The United Front Against Displacement

The United Front Against Displacement is an anti-gentrification organization.

Read our Points of Unity.

Urban Core is our national publication, featuring regular contributions from cities across the country.

The UFAD has chapters in the Bay Area, Boston, and New York City. To get involved with the UFAD or learn more, contact us on social media @theufad or below:

BAY AREA: Call/text: 510-815-9978 Email: wewontgo@riseup.net

BOSTON: Call/text: 617-858-6604 Email: wewontgoboston@riseup.net

NEW YORK CITY: Call/text: 646-450-3880 Email: nogonyc@riseup.net

See our blog for ongoing updates.

See recent media coverage here.

This is a letter decrying one of the crimes of the 21st century; the nationwide project by Congress, HUD, big banks, and developers to privatize public housing. For decades Congress has cut funding to public housing developments across the country. This is part of a long history of neglect of public housing, which has led to deteriorating and dangerous conditions for tenants. Mold, asbestos, lead paint, water damage, broken windows, rodent infestations, lack of heat, and other unlivable conditions are all a daily reality for tenants in public housing projects across the country. In addition to this lack of respect or concern for peoples’ health, tenants are regularly subjected to rude, derogatory, and discriminatory treatment for raising these concerns to managers and local housing authorities.

Now after all these years of letting the projects rot and forcing people to live in deplorable conditions, HUD is giving away all the projects to wealthy developers and the big banks. These predatory interests aim to make billions off of this transfer of wealth and land, all at the expense of the millions of people currently living in public housing. Instead of using funding for much needed repairs of public housing, HUD’s budget is now being used to subsidize these privatization projects, which almost always include the construction of new luxury units and the displacement of the vast majority of current project residents.

Esta es una carta denunciando uno de los grandes crímenes del siglo XXI; el proyecto nacional del Congreso, HUD, los grandes bancos y las inmobiliarias para privatizar la vivienda pública. Durante décadas, el Congreso ha recortado los fondos para desarrollos de viviendas públicas en todo el país. Esto es parte de una larga historia de abandono de la vivienda pública, que ha provocado su deterioro y condiciones peligrosas para los inquilinos. El moho, el asbesto, la pintura con plomo, los daños causados ​​por goteras de agua, las ventanas rotas, las plagas de roedores, la falta de calefacción y otras condiciones no habitables son una realidad diaria para muchos inquilinos de los proyectos de vivienda pública en todo el país. Además de esta falta de respeto y de preocupación por la salud de las personas, los inquilinos son sometidos regularmente a un trato grosero, despectivo y discriminatorio por plantear estas preocupaciones a los administradores y las autoridades locales de vivienda.

Ahora, después de todos estos años de dejar que los proyectos se pudran y de obligar a la gente a vivir en condiciones deplorables, HUD está regalando todos los proyectos a desarrolladores adinerados y a los grandes bancos. Estos intereses depredadores apuntan a ganar miles de millones con esta transferencia de riqueza y tierra, todo a expensas de los millones de personas que actualmente viven en viviendas públicas. En lugar de utilizar fondos para reparaciones muy necesarias de viviendas públicas, el presupuesto de HUD se está utilizando ahora para subsidiar estos proyectos de privatización, que casi siempre incluyen la construcción de nuevas unidades de lujo y el desplazamiento de la gran mayoría de los residentes actuales del proyecto.

Blog Feed

• Protesting Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s Privatization of Public HousingJuly 4, 2022
  JUNE 18: At a cushy photo op this week in Roxbury, @MayorWu and other city officials used cops to intimidate and silence multiple groups of protesters. This is part of a growing trend by the city of #Boston to crush any progressive dissent to government policy. While we were at the event to protest theContinue reading “Protesting Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s Privatization of Public Housing”
• Manhattanville and Jackie Robinson tenants in Harlem confront NYCHA about PACT privatization scamJuly 4, 2022
  Tenants at the Manhattanville projects in #Harlem confronted @NYCHA over their RAD/PACT privatization program. Around 70 tenants attended the meeting and almost all were outraged at this scam to hand the projects to the big banks and private corporations 1/n In this video Loretta asks @NYCHA about the troubled history of #PACT and the horrorsContinue reading “Manhattanville and Jackie Robinson tenants in Harlem confront NYCHA about PACT privatization scam”
• Report on the Struggle at City TowersJune 21, 2022
  The attached report is the fruit of four months of collaboration between a newly-formed Tenant Association at City Towers housing development in West Oakland and organizers with the UFAD. In it, we detail: The past and present conditions at City Towers Organizing efforts since February of this year and the response from property management andContinue reading “Report on the Struggle at City Towers”
• What is PACT like for tenants? NYCHA tenants speak out about why privatization is a scamMay 17, 2022
  en español abajo Ocean Bay – QueensPrivatized by PACT in 2016 Ocean Bay Bayside in Queens was the first NYCHA development that was privatized under PACT in 2016. From 2017-2019, the private company evicted tenants at three times the average NYCHA rate. 6 years after the “repairs” done by the company, the front of theContinue reading “What is PACT like for tenants? NYCHA tenants speak out about why privatization is a scam”
• Fire at City Towers: Random Tragedy or Par for the Course? Part 5: The Struggle that Lies AheadMay 13, 2022
  Shortly after the petition was delivered to VPM Management, KDF Communities, the Oakland Housing Authority, Mayor Libby Schaaf, City Councilmember Carroll Fife, and Oakland City Attorney Barbara J. Parker, the latter office replied: Thank you for your email and attached petition. The City Attorney takes violation of tenants’ rights and safety very seriously. Multiple CityContinue reading “Fire at City Towers: Random Tragedy or Par for the Course? Part 5: The Struggle that Lies Ahead”
• Fire at City Towers: Random Tragedy or Par for the Course? Part 4: Raising Complaints with One VoiceMay 4, 2022
  In the aftermath of the February fire, a petition was written up based on contributions from several residents throughout door-to-door conversations. In the space of a month, over 90 signatures have been gathered from residents in the building. Residents delivered this petition to the management office at City Towers on April 1st. A small groupContinue reading “Fire at City Towers: Random Tragedy or Par for the Course? Part 4: Raising Complaints with One Voice”
• Fire at City Towers: Random Tragedy or Par for the Course? Part 3: The Corporations behind City TowersApril 28, 2022
  City Towers is owned by KDF Communities, a real estate investment firm specializing in low-income housing. Although KDF touts its “commitment to providing social services to [its] residents” [1], a brief survey of the conditions in the properties it owns immediately shows that its primary role in society is to profit from the exploitation ofContinue reading “Fire at City Towers: Random Tragedy or Par for the Course? Part 3: The Corporations behind City Towers”
• Fire at City Towers: Random Tragedy or Par for the Course? Part 2: Stories from Towers TenantsApril 22, 2022
  While in the process of working on a petition campaign, we worked with City Towers tenants to collect personal stories that could be shared publicly to paint a vivid picture of the kinds of problems people are facing there. The interviews below were also published on Twitter [1-3]. Many tenants are understandably afraid of retaliationContinue reading “Fire at City Towers: Random Tragedy or Par for the Course? Part 2: Stories from Towers Tenants”
• Fire at City Towers: Random Tragedy or Par for the Course? Part 1: The February FireApril 19, 2022
  On the evening of Tuesday, February 15th, residents in Building C of the City Towers housing development in West Oakland heard fire alarms going off. False alarms are so commonplace there that many people thought nothing of it and stayed where they were – until smoke started to creep through the gaps between hallways andContinue reading “Fire at City Towers: Random Tragedy or Par for the Course? Part 1: The February Fire”
• Did SFHA ever get approval from HUD to get rid of the last public housing in the City?March 24, 2022
  On November 26, 2021, the UFAD sent this statement to the media and various agencies, including San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) and the Office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Nearly 90 tenants from Sunnydale and Potrero Hill signed onto this demand which clearly stated their opposition to the HOPE SF privatization scheme. Two weeksContinue reading “Did SFHA ever get approval from HUD to get rid of the last public housing in the City?”

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