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Congressman: Gentrification ‘a Malignant Tumor’

As a recent wave of gentrification is causing rent in Crown Heights to skyrocket, a problem compounded by members of our own community who buy houses merely to flip them for much higher prices, many newlywed Lubavitch couples discover to their dismay that living in the community of their youth is just not within their means.

In neighboring Bedford-Stuvesant, also suffering for skyrocketing rent due to the same phenomenon, newly-elected Congressman Hakeem Jeffries harshly denounced this trend, calling gentrification “a malignant tumor” that “must be stopped dead in its tracks.”

From DNA Info:

U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries promised Thursday to tackle gentrification and gun violence at the federal level in his first State of the District address in Bed-Stuy.

Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd at Boys and Girls High School, Jeffries recapped his first year in the House of Representatives while looking ahead at his next year in office.

“We did everything that we could to make sure that our presence was felt down in Washington and here at home,” Jeffries said.

“But as I stand here before you tonight and look out on 2014, I recognize that we still have a lot of work that needs to be done.”

Jeffries, who represents central and eastern Brooklyn along with Coney Island and Howard Beach, pointed to a lack of affordable housing in the 8th Congressional District, calling economic gentrification “a malignant tumor.”

“Once it takes a hold of a neighborhood, it completely devours it, and then goes on to consume neighborhood after neighborhood,” Jeffries said. “We must stop this cancer dead in its tracks.”

The congressman blamed an “affordable housing crisis” in the city on the Bloomberg administration, and praised Mayor Bill de Blasio for promising to add additional affordable housing to neighborhoods that need it.

But on a federal level, Jeffries said he would fight to change a part of the tax code that gives tax-exempt financing to developers who make at least 20 percent of their units affordable.

Instead, Jeffries said he would introduce legislation that proposes a 50-50 split — half of all housing units would have to be affordable for the funding to be tax exempt.

In addition, a raise in the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would help ease income inequality in these areas, Jeffries said.

“In this very district, in a city that’s one of the richest in the world, we’ve got folks who are struggling to put food on the table,” Jeffries said.

Gun violence is another problem affecting the district, Jeffries said. Although New York has strict gun laws, people are still able to easily purchase guns in other states and bring them over the border into the city, he said.

“In other states there’s a gun culture that causes people to be able to access guns as easily as possible,” Jeffries said.

“The failure of Congress to act has created a patchwork of inconsistent laws across this country that leave communities like ours vulnerable to the looseness of laws in other places.”

Toward the end of his speech Jeffries channeled the late Nelson Mandela, who in 1990 visited Boys and Girls High School as part of a world tour.

The former South African leader’s history — in which he was imprisoned and eventually released, helped end apartheid and served as the nation’s president —  made it clear that “the impossible is possible,” Jeffries said.

“Here at home we’ve got some issues to work out, some challenges to confront, some obstacles to overcome,” Jeffries said.

“But I still believe in the power of possibility.”

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57 Comments

  • Crown Heights Resident

    These House Flippers in Crown Heights should remember that the Rebbe wanted crown heights to be a community where all Chabad people live Not just the super rich people

  • Hypocrites

    These same politicos couldn’t have cared less when nice neighborhoods were ruined, like what happened to many neighborhoods in Brooklyn in the 60’s. Now the roles are reversed, the neighborhoods are making a recovery, and the politicos call this “cancer.”

  • homeowner

    Great article but it’s not going to change even the tiniest bit, unfortunately since No one took heed of what the rebbe had set up and everyone seemed to understand better and now we have the housing crisis the rebbe wanted to save us from!

  • Wake Up

    Mr Jeffries
    Please have the tax people from Washington tax each one of this flippers and trace all bogus llc and corporations of this flippers so they stop this unlawfull crooked flipping

    • Milhouse

      There is nothing unlawful or crooked about buying and selling property. What you propose is outright theft.

    • Facts

      no one buy houses for this prices with Kosher money.
      such prices are paid with non kosher money and this will be traced.
      if not today it will be the next day.

  • CR

    “gentrification [is]”a malignant tumor” that “must be stopped dead in its tracks.””

    Because pols like Mr. Jeffries want to preside over neighborhoods filled with poor folks dependent upon government handouts and who will look to him for patronage. They are guaranteed to keep voting him back into office as long as the goodies keep coming. Middle class residents cannot be so easily bought, pay far more in taxes than they receive in services and promise to hold Jeffries to account. He cannot have that!

  • some respectable

    people in our community are doing this low, and disgusting work. sickening!!

    • Reply to #9

      By raising the prices of the homes in Crown Heights you are going against what the Rebbe wanted.
      (The Rebbe wanted crown heights to be a community where all Chabad people live Not Just The Super Rich)

    • Milhouse

      Where did you see that? In which sicha? The Rebbe’s campaign was against those who made CH affordable for Lubavitchers! Before the blockbusting in the ’60s, most Lubavitchers didn’t live in CH. They lived in Brownsville and East New York and places like that, and walked in on Shabbos. CH was a diverse Jewish neighborhood, like Borough Park now, until the criminal element (and you know exactly what I mean) started moving in, and it became unsafe (that was when R Meir Kahane HYD started the Maccabees to protect elderly Jews from muggers), and most of the Jews got scared and fled to Borough Park.

      The problem of course was that each person who sold to an undesirable person made the area more unsafe for his neighbors, and drove down the price. This was called blockbusting. They would offer a high price to people on a block, and everyone on the block knew that the first person to break his resolve and accept the bid would get the money, but the value of every other house on the block would plummet, and everyone else would lose. The only way to resist this was for everyone to stick together and not accept the offers.

      And that was the Rebbe’s campaign. He pointed out that it is an explicit law in Shulchon Oruch that it is forbidden to sell a house to someone who will harm the neighbors. It’s just as forbidden as eating chazer. And therefore everyone must refuse these offers, and that way the neighborhood will stay safe. Unfortunately many people did not listen to the Rebbe, and that’s why CH declined.

  • So Lost

    Sorry, but I’m a bit confused about the outrage over flipping houses. Why can’t enterprising people make money? Next we’ll be attacking the groceries for making money on milk and bread, taking advantage of the people who can’t afford it.

    And why is there this sense of entitlement that people have to own a house? You live in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in one of the most expensive cities in the world, living a Frume life with all the expenses that come with it. You feel that owning a house is important to you? Move. There are so many growing communities all over the world. There are so many opportunities in those communities, and the housing/cost of living is much more affordable.

    – “Oy! Leave Crown Heights? But the Rebbe wanted…!”
    Can someone please show me where the Rebbe said not to move out to be mechazek other Jewish communities?

    It’s time to stop being so entitled. In the 70’s and 80’s, our parents went to the same schools as we did, got the same education as we did, lived the same way we did. They didn’t go on shlichus. They somehow found a way to support their families. Not all of them bought houses or cars. Some of them moved to other communities. The point is, they figured it out. Then they raised a bunch of entitled whiners.

    Time to grow up.

    • let's be careful not harmful

      exactly! Rebbe is smarter than you, he sent shluchim all over, to give choice to people where to build Dirah b’Tahtonim

    • CH bubby

      Where do you come from?
      The subject here isn’t only about owning your home but the cost of renting too. In order to rent someone first has to buy, and if the price is too high the rent will be too. In the 70’s & 80’s young couples mostly had Section 8. Many did leave on shlichos, and for the ones who stayed, as families grew most of us were forced to buy, no one wanted to rent to a large family, even if they did, a mortgage was usually cheaper in the long run.
      There are also other advantages in owning your own home. When it came time to marry off our kids, if we couldn’t afford a wedding we borrowed on the house, but for those who didn’t own, weddings were often paid for by others, including yourself if you support the local organizations.
      And in case you think you’re still in the 70’s or 80’s, a one bedroom apartment today runs from about $1200., where is a newly married couple to find that kind of money, unless they both have decent jobs ??? (Maybe that’s part of the problem causing the shidduch crisis, by the time they take a few courses and find a job, they already don’t know what they want.)

    • Milhouse

      CH Bubby, the potential for flipping is what gives your house value. You said you can borrow against your house; what do you think will happen if its value is driven down because of restrictions on reselling? All you worked for will go down the toilet, that’s what will happen. Exactly the same as what happened to the home owners in the ’60s.

      Don’t forget that CH was not a Lubavitcher neighborhood then. Most Lubavitchers couldn’t afford it. They only moved in when the values went down because people were ignoring the Rebbe’s pleas, and selling at a loss. If the Rebbe had his way the prices would have remained high and the shchunah would have remained primarily non-Lubavitch. That’s what the Rebbe wanted; not a monoculture.

    • Answer to #10

      The Rebbe wanted those of us who aren’t able to go on Shlichus, to live in Crown Heights even if we aren’t earning a Huge Salary.

    • Milhouse

      The reason he wanted people living in CH was to keep the prices up for those already there, so it shouldn’t chas vesholom become like Brownsville, where those yidden who couldn’t afford to move out were stuck in a gehennom.

    • Reply to #15

      Why do you think your profit is more important than Jewish children living in the rebbes shchunah where they will get a better chasidishe upbringing.

      Would u rather these jewish children get raised in a more Goyishe seviva where the houses are cheaper.

    • Milhouse

      Make those places Jewish. Or move to somewhere Jewish that is cheaper, e.g. out of town. Why should anyone make you a gift so you can live in a neighborhood that’s above your income?

  • to # 7

    One reason I would want to move out of the neighborhood is to not have to raise children anywhere in proximity to people with Midos like yours!!!

    • Milhouse

      What are you talking about? (The numbers here keep changing, so there’s no point in addressing a comment by number. You have to reply directly to the comment in question, or at least quote something.)

  • Milhouse

    Jeffries is the cancerous tumor. And so are all the people who condemn “gentrification” and “flipping”. “Gentrification” simply means a neighborhood getting nicer, attracting a better class of people. And “flipping” simply means people making an honest dollar selling their own property that is rightly and justly theirs to do with as they please.

    And stop lying about the Rebbe being against raising housing prices. On the contrary, the Rebbe’s campaign was against people who were driving prices down. The Rebbe wanted to maintain property prices in the neighborhood, which represented so many yidden’s life savings. He railed against those who sold houses to people who would lower the value of all the houses on the block, thus making a profit for themselves while harming all the neighbors.

  • SD

    GENTRIFICATION SEEMS TO SOLVE THE RAMPANT GUN VIOLENCE VERY WELL. THINGS ARE REVERTING BACK TO THE WAY THEY WERE IN THE 1950’S WHEN YOU COULD WALK DAY OR NIGHT IN THE OLD GREATER CROWN HEIGHTS – EAST – WEST – FROM LINCOLN TERRACE PARK TO BOTANICAL GARDENS, AND NORTH SOUTH FROM PARK PLACE TO WINTHROP WITHOUT THE SLIGHTEST WORRY, AND NOW THIS RABBLE ROUSER CALLS THIS A MALIGNANT TUMOR.
    GENTRIFICATION IS THE LASER KNIFE CUTTING AWAY THE REAL TUMOR.

    • @SD

      Where do people get the idea that having resided somewhere for a length of time somehow entitles them to live their forever? Who owes this to you? The landlords? The government?

  • to 7

    you completely misunderstand the problem.
    no one has anything against people who are in business and trying to make a profit. however people who are deliberately driving up the prices of homes to an incomparable, insane price so that you an only own if you are a millionnaire is doing a sickening thing. for this area to be so unaffordable because some rich jews want to make a mint off their poor fellow jews is disgusting. now to tell people to move for this reason is also pathetic. many people have more to their life than just their home and there are many other things to consider that may prevent them from moving. so now your saying its fine that 7 person families should live in a 1 bedroom?? normal that their rich neighbors are having fun flipping?? sorry but i know a lot of people who can afford the flipping game but would NEVER dream of doing it because they are people with morals and values and understand whats wrong. if one doesnt see whats wrong than his morals and ethics are lacking as well.

    • Milhouse

      This is pure communist claptrap. “Flipping” is just a bad word you use for something you don’t like. There is no conspiracy to manipulate prices; there never is, except in the minds of paranoid lunatic communists.

    • Been There, Done That

      It’s all hypocrisy. I had tenants from “unser” for many years. I charged low rents, and some of my tenants who then bought houses then got their own tenants, and now charge them as high as they can get.

  • to 16

    oy you sound confused. please, the Rebbe was definitely against driving prices up. please do your research again instead of lying in the Rebbes name.

    • Milhouse

      Really? When did the Rebbe speak against driving prices up? When would he have had occasion to speak of it, since in his day no such thing was possible? The problem was people driving property values down, not up! And that is what he spoke against.

  • to So Lost

    One reason I would want to move out of the neighborhood is to not have to raise children anywhere in proximity to people with Midos like yours!!!

  • Yitzchok and Esther Michael

    what about people that have absolutely BAD Credit . they are not able to find an apartment at all! I really think it is disgusting and rude. If someone is living elsewhere and they have bad credit and are unemployed they cannot move because they have bad credit. If one wants to move to crown heights to have more opportunities for work. I think the real estate offices should take it into consideration on taking people who pay rent on time.

    • Milhouse

      Really? If someone has bad credit, why would you believe they will pay on time? Because they say so?! Would you rent to such a person, knowing that they’re likely not to pay their rent, and once they’re in it will be almost impossible to get rid of them?

  • yossi & berel, CH

    The best thing to happen to Crown Heights is gentrification.
    Btw, Jeffries, gentrification willl take away ninty percent of the illegal guns

    • #33

      This isn’t what the Rebbe wanted.

      If the prices go up to high the Rich Goyim will also start buying homes in crown heights.

      Eventually there will be fewer and fewer chabad families living in Crown Heights.

    • Milhouse

      Rich goyim are not a problem. They don’t mug people, and they don’t destroy yiddishe owners’ life savings.

  • Land Transfer

    Let them institute a land transfer tax. Here in the city of Toronto every time you buy a house you pay an approximate 4% of tax just for transferring the title. This would slow Dow flipping in crown heights if the flipper has to pay the city this added cost.

    • Milhouse

      1. There is already a stamp duty, which is supposed to represent a fee for the city’s work in transferring the title. And of course there’s tax on the profit.

      2. If the purpose of the tax would be punitive, to discourage flipping, then it would be outright theft, and unconstitutional.

    • awacs

      ” If the purpose of the tax would be punitive, to discourage flipping, then it would be outright theft, and unconstitutional.”

      As opposed to, say, the $200 tax on the transfer of a NFA weapon, that’s constitutional?

    • Milhouse

      No, it isn’t constitutional. The courts will probably eventually get around to striking it down.

      See the case that Roberts cited in the 0bamacare decision, where the Court struck down a “tax” because it was really an unconstitutional penalty.

  • Schneur Goldberg

    If people cant afford the rents or purchase prices, they will move to other areas.
    The market supports the prices, not political voices seeking votes.
    Look beyond Midwood prices are cheaper.

  • The Rebbe

    I remember clearly on a Yud Bais Tammuz when
    the Rebbe spoke about making housing affordable
    for Crown Heightsers. In Kfar Chabad they did, but
    here in Kan Tziva Hashem es Habrocha NO ONE DID
    A THING! It is still not too late and some of the chassidim who heard that sicha and are B”H very
    wealthy can lower their prices and make housing
    affordable to our young and growing families. Please
    come forth and do what a true chossid has to do!

    • Milhouse

      “Lowering prices” means selling something at less than it’s worth. What kind of chutzpah do you have, to demand that? Why should someone sell you his property for less than it’s worth? That means giving you a present. Why? Because you’re better than him?! You deserve that money more than he does?! If you want tzedokah, ask for tzedokah. If you want a gemach, ask for one. But don’t demand that someone whose house is on the market should deliberately sell for less than it’s worth. That harms all the neighbors as well, which is forbidden by the Torah.

  • housing

    Many of the comments here are outrageous and erroneous at best. Of course the Rebbe wanted affordable housing for all of Anash! That is why Chevro was created – in order to pool money so that the Jewish community become solidified and enable all Anash to obtain housing and loans etc. at affordable prices, and live HERE. To claim otherwise is an outright lie.

    Anyone with eyes in their head can see that CH is in danger of becoming assimilated into the larger non-Jewish environment. Yes there are many families that own homes here, but the housing and rental market is becoming increasingly closed for the average Chabad family. In addition, the temptation to sell for a hefty profit places the whole community in danger of attrition. This is contrary to everything that the Rebbe wanted for this community.

    Yes, the people that were fortunate to buy homes here will continue to endure, but as they get older and/or when many of their children are forced to move out, they will become increasingly isolated. And in the absence of the Rebbe’s physical presence here, many do not feel compelled to stay, anyway.

    As for the “fliippers”, while it is true that anyone is “free” to earn money this way, it is unfortunate that profit, at any cost, has become such a temptation and priority. It is amazing to me that the concept of helping another chosid, either by enabling them to buy a home or by extending a gemach, or at least selling without price gouging has become such a foreign concept and even one that is subject to derision.

    I have NEVER heard a story from our forebears where one chosid says to another: “tough luck”, or “move out” or “who cares about you!”, “It’s a free market” etc. Have we become so depraved that the dollar bill has erased all vestiges of Jewish values (Gomlei chassadim) and chassidishkeit?

    Gevirim should be encouraged to invest in the community by purchasing homes and allowing others to buy or rent them at affordable prices. We must also demand that the CHJCC provide affordable housing for young families. The community council has not built even ONE affordable housing project in CH in over twenty years!

    • Milhouse

      I have NEVER heard a story from our forebears where one chossid says to another “sell me your house at a massive discount”. Gemilus chassodim is gemilus chassodim, but real estate is business. You can’t mix the two. You can ask him to give you generous payment terms. If you have enough chutzpoh you can even ask him to give you the difference between what you can afford and the purchase price as tzedokoh, and take it off his maaser. But you have no right to expect him to lower the price by even a penny. Besides everything else, he has no right to do that because it would harm the neighbors’ property prices.

  • this is america...

    The market sets the value or to make it even more simple a house is worth what a person will pay. Many flippers lost money during the housing crisis. Its not as if they are ripping people off or deliberately trying to make it difficult for poor people move in. Gentrification or proper up keep of a neighborhood is investing in a neighborhood. This is still a capitalist country. And it sounds like socialist commune is where some people would be happier.