Tenants from 12 buildings across Brooklyn will gather on March 9 to protest the deregulation of affordable and rent-stabilized housing units.
The noon rally, organized by the Crown Heights Tenant Union (CHTU) and the Brooklyn Eviction Defense Tenant Union (BED-TU), will be held at 285 Eastern Parkway on Saturday.
The ten remaining tenants in this building face possible eviction from their rent-stabilized units due to the owner’s demolition plans, which are currently being reviewed by the New York City Division of Housing and Community Renewal. When they approached CHTU to plan another rally on their behalf, CHTU organizer Michael Hollingsworth saw an opportunity to amplify their struggle by connecting it with others across the borough.
“I started thinking – instead of having it just be centrally focused on a particular deregulation fight at 285, it would be nice if we made it into a larger conversation about the other forms of deregulation that are happening throughout Brooklyn,” Hollingsworth said, who also helped organize a rally for the tenants at 285 Eastern Parkway in August of last year.
He sent out a message to the union’s group chat, asking if anyone else was facing forms of deregulation.
“Lots of hands were raised,” he said.
Deregulation takes three main forms, according to Hollingsworth. Two involve methods by which landlords can legally hike rents on stabilized units. One is eviction by demolition, which could be the fate of 285 Eastern Parkway’s residents. The other is substantial rehabilitation, in which landlords raise rents on stabilized units after making significant structural upgrades.
Hollingsworth calls these “loopholes” in the tenant protections granted by laws like 2019’s Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act. He hopes his advocacy can prompt legislators to close these loopholes.
The third form of deregulation is illegal apartment deregulation, in which landlords destabilize a rent-controlled unit and hike its price to market rate or above. Many tenants unknowingly pay for units that are legally designated as rent-stabilized, he said.
Jacob Conway, a resident of 442 Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, experienced this destabilization first-hand. When new management purchased his building in 2013, they began buying out residents of rent-controlled units and relisting the units at market rate, he said. They also ceased submitting rent data to the city, he said.
When several tenants requested the rent histories for 32 apartments across four buildings owned by Simply Better Apartments, they determined that the units were illegally deregulated. A tenant association was formed with support from BED, and last September, 16 tenants in stabilized units began a partial rent strike, only paying rent they believed they legally owed.
The tenants from 442 Lorimer will be among the 12 buildings represented at this weekend’s rally. Conway sees it as an opportunity for his group to learn from other tenants resisting deregulation while spreading awareness of their cause.
“It lifts the veil of secrecy or intimidation that landlords benefit from when it comes to things like deregulation, and it simultaneously lets tenants who feel like they might be struggling individually in their building know that they aren't alone,” he said. “This is actually something that's widespread across New York.”
Hollingsworth noted Brooklyn’s decreasing Black population, and cited deregulation as a contributing factor. However, he added that CHTU rallies often see younger white residents who are also being priced out of their homes.
“This displacement thing is universal; it's going to affect all of us,” he said. “If you're poor, working class, we're going to be the first ones to go.”
After getting an extension last year to respond to management's eviction notice, the tenants of 285 Eastern Parkway await a decision from the DCHR on the future of their building.
“Had the tenants been unorganized and simply sat back without responding to the landlord's demolition application, it would have made it much easier for DCHR to rubber-stamp their eviction,” Hollingsworth said.
