Assistant to the Commissioner's project files

Alphabetical by project name.

The series as a whole provides evidence of the State's efforts to address the post-World War II housing crunch and reveals its policies and their impact.

While some housing projects provided low cost housing solely for veterans or senior citizens, the majority of the projects were constructed in response to the crisis as part of the Division's duties to provide financial and technical assistance to low- and middle-income housing projects. The Limited Profit Housing Company was part of the Division.

This series consists of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, financial records, incorporation papers and other legal documents, construction estimates and contracts, blueprints, photographs, and newspaper clippings. The records belonged to William H. Davis, Assistant to the Commissioner, Limited Profit Housing Company, and document the construction of over forty housing projects built throughout New York State. All phases of the projects' construction including neighborhood reviews, the selection of sites, and their appraisal and purchase are represented. The construction of the housing units--including the financing, letting of contracts, amendments to the contracts, audits, and progress reports--is documented within the series. Also found is a procedures manual to assist contractors' bid applications. Materials revealing the different projects' operations include tenant applications, complaint letters from tenants to their landlords, rental schedules, and maintenance requests and schedules. In a few cases, newspaper clippings reveal some local resistance to the housing projects.

Developments documented include: Arlington Terrace, Staten Island; Ballantyne Gardens, Syracuse; Bell Park Gardens, Bayside; Bell Park Manor, Queens; Big Six Towers, Queens; Hertel Homes, Buffalo; Inwood Heights, Manhattan; Earl W. Jimerson Housing Co., Brooklyn; Kings Bay Housing Co., Brooklyn; Park Reservoir, the Bronx; Seth Green Park, Rochester; Sunset Green Housing Corp., Yonkers; and Tower Apartments, Buffalo.

Microform is available at the New York State Archives through interlibrary loan.

Series 12309, Subject and Correspondence Files of the Executive Staff, contains additional records of the Division of Housing and Community Renewal.

This series was originally part of old collection #419, from which series 12309 was also formed.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.