Chhaya CDC’s Housing Fair attracts a large crowd

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More than a thousand people including bank officials, home owners, first time home buyers and renters, and representatives from NYC housing agencies gathered at Chhaya CDC’s 12^th annual Housing Fair at the Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Managed by a large number of volunteers, the Housing Fair had the Webster Bank, Bank of America, Citi Bank, Citizens Bank, Ridgewood Savings Bank, and Valley National Bank as corporate sponsors.

The housing fair was also supported by Senator Mike Gianaris, Councilman Shekar Krishnan, Assemblymember Steve Raga, Senator Jessica Ramos, Congresswoman Grace Meng, and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz.

Chhaya CDC is a United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) certified counseling agency providing pre-purchase and post-purchase counseling services.

With a mission to build housing stability and economic well-being of the South Asian community and the Indo-Caribbean community in New York City, Chhaya has been working with the community for the past 20 years, providing direct services, helping them solve issues they face, and arming them with knowledge of resources to deal with future issues.

A major service Chhaya provides is in the area of affordable housing through organizing the community and engaging in policy advocacy. It has worked to make policy changes in the areas of basement legalization, language access, tenants rights and has contributed to forming NYC’s first Bangladeshi Tenant Union.

Chhaya has also been working at bringing economic justice through informed decision making. Some of its services include free tax preparation in South Asian languages, financial education workshops, financial counseling, providing zero-interest loans through its Lending Circles program, and small business program.

Through its program for the immigrant community, Chhaya has been providing direct services in the areas of citizenship and greencard applications and renewals, DACA renewals, family reunification applications, and more, along with offering ESOL classes and free legal assistance. It also prepares and trains people through its workforce development program, Pragati.

Chhaya registers voters, holds candidate forums and partners with other organizations to promote South Asian participation in community board meetings, city council hearings, land use review process and  participatory budgeting. It has held Census awareness campaigns and workshops. Chhaya now operates through its two centers in Jackson Heights and in Richmond Hill, both in Queens, NYC.