Urban Housing Management Association Demonstration in Harlem.

[Draft Created by Crowdsourcing]
DEMONSTRATION IN HARLEM

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Published June 1945 by
URBAN HOUSING MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION INC.
204 West 136 Street, New York 30, N. Y

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A NEW IDEA

IN HARLEM, which has always had housing problems, a new idea was born in December 1943.
The idea was that tenants, landlords and the community would gain if the Negro people of Harlem were given a chance to manage buildings usually held by absentee white owners and managed by absentee white agents.
To test this theory, a non-profit corporation called the Urban Housing Management Association was formed under the sponsorship of the Urban League of Greater New York. Prominent Negroes and whites were chosen for the board. An all-Negro staff was employed to manage Harlem tenements for absentee owners. An office was opened in the Urban League building at 204 West 136th Street, in the center of Harlem.

HOW IT STARTED

The association started with a few buildings and a complete staff, expecting to become self-supporting under full operation. Three foundations contributed $5,500 to meet organization expenses and operating deficits during the early months.*
By the end of the first year the project had passed from the category of experiment into that of successful

*Grants were made by the William S. Paley Foundation, the Phelps-Stokes Fund and the New York Housing Trust.

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demonstration. Operations are now self-sustaining. What the U.H.M.A. has done can be duplicated by other management agencies in Harlem or in other American cities.
It used to be said that anybody could make $2 a week by nailing two Coca-Cola signs together and renting the structure to Negroes. Harlem tenements are more soundly built of brick and brownstone, yet there is congestion and squalor to match the worst shanty sections of other cities.

THIS IS CONGESTION

Crowded into an area of 530 blocks are about 280,000 Negroes, a population equal to that of Toledo or Memphis. In one block there are 3,871 people. At that density, every person in the United States could live in one-half of New York City.
Most of the houses are owned by non-resident whites and managed by absentee agents whose chief interest is collecting the rent. The Negro's rent money goes out of Harlem and very little trickles back in form of maintenance and repairs. When buildings are cleaned up, which happens none too often, the work is generally given to white contractors who employ white mechanics.

EVERYBODY LOSES

The evils generated by this system are serious. Harlem is denied the opportunity to enjoy a fair share of employment in the housing business. The owner's investment is jeopardized as the building steadily deteriorates toward the

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point where sorely pressed Negroes will spurn the unpainted, unrequired, odorous and vermin-infested apartments.
Finally, the sequel is the sharpening of racial ill-will. Harlem's bad housing has been a factor in every major riot of the district.
The U.H.M.A. was not designed to achieve Utopian changes. Its aims, originally outlined by James Felt to the Urban League of Greater New York, are modest and practical.

MORE WORK FOR HARLEM

The main objective is to show that competent local management by Negroes can help both tenants and owners. Proof is found in the fact that tenants are much more satisfied with U.H.M.A. management and that average vacancies of about 5% in buildings taken over by the association have been reduced to 3%.
A second objective is to give Harlem real estate men and mechanics an opportunity to make a living from work that is normally handled by outsiders. So consistently have local residents been excluded from responsible jobs in the housing business that the association found it hard at first to get enough trained men. The problem is being solved by a training program. When the first buildings were taken over, only 25% of the repairs and redecorating was done by Negroes. Now 70% of the work goes to local mechanics.
Instead of competing with the few Negro real estate firms that survived the last depression, U.H.M.A. is work-

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ing to bring more business to them by convincing absentee owners that local management is found, and by showing local agencies how they can get and keep management contracts. This consultation service is free.
A course on real estate management, directed by Mr. Felt, gives local brokers expert training in field trips for property surveys, the study of appraisal techniques, bookkeeping, preparation of reports for owners, and discussion of tenant-owner relations. Special conferences are arranged so the brokers can meet representatives of banks and insurance companies owning Harlem property.

ACTIVITIES ARE LIMITED

U.H.M.A. restricts its activities by managing a limited number of buildings (no more than 60 at present) and by avoiding heavy expenditures for the renovation of old structures. The first limitation stems from the association's purpose as a demonstration project, not as an enterprise to garner all the business that may be had.
Extensive improvements of Harlem tenements would be unwise because many of the buildings have outlived their usefulness. They are ripe for demolition, but until new housing can be provided at rents within reach of the population, the old houses will be occupied. An investment of $10,000 or $15,000 for rehabilitation of a typical 25-foot tenement would indefinitely prolong the life of a badly designed building that should be torn down as soon as materials and labor are available for new construction.
Under U.H.M.A. management, the average rundown apartment is freshened and repaired at a cost of about $150.

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No small part of the freshening is the removal of long neglected garbage and litter.

EXIT GARBAGE

At one building on upper Fifth Avenue, occupied by stores on the ground floor with 10 apartments on the upper floors, the U.H.M.A. agent making his first inspection opened the dumbwaiter door on the second floor. Three large rats leaped out. Garbage had accumulated for months until it was piled two stories deep in the shaft. The cleaning job alone cost $190, but before it was finished the four vacant apartments were rented.
As of March 1, 1945, U.H.M.A. had 56 buildings with 829 apartments and stores at gross annual rent of $285,072, an average of about $29 a month. By charging the normal commercial fee of 5%, the association operates on a self-sustaining basis. In the words of one director, "This has proved to be a noble experiment that paid off."
Old prejudices have been faced and vanquished. It used to be said, for example, the Negro superintendents would not respect a Negro management agent. There is doubt as to whether in these days of housing scarcity and labor shortage a building superintendent need show respect for anybody, but the U.H.M.A. agents have got along remarkably well with the supers.

NO MYSTERY ABOUT COLLECTIONS
There is also the notion that Negros make bad tenants, from whom rent can be collected only by the psychic

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wizardry of a white agent operating from a distance of several miles. U.H.M.A. finds that Negros pay rent as readily as anybody else and that collections mount when the local agent will listen sympathetically to a plea for repair of a wornout stove.
Among many owners there was a feeling that nothing could be done about Harlem properties until they disintegrated from old age and neglect and the ailantus trees sprang up amid the ruins. Then the land might be condemned for a housing project. U.H.M.A. has shown that socially motivated management is good business practice; that reasonable attention to tenant needs by agents who are on the spot can halt deterioration and improve the financial return.
Candid interviews with tenants indicate that although life in Harlem's substandard tenements is something less than celestial, the advent of U.H.M.A. has made a difference.

MANY IMPROVEMENTS

"We've lived here four years and since the new management took over in December 1944 there have been many improvements," said Mrs. Era Dellahoussaye of 502 Manhattan Avenue. "The last management didn't do one thing. The new management exterminated the place, or tried to, painted the apartments, fixed the leaks and the broken walls."
Mrs. Ruth Starks of 458 West 151st Street said U.H.M.A. has a long way to go before her apartment will be satisfactory. "The new company painted the bath-

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room ceiling," she said. "There's been a large hole there where the ceiling was torn. And that's all they did." Items of unfinished business were listed as the plugging of ratholes, repair of weak floor through which an icebox dropped to the ceiling of the tenants below, repair of a broken dumbwaiter, and repair of a toilet which doesn't flush.

HEAT AT LAST

Mrs. Katherine Thompson, 203 West 111th Street, weighed the good and the bad. "The new management did fix the furnace," she said. "There was no heat before they took over; now there's not much, but some. While the house was painted two weeks ago, a lot of repairs are still needed. I really do think the new management is more interested in the tenants. They are right here. The last management just came around promptly for the rent-they never did anything except to take your money."
"While this place is a long way from perfect," said Mrs. Esther Glaude, also of 203 West 111th Street, "the new management has made quite a few changes. A lot of plumbing work has been done. When I moved in eight months ago the plaster on the walls was an awful mess. Now it's been fixed and some rooms have been painted. The stove was cleaned out for the first time and they finally got the heating system to work."
Ironically, U.H.M.A. has lost a number of management contracts because of its record in getting red ink properties into the black. Buildings that were unmarketable until the association took them over became attractive buys.

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Frequently the former owner paid a voluntary severance fee in recognition of the association's work, and in other cases the new owner asked U.H.M.A. to continue as manager.

SOLD EVERY BUILDING

"Our experience with Urban Housing has been excellent," said Henry G. Rabb, mortgage and real estate officer of the North River Savings Bank. "They took over 6 of our buildings, which had 28 vacancies. Of course their initial expenses in improving the buildings were somewhat heavy, but within the first week they had rented 11 units and by the end of the first month all of the rentable space was occupied. It was our first experience with Negro management and we were very well pleased. As a result of their work we sold out all of our Harlem properties at higher prices than we had expected. If we ever get any more buildings in Harlem, we'll go back to Urban Housing. Too bad they didn't start 10 years ago."

TWO PROBLEM HOUSES

Stanford C. Zost, manager of the real estate department of the Harlem Savings Bank, reported that the first five buildings turned over to U.H.M.A. had been sold and that the association is now managing 12 more properties for the bank.
"We gave them two problem houses, which had become physically impossible and had bad names in the neighborhood," said Mr. Zost. "We did put in a little

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FIFTEEN MONTH'S GROWTH

QUARTER ENDING
Feb May Aug. Nov. Feb.
1944 1944 1944 1944 1945 Totals
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No. of buildings managed* 8 13 25 42 56 --
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Total no. of units* 102 152 25 578 829 --
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Total collections $3,696 $9,479 $20,866 $29,866 $1,004 $114,889
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No. of buildings sold 1 0 2 9 10 22+
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* Cumulative as of end of quarter.
+ U.H.M.A. retains management of 12 of 22 buildings sold.

money to recondition the buildings, and U.H.M.A. promptly rented the 11 vacant apartments to acceptable tenants. The strength of the organization seems to be the good relationship between the owner's agent and the tenants. The best Negro tenants prefer to do business with Negro people. We have noticed that in a 12-month period U.H.M.A. collected $700 delinquent rent, much of which we had regarded as uncollectible.
"As a demonstration project, U.H.M.A. aims to utilize local painters, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, plasterers and roofers. We should like to go along with this program, and we have got good work from Negro painters and carpenters, but there is a serious shortage of Negro mechanics equipped to do business in other lines. We have to be sure, for example, that a contractor complies with social security rules and that he carries workmen's compensation and public liability insurance."

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CONTRACTORS ARE TRAINED

This problem is fully understood by U.H.M.A. which is working to correct it by training small contractors to adopt business methods that would pass any test. Painting contractors who used to conduct business on the basis of oral agreements or memos written on scraps of paper have been taught the importance of such elementary things as printed letterheads, bill forms, and business telephones. U.H.M.A. believes that the best way to improve the business methods of small Negro contractors is to give them more business.
The staff of U.H.M.A. is in itself a nucleus of five young persons who are getting expert training in housing management. In time, the organization will develop more and more qualified workers.

"A GOOD ACCOUNT"

How U.H.M.A. helps local business was told by Sherman Edmiston, proprietor of the Guaranty Stove Company, 1756 Third Avenue, who keeps one of his four men busy on U.H.M.A. jobs. "We do practically all of their work," Mr. Edmiston said. "And it's a good account because they are businesslike and prompt in paying their bills. We have noticed too that they are really interested in the tenants and in the welfare of the property. We try to give them 24-hour service and the best materials we can get."
Lloyd E. Dickens, a Harlem real estate man for 10 years with an office at 2153 Seventh Avenue, has got new clients from U.H.M.A. "I think it is one of the best organizations that has come to Harlem," he commented.

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"By bringing business to the real estate men of the neighborhood, it renders a real service to the community. The old system of outside agents creates strain between landlord and tenant."
There is of course nothing revolutionary about the demonstration given by U.H.M.A. The organization is not trying to convert old tenements into model apartments. What it has shown is that local management of Negro housing by responsible Negro agents is better for owner, tenant and community than the traditional absentee management.

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URBAN HOUSING MANAGEMENT
ASSOCIATION, INC.

OFFICERS

JAMES FELT, President EDWARD S. LEWIS, Vice President
FRANK C. MONTERO, Secretary A. J. FOSTER, Treasurer

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

WILLIAM T. ANDREWS CHARLES M. HANSON
A. A. AUSTIN GOODE A. HARNEY
GLOVER BEARDSLEY SADIE HOBDAY
EDWARD M. BRATTER LOULA LASKER
JOHN CAHILL EDWARD S. LEWIS
THOMAS DOLAN WILLIAM G. LORD
STEPHEN P. DUGGAN JR.* FRANK C. MONTERO
ROBERT ELZY JOHN E. NAIL
JAMES FELT FREDERICK B. NEWELL
ROGER FLOOD FRANK C. NICHOLS*
A. J. FOSTER LOUIS H. PINK
LESTER GRANGER WILLIAM H. WORTHAM

*On leave.

STAFF

CLIFFORD L. ALEXANDER, Manager
GEORGE T. DAVIS, Field Assistant
JAMES DE KINE, Field Assistant
LOLA C. WORRELL, Secretary DOROTHY L. CAREY, Bookkeeper

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OWNERS OF BUILDINGS MANAGED
BY THE ASSOCIATION

APPELMAN REALTY CORPORATION
HENRY BAKER MANAGEMENT CORPORATION
BLUMENTHAL ESTATE
BOWERY SAVINGS BANK
CASE MANAGEMENT COMPANY
DRY DOCK SAVINGS INSTITUTION
EMPIRE CITY SAVINGS BANK
GURNEE ESTATE
KANE MANAGEMENT COMPANY
KNICKERBOCKER HOSPITAL
REUBEN S. LEVINE
MANHATTAN SAVINGS BANK
NORTH RIVER SAVINGS BANK
109 WEST 141 STREET COOPERATIVE
PUBLIC SERVICE ABSTRACT COMPANY
THERESA SHEPPARD
ELIZABETH SMITH
STATE OF NEW YORK INSURANCE DEPARTMENT
SURUT ESTATE
URBAN LEAGUE OF GREATER NEW YORK
WEST SIDE SAVINGS BANK

Edited and designed by ALEXANDER L. CROSBY and CAROL S. SIMON
Printed by THE COMET PRESS, INC.