The Morningside Heights Community Coalition (MHCC) held a rally for affordable housing on Sunday, Nov. 12 near the Columbia Greenmarket. The rally featured speakers from the coalition and Columbia University students who organize for affordable housing in the Morningside Heights and Manhattanville neighborhoods.

MHCC is pressuring the university to earmark 30% of units at a new tower at 600 W 125 St. for low- and middle- income neighborhood residents. The 34-story tower is under construction and will open in the fall of 2024, according to MHCC president Dave Robinson.

MHCC, which this reporter is a member of, has called on Columbia to designate affordable units in new residential buildings in the past with little success. They hope that with a new university president, Minouche Shafik, who was inaugurated last summer, Columbia may signal a path forward with affordable housing commitments.

“We are somewhat optimistic that things could change,” Robinson said of Shafik’s appointment. He described Shafik as “more approachable” than former university president Lee Bollinger. “It’s a challenging situation because many of the students, especially the graduate students, are in the same boat as the rest of New Yorkers. The housing is way too unaffordable. That’s why the appeal is made to institutions that have some sort of mission that is greater than profit.”

Although it is an educational institution, Columbia is also the largest private landlord in the city, according to a Columbia Spectator analysis of Department of City Planning data. The university had designated certain real estate holdings as belonging to “trustees of Columbia University,” bringing the total number of its properties to 245. Prior to the Spectator’s revelation, The Real Deal had reported that New York University was the city’s largest private landlord with 115 buildings.

Among Columbia students and alumni priced out of Morningside Heights is Dan McSweeney, a member of MHCC’s JUST Housing Committee. The Columbia graduate was told to vacate his rent-controlled apartment by the end of 2022 so that the landlord — Columbia — could relist the unit. McSweeney, who is disabled from his time in the U.S. Marine Corps, has received multiple temporary extensions from Columbia to remain in his apartment, but has not received a new lease offer.

“Columbia does so many good things for Morningside Heights,” McSweeney told the crowd. “However, we also understand that there are tensions between the university and the people who live around here. What we’re trying to do is bridge that gap.”

Current undergraduate students helped hand out informational flyers at the rally, carried signs and spoke about their involvement in campus housing-justice projects. Lucas Pasquina, an undergraduate secretary of Columbia’s Housing Equity Project, said that the group works directly with unhoused people who were displaced by Columbia’s real estate expansion. 

“It’s hard for [students] to get housing, so we can imagine how hard it is for people who are unaffiliated with the university to get housing,” said Paquina. They stated that the rally and the Housing Equity Project’s work are both “part of that fight to help hold Columbia accountable and to make sure that as it expands, it does so ethically and with the community in mind.”

Student volunteers also helped gather signatures on notecards to be delivered to Shafik’s office. Prior to the appointment of Shafik, who is an English baroness, Bollinger established the Community Advisory Council to address neighborhood issues. The Council is made up entirely of Columbia faculty and staff; Robinson says MHCC’s request to join has been ignored. 

Local government representatives have not ignored MHCC, however, and the coalition hopes that these supporters will be able to sway the university. Manhattan Democratic District Leader Curtis Arluck attended the rally, along with a representative from Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine’s office; members of City Council Member Shaun Abreu’s staff have previously attended MHCC JUST Housing Committee meetings. New York Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell, who represents Upper Manhattan, also spoke at the rally, noting that Columbia currently has “over 6,000 apartments that they can keep as affordable housing through rent stabilization, which absolutely must be done.”

“Columbia has to keep its promises,” O’Donnell said, calling on the university to not evict Morningside Heights and Manhattan Valley residents like McSweeney. 

“If you can’t keep the promises you’ve already made, the community will never believe you when you make another promise.”

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