The landlord, Greenbrook Partners/McNam Management, sends tenants notices of non-renewal shortly after buying a building—effectively evicting folks in the middle of the pandemic at a massive scale. While most are free-market tenants, we're also finding that many units in these buildings were illegally deregulated.
On top of that, they're also using a strategy of "construction as harassment" to urge tenants to leave. As a result of Greenbrook's deplorable practices, multiple NYC and NYS enforcement agencies are investigating the firm's portfolio and have found over 875 violations. These agencies include the NYC Office of the Tenant Advocate, the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the NYC Department of Buildings, and the New York State Attorney General’s Office.
Greenbrook Partners is funded by NW1, which is in turn financed by the Texas School Board of Education's "Permanent School Fund." While the primary goal of the rally will be to call on the Texas SBOE to divest from NW1/Greenbrook Partners, this is also an opportunity to call out development practices that fuel gentrification and displacement.
Here's some articles that will provide some more background on this enormous issue. These are from back when we thought this issue was isolated to our area—it has now gone far beyond just us.
https://therealdeal.com/2021/05/05/park-slope-landlord-tenants-battle-over-lease-renewals/
https://www.brooklynpaper.com/greenbrook-partners-divestment-campaign/
https://patch.com/new-york/parkslope/tenants-tackle-morally-reprehensible-landlord-park-slope