Case Study

Affordable Housing: Homeownership/Faith Based Community Development

Project Name/Type: Nehemiah Properties – Alexander Avenue

In 1987 South Bronx Churches was established to counter urban decline in the South Bronx. The organization, consisting of multiple congregations of different faiths, is dedicated to helping and empowering residents and has created a nationally known housing program, Nehemiah Housing.

SBC built Nehemiah homes in the South Bronx with a total of $3.5 million in no-interest loans from Trinity Church, St. James Church, the national office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Roman Catholic religious orders, and members of individual parishes.

ShermanLaw created the corporate structure and negotiated the trust agreement required for the Project to receive tax benefits and to use the revolving loan fund created by the church-sponsored trust. ShermanLaw managed the acquisition of land from New York City, which employed innovative time-sensitive procedure for rapid closing and delivery of a deed to the homeowner in 24 hours upon receipt of title from the City in order to preserve the assets of the revolving loan fund. Through the revolving loan fund and land purchased for $1 per lot from the City of New York, high quality housing was produced and sold at very modest prices.

ShermanLaw established a homeowners association for new buyers and handled as many as a dozen home sales to first-time homebuyers in a single day. The sale of the first of the 250 homes that were built were dedicated in 2002: 44 single-family homes and 205 two-family homes, converting vacant lots to home sites, and creating both new businesses and jobs in the process.

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