Tag Archives: Bushwick

New Map of Preferential Rents Shows the Displacement Risk for Rezoning Neighborhoods and Low Income Communities City-wide

Last week, ProPublica launched a new tool mapping the number of rent stabilized apartments with preferential rents by zip code, throughout New York City. The results are eye-opening. Almost a third of all rent stabilized apartments in New York currently have preferential rents: over 250,000 units citywide. That’s over 250,000 households that do not truly enjoy the protections of rent stabilization. That’s over 250,000 households that are at risk of displacement, especially in low-income communities.

The use of preferential rents directly undercuts the protection and stability rent stabilization is intended to provide, leaving tenants vulnerable to large rent increases at every lease renewal, regardless of the rates permitted by the Rent Guidelines Board.  Especially troublesome is the prevalence of preferential rents in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. Six of the ten New York City zip codes with the most preferential rents are in the Bronx, with poverty rates in those areas ranging from 30 to 43 percent – a population that cannot afford a big rent increase.

Of equal concern is the fact that many of these neighborhoods with high numbers of preferential rents are in areas where the de Blasio administration has proposed large-scale rezonings, further exacerbating the risk of displacement. This is a risk the City does not adequately address. The city is mandated to consider how a rezoning could impact current residents, including potential displacement. And yet, when considering displacement risks, the City excludes rent stabilized tenants from their analysis, under the erroneous assumption that their tenancy is secure. The prevalence of apartments with preferential rents shows just how wrong this is.

Take East Harlem as an example, which is currently going through ULURP for a neighborhood rezoning. In its Draft Environmental Impact Statement, the City found no adverse impacts due to secondary displacement. But again, the City did not consider rent stabilized tenants in their analysis. According to ProPublica there are close to 5,000 apartments with preferential rents in the two zip codes that include East Harlem. This means almost 5,000 families are not subject to the limits on a rent increase that rent stabilized tenants depend on. How can these 5,000 families be considered secure in their apartment then, or free from displacement risk? As land values and rents increase following the rezoning, there’s nothing to stop a landlord from raising the rent to a level that might force a tenant out.

The same concern exists around the proposed Jerome Avenue rezoning in the South Bronx, where there are close to 9,000 apartments with preferential rents in the two zip codes spanning the area – two zip codes with poverty rates over 40%. The same concern exists in Inwood, or Bushwick, and the list goes on. These are by far not the only households at risk of displacement, both in these rezoning neighborhoods and throughout the city. But these are households we know are at risk just from preferential rents alone.

The goal of the de Blasio administration’s Housing New York plan is to both construct and preserve affordable housing. Rent stabilized housing makes up the largest portion of our city’s existing affordable housing stock. The new data on preferential rents illuminates once again the vulnerability of rent stabilized tenants, and the need to place protections for existing residents and preservation of existing affordable housing at the center of any affordable housing plan intended to actually address the affordability crisis facing our city.

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)