Jordan Cooper, Steering Committee Member

Jordan Cooper joined UHAB as Organizing Director in 2023 where she and her team organize the HOPE Tenant Union of Eastern Brooklyn. A native of Philadelphia currently based in Flatbush, Brooklyn, they have been working to support the Tenant Movement in New York since 2016. Previously, Jordan held the position of Co-Director at CASA - New Settlement where she worked with New York's leading coalitions including Housing Justice for all and Right to Counsel NYC to pass historic tenant rights legislation, the first Right to Counsel in the country, and the lowest rent increases from the Rent Guidelines Board in history. Their passion is to bring communities together to build deep relationships, nurture each other’s growth and political analysis, and take bold action together to make our cities truly supportive of community autonomy.

Malika Conner, Coalition Director

Malika is an experienced community organizer, coalition builder, campaign strategist, and social worker. She has worked in the social justice movement for over a decade and has extensive experience building coalitions and campaigns from the ground up. Malika began working with the Right to Counsel Coalition in 2020 as their first Director of Organizing and then assumed the role of Coalition Coordinator in 2024. She previously served as Senior Organizer at ANHD, where she ran a workshop series for tenant organizers and led CATHnyc, a city-wide coalition fighting against the harassment and displacement of low-income tenants. Malika’s previous work has focused on creating good jobs for low-income communities of color in the transportation and technology sectors, building the capacity of tenants’ rights organizations through leadership development and training, and facilitating support groups and Know Your Rights workshops for survivors of domestic violence. Malika holds a bachelor’s degree in Development Sociology from Cornell University and a master’s degree from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, where she majored in Community Organizing, Planning, and Development and minored in Public Policy. She spent more than 13 years living and organizing in NYC and is now based in Rochester, NY where she was born and raised. 

Bryan Fotino, Steering Committee Member

Bryan Fotino joined Catholic Migration Services as a Tenant Organizer in November 2022. They’re on the ground building the tenant movement, one conversation and one building at a time. In addition to advocating for the Right To Counsel NYC Coalition’s anti-eviction demands on the city and state level, Bryan is organizing Queens tenants to take on their landlords, lower their rents, and get the repairs they need. 

Juan Giraldo, Steering Committee Member

Juan is a Lead Organizer at CASA (Community Action for Safe Apartments) who has been working in the tenant movement since 2022 and has been active in many social movements around NYC for many years prior. He was born in Colombia, and a proud Queens kid, raised in Corona. 

Marika Dias, Steering Committee Member 

Marika Dias is a public interest attorney who has worked in civil legal services since 2001, in a range of legal service and community organizations in Melbourne, Australia and New York City. Marika’s work has focused on providing legal services that support community organizing efforts and grass-roots community groups, in particular in struggles around housing, immigrant rights, and LGBTQ rights. Marika is currently the Managing Director of the Safety Net Project at the Urban Justice Center. Marika also represents the Urban Justice Center on the Steering Committee of the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition. Previously, Marika was the Director of the Tenant Rights Coalition at Legal Services NYC and prior to that, the Managing Attorney at Make the Road New York. In both roles she led teams of attorneys and advocates working in partnership with grassroots community organizers. 

Randy Dillard, Steering Committee Member

Randy Dillard is a resident of the Bronx, a single father of 5 children. He has been a CASA member for nearly ten years and a CASA leader for at least five of those years. Randy has been intricately involved in the city-wide Right to Counsel coalition since 2014. Randy was also appointed to a local Community Board #3 in the Bronx, where he has served for at least three years, and is also a member of the Bronx Defenders and the National Action Network.

Khadija Hussain, Campaign Organizer

Khadija is a tenant organizer based in Brooklyn. She has organized with Brooklyn Eviction Defense and has previously organized tenants in Connecticut to help pass Right to Counsel as a statewide right in 2021. Prior to working at the RTCNYC Coalition, she worked at the Safety Net Project at the Urban Justice Center. 

Renette Josephs, Steering Committee Member

Renette Josephs is a founding member of the HOPE Steering Committee and a long time Tenant Activist and leader. She began working with HOPE in 2019 and took action with the Housing Justice for All Coalition (HJ4A) to win the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection act 2019 and the Cancel Rent campaign from 2020-2022, defending neighbors from illegal eviction, leading rallies, and speaking to State officials. She's gone on to lead Brooklyn tenants in fighting to expand Tenants' Rights, including the Right to Counsel and Green Social Housing, in Albany. In addition to her work in Brooklyn, she has taken leadership across New York City and State and even internationally to educate and activate tenants to stop evictions and develop community controlled affordable housing.

Jenny Laurie, Steering Committee Member 

Jenny Laurie is the Executive Director of Housing Court Answers where she has worked since 2008. She directs the organization’s work with unrepresented people in Housing Court and its advocacy campaigns which are focused on ensuring justice and fairness for the many thousands of low income people without lawyers in Housing Court. Prior to 2008, Jenny was at Met Council on Housing for 15 years working on strengthening rights and protections for New York City tenants. 

Jason Mays, Steering Committee Member

Jason Mays is the Executive Director of Hudson Valley Justice Center.  Prior to this role, he represented low income New Yorkers in a variety of practice areas, including eviction defense, for approximately ten years. His writing on tenant issues and related matters has appeared in Common Dreams, The Public Philosophy Journal, Shelterforce, and The Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law, among others.  

Beryl Matshiqi, Steering Committee Member

Beryl Matshiqi is a founding member of HOPE and the HOPE Steering Committee who is fighting for her neighbors and Brooklyn tenants everywhere. She joined UHAB in 2018 and was a part of the first BOLD Leadership Development series where HOPE was first envisioned. She went on to found HOPE in 2019 and was a part of the first group of members who fought the expansion of tenants' rights with the Housing Justice for All to win the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act 2019. Beryl helped to found the HOPE Steering Committee in 2023 and is committed to continuing to build her leadership, participating in trainings with the Advocacy Institute and the City College of NY Just Housing Futures Course.

Ruth Riddick, Steering Committee Member 

Ruth Riddick is one of FTC’s founding members since 2011, has been a community leader who helped lead us into victory as she fought tirelessly alongside tenants, organizers, and lawyers statewide in the fight for stronger rent laws. Ruth, a former clerk who built her way up to a supervisor position, played a major role in creating training that helped countless colleagues to grow in their departments. A decade later, Ruth continues to fight for housing justice while recruiting members in her community to fight collectively.

Canyon Ryan, Steering Committee Member

Canyon Ryan is the executive director of United Tenants of Albany. Having grown up in Syracuse, they have an acute understanding of the many housing injustices that pervade Upstate New York cities. Before working at UTA, Canyon was involved in many community organizations and causes in the Capital Region. Canyon is also a Board of Directors member of Albany Landlord Report Card, a local renter’s resource that helps tenants make informed decisions about who they pay their rent to and where they live.

Lauren Springer, Steering Committee Member 

Lauren Springer is a volunteer tenant leader with Catholic Migration Services, a non-profit legal services provider in Queens providing legal assistance and know-your-rights education in the areas of housing, immigration, and labor.  She represents the tenant perspective as a steering committee member of the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition.  By profession, Lauren is a practicing criminal defense attorney.

Aga Trojniak, Steering Committee Member 

Aga Trojniak, Coalition Director, co-founded the Flatbush Tenant Coalition in 2011, together with eleven tenant leaders who were fighting harassment and displacement in their rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Prior to her work with the Coalition, Ms. Trojniak served as the Director of Housing and Immigration Programs at Flatbush Development Corporation for four years.  Ms. Trojniak was an Advanced Community Organizing Fellow with the Center for Neighborhood Leadership (2010-2011), and in 2015 she received the NYC Shirley Chisholm Women of Distinction Award for her work with the Coalition. She holds a Master of Urban Planning degree from Hunter College.

Alex Yong, Steering Committee Member 

Alex Yong won his eviction case in 2022. He gives credit to his RTC attorney and the RTC movement. He has studied 421-a for 12 years and 421-a(17) for 3 years, and because of his 15 years of lived experience with 421-a, he was trusted to help HJ4A with 421-a accuracy in their communications.