The Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition was forged in the fires of the early 1970s. Through redlining, a practice of creating color-coded maps to indicate the desirability of neighborhoods based on racial composition, the federal government and banks began diverting investments from low-income communities of color toward mixed-income white communities. This practice led to racial segregation, devastating places like the Bronx, where landlords couldn’t get financing to make large scale renovations or sell their properties. Instead, many owners looking to get a return on their investment turned to arson to recoup fire insurance money. As a result, flames engulfed entire neighborhoods, leaving families homeless and businesses destroyed in their wake.

The peak level of arson in the mid 1970s coincided with the loss of manufacturing jobs and the fiscal crisis of New York City. This led to the slashing of vital support services, including fire departments. Expressways tore apart vibrant commercial and residential neighborhoods, and expedited the flow of people and goods to the growing suburbs. As a result, while suburbs around the Bronx were blooming, the Bronx was burning. More than 12,000 fires burned each year. 300,000 people fled. And in the South Bronx, 40% of the homes were destroyed.

Clergy leaders and tenants responded to this crisis by harnessing the power of organized community to hold decision-makers accountable and bring about new creation. In 1974, clergy, students, and community members from all backgrounds joined together to birth the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC) and stop the devastating sweep of arson and abandonment. Bishop Patrick Ahern, Vicar for the Northwest Bronx vicariate delivers a homily and a call to action to organize to save their neighborhoods. Parish collections fundraised to hire community organizers, many of whom were young people from the neighborhood who had grown up watching the devastation unfold. Building by building, block by block, everyday people began building a powerful network of tenant and neighborhoods associations to stop landlords’ arson-for-profit schemes.

Volunteers managed several buildings. They enlisted the support of tenants and addressed emergency situations. When funding came from the Campaign for Human Development they hired building management staff. They bought deeds, signed building leases with the City and were appointed in Housing Court to run buildings.

In the years since then, the Housing Corporation brought government and private funds into its housing. It took on more buildings and gained expertise in renovating occupied apartments.

Today a well-established, non-profit organization supervises the operation of 130 buildings with more than 4000 affordable apartments throughout the Northwest Bronx. Their affiliates provide specialized housing for homeless families and services for young people, the elderly and immigrant populations.

Source: Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation

NWBCCC’s organizing prompts the deployment of Red Cap Fire Marshall units in the Bronx to enhance the City’s anti-arson efforts. While arson was at peak levels in the mid 1970s, the City closed firehouses in poor and working class communities that were most impacted, and the FDNY took days to investigate suspected cases of arson. In the late 1970s, the FDNY Bureau of Fire Investigation launched the Red Caps to immediately respond to the scene as soon as a fire was reported. In arson-rife neighborhoods, they stayed in trailers on a rotational basis, investigating fires and significantly reducing instances of arson.

In 1988, the NWBCCC Reinvestment Committee had half a dozen projects tied up in beaurocratic red tap. NWBCCC was awaiting approval for rehabilitation of a number of vacant city-owned buildings across the Northwest Bronx. Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation had purchased the Concourse House from a nursing home in 1986 to station into their headquarters in its first floor, and neighborhood leaders from Our Lady of Refuge had an interest in converting the upper floors of the building into transitional housing for women and children experiencing homelessness. After the building was purchased, they submitted an application to the City to convert the upper floors to a homeless facility, but the process kept dragging. Fordham Bedford leaders placed big numbers in the windows of the top floor to show the number of days that had passed since they purchased the building, waiting for approval for renovations. Additionally, neighborhood associations were also battling with the police department on a number of community safety issues.

On May 4, 1988, over 100 NWBCCC leaders from the different neighborhood associations met up at Chambers Street in Manhattan for a day of direction. The Coalition leaders dodged the NYPD, who had gotten wind of the action, and had concentrated their forces at 1 Police Plaza. Meanwhile, NWBCCC leaders headed to the headquarters of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. They marched past the security check-in that was left unattended by the guard on a bathroom break. In side the HPD office, leaders unwound a big spool of red tape to encircle the office. A tense exchange took place with HPD Deputy Commissioner Felice Michetti, as NWBCCC leaders refused to leave the office until they got a meeting with the HPD Commissioner. Finally, they agreed to meet with a delegation of NWBCCC leaders that same day. This meeting led to a successful negotiation to move those projects forward to create housing for neighborhood residents.

In 1980, NWBCCC creates the Reinvestment Project, leveraging the CRA to expand financing opportunities for locally controlled buildings. In 1983, University Neighborhood Housing Program (UNHP) is created by Fordham University to assist in community-based redevelopment efforts. In 1986, UNHP provided the Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation with a loan towards the purchase of Concourse House, a transitional shelter for women and children that would also become the main office for its sponsors FBHC, Concourse House HDFC, and the offices of UNHP as well.

In 1988, NWBCCC becomes the second sponsor organization of UNHP. Based on the track record of both Fordham University and the NWBCCC, UNHP quickly succeeded in obtaining lines of credit from banks and institutions to support affordable housing redevelopment. UNHP’s first work was to lend funds and package loans in order to purchase dilapidated privately owned buildings, renovate them and create community controlled affordable housing. UNHP obtains four lines of credit and one investment to begin acquisition lending to tenants organizations, and fledgling housing corporations in the northwest Bronx. The UNHP loan funds that were created in 1988 continue today. The following year, Jim Buckley, the head of NWBCCC’s Reinvestment Project, becomes the Executive Director of UNHP and remains so today.

Source: University Neighborhood Housing Program, 40 Years of Highlights – UNHP Timeline

The Kingsbridge Armory is the largest building of its kind in the United States—according to some records, the largest in the world. Built between 1912 and 1917, the Kingsbridge Armory has been used for many purposes over the last century—as a military hold for the National Guard, a shelter for the homeless, a movie shooting location, a warehouse, to name a few. However, it has been mostly vacant for three decades. NWBCCC leaders long believed that it should and can be a beacon of ingenuity and progress for the Bronx.

Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition had been fighting against school overcrowding in the area, demanding the NYC Board of Education at the time to create more schools in the Northwest Bronx. In 1996, New York State hands over the Kingsbridge Armory over to the City. Before long, parent and youth leaders look to the Armory as a potential site for school construction. In 1997, NWBCCC begins formulating a plan for the redevelopment of the Armory into community schools with the Pratt Institute.

The following year, NWBCCC makes the plan public. It includes schools, a community center, a bookstore and restaurants and other small businesses, a community sports center, among other things. The plan is ambitious, but they use it to get elected officials—at the city, state and federal level to support the redevelopment and help push for it.

By the turn of the century, the Armory had deteriorated until the Buildings Department declared it “unfit.” Scaffolding collapses on Jerome Avenue side of the facility. Meanwhile, City and state officials duel over ownership and responsibility. Each says the other is in charge.

After ruling out schools for the Kingsbridge Armory, Mayor Giuliani announces his plan to work with Basketball City to turn the Armory into a recreation and shopping center—which eventually fails. It’s publicly said to have failed because of financing issues, but the community organized against this project and the mayor never released a Request for Proposal (RFP).

The NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and engineers outline a plan for a new Armory roof, which is now a patchwork of the sky and wooden planks. We partner with local elected officials to advocate for the redevelopment and push for the new mayor to take it on as one of his development priorities. Unfortunately, in 2001, 9/11 happens and the project stalls.

Related Companies gets Mayor Bloomberg’s blessing and wins the bid for the development after having submitted a proposal that included a mall with no consideration of KARA’s principles. The Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), the process by which applications affecting the land use of the city are publicly reviewed, kicks off for the Kingsbridge Armory. KARA rallies in the Bronx and on the steps of City Hall to demand community benefits and living wage jobs at the Armory.

Schools have been ruled out of the development altogether because the building itself is not feasible for the environment needed. As a national and state landmark, the physical structure cannot be compromised, which meant more windows could not be built to resolve ventilation issues. KARA partners with Councilman Oliver Koppell and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz to find a new location for the National Guard housed in the annex buildings on 195th Street. The plan changes—we want to rezone 195th Street to make the street narrower and have more room to build more schools along what we call “The Education Mile.” We start conversations with the NYC Department of Education and the School Construction Authority.

The same year, the City Council approved the mayor’s proposal to extend term limits—which not only allowed the mayor to run and win a third term reelection but also extended the terms of 36 out of 50 of the City Council Members. The term limits fiasco was highly undemocratic, but it may have unintentionally helped the outcome of our fight the following year.

KARA tries to leverage the ULURP process and organizes to put pressure on Related Companies to sign a Community Benefits Agreement that reflects the community’s vision and KARA’s principles. KARA mobilized thousands of Bronx residents, brought many Bronx elected officials to the table who had never worked together before, brought a large coalition of labor unions to the table (including RWDSU, Bronx Building Trades, SEIU locals 1199 and 32BJ), and organized countless events, including: prayer vigils, town halls meetings, press conferences, etc.

KARA builds a relationship with the new Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and he agrees to leverage his power in the ULURP process to bring Related Companies to the negotiation table. The Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation agrees to host the meetings as KARA, the sitting councilmember, Assemblyman Jose Rivera, and the Borough President meet with Related’s lawyer. The Borough President agrees to stall his recommendation and eventually recommends the City not to approve the project because of Related’s refusal to work with the community.

Community Board 7 and the City Planning Commission both recommend approval of the project.

The project goes before the City Council for approval. KARA leveraged relationships in NYC to organize Council Speaker Quinn and the others to vote against the project. We submit over 2,000 prayer cards to the City Council, and hold “Blueprint for the Bronx,” a rally and public meeting with over 1,200 people, calling for the community’s vision. Thanks to KARA’s incessant mobilization, the City Council votes the project down—the first time one of Mayor Bloomberg’s projects gets shut down.

Mayor Bloomberg vetoes the City Council’s decision and the vote goes back to the City Council. The City Council votes against the development once more. Mayor Bloomberg threatens that as long as he’s mayor, the Armory will never be redeveloped.

After so many years of fighting for the City to do something, mobilizing against the project was a hard decision for KARA. However, we knew we didn’t want a poverty-wage center in our community and that if a developer wanted to get millions of dollars in subsidies for their project, they had to give back to the community.

The following year, KARA formed the NYC Living Wage Coalition in order to fight for city legislation that would require developers who receive public subsidies to pay a living wage to their workers.

After four years of youth organizing efforts, the New York City Council passes the Student Safety Act on December 20th, 2010. The Student Safety Act mandates the NYC Department of Education and the NYC Policy Department release bi-annual data regarding the number of suspensions, expulsions, and arrest based on age, race, class, and gender in NYC public schools. This transparency bill is the first of its kind in NYC, and across the country. SBU and UYC student leaders see it as the first step to holding the NYPD and the DOE accountable for the pushing out low-income, Black and brown students and students with special needs out of school and into low-paying jobs and prison.

SBU expands its focus on ending zero-tolerance policies and implementing positive alternatives to harsh disciplinary policies in public schools both on a citywide level and on a federal level, joining the Steering Committee of the Dignity in Schools NY Campaign (DSC-NY) and taking on a Strategy Team leadership role in the Alliance for Educational Justice (AEJ). SBU helps coordinate the DSC-NY Citywide Teach-in on Positive Alternatives to Student Push Out, with over 200 students, parents, and teachers attending the teach-in. SBU begins organizing the Morris Educational Campus to implement a Restorative Justice Pilot Program, that will later be used as a model for city-wide implementation.

In December 2009, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) announce that they would no longer subsidize free student passes, a move that would hit Black and brown students in working class communities like the Bronx hardest. In the spring of 2010, Sistas and Brothas United and the citywide Urban Youth Collaborative, wage a major campaign to demand that the City, the State, and the MTA continue to fund the free student metro cards. SBU and UYC, organize rallies and press conferences with hundreds of NYC students, parents, teachers, and elected officials, including Speaker of the City Council Christine Quinn and Public Advocate Bill De Blasio. Over 60 SBU leaders attended the MTA’s Bronx Public Hearings and pressure MTA Chairman Jay Walder into meeting with NYC students to discuss possible alternatives for students. SBU youth leave that meeting clear that they need to escalate tactics.

The campaign culminates in a citywide walkout of 23 NYC high schools. The largest contingents are from Bronx schools, including 2,000 students from Dewitt Clinton High School. Over 1,000 students gather outside of City Hall for a rally, led by two SBU youth leaders, and then march over the Brooklyn Bridge. Shortly after the walkout it was announced that the metrocard program would remain intact.

Incorporated in 2020, the Bronx Community Land Trust (Bronx CLT) works to build and preserve safe, healthy, and deeply affordable housing for the borough’s racially and economically diverse residents as well as accessible commercial, industrial, and green spaces. The Bronx CLT was founded to address acute pressures of gentrification, displacement, and generational poverty in the Bronx through a model that supports community members and local stakeholders to collectively own and govern land in their neighborhoods and build shared wealth.

Under the Bronx CLT, land is removed from the speculative market to permanetly preserve affordability and to serve Bronx residents. In this way, the Bronx CLT is a vehicle for community-led planning, equitable development, long-term sustainability. The Bronx CLT releases its first report, Fighting Forward, profiling five city council districts where we saw opportunity for community land stewardship. We identified 21 properties, primarily publicly-owned, to target for acquisition.

Ours is one of at least 18 CLTs emerging across the city. Through the the NYC Community Land Initiative, a citywide coalition, we exchange learning and advocate for policies to create a supportive ecosystem for CLTs to flourish.

For years, we have fought back neighborhood by neighborhood against organized abandonment and for what we deserve. We are tired of wealth and resources leaving our borough because we do not control our own communities. In 2019, we saw an open Congressional seat as an opportunity to build a Bronx-wide vision and coalition for our values: to build power and fight forward for economic democracy. We decided to tell a new story about the Bronx that focused on values and priorities set by our people. One that uplifted the many assets that can be leveraged to transform our borough, not the negative statistics and stereotypes that cast the Bronx as exploitable and expendable.

Over the course of 2020, our coalition of community, faith and labor organizations held people’s assemblies to gather ideas and input on strengths and challenges across the Bronx with a goal of moving our whole borough towards shared wealth and control over the resources and assets in our neighborhoods. Thousands of Bronxites engaged in an expansive participatory process to develop the Bronx People’s Platform for Congress to take control of the conversation with candidates running for Congress in District 15–the only Congressional district based entirely in the Bronx. This platform of federal-level priorities around criminal justice, the economy, education, elections, energy, housing, health, and immigration is endorsed by 25 organizations across the Bronx! Through crafting a collective vision for the Bronx, we united our organizing efforts across the entire borough.

Our plan proposes projects in the areas of: finance; housing, land, and healthy neighborhoods; small business support; manufacturing, innovation, and technology; and training and education to develop our people for a democratic, equitable, and sustainable Bronx economy.

These projects built off of existing work our organizations have done for decades—like ensuring healthy buildings through tenant organizing, green retrofits, and local hiring; building resiliency hubs with wifi and solar power; or establishing a People’s Credit Union to ensure equitable banking access that doesn’t prey on poverty. And it also proposed projects that don’t exist yet but are necessary to foster economic democracy—like a Bronx Fund that could support acquisition of community-owned housing and land.

Our Bronx-wide Coalition went on the move, holding public meetings all across the borough and introducing a digital feedback tool, so that thousands of our neighbors could join us in creating and carrying out the plan. Practicing democracy meant we had to learn to engage in constructive debate about the work we prioritize. We introduced a set of criteria to help us evaluate each project in the Plan based on how foundational it is to transforming the economy, its potential to create cooperative ownership, its readiness for implementation, and the control and autonomy it establishes for Bronxites.

The NWBCCC and Bronx CLT, in collaboration with development partner Lemle & Wolff, received official site commitment for four parcels. These plots of land have been either vacant or occupied by abandoned and deteriorating buildings for decades. NWBCCC and L&W co-developed plans to construct approximately 30 units of permanently affordable homeownership.