September 19, 2024

This summer, our coalition focused on developing our long-term strategy and deepening relationships between our members across New York State. At our annual Housing Courts Must Change! campaign retreat in June, more than 50 tenant leaders, organizers, and legal services workers representing over 20 different organizations gathered to celebrate our coalition’s hard work over the past year and planned to win a Right to Counsel for ALL NYS tenants!

At the retreat, our members reflected on our vision for an eviction free world. We turned their writing, collages, paintings and drawings into our first RTC zine, which you can view a digital version of here.

In August, we gathered again, this time in NYC for a Summer Barbecue at Riverside Park, to sing, paint and spend time with each other before campaign season picked back up.

Now that we've rested, celebrated our beautiful movement, and strategized for the year ahead, we're ready to fight! This year, we'll be supporting local actions across the state to uplift tenant associations' demands of their landlords and demand the state legislature pass our bills to stop evictions and transform housing court!

You can join us at our first action this Saturday, which we're hosting with Catholic Migration Services in Queens and the Bronstein Tenant Union! The rally will be at 11am in front of 43-17 48th Street, in Long Island City, NY. The action will be in English and Spanish.

Bronstein Properties was NYC’s 13th worst evictor during the COVID-19 pandemic, suing 388 households for evictions from March 2020 to September 2021. Since 2017, Bronstein has evicted 176 households — despite paying over $552 billion for their buildings. Across Bronstein’s 104 buildings, tenants have reported 42,616 complaints to 311. Many of the tenants are facing eviction without representation in court, and have serious outstanding violations in their apartments that the landlord refuses to remedy! This is an unjust and unacceptable state of affairs for tenants living in Bronstein buildings.

We're calling on all coalition members and allies to stand in solidarity with the tenant union to demand accountability from Bronstein Properties and the passage of a Statewide Right to Counsel and Clean Hands legislation for ALL NYS tenants!

Solidarity and see you in the streets this fall!