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Harlem Public Housing Scholarship Fund, Inc.
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Harlem Public Housing Scholarship Fund, Inc. (HPHSF) is a not-for-profit organization (federal tax exempt status to be filed) committed to helping African-American and Hispanic college students, living in public housing in Harlem, finance their education.
Social ills are the principal cause of poverty in communities like Harlem. Over the decades, men have NOT let the fact that they do NOT have the income to support children stop them from impregnating women. The babies born out-of-wedlock and their mothers will for a minimum of 21 years be a burden to tax payers via social welfare programs. Children raised by a never-married mother are more likely to live in poverty than children raised by their biological parents in an intact marriage. In addition, children born out-of-wedlock are more likely to become involved in crime, to fail in school, to abuse drugs, and to end up on welfare as adults.
In 2012, the New York Times published a chilling article (For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage) about the demise of the traditional family in America. The New York Times article reported that "73 percent of black children are born outside marriage, compared with 53 percent of Latinos and 29 percent of whites. And educational differences are growing. About 92 percent of college-educated women are married when they give birth, compared with 62 percent of women with some post-secondary schooling and 43 percent of women with a high school diploma or less, according to Child Trends."HPHSF plans to not only raise funds for college scholarships but to also recruit successful professionals from all racial groups living in and out of Harlem to serve as mentors. Each participating student will be matched with a mentor based on their academic and career interests. Mentors will play a critical role in sharing their own personal and professional experiences, and will be encouraged to provide support and guidance to their mentees on a wide range of life and career related issues.HPHSF plans to raise funds from individuals, businesses and foundations.The Real Estate Industry In Harlem
Over the last 10 years, members of the real estate industry have profited enormously in Harlem.
Members of the real estate industry that conduct business in Harlem have the most to gain by helping to insure that children living in public housing in Harlem secure a college education. If left to their own devices, too many of these children will perpetuate a lifestyle plagued by social ills (i.e.: young men will follow their fathers in going in and out of prison and young women will follow their mothers in giving birth to out-of-wedlock children).
Crime levels will be the deciding factor of whether or not the real estate industry will be able to continue to provide middle income families with market rate housing in Harlem. An increase in crime will make it difficult for the real estate industry to make the case to middle income families that their person and property will be safe in Harlem.
In the long-term, the profit margins of members of the real estate industry with business in Harlem will be directly linked to the reduction of the number of families in Harlem plagued by social ills. With a college education, children living in public housing in Harlem are more likely to avoid the perils of social ills but just as important be able to obtain the income that will allow them to pay market rate for housing in Harlem - thus helping to provide a long-term stable base of potential middle-income renters and homeowners.
The children that are currently living in Harlem - most living in households with no fathers to act as positive role models - are either going to grow-up to live in the new market rate housing to be developed/marketed by members of the real estate industry or being permanently relegated to the margins of the community looking at the new arrivals from downtown with envy.
Scholarships
Harlem will not be able to move to the next level of economic and social development until the number of families plagued by social ills begins to reverse itself. In America, obtaining a college education is the most effective way of earning a higher income and entry into the middle class.
HPHSF is committed to raising $100,000 between Fall 2011 to Fall 2012. Scholarships will be awarded to students who live in public housing in Harlem on the basis of three criteria:
(1) Scholastic Achievement;
(2) Community Involvement;
(3) Financial Need.
Priority will be given to students majoring in Law, Business, Science, Engineering and Technology.
Endowment Fund
HPHSF plans to establish an endowment fund to provide long-term capital for college scholarships (50% of all funds raised by HPHSF will be reserved for the endowment fund). The HPHSF endowment fund will help to insure that children living in public housing will have a permanent source of scholarship funds for decades to come. The endowment fund will be professionally managed by an investment company.
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Harlem Public Housing Scholarship Fund, Inc.
(Board of Directors under development - as of 4/27/11)
Thomas Lopez-Pierre
Chairperson
Toybi Howton
Treasurer
Bruno Surpris, MBA
Secretary
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| Barack Obama & Thomas Lopez-Pierre |
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About Thomas Lopez-Pierre (43 years of age)
Thomas Lopez-Pierre is the founder of The Harlem Public Housing Scholarship Fund, Inc. (HPHSF), a Licensed Real Estate Broker/Lopez-Pierre Realty, LLC (liveuptown.com) operating in Harlem and the President/CEO of CoSignLeases.com, LLC. Thomas has been married for 9 years to Regine Lopez-Pierre (they share a six-year old son and a set of twin two-year old girls). Thomas attended John Jay College/CUNY.
Thomas is no stranger to growing up in a family plagued by social ills. Thomas and his twin brother were born out-of-wedlock and addicted to drugs to a woman of Haitian decent and a man of Puerto Rican descent. Thomas spent 15 years out of the first 21 years of his life living in foster care and group homes. At the age of 21, Thomas aged-out of the group home system with $20,000 in savings of which he used $10,000 as a down payment to purchase a co-op apartment (the start of his real estate career).
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