One thing I wish people knew was how much ableism is a factor in housing instability.
I learned today that an unhoused man was formerly a professional athlete from a well off family. Got injured, couldn’t play anymore. Mental health severely worsened. He’s been homeless for yrs.
I spent years listening to tenants in my office. “So what happened?” And if I had to identify a pattern in all of the stories, one that sticks out is:
“I got injured on the job and couldn’t work anymore…”
“My parent died. I have depression. Everything seems weighty.”
There are the cases you remember years later, the ones that keep you up at night.
For me, it’s a man in his 40s who had been diagnosed w/ multiple sclerosis and started using a wheelchair. He lived in NYCHA. The elevators would stop working. He lived on the 16th floor…
If I snagged a rent-stabilized apt 30 yrs ago for $250 and was then able to live my dream as a writer and photographer because I'm paying affordable rent, I'd be standing tall in front page news too.
I don't know her but I'm cheering her on.
Someone after my interior decor heart....the apartment is cute too🥺
Let me just say: rent stabilization in NYC is under attack. Those attacks have ramped up in the last 5 years. There was even a lawsuit that almost went to the Supreme Court to gut it entirely--I was a named defendant because I was the tenant rep on the NYC Rent Guidelines Board
I’m seeing + hearing how the housing crisis is being used to stir up resentment about migrants.
The right wing anti-immigrant talking point used to be “stealing jobs.”
Now it has shifted to “NYC is spending millions on migrants while New Yorkers can’t afford rent.”
And what’s more is it’s no longer just right wingers saying it, it’s blue voters, working class, also immigrants.
I’ve been doing this work 12 yrs and this is the first time I’m hearing these statements edge their way into housing circle.
When I ask “why do you think that?”, one glaring response pops up:
The news.
Basically people are seeing the mayor and whatever other electeds on tv nonstop talking about the migrant crisis but not the housing crisis so there’s a perception that it isn’t a priority.
If there’s a problem, ask yourself “is this my actual job or is it someone else’s job to do?“
People LOVE to come to us to help solve their problems. But ask yourself: am I getting credit for this? A pay bump? (The answer is almost always no).
Are people coming to you to ask your opinion on the “office racist incident of the day” or sexist John down the hall?
Stop.
Stop doing shadow work—cultivating the organizational culture and giving people assessments of equity issues. It’s emotional labor. FREE emotional labor.
In a rare move, the city of Binghamton (NY) has BANNED a landlord from owning or managing property there for the next 15 years. And then SEIZED 26 of his properties.
Why?
Code violations (aka being a slumlord). This needs to be universal.
Let’s talk about what the city did right:
When the landlord didn’t show up to housing court, the city ARRESTED him.
Then said you can’t own private property here AND be a slumlord. 15 yrs banned.
Finally, the mayor released a statement: “landlords: f*ck around + find out.”
I want to put words to a part of the housing crisis I see playing out:
Many of our parents + grandparents weren’t able to get jobs w/ traditional retirement plans (due to discrimination) and as such, rely on their children for housing/care.
For example, many women in my family worked as maids for years.
There was no 401k retirement plan.
And even if there was, they barely made enough to make ends meet. So many have this story—and when their children secure jobs with much higher salaries, buy their first house…
Generational wealth as a concept is thought to spread out for future generations. But when you’re taking care of the generation before you and your children, that money spreads thin.
That six figure salary isn’t the same as someone who doesn’t have those responsibilities.