required to serve low-income individuals and families. At least nine cooperative buildings with over 225 units remain from that time in Sunset Park. Considering their formation years, between the 1980s and 1990s, and some of the housing co-ops’ names, it is estimated that they were established mostly by the Latinx community. During this period, other HDFCs were also created in the area by non-profit organizations to serve specific community purposes such as senior and transitional housing. Text translated from French to English from United for Housing: Reclaiming Cooperativism in Sunset Park in Ruedi Baur (Civic City) Inscriptions in Relation: From Colonial Traces to Plural Expressions., 2022, Lars Muller Publishers.
In 2006, another wave of cooperativism emerged in the neighborhood galvanized by the Worker Cooperative Development Program launched by the Center for Family Life. The program was introduced to meet the employment needs of the local immigrant community. Facing discrimination and abuse in the labor market Latin American immigrant women rapidly organized and established the first two cooperatives: We Can Do It! and Beyond Care. Respectively, these cooperatives provide housecleaning and childcare services across Brooklyn. In the following years, over 13 worker cooperatives mostly led by immigrants and minorities were established offering different services, from catering, tutoring, and senior care to dog walking, construction training, and repair services.
Finnish Coops
The first wave of cooperative housing to reach Sunset Park, and New York City, was brought in 1916, when the Finnish community established the first self-managed worker housing cooperative in the United States. This groundbreaking initiative led to the creation of more than 25 Finnish co-ops throughout the neighborhood. While many of these co-ops remain collectively managed, some have transitioned to market-rate cooperatives, reflecting the broader demographic shifts and transformations that have shaped Sunset Park over the years.
HDFC Rentals
government oversight. These rentals are supported by federal, state, and municipal funding, including low-interest loans and rehabilitation subsidies. They serve low-income households by meeting AMI requirements and providing long-term affordability through capped rents. While rentals lack shareholder ownership, they still prioritize community-driven management and aim to maintain affordability through strict regulations. Some HDFC rentals originate from co-ops converted back into rental units, extending access to affordable housing to a broader population while continuing to support community-led housing initiatives in historically underserved areas.
HDFC Coops
HDFC coop are a limited-equity housing model designed to provide affordable, long-term housing for low-income individuals and families. Shareholders collectively own the building through equal shares, electing a Board of Directors to manage operations. These co-ops emphasize cooperative principles, offering residents subsidies, tax benefits, and federal or state funding to ensure affordability. Shareholders must adhere to AMI (Area Median Income) cap mandates and face limits on profits when selling their units. These restrictions maintain affordability and prevent commodification. Rooted in tenant-led initiatives like Urban Homesteading, HDFC co-ops empower residents with collective ownership while preserving community values.
Mitchell-Lama
260 65th Street
350 65th Street
In the immediate post-Second World War period, trade-union sponsorship maintained a significant factor in cooperative housing development, culminating in the founding of the United Housing Foundation (UHF). The 1955 “Mitchell-Lama Act,” a state-directed response to the post-war housing shortage incentivized the construction of cooperatives through tax exemptions and low-interest loans. Enormous housing developments, like Co-op City in the Bronx, were developed under this Act, often through demolition of properties and displacement of existing residents. During this period, federal anti-poverty and housing financing also began to have an influence on cooperative housing development. In the long-term, pressures like gentrification have transitioned many Mitchell-Lama cooperatives towards market-rate deregulation.
SUNSET PARK COOPERATIVE HOUSING TYPOLOGIES
HDFC
Sunset Park’s cooperative housing history shows how communities can come together to create affordable, community-driven housing. From Finnish co-ops to HDFC co-ops and rentals, and Mitchell-Lama developments, these models offer inspiring alternatives to the private real estate market.
This map highlights the sites of these unique housing efforts, celebrating the neighborhood’s legacy of collective action and resilience. By exploring these spaces, we can better understand how they’ve helped preserve affordability and a sense of community in Sunset Park, even in the face of challenges like gentrification and displacement.
HDFC Rentals
HDFC Coops
Mitchell-Lama
*These
Cooperativism History in Sunset Park
Text translated from French to English from United for Housing: Reclaiming Cooperativism in Sunset Park in Ruedi Baur (Civic City) Inscriptions in Relation: From Colonial Traces to Plural Expressions., 2022, Lars Muller Publishers.
Cooperativism has been central to Sunset Park’s immigrant communities since its formation. At the onset of the last century, Finns started settling in the area and establishing community centers, churches, newspapers, businesses and political groups following cooperative principles. The driving force behind the local cooperative movement was a Finnish man called Matti Kurikka who was an advocate of a particular strain of utopian socialism and a leader in the growing socialist moment in his homeland. He came to Sunset Park in 1909 and worked alongside other Finns on a housing cooperative movement in response to worker housing conditions of the time.
The idea of both reducing the cost of rent collected by landlords and increasing their quality of life by constructing housing under a cooperative model emerged at the Brooklyn Finnish Socialist Club. In 1916, inspired by Kurikka’s ideals, a group of sixteen families founded the Finnish Home Building Association and established the first housing cooperative for workers in the country with a model based on shared ownership and limited equity. It was erected at 816 43rd Street under the name Alku, which means “Beginning” in Finnish. A second building named Alku Toinen, which translates to “Second Beginning”, followed next to it. Without antecedents in the country, the Finnish co-ops, as they are locally called, were perceived as revolutionary in all regards. The tenements of the time and the cooperative housing buildings had nothing in common except that both housed workers. In the coming years, over 24 Finnish co-ops were built around the park. The co-ops, mostly four- story buildings with central yards, got names with valuable meaning to the growing Finnish working-class as Hikipisara (Drop of Sweat) and Kyopeli (Old Maid’s Home). By the early 1980s, the buildings were still occupied by the original owners or their descendants and the price of the few units available was relatively low. In recent years, these coops have become highly desirable and sold at high prices. However, most of them continue to be owned and managed collectively.
In the mid-1970s, when housing abandonment plagued the neighborhood, collective efforts took place once again to save Sunset Park’s neglected, vacant, and foreclosed properties. The community efforts took advantage of the tenant-led programs sponsored by the newly formed Division of Alternative Management Programs at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Rooted in the squatter movement, the Urban Homesteading, Sweat Equity, Community Management, and Tenant Interim Lease Programs rehabilitated entire multifamily buildings across the city and turned them into limited-equity housing cooperatives. Coop buildings were established as special purpose corporations known as Housing Development Fund Corporations (HDFC) which were legally
