Author Archives: elisegoldin

About elisegoldin

Elise Goldin began working at UHAB in September, 2011 as a member of "Avodah: the Jewish Service Corps." Proudly hailing from Chicago, Elise attended Macalester College, and received a B.A. in 2010 in geography. Elise spent a year after graduating traveling, learning Spanish, and living in multi-faith community. Elise now lives in Brooklyn.
by | March 21, 2013 · 4:48 pm

Alex Varveris: Tenants Demand More!

tenants demand more3! 3.18.13

Tenants at 1153 St. Johns Pl in Crown Heights, Brooklyn are furious! Not only has their landlord walked away from the building, but also the lender, first Flushing Savings Bank and now Alex Varveris have abandoned them as well.  Stuck in seemingly perpetual foreclosure, the tenants suffer from horrible conditions problems ranging from mold and leaks to holes in the floors and ceilings.  The building has been been enrolled in HPD’s AEP Program since 2011.   

In 2012, Alex Varveris, a known slumlord, purchased 1153 St. John Pl’s mortgage from Flushing Savings Bank, but has yet to substitute himself into the foreclosure case.  Tenants want a voice in the outcome of the foreclosure are demanding to meet with him, but rather than taking responsibility for his property and his role in moving the foreclosure forward, Varveris is refusing to meet.  In an effort to grab his attention (in addition to taking him to court in the next few weeks), tenants have hung a sign from their building which reads: “Alex Varveris: Tenants Demand More!” Stay tuned for more news on this campaign, and tenants’ struggles to make their voices heard!

 

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by | March 6, 2013 · 1:57 pm

NYCHA Lots to Be Used For Luxury Housing

photo: NY Daily News

photo: NY Daily News

In an extremely controversial move, NYCHA Chairman John Rhea announced his plan to lease “unused” space on NYCHA lots to build luxury housing developments. The “unused” space for the developments are currently parks, baseball diamonds, and parking lots. Initially, this plan would involve eight NYCHA lots in Manhattan.

NYCHA faces a desperate fiscal situation, which is unlikely to improve on its own. According to City Limits, NYCHA faces a yearly deficit of $40 million in operating costs and $6.6 billion in capital needs.  The money raised by leasing up NYCHA spaces would be used to provide much needed repairs and maintain the 334 public housing developments throughout the city.  John Rhea describes the plan as necessary for the stability of the large housing authority.

However, elected officials are calling on the city to delay plans for moving forward, particularly because they – as well as tenant leaders and community members—have been widely left in the dark.  The city is due to receiving requests for proposals from developers this month.

As part of the plan, the luxury apartments would need to be twenty percent “affordable,” though as we’ve seen in other recent development projects, “affordable” in this context is not necessarily “affordable” to a low-income family. The eighty percent remaining units would be “market rate.”  In the proposed booming neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, market rate rents are extremely high.

As a result  of the “mixed income” aspect of the new apartment buildings, the developers would be given a 35 year tax credit. It is hard to imagine how luxury apartments built on city property would be exempt from paying taxes – isn’t the point of Rhea’s plan to increase the flow of money into city government? According to Eliot Sclar, the Director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD) at Columbia University’s Earth Institute:

That is the tax deal given to developers on private land…In this case, they are privatizing public resources; they should leverage it much more.

This issue of privatizing public land highlights a much larger issue – the privatization of previously public entities, such as housing and education (through charter schools). With this trend, corporations and companies are exerting greater and greater control over the ways that we receive our basic rights, such as housing or education. While this might not appear problematic initially, it becomes detrimental when education or housing is simply about making a profit for a company. What happens when that endeavor is no longer profitable?

We see this issue all the time in private multifamily buildings we work in. Private, predatory developers buy-up regulated housing for the sole purpose of making a buck.  (Or several bucks.) When it becomes apparent that a property is not profitable, the owner ceases to take an interest in the day-to-day living conditions for tenants and ignores basic needs such as heat and hot water.

Current NYCHA tenants have many legitimate fears about NYCHA’s plan to build luxury departments on their lots. First and foremost, tenants fear being pushed out of their neighborhoods and homes.  City Limits published an article this week highlighting social costs of this proposal. One tenant interviewed by City Limits, Aixa Torres, lives in the Smith Houses on the Lower East Side and speaks to her concern of hardening class divisions though this development plan:

Torres says she has already experienced what happens when outsiders wander into Smith Houses. “They don’t pick up after their dogs. People disrespect us. We’ll be treated as second class citizens in our own home.”

NYCHA tenants need to be given a voice in what happens to their homes, and they are calling on the agency to address their concerns about leasing to luxury developers before the plan moves forward. At the moment, tenants fear their rent will go up, that they will soon be displaced through continued city-wide pushes towards gentrification, and increased class and social divisions.  As community activists, organizers, and residents of New York City, our goal should be to make sure that tenants have a say in what happens to their homes. Without that say, anything could happen. Even luxury apartments being built on NYCHA lots.

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by | February 21, 2013 · 3:02 pm

Casitas: Places of Community Power in the South Bronx

We all know that in the 1970s the Bronx was burning. We don’t always hear about was the amazing organizing and cultural production that came out of the time, such as hip hop, and the focus of this blog post: casitas. Casitas, “little houses” in Spanish, were an incredible creation that developed out of the immigration waves, nostalgia, and state of affairs in the Bronx.  Built on abandoned, overgrown lots, and they transferred neglected spaces into meaningful community meeting points.  The Puerto Rican community viewed casitas a means of reclaiming the power which has been taken away from them as a marginalized immigrant community. The casitas are small houses, built to resemble rural houses in Puerto Rico, evoking memories of rural birthplaces before its industrialization in the 1950s.

In a way, casitas helped the many cultural aspects of the Puerto Rican community grow and flourish in New York City.  A 1990 NY Times article reports:

 More than a sentimental backdrop for the garden, the casita is a workshop where craftsmen carve drums and speckled carnival masks and where local children learn dance steps to rhythms that first came to this hemisphere aboard slave ships.

The casitas demonstrate the importance of a built space as a way to bring together a community.  They represented more than just current realities, but also were memories of life in Puerto Rico, of childhood. It is easy to see the influence of casitas on current movements such as Occupy Wall Street, which also illegally reclaimed space to educate the community and use collective power. Both OWS and the casitas were places where the community built their structures in order to establish their notion of an ideal world.

Like Occupy (or many other structures which challenge community norms), the casitas are impermanent and remain at risk of demolition. Many have been torn down, while others have moved locations.  La Casita de Chema (formally known as Rincon Criollo) is one of the oldest casitas in the South Bronx.  In 2006, HPD threatened eviction.  Only after extreme community mobilization with community groups like Nos Quedamos, was there a renegotiation, and the casita was moved one block away.

 In 2009, former Bronx Borough President and current mayoral candidate, Adolof Carrion, Jr. headed a campaign to make the casitas state landmarks.  While we are pretty sure that the campaign was lost, we feel confident the casitas will remain a part of the Bronx and the Puerto Rican community for the long run.  We are amazed and the incredible organizing and education efforts which not only keep the casitas in existence but flourishing.  To learn more about Casita de Chema (and to hear some music about it) click here.

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by | February 18, 2013 · 11:13 am

Tenants Rally Today to Evict Landlord!

Tenants at 1058 Southern Boulevard are furious!  They have suffered for too long with unlivable conditions under the reign of one of the top ten worst landlords in the city, Miriam Shasho. Tenants are denied basic amenities such as heat/ hot water, and have lived with horrible mold and dangerous leaks.

A few months ago, Lisa Ortega, a tenant who has lived in the building for years, decided that enough is enough and began setting up tenant meetings to talk about condition problems.  An experienced organizer and founded of RIPPED, Lisa recognized the injustice of what was taking place in the building, and knew that if tenants could take collective action, they could improve conditions.

Here are a few pictures taken of black mold inside Lisa’s apartment:

black mold

mold 2

Tenants are currently working with HPD to have their building placed in the 7A program.  This program would take the building out of Miriam Shasho’s hands and into the hands of a 7A administrator.  The administrator would collect rents, make quality repairs, and work for the tenants!  Tenants have decided it’s time to evict their landlords and begin paying someone who will be take responsibility for their property and honor tenant rights.

JOIN US to EVICT Miriam Shasho from 1058 Southern Blvd!

When: TODAY, 12:30 pm

Where: 2416 National Drive in Brooklyn

Enough is Enough!

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by | February 14, 2013 · 3:42 pm

Workers Rising! Reflections on the Low-Wage Worker Organizing Conference

Car Wash Workers Organize in NYC, photo: AFL-CIO

Car Wash Workers Organize in NYC    photo: AFL-CIO

Yesterday, I attended an inspiring conference called “Workers Rising: a Symposium on Low-Wage Worker Organizing in NYC” put together by The Center for Popular Democracy and United NY. The conference’s energy was incredible- the main room was packed with folks standing in the back, crouching along the walls.  A wide range of people contributed working in sectors ranging from organizing, law, policy, city government, academics, and of course people working in low-wage jobs.

Here are some of the most important take-aways:

-A new labor movement has sprung up in the past year in which previously uncharted territories of the labor industry are being organized.  Industries such as fast food and retail, for example, are organizing workers who often work for minimum wage ($7.25 in NYC).  These workers are widely thought to be students looking for part time jobs, actors, or those looking to make an extra buck.  Contrary to this assumption, the majority of fast food workers and those in the retail industry are attempting to work in those industries full time, depending on that work to support themselves and their families.

-Successful attempts to organize car wash workers, taxi drivers, and domestic workers are taking place across New York City

-New York City is coordinating organizing its low-wage worker campaigns with other efforts across the country- mostly in LA and Chicago.  Organizers are sharing successful organizing strategies and change the face of the industry nation-wide. This collaboration across job sectors and cities clarifies that these efforts are part of a larger movement rather than isolated events.

-A great deal of organizing taking place in NYC is happening through “worker centers” and in collaboration with community groups rather than through unions.  Groups like Retail Action Project, New York Communities for Change and OUR Walmart are organizing workers outside of the traditional union structures.

-Integrating labor and other issues (notably immigration reform) is crucial to create real change in labor.  Immigration reform will impact millions of low-wage workers across NYC, as well as the way the workplace functions.  Important to note as well is the growing shift from full-time workers to outsourcing and employing temps in all sorts of industries, including fast food. This, according to many of the panelists, will only increase as more immigrants gain rights as legal residents or citizens.  Immigration polices which promote guest-workers and outsourcing create challenges for organizing and regulation of rights in the workplace.

-The Center for Popular Democracy and United NY released a report entitiled “Workers Rising: Organizing Service Jobs for Shared Prosperity in New York City.” The report puts forth 4 sets of actions to improve the lives of low-wage workers in New York City. The actions are that:

  • The city should pass legislation that would ensure at least five days of paid sick leave (Earned Sick Leave Act) and protect workers from erratic scheduling (Predictable Scheduling Act)
  • NY should better regulate high-violation industries, and pass laws like the Car Wash Accountability Act and creating an “enhanced privileged permitting” system at airports
  • The City should create a “Mayor’s Office of Labor Standards” to educate employers, investigate worker complaints, and enforce worker rights
  •  NYC should modify its “home rule” authority in order to set a citywide minimum wage, which would be higher than the current state minimum wage.

As an organizer with UHAB, this conference helped me to connect tenant struggles with their apartments to their struggles in the workplace.  I work with one tenant leader, Ms. D., in Crown Heights who deals with horrible building conditions and a frustrating situation with an absentee landlord. In addition, she works as a home health aid, working hard for little pay.  Not only has Ms. D stepped up as a tenant leader in her building, but she has also begun attending union meetings and standing up for her rights in the workplace. It must be hard and frustrating  but Ms. D is working to create change in several aspects of her life, tackling huge issues through collective action.

Attending this conference reminded me that labor organizers need to work housing organizers who need to work with community organizers.  Everyone has the same goal: to give low-income New Yorkers a bigger voice in how they are treated, as well as to assert and expand their rights.  Keep up the good work!

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