Asian Americans for Equality

Civil rights and housing organization in New York City

Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) is an organization based in Chinatown, Manhattan that advocates for civil rights and affordable housing, which it is also involved in developing.[1][2][3][4][5]

## History[edit]

Asian Americans for Equal Employment was formed in 1974 after a successful fight to include Chinese American workers in the construction of Confucius Plaza. It was involved in protests the following year after Peter Yew, an engineer, was beaten by police in Chinatown.[6] 20,000 picketers went to the New York City Hall under AAFE's leadership.[7] Again in 1982 after the Killing of Vincent Chin in Detroit. AAFE was involved in protesting prison construction and the Special Manhattan Bridge District. The group also gradually became involved in housing issues with programs such as protecting tenants against "negligent and predatory landlords" through lawsuits and helping people learn their rights as tenants.[6]

In January 1985 a building at 54 Eldridge Street caught fire and burned down, killing two tenants and leaving a further 125 homeless. The fire was caused by wiring and the landlord had previously shut off heat and hot water, leaving residents to use electric heaters. The American Red Cross asked AAFE's executive director at the time, Doris Koo, to translate victims. Koo resolved to shift the organizations focus to building housing. AAFE worked to create Equality Houses with Enterprise Community Partners, two low-income tenements, for a total of 59 units. Thirty percent of units were reserved for homeless people. The project was successful and AAFE continued similar efforts through the 1990s. They were involved in developing "several hundred affordable units in rehabilitated buildings in Chinatown and the Lower East Side." AAFE were also involved in the construction of several new buildings. In those decades the organization saw much growth, spinning off two corporations and becoming a prominent landlord as well as advocate, a shift for which it attracted criticism.[6] In 1997 the organisation said it had 3,000 "dues paying members".[7]

The organization has since sought to present itself as "a cultural broker for new immigrants", helping them navigate the housing process in New York. In 2016 AAFE was described as "the largest developer of affordable housing in Lower Manhattan, having preserved or developed eighty-six buildings with more than seven hundred apartments since 1989."[6]

## References[edit]

1. ^ Gee, Peter; Le, Douglas Nam; Lee, Richard; Yoo, Jo-Ann; Kui, Christopher (2010–2011). "The Struggle for Quality Affordable Housing in New York City: Asian Americans for Equality". Asian American Policy Review. 21: 9–17.
2. ^ Listokin, David; Listokin, Barbara (January 2001). "Asian Americans for equality: A case study of strategies for expanding immigrant homeownership". Housing Policy Debate. 12 (1): 47–75. doi:10.1080/10511482.2001.9521398. ISSN 1051-1482. S2CID 154726487.
3. ^ "Land Use. Exclusionary Zoning. Community Displacement within New York City Not Actionable under New York Constitution. Asian Americans for Equality v. Koch, 72 N. Y. 2d 121, 527 N. E. 2d 265, 531 N. Y. S. 2d 782 (1988)". Harvard Law Review. 102 (5): 1092–1099. 1989. doi:10.2307/1341474. ISSN 0017-811X. JSTOR 1341474.
4. ^ Hevesi, Dennis (2003-01-26). "A different kind of rally in Chinatown". Chicago Tribune. pp. 16–7. Retrieved 2021-06-09.
5. ^ Kwong, Peter; Miščevič, Dušanka Dušana (2005). Chinese America : the untold story of america's oldest new community. New York : New Press : Distributed by W.W. Norton. pp. 293–300. ISBN 978-1-56584-962-4.
6. ^ a b c d Schalliol, David (2016). Affordable Housing in New York: The People, Places, and Policies That Transformed a City. Princeton University Press. pp. 276–280. doi:10.2307/j.ctvs32rwj. ISBN 978-0-691-19715-9. JSTOR j.ctvs32rwj. S2CID 242348796.
7. ^ a b Jacobs, Andrew (January 12, 1997). "What a Difference Two Decades Make: Asian Americans for Equality Is Attacked as the Establishment It Once Fought". The New York Times.

* v
* t
* e

Housing rights in New York

Government
agencies|

* NYC Department of Buildings
* NYC Department of Homeless Services
* NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
* NYC Housing Authority
* NYC Housing Authority Police Department
* NYC Loft Board
* NYPD Housing Bureau
* New York State Legislature

Legislation|

| New York
State|

* Rent regulation in New York
* Callahan v. Carey
* Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019
* Mitchell–Lama Housing Program
* New York State Tenement House Act (Old Law Tenement, New Law Tenement)

|

New York
City|

* 421-a tax exemption
* 1982 Loft Law
* 2009 Loft Law Amendment
* Article 7A (New York City housing code)
* Local Law 45 of 1976
* Local Law 97 of 2019
* Self-Certification (New York City Department of Buildings)
* Uniform Land Use Review Procedure

Non-/
governmental
organizations|

* Ali Forney Center
* Asian Americans for Equality
* Association for a Better New York
* Breaking Ground
* The Bowery Mission
* Citizens Housing and Planning Council
* Crown Heights Tenant Union
* Homes for the Homeless
* Housing Works
* Metropolitan Council on Housing
* Movement for Justice in el Barrio
* Open New York
* Palladia (social services organization)
* Picture the Homeless
* Real Estate Board of New York
* Rent Is Too Damn High Party
* Sanctuary for Families
* Urban Homesteading Assistance Board

Squatting and
homesteading|

* 519 East 11th Street
* ABC No Rio
* C-Squat
* Charas/El Bohio
* Dos Blockos
* Freedom Tunnel
* Gowanus Batcave
* Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space
* Operation Move-In
* Umbrella House

Housing rights
activists|

* Frances Goldin
* Florence M. Rice
* Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes
* Jesse Gray
* Joseph DeFilippis
* Mitch Snyder
* Pauline Newman
* Rosanne Haggerty
* Stanley M. Isaacs

Media|

* City Limits
* Dark Days (film)
* How the Other Half Lives
* Kill City: Lower East Side Squatters 1992–2000
* One-Third of a Nation
* Project Lives
* Rent (musical)
* The City We Became

Events|

* 1839-1845 Anti-Rent War
* 1904 New York City Rent Strike
* 1907 New York City Rent Strike
* 1918-20 New York City rent strikes

See also|

* Homelessness in New York
* Involuntary hospitalization of Joyce Brown
* New York City housing shortage

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