Housing Forum Targets Rising Costs, Displacement In Harlem

HARLEM, NY — Harlem residents will have a chance to get concrete help with soaring rents, landlord neglect and fire safety at Community Board 10’s second annual housing forum this month.

The event, organized for April 25 at Thurgood Marshall Academy by the board’s Land Use and Housing Committee, is designed to give tenants practical tools to stay in their homes, understand their rights and navigate major policy changes that will shape the neighborhood’s future.

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"Housing is always number one as a concern by the community," said Community Board 10 chairperson Marquis Harrison, citing the board’s annual district needs statement, which surveys top local priorities.

Committee chair Karen Dixon said Harlem’s biggest challenge is affordability. While the neighborhood has seen a boom in new housing, many so-called “affordable” units are pegged to an area median income that’s far higher than what longtime residents actually earn.

This year’s forum comes as major citywide initiatives — including the “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” zoning proposal and recent voter-approved changes to the New York City Charter — stand to reshape how housing is built and approved.

Dixon said the goal is for residents to walk away understanding what those changes mean for Harlem and what recourse they have when they’re facing eviction threats, rent hikes or unlivable conditions.

The full-day event will open with a panel on the history of housing development in New York and how it connects to these new policies, followed by workshops on rising rents, how to move from renting to homeownership, tenant rights with the Legal Aid Society and how to form a tenants association.

Afternoon sessions will dig deeper into the affordability crisis, explain what it means when NYCHA developments shift to private management and offer a fire safety workshop prompted by a string of recent residential fires, including risks tied to e-bikes and similar devices.

The day will end with a town hall featuring elected officials, giving residents a chance to hear directly what their representatives are doing on housing and to ask questions about the future of the district.

The forum is open to anyone in the Harlem area, and will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, at 200–214 West 135th St. in Harlem.

"More than anything, we want people to have tangible information that they can use in their advocacy efforts or their efforts to resolve issues that they're experiencing in their housing," Dixon said.

Register for the event here.

For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.