HFHA – DISPLACEMENT ALERT BULLETIN
OK, so here is an uncomfortable fact that none of us can ignore. Those of us that rent our homes all have a target on our backs. At council meetings, our elected officials repeatedly mention how we need to make more changes to rent control. That translates into weakening our protections further and further until there is no more rent control at all.
Sad to say that this is absolutely and unequivocally the long-term goal of the majority of our elected officials. Instead of viewing a rental unit as someone’s home; the unit is viewed as someone’s property. Anyone that is paying a below market rent (less than 2K-2.5K) is somehow ‘getting over,’ ‘not paying their fair share,’ ‘has no right to pay so little,’ ‘is single-handedly raising taxes in Hoboken,’ and any number of additional insulting talking points.
Right now when 1-4 unit multifamily homes are put on the market for sale the ad always reads: Collect extra income OR convert into your 1-family “dream” house….usually the 1-family “dream” house is the intention of the purchaser. Four-family buildings are temporarily converted to 3 family owner/occupied buildings and the remaining tenants get evicted under NJ State eviction laws. When larger buildings go on the market, they are usually being sold for condo conversation or demolition (to be replaced with luxury condominiums.) This is translating into constant ongoing displacement and it will not stop, until such as time as we can get large numbers of us speaking out at council meetings or, perhaps, through organized rallies. This is the state of affairs in Hoboken and even with ramped up pressure (were we successful in creating such a thing) the situation may not change.
With this in mind, we would like to introduce:
A Displacement Alert is an all-points bulletin to all of our HFHA friends (and their friends) that one of our neighbors is being displaced and needs to find another home in Hoboken quickly. Click here to visit our page.
If you know of any affordable rentals available in Hoboken, please contact the Hoboken Fair Housing Association immediately at hobokenfairhousing@gmail.com.
BECOME A MEMBER OF HFHA
To the thousands of tenants out there who benefit from the work of HFHA, we need you to JOIN US!
PLEASE REMEMBER: When your moment of crisis comes and you call or e-mail us, we cannot help you if you don't join. We simply don’t have the resources!
NOTE: Hoboken Fair Housing Association does not provide legal representation or legal advice of any kind.
If an HFHA member’s situation calls for an attorney, or if a member wants one, HFHA can refer members to experienced attorneys who specialize in landlord-tenant law.
1 Comment
watchpocket
This is absolutely outrageous. One way or another, TENANTS must begin to storm city council meetings and speak. Council members are homeowners — they don’t relate to and don’t care about renters (despite lip-service to the contrary), and, they’re politicians — they respond to whoever speaks loudest.
If you’re a FB friend of HFHA, you’re the only ones who can stave off the end of rent control in Hoboken or even strengthen it, by signing up to talk, one after another. If this doesn’t happen, the landlord-realtor/developer-condo-owner culture surrounding and closing in on tenants will one day soon strangle rent control completely.
Council meetings in March are on Wednesday March 5th — that’s this Wednesday — and then two weeks later on March 19th. Go to the meetings, sign up to talk, take your laptop or phone or a good book, wait, speak, and leave. Imagine the effect if just three or four people in a row express their urgency to the council. THAT will begin to make a difference.