East Harlem's Bottom Line

Mark Alexander has a plan. At 46, he isn’t content with having more than tripled the number of apartments that Hope Community manages in the eight years he’s been its executive director. The community development corporation’s strategic plan calls for more than doubling that inventory – by adding 1,700 new units – by 2004. “In five years time, we’d like to be viewed as one of the more successful CDCs in the country,” Alexander says as he sits in his modest East Harlem office.

El Barrio Tenants Win Against Landlord

April 12, 2010

New York—Immigrant tenants and the organization Movement for Justice in el Barrio—who sued the administration that maintains 47 buildings in El Barrio for failures of repair and harassment—have won a victory.

The receiver that is designated by the state when the owner of the buildings went bankrupt announced on Friday that he would change the company that had managed the buildings for decades under different names and whom the tenants declare is guilty of negligence and mistreatment. EH Property Management will be replaced by Lawrence Properties.

Nabe groups battle to save affordable apartments

May 12, 2008

East Harlem tenants in battle with landlord

December 14, 2007

Carmen Sanchez was fed up. Month after month, her landlord was demanding that she pay thousands of dollars in fees that she says she didn’t owe. There was the charge for the washing machine she doesn’t have and $50 in late fees on payments she says she made on time.

Then there were the repairs the landlord wasn’t making. “I have mushrooms growing out of my walls. Instead of a shower head, there is a hole in my wall where the water comes out.”

The Battle For The Soul Of El Barrio

August 26, 2008

Movement for Justice in El Barrio Marches Against Gentrification

August 29, 2007

Spanish Harlem residents are being pushed out by greedy landlords seeking to bring in big box stores and condos.

On Sunday over a hundred people gathered to march against gentrification in East Harlem. The Movement for Justice in El Barrio organized the march to call attention to the buying up large tracts of El Barrio and the displacement of long time residents.

East Harlem Residents Make Halloween Protest Against Potential Landlord

October 31, 2010

Movement for Justice in El Barrio says Hope Community, Inc. can't handle 47 additional properties.

HARLEM — Residents of 47 Dawnay Day foreclosed buildings went trick or treating at their potential new landlord's offices, though the only treat they wanted was for the company to pull out of making a deal.

Members of The Movement for Justice in El Barrio donned Halloween masks and marched into Hope Community offices on 104th Street to hand out pictures of rats and roaches posted on candy shapes for Halloween.

NYC's 10 Worst Landlords: Steven Kessner

'All I do is fix, and they damage'

July 5th, 2006 11:50 AM

Mold contaminates apartment 4F at one of Kessner's East 117th Street buildings.

Tenants’ group puts the world on notice

APR 7, 2008

CITY HALL. Members from the Movement for Justice in El Barrio — an East Harlem tenants group that battles abusive landlords — brought their fight against gentrification to the steps of City Hall yesterday. Next week, they’re taking their struggle to the world.

HARLEM IRE OVER BRIT 'INVASION'

April 4, 2007

The British are coming - to Harlem.

And they ignited a powder keg of protest yesterday.

A British real-estate giant spending more than $200 million for buildings in East Harlem is encountering resistance from tenants in the neighborhood.

"They have a plan to gentrify East Harlem. And that means rent increases," said Juan Haro, head of the Movement for Justice in El Barrio.