Tenants, officials rally to save 63 Tiffany Place, in gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood
Landlord walks away from the table
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander at the rally to save the tenants at 63 Tiffany Place. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle
COLUMBIA STREET WATERFRONT DISTRICT – Waving signs reading “TOPA and COPA,” dozens of tenants of 63 Tiffany Place, in Brooklyn’s Columbia Street Waterfront District, rallied along with numerous state and city officials on Thursday to stave off eviction from their 70-unit, low-income housing.
The building’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit agreement, which has kept rents affordable for almost 30 years, is set to expire next year. The expiration of the agreement will send residents’ rents soaring to market rates, forcing many of them out with no place to go.
Tenants, along with officials and housing advocates, want the building’s out-of-town landlord, Irving Langer, to sell their building to them or to a local nonprofit preservation buyer which is committed to keeping the building affordable. Langer had been negotiating the sale, but he has now walked away from the table.
Tenants and advocates also are calling for the passage of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act at the state level and the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act at the city level. These measures would give tenants and nonprofits the first opportunity to purchase residential buildings when they go up for sale.
“Today, I’m standing with my neighbors to demand that our landlord come back to the table and give us the opportunity to purchase our homes. For 30 years, we’ve been part of this community, and we deserve the right to stay and age in place,” tenant John Leyva told the crowd.
“The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act and Community Opportunity to Purchase Act would let residents like us stay in our homes and keep our neighborhoods from becoming playgrounds for the wealthy,” Leyva said. “The tenants in this city are at a disadvantage, fighting against millionaires, billionaires and increasingly, private equity. It’s a David vs. Goliath fight. TOPA and COPA can help level the playing field.”
Even Olympic gold won’t protect tenants
Olympic track and field champion Diane Dixon, who brought home the gold and silver medals in the 4×400 relay in 1984 and 1988, moved into 63 Tiffany Place in 1996, after she had a son and retired from elite-level sports.
“To be an Olympic gold medalist can be a curse and a blessing,” Dixon told the Brooklyn Eagle. “U.S. Olympians don’t have money, a union or a pension plan when we retire. It’s basically, thank you for your service.”
Without the affordable housing she has lived in for 28 years, she doesn’t know what she would do, she said.
Like Dixon, many of the tenants moved into the building when the neighborhood — cut off from Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill by the BQE trench — was considered less desirable. It was these residents and their neighbors who helped transform the area through their sweat equity and civic participation, supportive elected officials pointed out.
Joy Foster, a Tiffany Place resident for 27 years, called her building’s situation part of a national housing crisis. “This is such a serious situation. It’s not just a New York City thing, this is a national crisis for fair housing, and we need people to understand how dire the situation is. There are no consequences for people who could do things that could potentially render people without a home.”
“It’s time for a community-based nonprofit to take over the building, not another predatory landlord,” New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said. “Tenants in this building can’t be thrown out just because some wealthy guy like Irving Langer thinks they would like to make more money.”
TOPA and COPA would “protect tenants and allow them to buy buildings like this one,” he said. “It also means that Irwin Langer must come back to the table, negotiate in good faith with the tenants, and sell this building to a community-based nonprofit organization so it will be permanently preserved.”
Lander led a spirited chant while pointing to a photoshopped poster depicting the landlord holding a bag of money. “Trick or treat, do not cheat, with the tenants, you must meet,” the crowd chanted.
Strong support from local officials
“Residents of 63 Tiffany Place—and tenants across New York State—should not risk losing their homes and communities because their landlord has decided to sell their building. This is why I introduced the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act,” said Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes.
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, lead Senate sponsor of TOPA, said, “This isn’t just about an opportunity to purchase. An opportunity to purchase means an opportunity to stay in this great city, an opportunity to live in this great city, an opportunity to raise a family in this great city, an opportunity to send the kids to good schools in this city, an opportunity to start a business in this city.”
“Our communities thrive because of the people who build them. The 63 Tiffany Place tenants deserve the right to remain in their homes and community without fear of eviction by speculators,” Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon said.
She recalled that when she moved into Boerum Hill in the early ‘90s, some people considered the area a slum. “A lot of the buildings in Boerum Hill were preserved through what we called sweat equity. It’s about the people who are living there being able to buy. That’s the American dream.”
“Every time we attach profit as the main motivator for things that human beings need, people are harmed and people actually die,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said. “We see that in healthcare and we see that in housing. So we have to find a way to remove profit as the primary thing that people care about — that even the government is trying to ensure — when it comes to human rights. And here we have a group of tenants who live here, who say, ‘We want to own the building and run it ourselves,’ who are not being given the opportunity.”
“Once again, the landlord of 63 Tiffany Place is threatening to displace long-term, working-class residents from one of the last affordable housing options in the Columbia Waterfront neighborhood,” said Councilmember Shahana Hanif. “I am so disappointed that they removed themselves from this agreement and, unfortunately, are not coming back to the table …It is not right.”
“What we’re seeing now is that money is king,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. “We have elected officials here from every level, city and state. We have every tenant. We have not-for-profit organizations, every single human organization, human entity and human capital standing here before you to build leverage to compete against one person with money. That is showing you how capitalism works against these people here and in our city. And it’s about time we do something.”
All of the officials representing 63 Tiffany Place, including U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, sent a letter to Langer calling on him to re-enter negotiations with the tenants. Even Councilmember Alexa Avilés, who doesn’t represent the district, has been supporting the Tiffany Place tenants, organizers said.
The tenants are members of the Southwest Brooklyn Tenants Union, and are also supported by Housing Justice for All, the New Economy Project, New York Community Land Initiative and Carroll Gardens Association.
Leave a Comment
Related Articles
Long-running fight over development near Botanic Garden may be over
Premium Content:
‘Best of Brooklyn Real Estate Showcase’ highlights projects all around the borough
Brooklyn real estate showcase features highlights of the borough
Leave a Comment
