1114 Ward Avenue Tenant Union: United For Dignified Housing

Published on November 09, 2024, 9:00 pm
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“¡Inquilinos unidos, jamás serán vencidos! Tenants united will never be defeated!” was chanted by the tenant union of 1114 Ward Avenue on Saturday, November 9, 2024, in the Bronx. Following an already filed HP case in housing court, the 1114 Ward Avenue tenant union and Workers’ Movement for Liberation held a speak-out and press conference highlighting the deteriorating conditions tenants have been subjected to for years, and no gas since May 2024.

At the speak-out and press conference, NBC News reported that Alma Realty management had applied for work permits for the gas just 4 days before the action, yet tenants were not notified. In the weeks following the public outcry and media attention on Alma Realty’s management, tenants at 1114 Ward Avenue have spent the entire holiday season without gas. Eventually, several repairs were made to the tenants’ apartments; nevertheless, these renovations were purely cosmetic and did not address the underlying issues. As of January 2025, The building’s tenants gradually had their gas turned on, but the majority of residents still do not have gas. Management informed them it would take at least another month for gas to be fully restored. Still, even after the gas is turned on, it does not deter tenants from organizing but strengthens their determination to continue fighting for dignified housing.

Residents at 1114 Ward Avenue understand the necessity of building a union with strong tenant power, as it is the only real alternative to an often excruciatingly lengthy legal process, calling 311, waiting for HPD inspections, and unresponsive management and landlords. When we get repairs and small victories, they are merely concessions and temporary band-aid fixes that landlords use to appease tenants in the hopes that we will stop organizing, because when we band together, we threaten their class interests of wealth and private property.

Landlords profit from the wages of exploited workers, turning housing into a commodity and denying renters safe and dignified living conditions. Tenants allocate over half their income to rent, which burdens tenants. The cost of living in NYC continues to rise, including essentials like food, shelter, and utilities while the minimum wage has only recently seen a slight increase of 50 cents. These disparities are particularly glaring in the Bronx, which bears the highest poverty rate in NYC, yet the median rent in the borough is $3,163.

The question arises, why should tenants sit back while slumlords run off with their rent while subjecting them to hazardous living conditions and no gas? The shut-off gas was just the spark for tenants to unite and organize against their landlord who does not have their best interest at heart, only the interest of the profit, and is backed and protected by the politicians, banks, housing courts, real estate developers, the police, etc. A tenant union best serves the interests of tenants!

The injustice tenants at 1114 Ward Avenue face exposes a systemic pattern that impacts all working class and stems from class oppression. The housing crisis affects the working class, unemployed, underemployed, and homeless, who face eviction, dangerous living conditions, excessive rent hikes, job loss, overcrowded and underfunded shelters, and more. As long as land and housing are privatized and in the hands of a select few, It will worsen throughout the Bronx, NYC, and the nation. Only through a working-class organization can we collectively combat the landlords and the entire capitalist system and fight not just for better housing but for the betterment of society!

Contact wm4l.bx@gmail.com if you want to establish a tenant union in your building and to build a city wide united front for housing!

 

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