A Home Worth Fighting For: Public Housing Tenants Organize Against Demolition in the Heart of Manhattan

A Home Worth Fighting For:

Public Housing Tenants Organize Against Demolition in the Heart of Manhattan

Film Screening + Panel Discussion

Thursday, March 5

6:30pm - 8:30pm

Free and open to all. Refreshments will be served.

In-person only:

CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies

25 West 43rd Street, 18th fl, NYC 10038 (map)

Click here to register:

slucuny.swoogo.com/5March2026/register

As the city's affordable housing crisis remains center stage, New York City's vast public housing stock is relatively overlooked and unprotected. Nowhere is this more pressing than in Chelsea, where a proposal to demolish public housing in the neighborhood has spurred tenant organizing determined to defend their community from privatization, gentrification, and displacement.

Join us for a debut screening of the new documentary, A Home Worth Fighting For, followed by a conversation with the filmmaker and local housing activists engaged in the fight against the proposed demolition of the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Audience Q&A will follow the panel discussion.

Speakers:

Renee Keitt is the resident association president of the Elliott-Chelsea Houses in NYC and a community organizer with the FEC Tenants Against Demolition. She is a fierce advocate for public housing in addition to being an urban farmer, seed saver, and master composter. A graduate of Farm School NYC, Renee studied housing, community organizations and organizing, nonprofit leadership, and public policy at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Her interests lie at the intersection of food, housing, nature, and the built environment.

Natasha Florentino is a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and video producer whose practice involves deep research, community engagement, and a sustained commitment to revealing the power dynamics behind displacement. Natasha’s newest film, A HOME WORTH FIGHTING FOR: The Push to Stop the Demolition of Public Housing in Chelsea, follows residents who oppose the proposed demolition of two public housing developments in New York City.

Moderator:

Dr. James Rodriguez is an Associate Professor at the CUNY School of Labor & Urban Studies where he teaches courses on New York City, public policy, urban history, and housing. He holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from New York University (NYU) after completing his dissertation on police, public housing, and gentrification. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in both English and Psychology, with a minor in Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, from Brooklyn College. Alongside teaching and academic research, Dr. Rodriguez has worked as a public housing and land use organizer on the Lower East Side and is active in tenant organizing movements in New York City.

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This event will be recorded and the video posted on the SLU YouTube channel (@cunyslu), usually within 7-10 days of the event.

Additional related content may be produced by the City Works TV show with Laura Flanders, or the Reinventing Solidarity podcast, a project of New Labor Forum.