A coalition of faith leaders, homeowners and legal advocates gathered at a Bedford-Stuyvesant church on May 20 to launch the Black Homeowners Agenda, a grassroots campaign organizers describe as an effort to protect, stabilize and expand Black homeownership in New York City neighborhoods they say are facing displacement pressure.
The interfaith rally, held at 10 a.m. at Antioch Baptist Church at 828 Greene Ave., was billed by organizers as the kickoff of a citywide campaign. According to a media advisory issued by the organizers, the launch was led by the Rev. Dr. Robert Waterman alongside Rabbi Rachel Timoner, joined by New York Communities for Change, the advocacy group Neighbors Not Profits, the Legal Aid Society and interfaith leaders.
Organizers said the campaign comes in direct response to what they characterized as ongoing efforts in the City Council to weaken New York City’s short-term rental enforcement and regulations, including rules they credit with curbing the expansion of illegal Airbnb-style rentals in residential communities. The effort organizers point to is Intro 1107, a City Council bill that would amend Local Law 18 of 2022, the registration law that tightened short-term rental rules; supporters of the bill frame it as modest reforms for owner-occupants, while the Legal Aid Society and tenant advocates oppose it, arguing it “directly contradicts the goals of Local Law 18 of 2022.”
Loosening those restrictions would threaten housing stability in historically Black neighborhoods, the organizers said, by incentivizing speculative investment, removing housing from the long-term market, increasing pressure on homeowners and undermining neighborhood cohesion. The advisory framed the campaign as a defense of stable, owner-occupied communities. Independent reporting has documented the impact of the existing rules in Bed-Stuy: nearly 1,000 neighborhood apartments were bookable on Airbnb in the summer of 2023, but only about 112 remained listed as short-term rentals after the crackdown.
According to the organizers, the first phase of the campaign will focus on Bedford-Stuyvesant, Canarsie, East Flatbush, East New York and Wakefield, with organizing centered on faith institutions, homeowner engagement and advocacy.
