Sealing windows and repairing the facade are some of the repair projects underway at this Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone. It's one of 87 affordable housing sites in Central Brooklyn being renovated.

They're owned by several nonprofit organizations that have joined together to leverage their resources.

That umbrella organization is a citywide organization called JOE NYC which is short for Joint Ownership Entity New York.

"It's really great having the brain trust and knowledge from all of the other groups. So when we're looking at doing something, there are thing that we could share. We know how to pick the right tools, the right people, the right subsidy for the projects because it's a collective,” said Bernell Grier, Executive Director of IMPACCT Brooklyn.

"One challenge about this work is that the financing can be quite complicated. So that's another benefit of the JOE collaboration, that we're able to combine different sources conventional loans with subsidy money from the city to execute all these projects,” said JOE NYC Executive Director Peter Madden.

The organizations need 26 million dollars to repair more than 500 affordable housing units. The local nonprofits working together under JOE include the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, IMPACCT Brooklyn, Bridge Street Development Corporation and St Nick's Alliance.

"In combining many different buildings into a project, each organization doesn't have to pay all these financing fees separately,” said Brian Halusan, Real Estate Director at St. Nick’s Alliance.

The collective started five years ago and now counts two thousand apartments citywide under its umbrella.

JOE NYC has grown since its founding from six members to 11 members. And the group says it's on track to own 3500 apartments by next year.

While much of its funding comes from city agencies including the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, it also gets grants.

"We started with a small grant and have since added more than 1 point 2 million to the operating budget of JOE NYC,” said Colleen Galvin, SVP at Citi Community Development.

Money which helps JOE's mission of strengthening the city's affordable housing stock.