Good Old Lower East Side

Victory for Lower East Side Phase 1 by Maizie Torres

May 15, 2001

The LES Phase 1 Tenant Association heaved a sigh of relief last week when we got word from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that our Project Based Section 8 contract has been renewed for 5 more years in the Mark Up to Market Program with the landlord William Hubbard. It had been a long, hard road since October 1999, when we had received a letter from the landlord notifying us of his intention to not renew the contract which was due to expire in October 2000. This meant that the 150 apartments in 5 different buildings under Phase 1 would become deregulated and thus become market rate leaving the existing tenants to find alternative, affordable housing, which given the severity of the housing crisis, is not an easy task.
Needless to say, the tenants were in a state of panic, but we were determined to fight to keep our apartments. Where were we going to go with our Section 8 vouchers to find alternative affordable housing in this pricey neighborhood of ours! We were not going to take this lying down, that was for sure. And sure enough we kicked into action by starting an organizing drive with the help of GOLES, in all of the Phase 1&2 buildings, creating individual tenant associations in each of the buildings and bringing them together under the Phase 1 & 2 umbrella tenant associations. (Phase 2 has another 150 units in another 5 buildings and their contract is expiring next year in 2002, and the landlord has already notified his intent not to renew the contract).
Once we had an organizational structure we reached out to our elected officials. Councilwoman Margarita Lopez came out in person to a number of meetings to help and advise us on how to manage the campaign to get the contracts renewed. I remember early last year, we were so busy trying to organize the campaign; the tenant meetings, the meetings with the elected officials, the outreach to other groups in the neighborhood, there was so much work to
be done that the tenants were having 3 or 4 planning meetings a week to get all the work done.
On April 25th , 2000, with Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez?‘s assistance, we had a meeting with the HUD officials to demand the contract renewals. We turned out over 250 tenants, prepared tenant testimonies and presentations and made our case. I think that this forum had a major impact because HUD was able to see first hand how organized we were and how worried we were over this. Since that time we have had more meetings with elected officials and HUD officials. And it was only last week that we got a definite ?‘yes?’ from HUD! It was a hard fought victory for Phase 1 tenants but the struggle is far from over. Phase 2 contract is expiring next year and Phase 1 will be up against the same problem in another 5 years. Given the aggressive gentrification and displacement taking place in the Lower East Side, there is much cause for concern over the future of the Project Based Section 8 contracts. Private landlords figure they can do much better with market rate housing than with subsidized housing.
The struggle continues to save low income housing in the Lower East Side. We are going keep the organizing going and participate in the GOLES Lower East Side Tenant Union as it moves forward in bringing together in larger numbers tenants from Public Housing, Privately owned housing and Project Based Section 8 buildings to fight the displacement of low income tenants from our community!
Maizie Torres is the President of Lower East Side Phase I and Phase II Tenant Association.