Resident Association Money

There are three types of money that you can potentially access as a resident organization: (1) Tenant Participation Funds (managed by your new management company), (2) City Council Discretionary funds and (3) grants and donations.

Tenant Participation Funds are $25/unit each year; for example, if there are 160 apartments, this adds up to $4,000 per year. The money will come from NYCHA for most resident organizations and from the RAD/PACT owner for developments in that program.

Your Council Member can also allocate money to your tenant association as a charity organization. NYCHA handles money like this and passes it to tenant associations for their use.

Finally, a tenant organization can accept grants and donations. If you want to get grants or donations from funders that require 501c3 status from the IRS, you will need to do the formal paperwork to create a charity organization and get the IRS to grant it that status or find a fiscal sponsor.

New York City Funding

There are three different pots of money you can access directly from the City: 

• Money directly from the City budget to fund programs or capital projects at an agency (like funding NYCHA's capital projects or staff for new programs)
• Money your Council Member directs a city agency to allocate to an not-for-profit organization for programs or capital projects (initial applications must be submitted each year in Januaury-February; when a Council Member allocates money to a NYCHA Tenant Association, NYCHA handles the money and passes it to tenant associations for their use)
• Money your Borough President allocates for an agency or a private not-for-proft for capital projects (each Borough's Pesident approaches this a little differently)

The picture below shows the schedule for the City Budget, which is developed by the Mayor and City Council 

New York State Funding for Planning and Environmental Remediation

A special program of New York State was created to help municipalities, community groups and community boards get involved in local cleanup efforts: the Brownfield Opportunity Areas (BOA) Program.

The BOA Program, administered by the NYS Department of State, sometimes has funding that can be used to plan for the cleanup and the revitalization of brownfield sites, which are defined as vacant or abandoned sites where contamination has prevented a new use for the land. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) works with BOA grantees to provide site assessments and technical advice regarding the cleanup plan for the brownfield sites.