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                                   GUEST

                              Co-founder & Director

               Harlem Tenants Council

             www.harlemtenantscouncil.com

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More about: NELLIE HESTER BAILEY

Nellie Hester Bailey is co-founder of Harlem Tenants Council (HTC), created to "provide relief for the poor and to combat community deterioration as a result of the accelerated pace of gentrification in Harlem." HTC's goal is to build a broad-based bottom up tenants' movement that can influence policies and programs that impact on low-income residents and neighborhood small businesses. The group organizes educational forums, provides free legal counseling, builds ties with Harlem churches and businesses and organizes demonstrations to draw attention to the housing crisis. HTC's members are tenants living in public housing, city and privately owned properties and small business owners.

Recognizing that the lack of affordable housing affects all low income New Yorkers, HTC works in coalition with progressive groups throughout the city to create a comprehensive urban housing agenda, build a unified front to demand socially responsible housing practices and hold elected officials accountable for their policies. Together, they have protested compulsory work requirements for tenants living in public housing and demanded legal representation for all tenants in housing court. In 2000, HTC challenged the plan to transfer city owned buildings to third parties and won transfer of buildings now slated for low-income tenants' equity cooperatives.

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NELLIE HESTER BAILEY

New York, NY
Since joining SNCC in the 1960s, Nellie Hester Bailey has worked to build a broad-based movement for social and economic justice. During decades of tenant organizing, she helped win hundreds of rent strikes and today, as Executive Director of the Harlem Tenants Council, she is spearheading the fight to protect Harlem residents from the impact of gentrification. Nellie also co-chairs the multi-racial Citywide Tenants Coalition and is a leader of alliances focused on police brutality and international solidarity.