Events Calendar
Browse the calendar or view a list of events below.
Housing Legal Clinic
We are partnering with Legal Aid to offer free and confidential one on one consultation with a housing attorney. Each registrant will be scheduled for up to 30 minutes between 6:30pm and 8:30pm. Consultation is free and registration is required. After you ocmplete this form we will follow up with any additional questions and confirm your meeting time. Contact us with any questions at swbtenantunion@cganyc.org
馃棑锔廡uesday October 22nd
鈴6:30pm - 8:30pm
馃搷
SWBTU Monthly Meeting
Join the Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union for the next monthly meeting to learn about our goals and priorities this year and how to get involved!
Community Land Act Summit
Brooklyn Community Land Act Summit
Join us on Thursday, September 19th at Brooklyn Borough Hall for a Town Hall on the Community Land Act!
Together, we will learn and discuss:
How groups across Brooklyn are organizing for deeply affordable, community owned land and housing
Ways to join the fight and help get the the Community Land Act passed in City Council!
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隆脷nase a nosotros el jueves 19 de septiembre en el Ayuntamiento de Brooklyn (Borough Hall) para una asamblea p煤blica sobre la Ley de Tierras Comunitarias!
Juntos aprenderemos y discutiremos:
C贸mo se est谩n organizando grupos en todo Brooklyn para lograr tierras y viviendas de propiedad comunitaria profundamente asequibles
隆Formas de unirse a la lucha y ayudar a que se apruebe la Ley de Tierras Comunitarias en el Concejo Municipal!
Know Your Rights: Good Cause
Join the Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union (SWBTU) and the Legal Aid Society for our next workshop in our Good Cause Series: How to Research Your Landlord on July 30th, 2024 at 7:30pm on Zoom. The recently passed GOOD CAUSE Legislation provides:
Protection against evictions for no reason
Guaranteed lease renewal
Ability to challenge rent increases
You'll learn how to research your landlord, learn if you're covered by these new protections, and how to enforce them. There will also be opportunities to ask questions.
In partnership with Assembly Member & Council Member
Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union Orientation
Join us for our next Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union Orientation! You'll learn about our history, our vision for housing justice, and how to get involved as a member.
Wednesday July 24th
7:30pm
Also save the date for our next workshop in the Good Cause Series: How to Research Your Landlord! Tuesday July 30th 7:30pm on zoom.
Know Your Rights: Good Cause
Join the Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union (SWBTU) and the Legal Aid Society for our Know Your Rights: Good Cause Workshop on June 25th, 2024 at 7:30pm on Zoom. The recently passed GOOD CAUSE Legislation provides:
Protection against evictions for no reason
Guaranteed lease renewal
Ability to challenge rent increases
You'll learn if you're covered by these new protections, how to enforce them, and have an opportuntiy to ask questions. This is part of on ongoing series of Know Your Rights workshops, please be sure to signup for the next one!
In partnership with Assembly Member & Council Member
Homes Now Lobby Day
Join the Homes Now! Campaign for a Lobby Day at City Hall on Thursday, May 23rd! We'll rally at City Hall and then meet with Council Members to make sure they're fighting to make sure final budget delivers $2.5 billion in capital investments to preserve and build permanently-affordable housing for New Yorkers.
The Council are our greatest allies in ensuring the Mayor delivers a just budget that funds housing and everything else we need. But they need to hear from YOU on how winning the Homes Now demand will change the lives of thousands of New Yorkers.
Know Your Rights: What does Good Cause mean for tenants and our organizing?
Join us to learn about who the new Good Cause Eviction law applies to, how it works, and how tenants can use it to grow our organizing!
Our Homes, Our Power: Tenants Takeover Albany!
On Tuesday, March 19, tenants from around New York State are taking over the capitol to tell our elected leaders: The rent is too damn high! We'll show up in force so they can't avoid us and demand tenant protections, universal rent control, and green social housing.
Buses will be leaving in the early morning from across NY State and lunch will be provided. More details will be provided upon RSVP.
Homes Now Campaign Launch
The city is staring down its worst affordability crisis in decades: rents are at record levels, evictions and homelessness are rising, a majority of renters are paying over 30% of their pre-tax income toward housing, and the vacancy rate is at a historic low of 1.4%. It鈥檚 time to build more housing that New Yorkers need: the City must deepen its investment in permanently affordable and community-controlled housing.
The NYC City Council's Progressive Caucus and the NYC Comptroller's Office are calling for a capital investment of $2 billion over the next four years into housing programs that will fund the construction and preservation of community-controlled affordable homes.
These programs will provide stability and equity-building opportunities for low-income and working-class New Yorkers. The homes will be accessible, energy-efficient and climate resilient, owned and operated by community-based organizations, and permanently affordable.
Winning this $2 billion capital investment in housing will:
Empower tenants and address building neglect
This funding would allow the City of New York to work with local partners to purchase buildings from negligent landlords, make renovations and maintain housing as affordable in perpetuity.Add to the City鈥s critically needed affordable housing stock
Increased capital funding would allow for HPD to construct or preserve 5,000 climate resilient and accessible homes for New Yorkers who are becoming increasingly priced out of the city.Create new homeownership opportunities This funding would finance the new construction of shared equity homeownership, creating the opportunity for equity-building and the creation of generational wealth for thousands of New York families that have been left out of the traditional homeownership market.
TOPA Campaign Launch
On February 8th at 11AM, in Brooklyn, join our campaign launch for the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act!
We'll be at 287 Prospect Avenue to support tenants organizing to kick out their landlord and own their building collectively!
Tenant Know Your Rights Workshop
Join the Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union for a free workshop to learn about your rights as a tenant!
A Housing Lawyer from Legal Aid will present and answer your questions. We will cover:
How to get repairs in your apartment
What to do if you are being overcharged
How to get a lease from your landlord
How to organize a tenant association with your neighbors
How to navigate housing court and eviction proceedings
What to do if your landlord is harassing you
And more!
馃棑锔 Wednesday January 31, 2024
鈴 7pm - 8pm
馃搷 Online via zoom. After you fill out this form we will share the zoom link
Tenant Know Your Rights Workshop
Join the Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union for a free workshop to learn about your rights as a tenant!
A Housing Lawyer from Legal Aid will present and answer your quetsions. We will cover:
How to get repairs in your apartment
What to do if you are being overcharged
How to get a lease from your landlord
How to organize a tenant association with your neighbors
How to navigate housing court and eviction proceedings
What to do if your landlord is harassing you
And more!
馃棑锔 Wednesday January 10, 2024
鈴 7pm - 8pm
馃搷 Online via zoom.
Housing Justice for All Convention
Join us at the 6th annual Housing Justice for All (HJ4A) Convention: a statewide convening of coalition organizations and individuals invested in housing justice.
From December 8th-10th tenants and homeless New Yorkers from across the state will be coming together to dream up a new vision for New York: one where no one has to fear rent hikes or evictions, where every New Yorker has a safe stable home. To get there, we'll be learning from each other, building a shared strategy, and strengthening our relationships.
This is a great opportunity to get involved and participate in workshops, teach-ins and plenaries from housing organizers to build skills, gain perspectives and new understanding so we can strengthen our movement and sharpen our skills as we build our strategy for the year ahead.
We welcome all who are interested and committed to fighting for housing justice to join!
Storytelling Workshop
TENANT STORIES MATTER! Join RTC on Monday, 10/30 from 6-7:30pm for a virtual training on how to collect and amplify tenant stories. This is part of our Court Watch training series鈥攊f you are participating in our court watch initiative, we strongly encourage you to join us for this training!
Rally to Save 63 Tiffany Place!
Brooklyn, NY: On Tuesday, July 25th, local elected officials and tenants at 63 Tiffany Place will hold a press conference, demanding their landlord work with the relevant government agencies to avoid a mass eviction at the end of the year. as a shining example of affordable housing for working-class New Yorkers, dozens of tenants now face the threat of eviction or major rent hikes if their regulatory agreement isn鈥檛 renewed. The landlord, Irving Langer, is notorious for evicting tenants, ranking as theby the New York City Right To Counsel Coalition and appearing on the Public Advocates 鈥鈥 list multiple times. Despite continued outreach to the landlord to renew the agreement, set to expire in December 2023, tenants have been met with silence. Meanwhile, City and State agencies tasked with regulating the building have failed to take the urgent actions needed to keep these long-term tenants in their homes.
Elected officials, housing advocates, and tenants will hold a press conference to demand a solution to this lingering problem. The unified front will condemn the landlord for their callous radio silence and demand the City and State pressure the landlord to find a solution that ensures no tenant is evicted from 63 Tiffany Place.
There will be time at the end of the press conference for questions.
WHERE: Outside of 63 Tiffany Place, Brooklyn, NY
WHEN: Tuesday, July 25th, 10:00 AM
WHO:
Representative from the Office of the Public Advocate
Housing Advocates
Long-term Tenants at 63 Tiffany Place
Housing Justice Rally + March
The rent is TOO DAMN HIGH. Millions of New Yorkers are struggling to make ends meet as our cost of living goes out of control, and landlords are squeezing us for every dollar we got.
And instead of taking decisive action to solve the housing crisis, our leaders are dragging their feet, hoping they can just wish the crisis away.
But tenants aren't going to sit around and wait -- we're taking to the streets to demand our leaders act NOW.
Join thousands of tenants and homeless New Yorkers from across the state as we demand that the state pass Good Cause Evictions and the Housing Access Voucher Program and that the Rent Guidelines Board issues a rent rollback.
Our Homes Our Power 2023 Campaign Launch
From Southwest Brooklyn to Albany, 2023 is going to be a critical year for tenants. And it all starts next Thursday when we join Housing Justice for All for the 2023 #OurHomesOurPower Campaign Launch!
When: Thursday December 15th at 11am
Where:
Contact Ben at bfgoogins@cganyc.org or 917-225-9988 if you can attend and we can coordinate travel together. We will also have our new Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union T-shirt for you!
The #OurHomesOurPower platform includes:
Good Cause protections
Housing Access Voucher Program
Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act
to learn more about the Campaign!
If you can't attend but want to be part of our work supporting the campaign please also reach out.
Looking forward to big victories together in 2023!
Know Your Rights as a Tenant
Join the Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union to Learn about your rights as a tenant, meet your neighbors, and learn how to protect yourself from eviction! Questions contact swbtenantunion@cganyc.org
Eric Adams lower the rent rally
Tenants need a rent rollback! As millions of New Yorkers struggle to get back on their feet, any increase is too much. We have the power to stop the rent from going up through actions and public testimony. This year, there are two in-person hearings and two virtual hearings. This is a chance for regulated tenants (both rent-stabilized and rent-controlled) to speak directly to the people who will decide your rent increases. Contact River at rwassserman@cganyc.org for more information!
Tenants Descend on Albany!
On May 17th we're getting on the bus to the State Capitol to tell our legislators that its time to pass Good Cause Eviction!
Contact River at rwasserman@cganyc.org to RSVP or with questions.
Lunch will be provided! Wear comfortable shoes, bring a charged phone, and get ready to MAKE SOME NOISE!
Rent Rally at City Hall Park!
The Mayor wants to raise rent more than any amount in over a decade! Come out on Thursday to FIGHT BACK! Contact River with questions or for more information at rwasserman@cganyc.org
Canvass for Good Cause Eviction
Are you afraid of your landlord raising your rent? Do you fear retaliation from your landlord if you ask for a repair to be done in your apartment?
If your answer is yes, you need Good Cause Eviction to be passed in New York State!
Join SWBTU in collaboration with Fifth Avenue Committee, Housing Justice for All and NYS-DSA for a day of canvassing your neighbors on April 24th at 11am. This canvass is part of a larger response to Gov. Kathy Hochul's Millionaire Budget released last week, that failed to deliver any semblance of relief to New Yorkers struggling to afford rent amidst an ongoing pandemic. With just 6 weeks left in the legislative session, we have to fight to pass Good Cause Eviction, to protect renters from rent increases & unjust evictions.
State Senator Andrew Gounardes, whose new district includes parts of Gowanus, Boerum Hill, and Carroll Gardens, has not signed on to support Good Cause Eviction yet. So we are getting out to the streets as his new constituents to let him know we need him to throw in his support for Good Cause -- critical legislation that would protect millions of renters from exorbitant rent hikes and prevent thousands of arbitrary evictions.
Join us on Sunday 4/24 at 11 am at Carroll Park (SE corner of President and Smith St) at 11am.