These "third-party transfers" are a key feature of the Giuliani administration's housing policy.
Third-party transfers should prevent conditions from becoming too deplorable before buildings fall into stronger hands, and the threat of third-party transfers may work even more effectively toward forcing tax-delinquent owners to pay up or sell.
But, agreeing with city officials, Mr. De Rienzo said that third-party transfers would never become a housing-production approach, but rather one aimed at housing preservation.
"There's been resistance on Venezuela's part to live up to or sign any new agreement that the United States usually requires for military sales or third-party transfers," said an American official in Caracas, who asked that his name not be used, following protocol.
The most innovative approach is the third-party transfer program.
It was among the first nonprofit recipients of third-party transfer properties in the South Bronx, taking title last year to three buildings with 94 apartments.
The four-year capital budget plan of the Giuliani administration for the 2002 fiscal year, starting on July 1, through the 2005 fiscal year provides rehabilitation financing for 6,000 third-party transfer units, said Jerilyn Perine, the housing commissioner.
The tenement, at 334 East 96th Street, near First Avenue, is one of 53 dilapidated residential buildings in the city's "third-party transfer program," which puts buildings at risk of being abandoned into private hands.
