Skills-Building Workshops
How to Organize a Tenant Association
This workshop will identify how to organize a tenant association. Participants will discuss the function of a tenant association and learn essential steps to take when tryong to prganize one. Participants will also learn about their right to organize and how organizing can be effective way of making your voice heard and getting things done.
How to Create Tenant Association Bylaws
In this workshop, participants will learn why and how to create bylaws for their tenant association.
How to Facilitate an Effective Meeting
This workshop addresses how to prepare for and carry out efficient and effective tenant meetings. Participants will get helpful hints on how to create fliers, spread the word about meetings, and overcome barriers to tenant participation.
How to Organize a Campaign to Win
In this workshop, participants will learn how to develop a clear, effective strategy to address specific problems in their building. They will also learn about how to identify key allies and resources they can turn to for assistance in a campaign.
How to Maintain and Strengthen a Tenant Association
This workshop will cover how to keep tenants engaged in a tenant association after an initial crisis is over. Participants will discuss how how to keep the association strong and active, and what kinds of issues it can take on.
How to Fight Back Against Tenant Harassment
In this workshop, participants will learn what tenant harassment is and how to fight back against it.
How to Address Conditions Issues
This workshop will teach tenants about what kinds of conditions are unacceptable, how to document problems in their buildings, and how the the inspection process works. All participants will receive "Paints, Pets, and Privacy: 30 Flash Cards of Tenants' Rights in New York State."
How to Do Property Research
This workshop outlines how to use databases of buildings in New York City to find the owners, sale prices, and documents associated with particular building. It also explains how this research can inform and strengthen tenant‐led campaigns to improve conditions in buildings and/or preserve their affordability.
How to Fight a Section 8 Opt‐Out
In this workshop, tenants will learn about the procedure for a project‐based Section 8 opt‐out and how tenants have organized to fight opt‐outs. It includes information about campaign development and case studies of successful preservation of HUD housing.
How to Prepare for a Mitchell‐Lama Rent Increase
Mitchell‐Lama tenants have the opportunity to organize against rent increases. This workshop describes the rent increase process and how tenants can prepare for it.
How to Fight a Mitchell‐Lama Buy‐Out
Mitchell‐Lama developments come out of their subsidy program through the owners paying off the mortgage, which is called a Mitchell‐Lama buy‐out. This workshop outlines the buy‐out procedure and how tenants have organized to preserve at‐risk Mitchell‐Lama developments.
What Happens after a Buy‐Out or Opt‐Out?
This workshop explains what happens to Section 8 and Mitchell‐Lama buildings when they leave their subsidy program. It offers tips about how to maintain momentum for a campaign even after a buy‐out or opt‐out, and how to maintain and strengthen a tenant association after a crisis is over.
Re‐Regulation of Illegally Deregulated Apartments
In this workshop, participants will learn how to find out if their apartment has been illegally deregulated and how to re‐regulate their apartment. This workshop outlines the procedure of researching tenants’ rental history and how to organize for re‐regulation.
Informational Workshops
BASIC WORKSHOPS
Introduction to Affordable Housing Preservation
This workshop explains the nuts and bolts of the project based Section 8 program, the Mitchell‐Lama program, and rent regulation, and describes the role that these programs play in preserving the diversity of our city. It also explains the rights of tenants living in these types of housing, the threats each type of housing faces, and strategies for addressing these threats.
Introduction to the Regulatory Agencies
This workshop is an introduction to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. It explains who’s who in the regulatory agencies, and what each agency is responsible for. It also outlines strategies we can use to make regulatory agencies more accountable to tenants, and to engage the agencies effectively in our campaign work.
WORKSHOPS ON SUBSIDIZED HOUSING
Preservation Tools for Subsidized Developments
This workshop is an overview of preservation tools that can be used to save Mitchell‐Lama and project‐based Section 8 developments. This workshop outlines case studies of Mitchell‐Lama and project‐based Section 8 developments that have been at‐risk and that were ultimately preserved as affordable housing.
Overview of and Threats to the Section 8 Program
In this workshop, participants will learn the history and the benefits of the Section 8 Program.This workshop will outline the project‐based Section 8 program and the Section 8 voucher program – who qualifies, what the tenants’ rights are in these programs, what the threats are to these tenants, and how tenants organize against these threats.
HUD Tenants’ Right to Organize
In this workshop, participants will learn about their rights to organize a tenant association and the tactics used by some landlords to fight organizing in HUD buildings. This workshop will include handouts of HUD Tenants’ Rights and Responsibilities.
What Do Tenants Need to Know about HUD Inspections?
In this workshop, participants will learn the schedules and procedures of inspections in HUD housing. This workshop outlines how HUD inspections can be used as a tool for organizing for better conditions in HUD housing.
Recertification
In this workshop, participants will learn about the recertification procedures, common issues that come up, and strategies to prepare for the process.
Models of Ownership
In this workshop, which is for buildings interested in going through a conversion process, participants will learn about the different potential options of tenant ownership and affordability preservation. It outlines coop conversions, preservation purchasers, and the Tenant Choice model.
WORKSHOPS ON RENT REGULATED HOUSING
Rent Regulation 101
In this workshop, participants will learn the history and benefits of the system of rent regulation. This workshop outlines basic rights of a rent regulated tenant, the differences between rent stabilization and rent control, the Rent Guidelines Board, and current campaigns to preserve
and strengthen rent regulation.
IAI Rent Increases
In this workshop, participants will learn what an IAI rent increase is and how to organize against unjust rent increases. This workshop will outline how IAI rent increases are calculated, how a landlord gets permission for this type of increase, and how tenants can make sure they are
paying the correct rent.
Major Capital Improvement Rent Increases
In this workshop, participants will learn about Major Capital Improvements and how they are added to tenants’ rents. This workshop will outline the threats of fraudulent MCIs, the owners’ application process for an MCI, how tenants have organized against MCIs, and how to get involved in a campaign to reform the MCI system.
Owner Occupancy and Personal Use
In this workshop, participants will learn about the legal rights of tenants when a landlord chooses to take over an apartment or apartments in the building for personal use. This
workshop outlines the procedure of conversion of rent regulated apartment to personal use and how tenants are fighting back.
Decontrol of Rent Regulated Apartments
In this workshop, participants will learn about the threat of vacancy decontrol and high rent high income decontrol. This workshop outlines how decontrol happens and how tenants are fighting back.
WORKSHOPS ON ISSUES THAT AFFECT SUBSIDIZED AND RENT REGULATED TENANTS
Introduction to Predatory Equity
This workshop is an introduction to “predatory equity”: private equity‐backed investors acquiring New York City’s affordable housing stock at extremely speculative prices with the
intention of taking the properties out of their affordability program and converting them to market rate housing and/or flipping the properties to another investor at even higher prices. This workshop outlines how predatory equity is affecting affordable housing and tenants’ rights in New York, and how tenants are organizing against this threat.
Submetering
In this workshop, participants will learn about the threat of submetering‐ when landlords pass off energy costs to tenants. It outlines how buildings are submetered and how tenants have organized against submetering.
