Black and Brown homeowners are struggling to make ends meet, leaving the boroughs in record numbers and endangering our political landscape, and in desperate need of relief. That relief is on the table, but only if we overcome the racially charged attacks standing in its way.
A bill before the City Council would make modest fixes to Local Law 18, which nearly wiped out the short-term rental industry. While perhaps well-intentioned to stop landlords from turning sorely needed units into mini hotels, it has left unintended consequences on one- and two-family homeowners in the outer boroughs — ones the law’s sponsors even lament.
Homeowners’ inability to allow short-term rentals while they are not at home has stunted their ability to supplement their income, make mortgage or property tax payments, and keep that essential generational wealth that is their homes.
Some 200,000 Black New Yorkers have fled the city over the past two decades, as they find it more unaffordable than ever to live here. Recent analysis from the Fiscal Policy Institute shows Black New Yorkers are leaving New York at more than 50% higher than the rate of white New Yorkers, and Latino New Yorkers’ out-migration rates are 38% higher than whites.
The evidence lies in the more than 1,800 foreclosures post-pandemic, across the 10 Blackest City Council districts, all but one of which are in the outer boroughs. This outmigration only makes the alarm bells louder about how many congressional seats New York could lose in 2030.
New York needs Black and Brown communities for more than a census data point. We need union workers, teachers, and professionals; pastors, who not only keep the faith in our communities but keep them activated; and the musicians, artists, writers, and creators who keep this city the cultural center of the universe. Many of those New Yorkers struggled and saved to buy a home in their neighborhood or inherited one from a parent or grandparent who did.
Black and Brown New Yorkers have done all of this in spite of racial stereotypes that we cannot afford a home, underinvestment in our communities, and police profiling that has led to brutal — sometimes fatal — incidents. It’s why we were disgusted to see Tenants Not Tourists, the campaign financed by the Hotel Trades Council, run such a racist ad campaign against Airbnb. This was racial dog whistling that would make Bull Connor smile and Medgar Evers shudder.
We were disappointed to see this come from an entity like HTC, a union that has been welcomed to the NAN House of Justice in Harlem and boasts a diverse membership.
While HTC condemned the ad campaign after many Black and Brown leaders were rightfully outraged, we cannot see a world in which they did not know Tenants Not Tourists would run such messaging or why they would double down on the divisiveness and fear mongering by pitting faith leaders against each other and New York renters against homeowners. We can understand a difference of opinion on policy, but taking it to this level is deplorable.
What has them irate are a few small fixes that will allow Black homeowners to share their own homes. We cannot understand how allowing locks on your private spaces or allowing up to four guests to stay when they are not home requires racially coded attacks. Nor can we fathom how these changes, which are backed by a group of Black and Brown Council members, to deliver economic relief to their constituents, hurts communities of color.
Let’s reject us-versus-them messaging like “Tenants Not Tourists.” At a time when Black and Brown New Yorkers are rightfully demanding economic justice, we cannot rely on division or stall a strong tool that helps people keep their homes.
There is more to do to ensure good access to jobs or capital, but this is a strong first step this Council can take today to end the wave of foreclosures and unaffordability that is making them live elsewhere. Black and Brown communities need New York to deliver for them as much as the city needs us to make it the metropolis that it is.
There’s a path forward with these small changes to begin reversing the tide and build up Black and Brown communities — not price them out. And we should be able to do it without resorting to racist attacks.
Sharpton is the founder and president of NAN. Richardson is the chairman of NAN and the Conference of National Black Churches and senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon. Byrd is chief operating officer of NAN and pastor of Mother AME Zion in Harlem.