Brooklyn housing advisory agencies merge

Michelle de la Uz, executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee,
and the Red Hook Homes

Fifth Avenue Committee, a non-profit for community development, and Neighbors Helping Neighbors, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-certified counseling agency in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, are forming a strategic alliance, the organizations announced today.

As The Real Deal previously reported, the two entities have worked together previously, opening Red Hook Homes, an $18 million, 60-unit mixed-income co-op in Red Hook two weeks ago, which FAC developed and for which the two partners worked to advise 40 low- and moderate-income, first-time buyers.

The partnership will mean a new home for NHN’s homebuyer education and mortgage counseling services at the FAC Center for Community Development at 621 Degraw Street and Fourth Avenue, the partners said in a statement, the opening of A New Satellite Office On 36th Street in Sunset Park, and the expansion of FAC’s community development services throughout South Brooklyn.

“In our new relationship, not only will we provide increased support for first-time homebuyers, but FAC and NHN will combine forces to expand tenant and worker advocacy more deeply into neighborhoods throughout South Brooklyn,” said Michelle de la Uz, executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee. — Katherine Clarke