Affordable housing on AREW agenda.

The Association of Real Estate Women (AREW) held its monthly luncheon Dec. 5 at Club 101. Focusing on affordable housing in New York City, the luncheon featured three guest speakers: New York City Council Member Daniel Garodnick (D- District 4), Peter Slatin of The Slatin Report and Stephen O'Connor, senior vice president of equity with the Community Development Trust (CDT).

Councilman Garodnick, a lifelong resident of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village, discussed the recent sale of the valuable 80 acre-site and its 110 buildings with 11, 232 units. He emphasized the need to create affordable housing to replace rent-controlled units at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village being transitioned to market rate and to house Manhattan's workforce in general.

"There are investment dollars available for affordable housing," said Garodnick, who accumulated nearly $4.5 billion in a failed bid on the property on behalf of residents. The property was recently sold to Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty for $5.4 billion in what has been called the largest real estate deal in the nation's history.

O'Connor echoed these thoughts, explaining how CDT, a real estate investment trust, raises capital from financial institutions for affordable housing projects across the country. He noted that financial motivations are important to encourage building affordable housing. Developers will need to make trade-offs--but also have incentives--to make it work, he said.

"Finding affordable housing in the New York area is becoming a serious concern for many residents," said Anne Teshima, president of AREW. "The speakers did a great job of illustrating just how important this issue is right now, and how various members of the community are analyzing the problem--and working to solve it."

AREW members Ivy Turk and Charmaine Davis Murray sold Christmas cards to attendees. Through card sales, AREW has raised almost $1,000, which goes to Women in Need (WIN), a New York-based non-profit organization that serves impoverished women and children.

WIN helps homeless women achieve independence through services such as shelters and housing, job placement and training, counseling for domestic violence victims, clinics for the treatment of alcohol and substance abuse, childcare and HIV/AIDS prevention and education.

Nicole Corbin, a client of WIN, spoke about her experiences with the program. Corbin is one of 50 participants of WIN's Family and Friends program through which AREW's Charitable Fund will sponsor four women each year over the course of the next 10 years. AREW members, both individually and jointly, sponsor an additional nine women in the Family and Friends program.

Don Faughon of the Irish American Building Society presented a generous check to AREW past president Marie Claire Cunningham and Rebecca Mason, chair of the AREW Charitable Fund. The donation will be divided between the AREW's endowment program for WIN and The Scholarship Fund.

In the rear of Club 101, a room was filled to the brim with Christmas presents, where AREW members Stephanie Butler and Martha Meli, co-chairs of the special events committee, worked feverishly on the "Secret Santa" program, facilitating the wrapping and sorting of the gifts to be given to WIN in time for the Christmas holiday. The gifts will be distributed by WIN to programs and shelters. Parents choose when to present the gifts to their children, thus allowing the observance of their own holiday traditions. "The luncheon showed how overwhelmingly generous AREW members are, and what a difference one person can make," said Mason. "Having Nicole share her experiences--and how our participation with WIN has helped her--really makes it meaningful. I left feeling more in the holiday spirit than ever."

AREW's next luncheon, "Use or Abuse: The Pros and Cons of Eminent Domain," will be Tuesday, Feb. 6, at Club 101. A networking reception will begin at 11:30 a.m., with lunch following an hour later. There is no charge for AREW members; cost for non-members is $110, with a $10 surcharge for walk-ins.

For more information on AREW, visit www.arew.org or contact Dana Endicott at 212.244.2599 x 224 or [e-mail] or Jennifer McCool at 212.791.8303 or [e-mail].