Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association, Inc. (Banana Kelly) provides affordable housing, organizes residents, and offers direct services to foster the stability, self-sufficiency, and collective capacity of low-income, South Bronx residents. Banana Kelly has renovated and preserved over 2,800 apartments. Today they manage some 65 buildings with approximately 1,551 units. In the South Bronx neighborhoods served by Banana Kelly, over 20% of renters pay 50% or more of their income for housing costs. Banana Kelly keeps at least 85% of its units affordable to renters earning at or less than 30% of Area Median Income (less than $33,000/year for a three-person household). They are also cultivating ownership and management models that give residents control over land and buildings.
Even during the early days of the pandemic, Banana Kelly increased their housing portfolio by acquiring deeply troubled buildings with many violations and occupied by tenants in need of services. Then, due to delays in City construction loan closings, they had to find ways to make urgent repairs without the anticipated renovation funds. They did so by applying for grants and stretching their budget. While most staff worked at home, Banana Kelly’s building Superintendents expanded their on-site duties, keeping tenants safe through more stringent cleaning protocols, adding to property management costs.
Meanwhile, organizers and case coordinators intensified their efforts to keep in touch with residents through phone calls, emails, social media, on-line meetings, and surveys. Residents’ top worries were food insecurity, price gouging by local supermarkets and cash assistance. In response to these needs, Banana Kelly distributed over 16,000 meals via over 20 food giveaways, during the spring and summer months and continued to host Saturday Free Markets, rotating among their four community gardens, to distribute fruits and vegetables as well as face masks and hand sanitizer. During these food distribution events, Banana Kelly’s social service and organizing teams connected with hundreds of residents in order to offer additional social and human services and created opportunities to virtually connect neighbors on pressing issues. To keep the conversation going, Banana Kelly staff trained residents, often one-by-one, to use technologies and remote platforms, such as UberConference and Zoom. By helping residents to attend and facilitate virtual meetings, staff was able to identify new volunteers and resident leaders, including several youth leaders, who helped grow their own tenant associations and contributed to successful community events.
Even through remote organizing, Banana Kelly was able to coordinate a campaign where 100 people reported fourteen price gouging businesses to 311. This secured the attention of the Consumer Protection Agency and, soon after, businesses returned local prices to pre-Covid levels.
CCF resources have enabled Banana Kelly to hire an evaluation coordinator and move from paper files to on-line software for their housing management, organizing and direct services programming. These new systems are increasing Banana Kelly’s use of data to guide their programming. For example, use of surveys is becoming a staple of client outreach. Now, Banana Kelly is supporting a resident-designed and implemented needs assessment survey to help start or strengthen tenant associations in 14 buildings simultaneously and determined how to focus resources to best meet needs.
