It was offered to us to demonstrate that through cooperative efforts we can better the lot of our co-workers. We have also been given the privilege to show that where all personal gain and benefit is eliminated, greater good can be accomplished for the benefit of all. It remains too for the members of our Cooperative Community to exert their efforts to run this cooperative and make it more useful, and more interesting, for all who live in these apartments.<\/p>\n
Abraham E. Kazan,
\nFounder, The Amalgamated Houses<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nA friend of mine, whose parents were progressive and whose grandparents were self-defined anarchists, grew up in the Amalgamated co-op in the Bronx. She has fond memories of growing up in a warm, close knit community where, in the summers, women played mahjong on card tables set up in the park across the street. She even remembers Abraham Kazan, whom everyone simply called \u201cKazan.\u201d Her parents have passed away, but each year she goes back for a reunion with her childhood friends.<\/p>\n
The Amalgamated Houses, the oldest non-profit housing cooperative in the country, has served four generations and is still going strong. A densely populated co-oopertive housing complex in the Bronx is the direct opposite of the single-family suburban home of the American Dream. So why does the Amalgamated have a 2 to 7 year waiting list? The answer is affordability, collective ownership and management, supportive community life, and protection from the precarious boom and bust of traditional real estate investment. For lower and middle income working families, it offers much more than just a place to live.<\/p>\n