Pratt Area Community Council, Inc.

PACC’s first supportive housing development, Gibb Mansion, has 70 units, 50 of which are for formerly homeless or people living with AIDS/HIV. The residents receive wrap around supportive services from onsite social workers and case managers as well as visiting medical staff and consultants.

Since 1980, PACC has helped residents of Central Brooklyn become first time homeowners. PACC often first engages prospective homebuyers with our popular First Time Homebuyers workshop, offered six times a year. PACC’s foreclosure prevention counselors are able to prevent and help remediate the often disastrous and heartbreaking consequences for community residents who fall prey to scams and unaffordable mortgages. We also provide innovative financial education covering budgeting, credit repair, financial management and planning for major goals such as home purchase.

Since 1997, PACC has focused its commercial revitalization on Fulton Street in Central Brooklyn, where development lags behind surrounding brownstone neighborhoods. With changing demographics and resulting changes in consumer needs, the small, local business owner of color is particularly subject to displacement and threatened by rent increases. Combined with economic downturn this has resulted in loss of business and revenue for local merchants on central Fulton Street and beyond. Retaining businesses and attracting customers and new businesses requires addressing conditions "outside of the store” that affect perception and appeal of the street. PACC works to improve the retail mix as well as the visibility the commercial corridor. Business attraction also requires that attention be paid to what happens "inside of the store.” We work to ensure that businesses have the capital and expertise to effectively compete in a changing market and support efforts to find affordable space for businesses within the commercial district.

In recent years, private equity firms have purchased numerous low- and moderate-income rent stabilized buildings in Central Brooklyn for exorbitant sums of money creating a new threat to affordable housing. In our service area, Dermot Company alone has bought 25 buildings. PACC’s organizers receive harassment complaints on a daily basis from low income tenants. Additionally, economic downturn puts these overleveraged buildings at risk of neglect and foreclosure. In addressing this issue and others, our organizers provide access to valuable resources, and educate and train around tenant rights. PACC’s organizers encourage and mobilize local residents to improve their surroundings and confront ongoing problems such as environmental hazards, code enforcement and rent regulation.