HOPE is a project of UHAB, the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board.
HOPE (Housing Organizers for People Empowerment) is a diverse community group building tenant power through political education, coalition building, outreach, and fighting for proper legislation. HOPE believes that safe, healthy, and sustainable housing is a human right for all people.
Since 2018, UHAB has been organizing tenants in Brooklyn’s East Flatbush, Brownsville and East New York neighborhoods. We help tenants organize in their buildings to fight for repairs and respect from their landlords. In November 2019, we launched HOPE (Housing Organizers for People Empowerment), a member-led tenant group based in Brownsville.
HOPE fights for better building conditions and stronger tenant protections. We have organized over 20 tenant associations in East Brooklyn and have helped tenants win repairs, refunds from rent overcharges, rent discounts and other accommodations during elevator work, and more. HOPE member leaders facilitate monthly community meetings and set the priorities and direction for the group. HOPE’s members are people of color, mostly women, and cross-generational. Their members come from some of the lowest-income neighborhoods in New York City, and their mission is to support one another and build power and dignity amongst us all.
HOPE’s campaigns:
Housing Justice for All
HOPE is a member of the statewide Housing Justice for All campaign that brings together tenant and housing groups that are fighting for all New Yorkers to have a safe, stable affordable place to live. Currently, HJ4A is fighting for legislation to protect tenants during an ongoing pandemic, including Good Cause Eviction and TOPA (the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, which would enable tenants to turn their rental apartments into affordable co-ops), and creating more social housing. Learn more at HousingJusticeForAll.org.
Right to Counsel
The Right to Counsel NYC Coalition is working to stop the eviction crisis in NYC that has threatened our families, our neighborhoods, and our homes for too long. Right to Counsel led the campaign to make it a right for tenants to have a lawyer when facing eviction in NYC, inspiring a Right to Counsel movement across the country. However, currently this crucial protection is only available to tenants in NYC, not statewide, and many tenants in NYC are still forced to go through housing court without legal counsel, even though this is illegal. Currently, the RTC Coalition is fighting to expand this protection statewide and to stop the eviction machine by mandating the courts to uphold Right to Counsel. Learn more at www.righttocounselnyc.org.
Brownsville Green Justice
HOPE is a member of Brownsville Green Justice, a community collective focused on pushing back against climate & environmental injustice. We are reclaiming our autonomy and community power by: addressing environmental racism through advocating for racial equity, green futures, and green infrastructure in Ocean-Hill/Brownsville.