From The Association

*** IPNTA Press Release ***

9/11 SURVIVORS FIGHT EVICTION EFFORT

FOR RELEASE: December 5, 2002 Contact: Neil Fabricant 212/406-2405
Diane Lapson 646/298-0419 or 212/473-5900
Julie Miles 646/251-3899

New York, NY, December 5 -- “We survived the attack on the World Trade Center, and we will survive efforts to evict us from our Ground Zero homes”, said leaders of the Independence Plaza North Tenant Association as they marched from Independence Plaza North (IPN) to City Hall to join a citywide fair housing rally on December 5 at noon.

Most IPN residents have lived here for more than 20 years -- before there was a trendy neighborhood known as Tribeca. “We are the pioneers of Tribeca,” said Diane Lapson, an IPN Vice President. “The city couldn’t get anyone to move to here in the early ‘70’s. It took years, but we built a wonderful integrated community. We had to fight to establish everything - the park, schools, grocery stores, traffic lights, pharmacies. Now they want to raise the rent, move us out and turn our apartments over to strangers who have a lot of money, but no history here.”

Located on the northern border of Ground Zero, Independence Plaza North was built in the 1970s under Mitchell-Lama legislation, which provided tens of millions of dollars in low-interest mortgages, subsidies and tax abatements to the developer and owner, Mr. Harold Cohn. Its 1,330 apartments house thousands of seniors, moderate income working people, and children.

On 9/11, many IPN residents were evacuated, and building services were turned off as debris from the collapsed towers engulfed the apartment complex. In the ensuing months IPN tenants have been at the forefront of the struggle to restore the community’s health and safety.

Independence Plaza residents were notified September 12, 2002 that the current owner intends to sell the property to multi-millionaire developer Laurence Gluck. Mr. Gluck has said that he will remove the complex from the Mitchell-Lama program and charge “market rents.” IPN’s teachers, utility workers, clerical and sales people, city employees and retirees simply cannot afford to pay market rates.

The tenant organization is developing “a counter proposal that will be fair to the owner, fair to the tenants, and fair to the city’s commitment to retain low and moderate income integrated housing in Manhattan,” said IPN President Neil Fabricant. “Taxpayer funds underwrote the deal that built IPN. Now we need the Mayor’s help to get the government agencies that supervise that deal to the table with us and the landlord to come up with a plan that protects all of our interests.”

-- END --

< Back to Main Page - From The Association