Case Study

Full Service Representation for a Not for Profit including Start-up, Tax Exemption, Operational Issues, Contracts, and Project Development

Practice Area: Business Consulting

Housing Works, Inc. is the largest minority-controlled community-based AIDS service organization in the United States. Since its founding, Housing Works, Inc. has provided lifesaving services, such as housing, primary care, job training, and legal help, to more than 20,000 homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS.

Corporate Representation

ShermanLaw represents Housing Works, Inc. and its affiliated entities such as, Housing Works Bookstore Café, in matters ranging from:

• Creating and financing affordable housing
• Creating Social Enterprise Ventures
• Real estate matters associated with community development
• Negotiating social service contracts
• Negotiating lines of credit
• Corporate structure
• Obtaining federal recognition as a 501( c)(3) charity
• Lease negotiation
• General corporate matters

Project Development
Housing Works Bookstore café – A thrift shop

ShermanLaw, as counsel for Housing Works, Inc., incorporated the Housing Works Bookstore Café as a separate entity. Negotiations with state and federal officials proved remarkably complex when officials raised concerns about the Bookstore's name and its potential income generating capacity, notwithstanding Housing Works, Inc.'s national reputation as a not-for-profit. ShermanLaw's skill and experience were required to overcome these potential road blocks in an otherwise routine application for a certificate of incorporation and a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit tax exemption. The Housing Works Bookstore Café has become a Lower Manhattan institution and tourist destination for the last decade, staffed almost entirely by volunteers and sending 100% of its net income to Housing Works, Inc.

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