Do You Want to Be A Tenant in a Community Owned Building?

The N.Y. Times takes a look the city's First Look program, "in which a small number of banks have agreed that instead of selling troubled residential buildings to the highest bidder, they will give community developers first crack at taking the buildings over."

While the conditions in some of the buildings at issue sound truly awful, I do wonder if turning over the apartments to a non-profit is a viable long-term solution.  The article suggests that community groups don't really have enough cash to pull off these large scale purchases.  And, everyone seems to be ignoring that the real reason that these buildings have fallen into disrepair is New York City's rent control legislation. 

Steve Clowney