Our main goals are to:

1. Organize “No Eviction Zones” throughout Brooklyn - block by block, building by building
2. Maintain the 1st ever social media platform to resist gentrification by amplifying the stories of low-to-middle income Brooklyn residents
3. Provide vital legal, housing and community organizing resources to help keep Brooklyn residents in their homes and small businesses in our communities

We define ‘gentrification’ as a concerted, deliberate effort to price out low-to-middle income residents from neighborhoods by city government, corporations, real estate developers, and landlords in favor of renting, selling, and catering to people of higher and/or more flexible incomes. We see gentrification as an intersectional issue that is deeply connected to the ways that race, class, gender, sexuality, gender identity, age, ability, nation of origin, immigration status, physical and mental capacity, etc. impact individuals and our communities.

We know from first-hand experience that the same unscrupulous property owners who use tactics to force long-time older tenants of color out of their rent-stabilized apartments will turn around and illegally overcharge incoming younger white tenants for the same apartment.

For this very reason, we believe that all of us - long-time and new residents, communities of color and white communities, low-income and middle-class people - have a stake in the urgent struggle to save affordable housing in Brooklyn.

2018 Milestones of Equality for Flatbush's The Before It's Gone / Take It Back Campaign Against Displacement & Gentrification

• In 2018, through our partnership with housing attorney Ellery Ireland, E4F worked on over 40 cases to stop the displacement and harassment of rent-stabilized and unregulated tenants, tenant associations, small businesses and homeowners in Brooklyn. We also strengthen our relationships with 2 legal non-profits, Community Development Project and Brooklyn Legal Services Corp A.
• E4F created and/or continued to work with a total of 17 tenant associations. We also consolidated tenants from multiple buildings who had the same landlord to fight within Tenant Congresses. E4F had Tenant Congresses for 4 separate landlord targets. Tenant Congress's have held joint strategy meetings, coordinated tenant wide actions and testified in court for their neighbors in different buildings. We are also the legal and organizational support for the Grand Putnam Tenant Association Rent Strike, which is comprised of 4 rent-stabilized buildings in Bed-Stuy/ Clinton Hill.
• In 2018, E4F had anti-displacement campaigns in 11 neighborhoods, including Bay Ridge, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Bushwick, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, East New York, Flatbush, Prospect Heights/Underhill and Williamsburg, with literature in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Haitian Kreyol, Bangla, Spanish, French, and English. E4F created community campaigns stop the displacement of 4 small businesses and launched the #OurHomesAreNotForSale to continue to fight for Brooklyn homeowners.
• In The E4F Video Strike Force created over 30 new videos in 2018 documenting the struggles of Brooklyn tenants, homeowners, and small businesses.
• E4F launched #ThisIsFlatbush, an anti-rebranding campaign for Flatbush, East Flatbush, and Crown Heights to fight the attempted erasure of Caribbean and migrants of color culture of these neighborhoods.
• In 2018, The Brooklyn Anti-gentrification Network (BAN) which was initiated by E4F in 2015, was at the helm of 5 anti-rezoning struggles in Brooklyn as well as playing an allied role to the anti-rezoning forces in East Harlem and The Bronx. Since 2017, BAN has played a leadership role in the struggles against Amazon, The BQX, stopping the construction of new luxury developments in Crown Heights as well as challenging pro-gentrification city policies.

Tenant Work

Individual Tenants/Households:

• E4F provided a Private Lawyer and/or Community Organizing Campaign for 12 individual rent-stabilized, NYCHA and unregulated tenants or households in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Crown Heights, East Flatbush, East New York, Flatbush and Sunset Park as well as a tenant living in NYCHA housing in the Lower East Side and a rent-stabilized tenant living in Queens, NY.
• 4 out of the 12 individual tenants or households were unregulated, meaning they have little legal protection against eviction under New York State law.
• Through a private attorney and legal intern, E4F began legally representing and conducting interviews of clients of a supportive housing program who were being targeted for eviction by a predatory landlord.

Tenant Associations/Building-wide Organizing of Rent-Stabilized Tenants:

• In 2017, E4F engaged in tenant organizing in approximately 23 historically rent-stabilized buildings in Brooklyn.
• We helped to create or have supported the work of 15 Tenant Associations in 2017.
• E4F organized or supported the work of 4 “Tenant Congresses”, where 2 or more Tenant Associations were fighting the same landlord/management company.
• As of 12/29/2017, E4F is working with 10 Tenant Associations and is in the process of organizing 3 more. 7 of out 10 of these tenant associations are currently engaged in or in the process of filing a legal action against their landlord.

Homeowners

• As of 12/29/2017, E4F is working on legal and/or community organizing campaigns on the behalf of 9 Homeowners in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of East Flatbush, East New York, Bed-stuy and Prospect Heights
• 7 of the 9 Homeowners are seeking damages or fighting displacement due to real estate developers
• All 9 Homeowners are Black or Latinx identified

Small Businesses

• To date, E4F has won the renewal of 3 commercial leases through private negotiation and/or community campaigns. We have also made several legal referrals, as well as provided free or low-cost legal representation to 1 small business and 1 Community Garden in Brooklyn.
• In 2017, E4F provided legal or community organizing support for 5 long-time small business owners, 1 Merchant Association and 1 Community Garden. These business entities were located in the neighborhoods of Crown Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Flatbush, Park Slope and East New York

To get involved contact:
B4G@equalityforflatbush.org or call /text (646)820-6039
En Español: EnEspanol@equalityforflatbush.org or call/text (513) 445-8532
En Kréyol: EnKreyol@equalityforflatbush.org or call/text (707) 200-3692