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The Cooper Square Committee’s Organizing Work & Accomplishments in 2014

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Our organizing team was so busy in 2014. We accomplished a ton in this past year… read on about all the ways we’ve been stopping displacement and building community!! Click here to download the PDF version of this Roundup!  Major Organizing Efforts and Coalitions Through partnering with St. Nick’s alliance and the Urban Justice Center […]

UPDATE RE: 2ND AVENUE AND 7TH STREET BUILDING COLLAPSES

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Updated April 9, 2015   Legal Clinic for Tenants/Families of All Affected Buildings Monday, April 20, 2015, 7 PM @ 59-61 E 4th St, 4th Floor Attorneys and housing advocates will be present to inform tenants of their housing and personal property damage rights. No appointment is necessary. Tenants, relatives and their friends are welcomed to this meeting. Sponsored by GOLES and […]

Rally at Foley Sq 5pm today! (meet 4:15pm at CSC)

Rent Laws expired — your rights and what you can do

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Your rights: No matter what happens this week, you are protected until the end of your lease. Our colleague Ilana Maier at the Metropolitan Council on Housing says in today’s New York Times that “The fear is not that tenants will immediately lose their legal rights,” she said. “They won’t. The danger is that landlords will […]

We got a rent freeze!

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In a historic decision, the Rent Guidelines Board voted for a rent freeze for one-year leases and a two percent increase for two-year leases. This is the first time in the RGB’s 46 year history rent-stabilized rents have been frozen. New York City has faced unreasonably high rent increases for far too long, but yesterday, […]

Ali Forney Center and Cooper Square Committee Break Ground on Transitional Housing for LGBT Youth at 222 East 13th Street

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Monday, July 20, 2015: Welcome to the “groundbreaking ceremony” for the Bea Arthur Residence, an 18-bed residence for homeless LGBT youth at 222 East 13th Street in Manhattan.  The project is sponsored by the Ali Forney Center and the Cooper Square Committee.  The Cooper Square Committee is serving as the project manager from the pre-development […]

Bea Arthur Residence: Project Description

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Here are images of work in progress on the Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth, as of May 5th, 2016: The facade of the Bea Arthur Residence, the old fire escapes and windows have been removed View of the top floor, new floor joists have been installed View of the 2nd floor, new floor […]

Bills Aim to Protect Renters During Construction Work

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original: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/nyregion/bills-aim-to-protect-renters-during-construction-work.html New York Times, By MIREYA NAVARRO SEPT. 29, 2015 New York City Council members will introduce a package of bills on Wednesday intended to prevent landlords from pressuring tenants to move out by making their apartments unlivable through construction work. The proposed legislation, a total of a dozen bills, follows accounts of residents’ enduring late­night noise, harmful levels of dust and damage to their apartments, which some of the tenants said were efforts to get them to leave their rent­stabilized apartments. Landlords are supposed to provide tenant­protection plans when they do renovations in occupied buildings. But in many cases, the landlords tell the city that their buildings are vacant, and the city grants the construction permits without verifying the claims. The bills seek to have the city’s Buildings Department play a more aggressive role by responding to construction complaints faster and increasing inspections to confirm landlords’ compliance with safety requirements. “It’s about stepping up enforcement,” said Stephen Levin, one of 11 council members sponsoring the bills. “We’re losing regulated units every year to decontrol and unscrupulous activities by landlords.” Mr. Levin, a Democrat, is the lead sponsor of a bill that would create a unit within the Buildings Department dedicated to responding to complaints related to work without permits and to extensive renovations, which the bill defines as work in more than 10 percent of a building. This “real time enforcement unit,” Mr. Levin said, would respond within two hours after a complaint about unpermitted work, which would address the problem of missed violations because inspectors show up after the work has stopped. Two other bills target the practice of landlords falsely claiming their buildings are unoccupied. The bills call for the Buildings Department to review occupancy claims in certain cases, rather than rely on the word of owners or owners’ agents, as it does now. A coalition of tenant advocacy groups that lobbied for and helped draft the legislation says construction inside buildings has increased in the past three to five years in rapidly gentrifying areas like Crown Heights in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side of Manhattan. While landlords try to maximize rents by renovating vacant apartments and common areas, some landlords, tenant groups contend, have another motive — to make life miserable for rent­ stabilized tenants so their units can be cleared out and rented at higher rates. “It’s a violent assault on the tenant — to have a ceiling collapse on you or the walls shaking,” said Brandon Kielbasa, director of organizing for the group Cooper Square Committee. “It’s really some of the worst psychologically and physically threatening harassment we see.” Tenant claims brought to Housing Court for all forms of harassment have increased steadily — to about 800 last year — since a city law allowing tenants to sue their landlords over harassment went into effect in 2008, city officials said. Even when the Buildings Department discovers that a supposedly vacant building is full of tenants, the department often does not penalize the landlord. Department officials have said that construction work that tenants have complained about is often found to be legitimate maintenance, not harassment. But department officials said in a statement on Tuesday that they had already increased enforcement and that they were part of a multiagency […]

All We Want for Xmas is Safe Homes! — Press Conference at 90 Elizabeth Street, Dec 10th @ 11 am

2015 Gala Program Journal – online

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Inside: our work in 2015, as well as advertisements from local people and organizations. Full PDF here. The Cooper Square Committee Annual Gala October 1, 2015 Program 6 pm:  Cocktails and appetizers 6:45 pm:  Dinner 7:30 pm:  Program 8 pm:  Dessert and dancing ___________________________________________________________________________   Welcome:  Steve Herrick, CSC Executive Director MC:  Rosie Mendez, NYC […]

2015 Organizing Round-Up

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Our organizing team was so busy in 2015. We accomplished a ton this past year … read on about all the ways we’ve been stopping displacement and building community!! PDF: 2015 Organizing Dept Round Up

We’ve gotten a lot of press about the Bea Arthur Residence Project

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Our work managing the renovation of the Bea Arthur Residence, which will provide transitional housing for 18 homeless LGBT youth, is generating a lot of press for us and our project partner, the Ali Forney Center.  A DNAInfo article that gave an update on the project, and its expected completion in February, 2017, has been […]

Monday, October 31st: Rally, Press conference, and Hearing for STS and SNYC Bills

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  PRESS RELEASE HERE! What: City Council Hearings supporting both Stabilizing NYC and Stand for Tenant Safety legislation Stabilizing NYC (SNYC) is a citywide coalition against predatory equity Stand for Tenant Safety (STS) is a citywide coalition to fight construction-as-harassment and reform the Department of Buildings Where and When (join us at one or both): […]

TUESDAY 1/10: Is your Landlord Using Construction to Harass You? SPEAK OUT!

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We have confirmed our STS Manhattan Town Hall on TUESDAY JANUARY 10TH at 1 Centre Street (19th Fl. South) at 6:30PM. This town hall will be focused on construction-as-harassment issues and how tenants can combat these issues and protect themselves. (This event is part of the Stand for Tenant Safety Coalition, of which CSC is a […]

*REGISTRATION CLOSED* STS Manhattan Town Hall 1/10, 6:30pm, 1 Centre St, 19th FL South

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Due to the popularity of this event, we reluctantly must limit participation. We cannot accept new RSVP’s and if you attend without an RSVP, please be aware that you cannot be assured a seat. We are planning a similar event in the Spring. If you’d like to be placed on a waiting list or to be […]

Wish your councilmember a Happy Valentine’s Day!

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In celebration of Valentine’s Day, let’s show our Council Members some love…by sending them some amazing e-cards!   Here are 5 amazing Valentine’s-themed STS e-cards which y’all can send to your local Council Members, kindly reminding them to please pass our 12 STS bills regarding construction-as-harassment. If possible, please take some time to e-mail your local Council […]

WEDNESDAY: Celebrate DOB Reform!

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Questions? Email Liam Reilly.

Press Conference & Rally to Celebrate Reform of the DOB

Supporting Small Businesses

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We protect and support independent small businesses in the East Village. Advocate for commercial tenants’ rights Refer small businesses to high-quality free legal services Sponsor the annual Taste of East Village Festival Innovate small business policy with a citywide coalition of partners   For more information on any of our small business support programs or […]

Join us for a Small Business Breakfast on June 19

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Join us for breakfast to learn about the Cooper Square Committee’s work to assist local small businesses and the services and resources available You may know Cooper Square Committee for our tireless work to preserve and develop affordable housing in the Cooper Square area. But did you know that as part of our work we support […]
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