THE OPPORTUNITY AND PROMISE IS HERE AND NOW TO BUILD MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING!!!

(New York City, March 15, 2005) Over 500 New Yorkers from across New York City gathered today at Battery Park City as they conducted a mock "moved-in" to the luxury high rise community. Hundreds of New York City's tenants, community leaders, and homeless shelter residents demonstrated how 30 years ago, the City promised that Battery Park City would be a mix income community, however, due to the City's fiscal crisis in the 1970's the promise was changed to "using future surplus from Battery Park City to produce and preserve affordable housing elsewhere in New York City." Unfortunately, very little of that money went to producing and/or preserving New York City's affordable housing stock. Of the $1 billion surplus generated over the years, only $143 million has actually been spent toward building more affordable housing. The Battery Park City Authority is expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years.

Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) mobilized over 50 residents from Flushing, Queens and Chinatown and Lower Eastside to join hundreds of others in this demonstration. Residents wore bathrobes and shower caps, carried boxes and newspapers to "move into" the housing that they were promised.

Mr. Chang Cun Wu, a resident of the Lower Eastside on Rivington Street for the last five years spoke of the horrid overcrowded conditions he and his wife and two sons lived from 1988 to 2000. Mr. Wu and his family of four lived in a two room apartment, his sons slept in bunk beds in the kitchen with a bathtub and he and his wife slept in the other room. Mr. Wu applied for public housing in 1992 and was placed on the waiting list as #1303. Ten years later, they were only on waiting list #200. "By the time they reach my number, I won't be around anymore," Mr. Wu commented. In 2000, through the community referral process, Mr. Wu and his wife was able to apply and be accepted in one of AAFE's affordable housing units on Rivington Street.

"Mr. Wu's case is only one of hundreds of thousands of similar cases demonstrating the housing shortage New York City is in right now. This housing shortage has only escalated in the last two decades. In our community, the lack of housing is often times a hidden problem with two-three families living together in a one bedroom apartment, hidden away from the New York City shelter system," said Margaret Chin, deputy executive director of Asian Americans for Equality. This crisis need not escalate any further if the City holds true to its promise to produce and preserve affordable housing in New York City by using the Battery Park City surplus money as it was intended to be used. "Now is the time to ask our Mayor, our Governor and our City Comptroller, "Where is Our Share?" and hold them accountable to this promise," Chin said.

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