Politicians Can’t Fix Racist Gentrification

NEW YORK CITY — A group of PL’ers recently went with a coalition of community groups to call on New York State legislators to save a “rent stabilization” law at risk of being gutted by the local bosses in favor of “mixed”-income neighborhoods. The current law limits rent increases for workers on short-term leases (one and two years) to those determined by a Rent Stabilization Board, with a cap on how much landlords may increase rent.
Landlords and others who support throwing poorer workers out to attract wealthier tenants insist that “mixed”-income neighborhoods are necessary to bring in services. These filth use racist code words, like making Black and Latin-majority neighborhoods “cleaner,” or “safer,” or “reducing crime.” They support changing the laws to better suit their profit agenda. Liberal rulers would like to put power into the hands of the Warren Buffets who can “take care of poor people” while pretending that the reality of this racist capitalist dictatorship over the working class doesn’t exist.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has promised to find or build 200,000 “affordable” housing units.  “Affordable” is out of reach for many families whose annual income is $16,000 to $23,000. For example, new buildings will be built in East New York, Brooklyn. The city will provide incentives and tax breaks to the developers so that 20 to 30 percent of the apartments will be “affordable,” with around 10 percent meeting the definition of “low” income. This will guarantee swollen profits for the real estate industry, dramatically increasing overall rents by squeezing out low-rent apartments.
New York City has long been in a major housing crisis. It has lost 400,000 “low” and “moderate” rent housing units, including 55,000 rent-stabilized apartments where rents rose above $2,500 a month and were de-regulated by the law. Working-class tenants,including the elderly, already pay 50 percent or more of their income for rent. Gentrification of working-class communities in all five boroughs has progressed rapidly, displacing thousands of families and changing entire communities.
Landlords routinely flout the law and ignore repairs, leave buildings in dangerous conditions, and commit deliberate criminal acts and harassment to force tenants to move. Government-owned housing projects languish for lack of repairs, such as the building where the NYPD murdered Akai Gurley. Small buildings and private houses for rent are not covered by any rent laws at all, and rents rise almost overnight and transform entire blocks into upper-income housing. Working-class tenants have nowhere to go, so some leave the city to face long and difficult commutes to work. Tenant success stories in the courts, welcome as they are, are extremely few in number.
PL’ers at the rally argued that the working class needs to understand that bankers, bosses and the real estate industry hold class power. Politicians who thrive on the cheers while chanting empty slogans don’t have a magic wand to change “bad landlords.” Their bosses are the capitalists! It is dangerous for workers to be lulled by the liberal politicians into having false hopes about capitalism. We argued for moving beyond short-term limited reforms, however necessary, to overthrow capitalism and fight for workers’ power under communism. United by an international PLP, we can build real housing for all, in a  system based on workers sharing what we have so that we can meet the needs of the working class worldwide.