Homes as Sanctuaries

Gabriela Rendón's seminar will be drawn from her book-in-progress tentatively titled Defiant Neighborhoods: Rise, Revitalization and Gentrification in Latinx Brooklyn. The book is based on nearly ten years of research and work with grassroots groups and community organizations in the predominantly Latinx neighborhoods of Bushwick and Sunset Park. Her presentation, “Homes as Sanctuaries,” will delve into the housing struggles that immigrant tenants have endured over the last two decades in Sunset Park, underscoring how the Latinx community — assisted by immigrant and tenant rights groups — has fought against harassment, eviction, and criminalization to protect their communities, homes, and lives. It particularly examines the organizing and coalition-building efforts immigrants used as their homes became precious assets for predatory real estate speculators, and their neighborhoods were encroached on by federal immigration law enforcement agents during the Trump administration. Through the voices of the Mexican community, this talk will depict the immigrant's housing experience in Sunset Park as the epitome of many other immigrant communities at risk of displacement in a borough traditionally known for its ethnic enclaves and, more recently, for its hip and gentrified neighborhoods.

Gabriela Rendón is Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Community Development and Founding Director of Parsons Housing Justice Lab at The New School. She is also co-founder of Urban Front, a transnational consultancy offering localized knowledge to public and third-sector organizations that work for social and environmental justice, and of Cohabitation Strategies, a nonprofit that facilitates community-led local efforts through participatory frameworks leading to urban and social transformation. She has worked on projects commissioned by nonprofits, public agencies, municipalities, and national governments across cities in Western Europe and South and North America.