Help Tami fight the Ambalo Bros and tell her story
Ten years ago, Tami Green was biking in East New York, Brooklyn and came across an abandoned house in disrepair. Tami was homeless at the time and living in her storage unit nearby so when she learned from neighbors that the previous owner had passed away three years prior and lay vacant, she decided to move in and fix it up - she replaced stolen copper lines, fixed the roof and removed a dangerous tree. She also became a beloved community leader who organizes block cleanups and food and backpack giveaways. Tami is now fighting eviction from property speculators who have purchased the property.
The East New York Community Land Trust is a grassroots, people of color-led non-profit organization founded by community residents dedicated to preserving affordability for future generations and providing a vehicle to create generational wealth.
"Tami is such a precious part of our community and we cannot let her be evicted by these speculators who have made a profitable business off of stealing deeds, displacing residents and destabilizing Black and Brown neighborhoods across New York City. We will send a message to all speculators trying to prey on working class people in our community and across NYC."
The ENY CLT are currently helping Tami with her legal battle and will use this AwesomeNYC grant to to hire filmmaker Ifeyinwa Arinze to create a short video about Tami’s fight to help spread the word about Tami's story and the work the ENY CLT is doing to keep New Yorkers in their neighborhoods. This project is about neighbors coming together to take community control of land and housing and we're excited to help them tell that story.