Series Overview

ANHD’s 11th annual Community Development Conference, Fight Forward, was a 4-day series event held on select days in September and October, located throughout New York City, in the communities we serve. Each event engaged 100 - 150 housing advocates, small business leaders, organizers, economic justice practitioners, government employees from the city and state, financial investors and regulators, and academics. 

  • Tuesday, September 13th: Fight Forward in Queens: a Discussion on Land Use Justice | Setting Community Principles to Build Power for Land Use Justice and Equity 
  • Thursday, September 29th: Fight Forward in Brooklyn: Towards Stability for Owners and Renters | Keeping us in our homes: Ensuring Small Homeowners and their Tenants Thrive
  • Thursday, October 6th: Fight Forward in Manhattan: Challenging Modern-Day Redlining | Moving Towards More Impactful Policies and Solutions to Fight Modern-Day Redlining
  • Thursday, October 20th: Fight Forward in the Bronx: Building Merchant Power | Patterns of Small Business Displacement and the Power of Merchant Organizing
     

9/13

Setting Community Principles to Build Power for Land Use Justice and Equity
 

New York City’s current planning paradigm continually puts communities in a reactive position, forced to push back, with limited time and resources, on inequitable proposals that do not meet community need. Local groups and elected officials who craft statements of community principles - based on data, an equity framing, and community-crafted solutions - offer an important step towards a more proactive position and approach. This panel will explore what we mean by community principles, how local groups and electeds can use them to increase their power, and what it points us towards in the fight for a more equitable planning process in New York City.

Speakers: 

  • Brooklyn Borough President, Antonio Reynoso (Moderator)
  • New York City Council Member, Julie Won, District 26, Queens
  • Executive Director, Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, Sandra Lobo
  • Executive Director, Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation, Jesse Solomon

Date: Tuesday, September 13th
Location: Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, NY 11106

9/29

 

 

Keeping us in our homes: Ensuring Small Homeowners and their Tenants Thrive

 

Housing security and stability for low-income homeowners and tenants are often considered separately or to be in tension with one another. Yet in many Black, Latinx, immigrant, and communities of color, owner-occupied homes with rental units are the most viable option for both affordable homeownership and tenancy. These "small homes" present their own challenges of financial sustainability and safety while offering pathways to thriving, community-controlled housing. This panel will examine shared challenges, interests, and solutions for this unique stock and what it means for homeowners and renters alike in New York City.

Speakers:

  • Deputy Editor, City Limits, David Brand (moderator)
  • Program Director, Basement Apartment Conversion Pilot Program, Cypress Hills LDC, Ryan Chavez
  • Chief Housing Officer, City of New York, Jessica Katz
  • Executive Director, Community Voices Heard, Juanita Lewis 
  • Executive Director, Chhaya, Annetta Seecharran
  • Commissioner of the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, RuthAnne Visnauskas

Date: Thursday, September 29th

Location: Restoration Plaza Amphitheater, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216
ADA accessible entrance: 233 Herkimer Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216

 

10/6

Moving Towards More Impactful Policies and Solutions to Fight Modern-Day Redlining

 

Decades of redlining have and continue to prevent people and communities of color from buying homes, investing in small businesses, and building wealth. What happens when policies designed to address injustices are not race-conscious, and not designed with equity from the start? This panel will explore what modern-day redlining is and how it is impacting our NYC communities. Hear examples, stories, research, and ideas from community groups and policy researchers on how people are countering modern-day redlining and what NYC could be doing to undo it.

Speakers:

  • Executive Editor, Brooklyn Deep; Co-Host/Co-Producer, School Colors, Mark Winston Griffith (Moderator)
  • Financial Justice Program Director, New Jersey Citizen Action, Beverly Brown Ruggia
  • Chief Executive Officer, Nos Quedamos, Jessica Clemente
  • Associate Professor of Sociology and Public Service in New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, Jacob William Faber
  • Lead Organizer, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC), Jean R. Henry

Date: Thursday, October 6th
Location: Riverside Church, South Hall, 490 Riverside Dr, Manhattan, NY 10027

10/20

 

 

Patterns of Small Business Displacement and the Power of Merchant Organizing

 

Residential tenants in New York City and State have a history of effectively coming together to fight rising rents and other displacement pressures brought on by landlord speculation and gentrification. Commercial tenants, and specifically, small businesses, have the potential to organize and gain the same and other needed protections. Building merchant organizing power, especially in low-income and historically marginalized communities, is a key action to help ensure small businesses remain in our neighborhoods and can support residents who rely on their small businesses to access essential and culturally relevant goods and services, as well as jobs. This panel discussion brings together practitioners working to understand patterns of small business displacement and organizers and merchant leaders building power to confront it.

Pre-Event Performance:

Speakers:

  • Executive Director, Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative, Michael Partis (Moderator)
  • Lead Organizer, Street Vendor Project, Jennifer Salgado    
  • Associate Professor, Urban Studies and Planning Program, University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation; Director of Community Development, National Center for Smart Growth; Director, Small Business Anti-Displacement Network, Willow Lung-Amam
  • SVP, Division of Small Business and Technology – Capital Access, Empire State Development, Ray Salaberrios

Date: Thursday, October 20th

Location: Bronx Brewery Garden, 841 E 135th Street, The Bronx, NY 10454

 

 

Logistics

Logistics

SOCIAL MEDIA AND HASHTAG

 

The official ANHD Conference Hashtag is #BuildCommunityPower

 

Follow the event series along on Twitter and Instagram @ANHDnyc for up to date info and recaps!

 

ANHD’s new, reimagined conference event is an event in transition, with an array of new logistics unfolding. If you have a question, please feel free to outreach to ANHD’s Director of Operations, Lauren Nye.

 

 

Sponsors

Sponsors

 

 

 

 

Consultants, Vendors & Partners

Consultants, Vendors & Partners

ANHD is thrilled about our reformatted Conference event - moving from a corporate banquet hall near Times Square, to invest capital in the communities we work in and are fighting to bring vitality and full potential to.

ANHD is hosting our events in Astoria, Cypress Hills, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Morningside Heights/Mott Haven, and we are prioritizing working with an array of local and MWBE consultants, vendors & partners. They include:
 

Operational Support

 

Host Sites:

 

Food Services

 

Other