Queens Activists Warn of Gentrification

BY SINDY NANCLARES

Tenants, community leaders and immigration activists called on Tuesday to reform and strengthen rent regulation  laws to help low-income families and stem the tide of gentrification in Queens.

“If we don’t fix the law by June 2015, there won’t be any more affordable housing in New York,” warned campaign manager, Delsenia Glover.

She said that, over the last 20 years, the laws that regulated real estate developers have gotten weaker, allowing the loss of more than 100,000 units.

There are 1.1 million rent-regulated units for low income families, but they said they feared that this number will continue to decrease when the current laws expire in June

“When they call these apartments ‘affordable housing,’ it doesn’t reflect the realities of our wallets” said Leandra Riquena, tenant leader of the Alliance for Tenant Power. “Our working families have the right to this type of housing.”

The coalition condends that Queens was the new target of developers, which could affect the thousands of poor and immigrant families that live in rent-regulated apartments and want to call New York their home.

They estimated that 80 percent of these families spent more than 50 percent of their income on rent.

“Most immigrants do not understand the local laws … We are vulnerable and are afraid to protest and get inform,” said Julio Canto, who has been living in Jackson Heights for over eight years.

Communities like Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Flushing have all seen hikes in the rent prices surpassing 35 percent since 1993, the leaders said. However, the median income has in fact decreased.

“This is not Brooklyn, this is Queens!” shouted the activists.