Battle for Housing Justice

New York lacks safe, affordable housing

Unmanageable New York City rents are a familiar, ongoing problem—and lack of affordable housing is the primary cause of homelessness, which is at its highest in NYC in nearly a century and disproportionately impacts Black and Latinx New Yorkers.

Between the pandemic and, in its wake, inflation at its highest in decades, families and communities in the Hudson Valley are also facing rent increases and displacement. Meanwhile New York lags behind other states in legal protection for renters. However, our lack of affordable, accessible, permanent housing is a problem that can be solved by reining in greed.

Grantees are fighting to win

Home can mean a safe place to live, to be together, or to just be. Many justice organizations have begun with people gathering at the kitchen table or in a living room. Grantees advocating for housing justice are fighting for people to have access to safe, affordable homes—and to be able to stay in their communities.

Grantees such as Tenants & Neighbors are advocating to protect tenants from unjust eviction with “Good Cause” legislation. Manufactured home residents at MHAction are building campaigns to protect the affordability and quality of their communities in the Hudson Valley. Meanwhile wheelchair users involved with Open Doors are organizing for their own safety as nursing home residents on Roosevelt Island.

East Harlem/El Barrio Community Land Trust and East New York Community Land Trust are fighting to own land to create affordable housing and green spaces. Meanwhile, Equality for Flatbush and Unidad Comunal (Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation) are fighting gentrification by building tenant communities.

In the Hudson Valley, Sullivan County Housing Coalition’s housing rights bootcamp and Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition are building the collective power of low-income and public housing tenants in historically-Black communities (Columbia, Greene and Albany counties) facing rent increases and pushouts.

All New Yorkers need affordable housing

North Star Fund is supporting at least a dozen separate groups fighting for housing justice with hundreds of thousands in grants. We’ll continue to highlight grantees working on access to land and housing—such as through our February 2023 Still We Fight webinar—and share how you can support their campaigns. Tenant protections that pass in Albany will take hold throughout the state, and a critical mass of grassroots organizations in NYC and the Hudson Valley can achieve wins that will help millions of New Yorkers statewide stay in their homes.