Tag Archives: Brooklyn

In Memoriam: Yolanda Luz Coca 1956 – 2016

The Heart of Our Movement

The ANHD family mourns the loss of Yolanda Luz Coca, who passed away last week after a battle with cancer. Yolanda was a dedicated tenant organizer and an extraordinary person. Profoundly committed to her Catholic faith, Yolanda was the heart and soul of the anti-displacement struggle of her parish at St. Joseph Patron in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Throughout her years of community activism, Yolanda (“Yoli,” to many of those who worked with her) was beloved by her co-workers and the tenants she worked with for her endless energy, her endless optimism, and her endless love for her community and the cause of justice. Even after she became ill, Yoli worked as a volunteer organizer at the Bushwick Housing Independence Project, helping tenants who faced eviction. Yoli continued this work almost until the very end, and of course she did.

Yoli came to Bushwick from the Dominican Republic in 1981, working first in a fabric factory. She studied English and got her GED, and later earned an associate’s degree at Boricua College and a paralegal certificate from Long Island University. She began her experience as a community activist fighting for her children’s right to a decent education. In 1997, Yoli became a VISTA Volunteer at the Fifth Avenue Committee in Lower Park Slope and was quickly hired onto the staff to work with tenants facing displacement. Over the eight years she spent in that job, she developed a reputation as a skilled community organizer and a fierce tenant advocate. She worked long days to help poor tenants who were terrified of being evicted from their affordable apartments and of being displaced from their neighborhood. As it is with this work, she helped save many tenants; but sometimes the losses piled up. Yoli’s energy and optimism never faltered. “I try to do the best for the people” was her regular phrase, always said with a heavy accent and a warm smile.

In 2005, Yoli went to work for her beloved St. Joseph’s Church, staffing the Bushwick Housing Independence Project. Her skills were badly needed there. Bushwick is in the eye of the displacement storm, as real estate developers view poor, often Spanish-speaking tenants as the only thing standing between them and the windfall of rising property values. The parish of St. Joseph Patron is being decimated, and Yoli fought to save her community.

This is what the movement is. It is dedicated people like Yoli who see their neighborhoods being torn apart by people who happen to have more power than the local residents do. They dedicate their hearts and souls to helping tenants fight back. It is parishes like St. Joseph Patron that pours its limited resources into supporting its community. Today, every neighborhood of working-people in New York City feels like it is fighting for its life. There are many heroes of the movement like Yolanda, like St. Joseph Patron, like Bushwick Housing Independence Project, like the Fifth Avenue Committee. But Yolanda was the heart of our movement.

Yoli did enormous good during her life. As she always said, she did the best for the people.

Yoli leaves behind a beloved family—her husband, two children, and three grandchildren. She leaves behind many, many tenants and community members whose homes she saved and whose lives she touched. And she leaves behind and legacy of struggle and hope.

A remembrance will be held at:

Seneca Chapels
494 Seneca Avenue

Ridgewood, NY 11385

• Wednesday, December 14^th from 3:00 PM – 8:00 PM
• Thursday, December 15^th from 3:00 PM – 8:00 PM
• Mass and burial on Friday, December 16^th (details to be provided at the memorial chapel)

In Memoriam

David Pagan, September 24^th, 1943 – September 20^th, 2016

The ANHD family mourns the loss of David Pagan, who passed away yesterday after a short illness.

David was a lion of the community development movement in New York City, leading the Los Sures community development group on the Southside of Williamsburg, Brooklyn from its early days in the 1970s until his retirement in 2010.

David’s life, and the impact of his work and leadership in Williamsburg and in the community development movement across New York City, has been extraordinary. David was a founding member of the ANHD Board, and his vision and values shape our work to this day.

David Pagan arrived in New York City from his native Barranquitas, Puerto Rico, in 1956. He grew up in the Williamsburg and Bushwick sections of Brooklyn. After attending New York City Community College, he was drafted into the Army and served in Vietnam as an infantryman in the Air Cavalry Division. When he returned, he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and economics from Queens College and later a Master’s degree in Finance from St. John’s University.

David was a neighborhood and social activist at heart, and he was quickly drawn to the struggles in his own part of Brooklyn. The Southside of Williamsburg, like many neighborhoods across New York City in the 1970s and 80s, suffered from disinvestment and abandonment as entire communities were written off by banks, developers, and even the government. But these neighborhoods were not written off by their residents.

The community residents who started Los Sures were responding to this epidemic of abandonment, and to the property owners who were trying to vacate their buildings in order to intentionally change the ethnic composition of the neighborhood. Under David’s leadership, Los Sures fought back by promoting community-based control of housing, through both management and ownership. In 1975, Los Sures became the first community-based organization to enter into agreements to manage City-owned properties. A few years later, it was one of the first groups to undertake large-scale rehabilitation.

Today, Los Sures is regarded as a pioneer in both the management and development of affordable housing. As the neighborhood turned around, for-profit developers started speculating that the improvements that neighborhood residents had fought so hard to achieve could be a springboard for gentrification. In response, Los Sures dedicated itself to educating and organizing tenants facing displacement pressure.

Ramon Peguero, the Executive Director of Los Sures, remembers David this way:

I worked as David’s Deputy Director for five years, and I always looked forward to our early morning conversations, before staff started to trickle in. He was a wealth of information, and I wanted to absorb as much as possible knowing that he planned to retire and may not be as available to me later on.

The one thing that David always said that stuck with me was, “I’d rather have 10% of something than 100% of nothing.” That opened me up to the understanding that dialogue, communication and relationships were extremely important to move the organization forward. It taught me that we were not going to win every single fight and get everything we requested, but as long as we were moving forward, we were on the right path. I interpreted those words to mean, negotiate and create common ground with others; to look beyond your differences and focus on the things you could agree on to bring about positive results.

David was a mentor and a friend who will be dearly missed.

A wake for David Pagan will be held on Thursday, September 22^nd, from 4:00 PM – 9:00 PM at the Arlington Benson Dowd Funeral Home, located at 83-15 Parsons Blvd, in Jamaica, NY.

The funeral will be held on Friday at the Calverton National Cemetery.