 NEDAP News | Vol. 3 Issue 2 | February 2008
Welcome to the February 2008 edition of NEDAP News
NEDAP Helps East Harlem Tenants Fight Gentrification
NEDAP has filed a lawsuit against Dawnay, Day Group on behalf of East Harlem tenants organizing with Movement for Justice in El Barrio. Dawnay, Day, a UK-based private equity company, recently purchased 47 rent-stabilized buildings in East Harlem with a stated goal of renovating vacant apartments to raise the rent ten-fold. The lawsuit, brought by NEDAP's Consumer Law Project in partnership with Manhattan Legal Services, alleges that Dawnay, Day has engaged in harassment tactics to force tenants to move out. The ground-breaking lawsuit combines tenant and consumer protection laws to challenge Dawnay, Day's actions.
Learning from South Africa
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NEDAP's co-director Sarah Ludwig traveled to Johannesburg and Cape Town to learn about retail financial services delivery in South Africa.
Sarah reports: "There's a lot we can learn in the U.S. - both positive and negative - from financial services and credit delivery systems in South Africa. They're way ahead of us in using mobile phone and other technologies that seek to meet people where they are. At the same time, it was disturbing to see how exploitative consumer credit has exploded over the past ten years. Many South Africans commented to us that wealth disparities in South Africa are even greater now than in 1994, when apartheid was dismantled, and that the country continues to be plagued by racial segregation and poverty." The trip was organized by the Chicago-based Center for Financial Services Innovation.
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Sarah Ludwig with members of CFSI's South Africa
Innovation Exchange group
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Community Training and Advocacy Highlights
In February 2008, NEDAP:
- Testified at two congressional hearings:
- Before members of the New York Congressional delegation, at a hearing, "Effects of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis in New York City and Efforts to Help Struggling Homeowners." Click here for NEDAP's testimony; and
- At a Subcommittee Hearing on Consumer Protection in Financial Services: Subprime Lending and Other Financial Activities. Click here for testimony delivered by NEDAP Board Member Gregory Lobo Jost, on behalf of NEDAP and University Neighborhood Housing Program.
- Conducted extensive foreclosure prevention outreach and education workshops. NEDAP provided homeowners facing foreclosure with vital information on their options and rights, at events organized by an array of organizations, including:
- Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens;
- Margert Community Corporation;
- Asociación Tepeyac de Nueva York;
- The Bronx Borough President's Office; and
- The NYC Comptroller's Office.
- Led capacity-building training sessions for a range of organizations, including:
- Community advocates, counselors, and clergy at St. John's University forum, "The Mortgage Crisis: Impact on Individuals, Families and Communities;"
- Members of the Queens Borough President's Immigration Task Force, on subprime lending and foreclosures in NYC immigrant communities;
- Habitat for Humanity-NYC staff members, on abusive consumer finance and mortgage lending practices in low income communities; and
- Center for Integration and Advancement of New Americans (CIANA) staff, on immigrants' banking rights.
- Spoke with students about NEDAP and community economic justice matters:
- As a featured speaker at NYU School of Law's Leaders in Public Interest Series; and
- As a guest presenter at Drew University's Wall Street Semester for undergraduate students.
- Presented on NEDAP's Women's Financial Justice Project at New York Women's Foundation's Corporate Leadership Breakfast.
- Testified at a hearing in support of Manhattan Neighborhood Network's franchise renewal application, in which we cited NEDAP's cable TV show, On the Money with NEDAP, and emphasized the importance of democratizing the airwaves.
- Appeared in numerous media outlets, including, for example:
Thank You Donors!
NEDAP thanks the following individuals for their generous donations:
Charu Chandrasekhar  Katy Bordonaro Scott Mills
BPD/Rick Roberto Julie Glynn Kathryn Goyer
anonymous donor
NEDAP welcomes your tax-deductible contribution, which may be made online or by mail.
NEDAP News is the monthly e-newsletter of the
Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project - www.nedap.org.
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