Housing and Environmental Justice

AALDEF's Housing & Environmental Justice Project provides legal representation, community education, and organizing support to low-income immigrant communities on issues of anti-gentrification and environmental justice. Our project connects tenants to existing resources and provides direct legal services on eviction and other landlord/tenant and fair housing issues. We also collaborate with low-income and limited English proficient people and community organizations to address land use and other relevant issues affecting low-income communities of color. At the heart of our anti-displacement work is the principle that every community should be able to choose what is best for itself. Click here to download a copy of the Housing and Environmental Justice Brochure.


Protecting the Last Affordable Immigrant Neighborhoods in Manhattan
AALDEF is a member of the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side. The Coalition formed in 2008 to address the gentrification and displacement that is changing the working class, immigrant neighborhoods of Chinatown and the Lower East Side. Since then, the Coalition has created the Chinatown and Lower East Side Special District Rezoning Plan to better preserve existing affordable spaces and create new affordable housing.

Click here for a copy of the Special District Rezoning Plan.

The Special District Rezoning Plan incorporates ideas from years of outreach and discussion with neighborhood residents, workers, and small business owners about the impact of displacement and relies on the technical expertise of the Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development.

Among other things, the plan calls for:
•    Community review of development on specific lots
•    100% affordable housing on all publicly-owned sites
•    Special permits for certain chain stores
•    Limitations on construction of new hotels and luxury development
•    Zoning to reflect the current built environment

The need for a community-based rezoning plan that protects working families and small business owners in the last affordable, immigrant neighborhoods in Manhattan has never been more urgent. Our plan promotes a new and comprehensive vision to ensure that Chinatown and the Lower East Side remain sustainable for the working class families that built these communities.