Yesterday, my organization NYCAHN/VOCAL, along with 17+ other grassroots organizations in the city took it to the streets to introduce Right to the City-NYC to, well, NYC. For about two years, this coalition has existed, and was born out of a response to gentrification. Org's like FIERCE, Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE), Community Voices Heard (CVH), Make the Road (MTR), Mothers on the Move, Picture the Homeless, CAAAV, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), are a part of the coalition.
Our policy platform has 10+ demands ranging from the right to environmental justice and public health, to the right to community decision making power, and the right to public space, but the most widely and deeply felt was the right to affordable housing.
In your city, my city, and every city, there is a condo crisis. Developers got trigger happy, thinking they were gonna suck the life, heart and soul out of every 'hood for some quick bucks, and THEN a recession hit, and now they ain't got SHIT. Instead, what exists are skeletons of 6-32 story buildings, laying dormant, unfinished, or vacant in the same neighborhoods as low-income apartments, public housing, and in many cases, the homeless.
THIS IS A FUCKING INSULT.
This little economic BOOM that developers are waiting for simply CANNOT be the excuse for thousands of vacant units in NYC alone. Sure, wait on your upper income gentrifiers to regain back most of their stocks, and stomp their business shoes/artist shoes/NO shoes (hey, I went to Hampshire, I know the rich when I see 'em) into these neighborhoods. But ask yourself: do we not deserve to live in these luxury spaces? People that have lived in these neighborhoods for generations? Or even someone like me, who, yes, is a transplant to New York, but has never tasted what it even feels like to be MIDDLE class?
Christine Quinn and Co. in City Hall created what is called the Housing Asset Renewal Program (HARP) in July. This is their $20 million pilot response to the increasing housing crisis in New York, to turn 50+ units of these dormant condos into "affordable" housing, their way of looking out for the little guy. But, to qualify for HARP, a family of four must make no more than $100,000 to rent, and a single person, $70,000. Yeah, affordable housing.
AFFORDABLE FOR WHOM?
I honestly don't think they got the memo. PEOPLE ARE POOR in this city. These figures are middle to moderate income ONLY, and don't even scrape the fucking plates of New York's poor. Of course, in our coalition, we discussed that the income should be $30,000 or less, to count us low-income or NO income folks.
We surveyed 6 neighborhoods in NYC where most of our org's are located: South Bronx, Harlem, West Village/Chelsea, Downtown BK, LES, and Bushwick, on foot, to locate these condos, and found 601 total buildings that qualified. This figure makes me gag a little, and even more when I found the city's Dept. of Buildings only tallied 454 IN TOTAL FOR ALL OF NYC. With a city that only has 10 beds left in its ENTIRE shelter system, 601 newly built, vacant, and unfinished condos in OUR neighborhoods are a crime against humanity.
SO, WE TOOK IT TO THE STREETS:
- WE DEMAND THAT BLOOMBERG AND QUINN CONVERT THESE BIGASS LUXURY CONDOS INTO AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR LOW (AND NO) INCOME PEOPLE.
- WE DEMAND THAT THESE CONDOS ARE PERMANENTLY AND TRULY AFFORDABLE;
- WE DEMAND THAT 100% OF THESE BUILDINGS ARE FOR LOW AND NO INCOME PEOPLE;
- WE DEMAND THAT A NON-PROFIT DEVELOPER MANAGE THESE UNITS, AND ANY PROFITS MADE BE PUT INTO COMMUNITY TRUST FUNDS;
- WE DEMAND AN OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE COMPRISED OF LOW-INCOME PEOPLE TO ENSURE THE PROGRAM IS FAIR AND TRANSPARENT.
- NYCAHN/VOCAL ALSO DEMANDS THAT A PORTION OF THESE BUILDINGS BE CONVERTED INTO AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR DRUG USERS, USING NY NY III FUNDING.
Stay tuned for more progress...
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