "it's better to live in the ugly buildings and look at the pretty ones."
Most of the apartments have terraces, great views, and are unbelievably, insanely, cheap.

There are 3 catches:

1. The Waiting lists are long, like a couple years or more, and thousands of people will be applying to get a spot on them. This means your odds of getting in aren't great. But they're better than the NY State Lottery! I and my husband are here, and still can't believe it.


2. 
   As it stands now, you pay very little to live here, BUT if you want to sell, you only get back what you paid, your equity. You do not get to make out like a bandit the way private homeowners did until just recently. That's also a plus: living here under Mitchell-Lama, which is a state program to benefit middle-income people, is secure. This complex was put up during the 70s downturn, and through all the economic downturns including this one, SBT residents haven't had to worry about being thrown out of their homes.
   SBT is state-subsidized by YOU THE TAXPAYER. All the people who live here are INCREDIBLY LUCKY.
   that leads us to catch number;


3. 
   
   
   The privatization movement. The Mitchell-Lama law was written sloppily, and a loophole in it allows co-op residents to vote on whether to become a market-rate, private co-op. That wasn't a popular idea until a group of people who have second homes for the most part really began pushing, because to them this is just a lump of money they could make if they sold their apartments the way they saw everyone else doing.

That they lived here for years, got in here in fact on YOUR TAX DOLLARS doesn't compute next to the idea that they'll be rich. They've developed truly facile rationalizations for why they deserve to reap the reward for benefitting from other people's money. The trouble for you the applicants is that if privatization passes, all the people on the waiting lists are screwed.

The trouble for those of us who don't want to sell is that the maintenance will be likely to go up sharply; the privatizers are spinning happy pictures of how a flip tax will make up for Southbridge's losing its very powerful Mitchell-Lama tax shelter: if we privatize, the property tax will go to full market rates, and so will the maintenance.

It's all very arcane and involved, but consider the Privatizers to be Rovian Republicans, Privatization their Iraq. Their group is full of lawyers and real estate professionals, and it's well-funded and shameless. Their message is inaccurate but simple: three little words--You'll be rich.

The upshot is that we are in the middle step of a three step process now; SBT residents voted for the offering plan to be drawn up. This would take until perhaps next Summer, perhaps longer. Then, it goes to the Attorney General, and gets revised. Nobody knows how long that will take. Our anti-privatization group, though vastly outgunned, is fighting this as hard as possible, and the AG is not friendly to the concept of privatization. He found 97 objections to the offering plan of a similar Mitchell-Lama complex, and their plan has gone back and forth for more than a year.

So where does that leave you? The chances of getting on the list are small, the chances of being screwed out of your apartment by privatizers are fairly good (depends on how fast the lists move versus how fast privatization moves). So why apply?

• No risk. You cut a $250 check, mail and forget until you either get it back or get your spot on the list. Casinos don't say "you lost, here's your money back."


• 
  You get in, you have a fabulously cheap lower Manhattan apartment. Maybe with terrace.
  If we go private, your taxpayer-subsidized apartment is suddenly worth a large lump of money. Granted, to get it, you have to sell the apartment and find some other place to live, and the money may not go so far if you want to live in New York. This is what the privatizers have managed to gloss over. But hey.


• You could help our little outgunned group, and if you get in, vote against privatization.
  This is the reason I'm posting all this information. All the new residents of SBT, and all the people on the waiting lists, should know that the Privatizers are trying to close the door against them and put an end to this program that extended a secure home to them. These economic troubles are yet another reason not to privatize. But if the worst should happen, and we do go private, at least some decent people should get the benefit, instead of the orclike followers of the privatization movement.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION: SEE IF YOU QUALIFY, MAIL THE CHECK ALREADY YESTERDAY, GO ON AND LIVE YOUR LIFE, AND MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, YOU MIGHT GET A NICE SURPRISE THE WAY MY HUSBAND AND I DID. GOOD LUCK, AND THANK YOU.