Frances Villar for Mayor Newsletter for the Week of Aug. 8
Fighting the Big Landlords, Fighting for Quality Housing
 Frances on NY1 Noticias. Click this link to make an urgently needed donation to the Frances Villar for Mayor |
This past weekend marked the end of the month. That meant rent and home payment time for millions of NYC residents. As a worker, student and mother of two, Frances Villar understands the hard work it takes to provide a place called home for families across the city.
A governmental report released last year, in April 2008, noted that over 1 in 4 New Yorkers, or 572,644 city residents, are spending HALF of their income on rent.
The same report shows that since Bloomberg has been in office, New Yorkers who pay HALF of their earnings towards rent has increased by at least 13%.
More poor and working people are paying more—and the landlords are getting richer.
In an article entitled “Real estate tycoons gouge New York City tenants,” campaign co-coordinator Yenica Cortes explains how multimillion-dollar real estate companies have been lining their pockets with the earnings of thousands of working NYC families.
In an article entitled “Queens needs affordable homes, not luxury condos,” Liberation newspaper reporter Yari Osorio documented how the city handed out over $500 million in tax breaks to rich real estate developers in order to build luxury condominiums instead of low-income housing.
Frances Villar is a mayoral candidate with first-hand experience in the struggle against these parasitic landlords. She helped organize the first tenants’ association in her Bronx apartment building and was chosen to be the president of the association. For her building residents, that meant immediate repairs and new appliances.
On June 23, Frances attended a demonstration and issued a statement outside the NYC Rent Guidelines Board moments before the Board tragically decided to increase the rent for thousands of all ready struggling New Yorkers by 3-6%.
The PSL’s Frances Villar for Mayor campaign press statement called for:
– An immediate end to all evictions and foreclosures in the city.
– The rolling back of rents 15-20% as a first step in counterbalancing the increase in rents that have occurred over the last decade.
– Placing working people in control of housing decisions like that taken by the Rent Control Guidelines Board.
– Rent Control For All!
Unlike the capitalist candidates running for Mayor, Frances Villar is no friend of the Real Estate tycoons that are holding our city hostage. In fact, a movement against the tyranny of the landlords, led by working people like Frances herself, would be their worst nightmare!
Why Frances Villar is running for Mayor…
“I wrote to the mayor, I wrote to any and everybody, and they helped me squat!!”
— Tanya Fitzgerald
Tanya Fitzgerald is an African American woman who has been living in and out of the public housing system here in NYC for many years. She contacted the Frances Villar for Mayor campaign after hearing Frances speak at a campaign street rally held at Fulton Mall in Brooklyn.
“She was explaining her situation with her landlord, and what she started up in her building,” explained Tanya.
At the time Tanya had been dealing with a housing situation herself that unfortunately is not unique to just her.
“[My] landlord, what he was doing, he was renting out illegal rooms, he was breaking up a two family room and making them like eight rooms, illegal corruption… I wrote to the mayor… I wrote to any and everybody, and they helped me squat!”
For Tanya a new kind of politics is not only desirable but necessary. “I would want to see somebody who’s… interested in our struggles, in our stories, and wants to do something about it…not just… pretend that they’re doing something… Frances is the one that could do it because she’s very hardworking, and… she’s going through those common problems, so yes, please put that in! Vote for Frances, that’s right!”
Frances Villar is not just running to get the votes of people like Tanya. She is running in order to support people like Tanya in their struggles for real justice! Safe, affordable housing is a right!
“…As long as they fight for the people!” — Nick Georgianis
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Nick Georgianis is a 52-year old worker at Forman Mills in the Bronx , earning $7.50 an hour. He contacted the Frances Villar for Mayor campaign after seeing a poster because he noticed that she was a tenants’ rights organizer—and he was looking for people who could help him fight.
Nick lives in one of three basement rooms in a Washington Heights apartment building. The ceiling is crumbling. The wiring is exposed. The sink in his one-room living area leaks. The area is infested with roaches and rats.
All he is asking for is for his landlord to make his small room livable.
He has complained to the city’s 311 line. He has asked for help from local politicians and the Jewish Council of Washington Heights. They all try to help, but landlord Josh Newstein of Home Company won’t budge. He’s trying to push Mr. Georgianis out.
“Political parties don’t mean much to me,” he said. “Democrat, Republican, socialist, communist, as long as they fight for the people.”
That’s why Frances Villar is running for mayor—to build a movement to fight against the exploitation of Nick and thousands like him.
Frances Villar in the News:
Frances Villar may not yet be Bloomberg’s closest competitor, but her campaign has continued to draw the attention of thousands of New York workers. Calls come into the office every day in response to posters across the city.
Frances was interviewed this past week by Hot Indie News. Click here to see a video of the interview and read the article by reporter Kye Lee.
To see more of Frances in the News, visit our In the Press section on VotePSL.Org
We Need Your Help
The Frances Villar for Mayor campaign has tremendous potential to bring together poor and working people across the city to challenge the billionaires and to put our needs first on the agenda. In the middle of the most severe economic crisis this country has seen in decades, capitalism has failed—we need socialism!
But it won’t happen without your help.
There are many ways to continue building the movement to take on the parasitic billionaires and their system. Make a donation, Organize an Event, Volunteer your time, ask us a question and finally Join the revolutionary party organizing the Frances Villar for Mayor campaign: The Party for Socialism and Liberation!
See you in the streets,
The VotePSL Campaign Team
