Don't renew 421a tax breaks for developers unless rent laws are strengthened

421a Stay Away!  

Rally with the Alliance for Tenant Power 
and the Real Rent Reform Campaign 
[rally postponed due to snow]

Meet at 58th St. and 5th Ave.

near the luxury condominium One57

11 AM Sharp!

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NYC Tenants, Let's Rally!

The 421a tax abatement giveaway for luxury housing that takes $1 billion in tax revenue each year from NYC has expired! 

Join us to let Governor Cuomo know that tenants say NO! to a resuscitation of  421a without stronger rent laws.

Let's come together to protect our communities and keep New York affordable.

On February 5th, you can make a difference!

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#1 Million Homes

2.5 Million Tenants

Join the movement.

Contact Tenants & Neighbors

dglover@tandn.org 212-608-4320

@YearOfTheTenant

Summary of the Jan. 20, 2016 General Tenants Meeting with NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer

Weather Alert: With snow and winds expected this weekend, remove blow-able objects from your balcony!

OUR SPEAKER:

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer spoke to a full house.  Focusing on diversity, he said that the City should be exactly like Central Park Gardens:  with many different types of people living side by side.  As powerful as we are economically, it is our diversity that is our great strength.  

To promote diversity, he and the comptrollers of other municipalities and states (like CalPers) formed the Boardroom Accountability Project to pressure big companies like Walmart and Apple to increase the diversity of their ownership and boards - with the right for the Project to appoint a director.  Similarly, the NYC Comptroller's office rated every NYC agency (including its own) for diversity.  Last year and this, the Comptroller's office got a "C" grade, but is improving with more Minority and Women-owned Businesses (MWBs).

Come hear NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer TONIGHT Jan. 20, 2016

Join us at our General Tenants Meeting 

Wednesday, Jan. 20th 

8 PM 

in the Community Room, to hear and talk with

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer
about housing, NYC finances, pension plans, and more.

and learn more about what Governor Cuomo proposed in his State of the State speech. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

May this be a time of joy, plenty, and - in the spirit of the Native Americans who fed and kept the pilgrims alive - welcome.

Summary of Nov. 18, 2015 General Tenants Meeting

Thanks to Joan Browne, Rich Jordan, Steve Koulish and Na’ava Ades for the coffee, tea, and goodies that we enjoy at every meeting.

HOMELESSNES:  We welcomed Marc Greenberg, Executive Director of theInterfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, and Orisha Jordan (born and raised in this building), Assistant Facility Director for the Doe Fund, to talk about the causes of homelessness and what can be done to help.    In carts provided by Joan Browne and Brenda Marshall, we collected contributions of canned food that took Paul Fisher two trips to bring to St. Michael’s Church for distribution to those who need food this season.   THANK YOU!!

Marc Greenberg spoke about history, policy, and what his group does.  He noted that we haven't always had rampant homelessness.  While there have always been some individuals who struggled to survive, widespread homelessness really began in 1980. The main causes:

•       Between 1940 and 1980, 70% of affordable housing funds came from the federal government.  But in 1980,  President Reagan said housing wasn't a national problem and cut national housing funds by 2/3.  States have never been able to make up the difference.
•         Mentally ill people were released from inhumane institutions to the community, but there were no (or insufficient) community groups to help them.
•          Owners prefer to convert poor housing into luxury housing.  So about 300,000 Single Room Occupancy units (SROs) in NYC were lost.  The NYS Court of Appeals (the State's highest court) ruled that barring the conversion of SROs to luxury units would be a deprivation of property.
•      Rent laws have been weakened (with vacancy decontrol and the 20% vacancy bonus) yielding a net loss of some 300,000 formerly-affordable units, and many more are being lost now.

Wed., Nov. 18th at 8 PM: Homeless in our neighborhood? Yes.

Got some cans ready?  We've got homeless people in our neighborhood, and predatory landlords are happy to create some more. 

Talk with

Marc Greenberg, Executive Director of the Interfaith Assembly on Homeless and Housing AND 

Orisha Jordan (raised in this building), Director of Social Services for the Doe Fund

on the causes and prevention of homelessness and what we can do.
  

Wed., Nov. 18, 2015 at 8 PM in the Community Room

Please bring some canned goods to donate.

General Tenants Meeting Coming up Nov. 18th!

Thanksgiving is coming.  We have homes, but many in our neighborhood have lost theirs. Some live in cars, others on the street. 

Hear Marc Greenberg, Executive Director of the Interfaith Assembly on Homeless & Housing on the causes and prevention of homelessness and what we can do.

Wed., Nov. 18, 2015 at 8 PM in the Community Room

Please bring some canned goods to donate.