CENTER FOR COOPERATIVE HOUSING
TECHNICO-OP, INC.
&
JAMES DANCY

James Dancy is under six feet tall but his footprints can be found in affordable housing projects all over the country, USA

When James Dancy left his job as a popular radio personality with KPRS in Kansas City, he joined future Hall of Famer, Roger Willcox and the Foundation for Cooperative Housing to organize Parade Park Homes, the First Investor Sponsored, HUD 221(d)(3) Affordable Housing Cooperative in the country to take title to their community.

Roger Willcox, Jim Dancy and more than a dozen other senior staff members including future National Co-op Hall of Fame Members Erick Carlson and Julian Whittlesey, resigned in favor of a new 501©(3) non-profit, the Community Cooperative Development Foundation (CCDF) which was designed to fill the gap.

When HUD Foreclosures and Secretary Held Multi-family housing continued to pollute the National landscape, CCDF assembled a not-for-profit technical support staff, which great imagination was incorporated under the name TechniCo-op, Inc.

The delegation just witnessed the formal TCI/CCDF Association deposit of One Hundred Twenty-Four Million Dollar in the National West Minister Bank in New York from the issuance of a 103b, 4a Municipal Bond, Issued to fund construction of a major proposed TCI/CCDF co-operative housing complex to be constructed on the riverfront across from the famous St. Louis Arch.

That was the first, use of Municipal Bond Financing; but CCDF and/or associates have been engaged in many development firsts, including :

  • Conversion of the first Public Housing Project in the country to a tenant owned cooperative. The Chicago126 units Racine Courts was converted by Jim Dancy in 1970; TCI managed the project for the first ten (10) years following conversion.
  • Conversion of the first Trailer Park. Responding to an appeal from tenants being evicted in favor of a proposed mall in Rosendale, NY, CCDF/TCI and associates bought the fifty (50) units park from the owner; Organized a tenant/membership cooperative; &rearranged the trailers, placed each of them on strategically spaced and positioned concrete foundations; then, transferred ownership of the property to the Co-op.
  • Focused attention of low-income tenants on purchasing, creating or partnering with businesses in their neighborhood that provide “employment and a share of profits” with users of the products to keep economic conditions improving in their community.
  • Created the First Community Based Scholarship Fund of One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100K) owned and administered by residents of a PH Development at Beardsley Terrace, BPT, CT.
  • Using a special “grant” of Five Hundred Thousand Dollars provided by CT Govenor, Thomas Meskill, TCI/CCDF non-profit associate “JOBS BUILD AMERICA” employed, twenty (20) women, residents of the thousand-fifty (1,050) units, High Rise, Public Housing complex in Bridgeport, CT. as “shadow employees” to union staff. They worked -they learned. When staff vacancies occurred, skilled women were upgraded to permanent positions.
Contact

The Legal Center
1087 Broad Street
Bridgeport, CT, 06604
USA

info@ccoph.org
+1 203 384 1594
+1 203 384 1881