Stephanie Rudolph: Stop Feeling Guilty! How Gentrifiers Are Fighting Gentrification

Gentrification has been sweeping major urban centers, particularly New York City. To combat displacement, New York City maintains rent stabilization laws. Often groups of “gentrifiers” paying $8000 a month for a dorm-like apartment live in the same building as low-income multi-generational families paying only $1000. Rent-regulation is what makes New York City socioeconomically, racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse. But when corporate landlords buy up property and attempt to displace long-term tenants, how can we use our privilege to fight back? In areas without rent-regulation, how can we fight displacement and maintain diverse communities?

Stephanie Rudolph is a staff attorney at the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center, a non-profit dedicated to representing under-resourced communities in New York City. Stephanie works with organized tenant associations to preserve affordable housing by launching group actions against negligent and harassing landlords.

Stephanie is the granddaughter of our own E. Betty Levin. Her upbringing at the Long Island Ethical Humanist Society continues to inform her work today. Stephanie graduated from Haverford College and Stanford Law School. When not suing slumlords, Stephanie enjoys long distance running, reading, baking, tennis, and creative writing.