Meet Claudia Perez
Tenant Association President at George Washington Houses, Mott Haven Fridge Network Food Distributor
Briggs Luisa Negrón
Meet Claudia Perez, tenant association president at George Washington Houses, active community advocate for East Harlem and New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents, as well as a Mott Haven Fridge Network Distributor. As the tenant association president, Claudia Perez works to advocate for community members and secure livable housing, distribute food to all, as well as provide a wide variety of resources for the needs of East Harlem and NYCHA residents especially considering many issues that have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Originally from Brooklyn, Claudia Perez moved to East Harlem in 1998, where she met her husband and raised four kids, soon to be five, in East Harlem. She cited her children as a core motivator for the community based work that she has dedicated herself to.
“I want my kids to be able to live in their community, prosper in their community and feel proud to be a part of their community… that’s basically where my drive comes from as a mom, I want them to have the opportunities through education and everything else as the rest of other communities who are quote on quote privileged do,” said Perez. This idea of creating a future for her kids is not limited to her children, but extends to the wider community of residents who she serves.
“It's for all the kids. It's for all of them. Because I consider my residents, they are all my wayward children… they deserve to be able to afford to be here. They shouldn't be priced out… That's why I'm also in this fight,” Perez said. East Harlem is a borough facing the effects of neighborhood gentrification, facing a blatant disregard for the rights of black and brown communities, and a plethora of small but also monumental issues in regards to creating a sensitivity to neighborhood issues in the education system, recognizing unequal and at times discriminatory policing, and combating an effort by public officials to strip residents of the rights afforded to them under their public housing laws.
At the same time, East Harlem is a place of community, of freedom of expression and culture. Known as “El Barrio” East Harlem is a predominantly Hispanic community and home to many individuals who have raised families and created lasting relationships with members of their community, from barbers, to church members, to educators, and more. For Perez, she cited her move to East Harlem as a moment of great significance in her life.
“I'd like to say East Harlem saved my life,” said Perez, “I found a place where I was comfortable to be myself and I could identify with my ethnicity. And that's why I fight so hard for East Harlem, because with this gentrification I know there's other little girls like myself and I want them to be able to come here if they find here, and feel what I felt. That sense of belonging, and understanding [of] who you are as a person.”
So what is Perez doing with George Washington Houses, and how is that work furthering the lives of her children, the residents, and allowing East Harlem as a community to flourish? The answer is certainly multifaceted, and is characterized by Perez’s flexibility approaching many issues that arise in different areas of need.
One of Washington House's and Perez’s expansive initiatives in partnership with many other community organizations across different boroughs, is the Occupy NYCHA initiative. According to Perez, NYCHA plans to sell some of their buildings and convert them through a trust called a blueprint for change into section eight public housing instead of section nine public housing. Though both are public housing, section nine public housing offers a variety of benefits that will be taken away when converted to section eight public housing. Occupy NYCHA is a group that fights to preserve the rights of East Harlem residents in regards to public housing, protecting their right to affordable wages, securing housing, self sufficiency, and taking bills and policies and educating the community about the significance of these housing policies so that they are all aware of the rights afforded to them under section nine housing.
Perez also works with the school systems to make teachers aware of the realities that certain kids may be facing and how that affects their performance in school.
“I started explaining to them and showing them the living conditions in which the children lived in because sometimes a child might be cranky,” said Perez, “It's not that the child is misbehaving. Maybe they weren't able to have heat last night, and with the heat comes the no hot water. These are difficulties that they face on a daily basis.” These issues are important to help teachers understand because they give them a more inclusive perspective on the kids they are teaching.
“We need to look further along the lines of what's going on and understand the children in which you're teaching to be able to understand how to better teach and be involved with the community,” said Perez.
As tenant association president, Perez has to think creatively and works alongside community members to implement some of their ideas as well. To combat food insecurity in East Harlem, Perez worked with Douglas Silver from Gotham Pantry to create a community fridge, and through this community fridge came a wealth of creative ideas from residents. One organization called SAVE, which stands for Stand Against Violence in East Harlem, offered Perez money to pay wages to kids and give them jobs, but they didn’t have the staff to run it. So Perez agreed to run the program, and put these kids to work running and cleaning the community fridge. Another resident came to Perez talking about creating an outdoor library, to which Perez offered up space next to the community fridge.
“I'm always figuring things out, I never know what's going to happen but I'm always trying to figure things out,” Said Perez, “so next to our fridge we have this outdoor library where you can get a book to feed your mind and you can feed your stomach at the same time!”
In collaboration with her barber and a local church, Perez also coordinated haircuts for all of her residents. The church pays for the services, and her barber comes out every Wednesday to provide services.
“Anybody who walks through my door, you don't have to be a resident… they get a free haircut,” notes Perez, “because you have a sense of pride when you look better you feel better. It doesn't have to be your barber, in between you can just come for a shape up. And remember all the barber shops was closed during covid. So we were doing outdoor cuts. And then when they shut it down altogether we shut down, but as of last week over the last four years we’ve given a thousand free haircuts. Those little things, it means so much.”
Working alongside all of the residents, members of the East Harlem community, and anyone interested in offering resources to the community, Perez coordinates a plethora of initiatives, not limited to the given examples of her work. She also coordinates swim lessons for children where they learn to swim and meet olympians, creates gardens to combat consistent flooding in East Harlem, and works to combat issues of flooding and emergency evacuation procedures in East Harlem. These are just a handful of the initiatives driven by Perez and NYCHA residents. They are some examples of the extensive range of her advocacy and its widespread impact, and examples of the power of community management.
“I want us to run our own developments. That's what I want, resident management,” said Perez, “Resident management is something that can and is happening now. We have made the impossible possible. And the greatest thing about resident management is that you don't need the approval of any elected official because it is law. It’s law. And we can achieve it. We can make our own homes better. Nobody but us. We don't have to be dependent on anyone but us.”
She further elaborated, “we as a people always tell our children; go to school, get a good education, get a job, and leave. We push all our excellence elsewhere instead of building it back here and that's what I'm here for because we need to give back. Even if you leave you need to give back. You need to. Because you can't leave somewhere that made you and not give back.”
Meet Claudia Perez.
If you would like to learn more about Claudia Perez’s work, George Washington Houses, or any of the organizations and people that they work with, visit the following links: Mi Gente My People, Residents to Preserve Public Housing, Community Voices Heard, SAVE, Broadwork Global Media, NYCHA, Imperial Kutz Barber, Police Service Area 5, Students First NY.
Help Claudia provide life-changing food access by making a contribution to Mott Haven Fridge Network.