If I understood the article, Habitat for Humanity contacted some building owners and developers about acquiring several charming but rundown brownstones in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood, with the goal of renovating them and selling them to low income deserving families. The buildings were supposed to be unoccupied, but in fact seven families were evicted or paid to leave, and they ended up homeless or living in shelters. A developer was able to flip at least one building to HFH for 100% profit.<p>While it does sound as if a few tenants were taken advantage of, and the charity probably over paid for the properties, the whole situation doesn't seem that out of line with what has been happening for 100 years in congested New York neighborhoods. In this case, it was a "charity", but in many other cases it was for-profit ventures attempting to capitalize on the very high demand for housing.<p>At least the brownstones are earmarked for lower income owners who will stabilize the neighborhood and presumably not push up housing costs. That's probably a good outcome, if that's what comes to pass. Maybe HFH can help out those families somehow, perhaps offer them low cost rentals in one of the renovated properties.<p>Unfortunately, this rosy outcome is not necessarily what will happen. The minute a neighborhood is perceived by developers and intrepid urban warriors as the next up and coming place that's affordable, edgy, and trendy, these powerful players will descend on the place like locusts. Current owners will receive high offers to sell out, and gentrification will set in.<p>In my opinion, the only real solution to this kind of churning of property and displacement of low income families is to build more housing. New York can't really expand outward, but it can expand upward, and so they need to build some high rise apartments and condominiums. I'm not really sure why they're not meeting demand; perhaps New Yorkers just don't want any more congestion, and regulatory and tax structures make it prohibitive for all but the richest developers, who then are incentivized to sell or rent to the richest families, cutting the poor and moderate families out of the equation.