Harlem Tenants Council

Nellie Hester Bailey is co-founder of Harlem Tenants Council (HTC), created to "provide relief for the poor and to combat community deterioration as a result of the accelerated pace of gentrification in Harlem." HTC's goal is to build a broad-based bottom up tenants' movement that can influence policies and programs that impact on low-income residents and neighborhood small businesses. The group organizes educational forums, provides free legal counseling, builds ties with Harlem churches and businesses and organizes demonstrations to draw attention to the housing crisis. HTC's members are tenants living in public housing, city and privately owned properties and small business owners.
Recognizing that the lack of affordable housing affects all low income New Yorkers, HTC works in coalition with progressive groups throughout the city to create a comprehensive urban housing agenda, build a unified front to demand socially responsible housing practices and hold elected officials accountable for their policies. Together, they have protested compulsory work requirements for tenants living in public housing and demanded legal representation for all tenants in housing court. In 2000, HTC challenged the plan to transfer city owned buildings to third parties and won transfer of buildings now slated for low-income tenants' equity cooperatives.
Program Description Harlem Tenants Council (HTC) founded in 1994 is a tenant led grassroots organization based on the self-determination tradition of progressive activism for people of color. Its mission is to provide eviction intervention services for poor & working class families in Central Harlem to realize the following goals: (1) to achieve concrete short & long term improvements in housing quality of life; (2) to engage tenants in campaigns that will empower them to resolve problems based on their own interest and agenda; and (3) to work with tenant leadership on direct actions for social change to alters power relations that allows tenants to become key players in decisions that affect their community. Services & programs: Tenant and Community Organizing; Tenant's Rights and Education workshops and conferences; Education; Bi-monthly Housing Clinic will start in September 08; Senior Citizens Anti-Eviction Program; Direct Action Campaigns; *Developing program: one stop social service referral for clients.
Issues Dealt With:
Anti- Evictions services, referrals and assistance
Elderly Rights
Homelessness/Hunger
Legal Issues (Referrals & Rent Clinic staffed by volunteer attorneys (start in Sept. 08)
Multi-Issue Community Organizing
Strategies and Tactics Used
Advocacy/Lobbying
Community Organizing
Cross-community Organizing/Coalition Building
Direct Actions/ Civil Disobedience
Issue Campaigns
Legal Support
Rallies and Demonstrations/Public Speaking

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