Eric Drooker, Poster for Anti-Warehousing Coalition, c. 1988

Offset print, 11″ x 17″.

Tenant groups have been working for years to end warehousing of apartments: we’ve been sharing information about warehoused apartments in our buildings, taking landlords to court for having too many vacant units during co-op conversions, squatting in warehoused (abandoned) buildings, and working to pass the anti-warehousing law, Intro 369-A.

Warehousing is when a landlord hoards territory, keeping apartments off the market to rent or sell them at a higher price later: speculation. The rent of available apartments is driven up by supply and demand.

HPD (Housing Preservation and Development) pretends to serve the role of preserving housing so people think “Someone’s taking care of it. I don’t have to.” Housing that the city government is developing is too little too late. People continue to be harassed and illegally evicted by landlords, good buildings are knocked down and development is only for the rich. HPD is a corrupt city agency with strong ties to real estate (its former head, Anthony gliedman, resigned to join the Donald Trump Corporation).

Currently the city is leaving or 120,000 apartments empty, while over 100,000 people are homeless. Passage of the anti-warehousing bill (Intro-369-A) as well as active inter-building tenant associations, rent strikes and squatting of vacant apartments and buildings will prevent the rape of our neighborhood by a small class of property parasites.