Getting Organized on the Lower East Side
by Gloria Sukenick

Saturday morning, 10 AM. On the Lower East Side, that’s usually a time to think, “maybe I’ll roll out of bed.” But on June 27, about 150 people were already arriving at the Cornelia Connelly Center for Education on East Fourth Street. This Saturday was different: It was the day of the Lower East Side Housing Conference, sponsored by Met Council, Charas/El Bohio, the City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, the Cooper Square Committee, Eviction Watch, Good Old Lower East Side, the Lower East Side Tenants Union, the National Lawyers Guild and Project Home-University Settlement.

The morning began with an overview given by Democratic district leader Armando Perez, who spoke of the history of the Lower East Side, in particular the activism and community participation on many issues, from housing and homelessness to gardens and Yankee Stadium. Name the issue and Lower East Side people have taken some action or position. Angelita Anderson of the City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, an invaluable resource for tenants going to court without a lawyer, spoke on the dismal state of housing in the city.

The day continued with a varied menu of workshops, on Section 8 and public housing, the new rent laws, Housing Court, community boards, community-based organizations, organizing tenant associations (“nothing beats door-knocking,” said Wasim Lone of GOLES), squatting and homesteading, distressed buildings (featuring tenants from buildings threatened with demolition) and land use. Something for everyone! And lots of participation, this being the Lower East Side.

During the day several things became clear to me. The housing situation is desperate. People are so beset with their own very serious problems that they mainly seemed concerned about getting information about how to deal with these problems: how to fight evictions and harassment, how to get repairs, what to do in Housing Court. But what became most clear was the necessity to turn individual struggles into communal action, for people to realize that their problems can only be addressed by organizing with others. Remember, they’ve got the money, but we’ve got the numbers. We cannot afford to go back to sleep.

It was also clear that if there’s any place this can begin to happen, it’s on the Lower East Side. Energy and vitality are still alive and well here. Despite past and current attempts at gentrification they remain alive and well. Landlords and developers take note!

The day ended with reports from the workshops, a panel on community-based strategies, and the big question: Where do we go from here? Participants agreed on three main principles: to resist evictions, declaring the Lower East Side a no-eviction zone; to demand a moratorium on sales of city-owned land (“The only place we are going to be able to build affordable housing is on this land,” said Armando Perez); and to support the right to public housing.