#145 Spring 2006 — After Katrina

NYC Tenants Don’t Want Tourists

Tenants in New York City are getting fed up as growing numbers of tourists camp out in their buildings. Landlords have taken to evicting tenants from single room occupancy buildings […]

Tenants in New York City are getting fed up as growing numbers of tourists camp out in their buildings. Landlords have taken to evicting tenants from single room occupancy buildings and making their units available to tourists for overnights or one-week stays. A grassroots housing group has counted 36 buildings in the Chelsea and Clinton neighborhoods it believes are being used at least in part as youth hostels, vacation rentals or temporary quarters for corporate employees. Many of these landlords are converting their units without getting proper permits from the city. Housing advocates are pushing the city to consider legislative action to curb illegal conversions. (NY Times, 1/22)

About the Author

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John Atlas

John Atlas is a founder of Shelterforce and board chair emeritus. He is the producer of ACORN and the Firestorm, a film directed by Reuben Atlas and Sam Pollard and author of SEEDS OF CHANGE: The Story of ACORN, America's Most Controversial Anti-Poverty Community Group. He is also the former executive director of the Passaic County Legal Aid Society.

Peter Dreier

Peter Dreier is professor of politics at Occidental College and has contributed to Shelterforce since the 1970s. He served for many years on the board of the National Housing Institute and was a founder of the Massachusetts Tenants Organization in the 1980s and has worked with housing activist groups since then.

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ISSUE TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Frank Wilkinson’s Legacy

    • Jan Breidenbach
    • Peter Dreier

    April 23, 2006

    His was a life devoted to the preservation of our civil liberties. But it all began with a belief in decent, affordable housing.

  • Designing a Socially Just Downtown

    • Alex Salazar

    April 23, 2006

    Mayor Brown's plan for a new downtown in Oakland was stymied by a resurgence of grassroots housing advocacy

  • Monkey See, Monkey Do

    • David K. Shipler

    April 23, 2006

    The people who staff antipoverty programs hardly ever get interviewed, although they’re primary sources of non-ideological information about the grassroots problems of the poor.