Sunset Park Organizer Building Toolkit
with Housing Justice Lab, Neighbors Helping Neighbors
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Shared Ownership Models
Community Land Trust
Historical Co-ops in Sunset ParkEngagement
Neighborhood Housing Justice Tours
Reimagine Local VacancyShort-term Tenant Organizing
Voicing Housing ChallengesLong-term Capacity Building
Envisioning Workshop -
Historical scale — Movement Tracing Placing Sunset Park's co-op legacy within global, citywide, and local lineages.
Comparative cases across five countries
NYC three-phase timeline, 1910s to present
Sunset Park lineage: Finnish co-ops → HDFCs → worker co-ops
Neighborhood scale — Layered Mapping Stacking demographic, regulatory, and movement data on one map.
ACS 2018–2022 at census tract
Co-op inventory (UHAB + HPD)
Rezoning history and current vacancies
Community scale — Survey + Radical Listening Structured and performative engagement, side by side.
Trilingual survey, 52 respondents
Public Faculty intervention, ~8 hours of street-side dialogue
Seven thematic clusters from coded responses
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Director, Project Coordination and Development
Gabriela Rendón, Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Community DevelopmentOnline Platform and Toolkit Development
2024 Fall Studio, MS Design and Urban Ecologies Program, Parsons School of Design
Delaney Connor, Shivani Dave, Arooj Fatima, Zola Haber, Molly Meng, Gant Roberson, Antonia Simon, Ruth Wondemu -
Research
Mapped demographic shifts and the cooperative housing inventory across Sunset ParkStrategy
Led the strategic process synthesizing findings into design opportunities
Structured the engagement and content strategy bridging spatial research and resident-facing toolsDesign
Built the Web Toolkit independently
Developed the VR Justice Tour for community empowermentEngagement
Conducted the Public Faculty intervention — 8 hours of street-side radical listening
Co-designed the trilingual resident survey and interviewed local Chinese speakers (EN / ES / 中文)
Sunset Park, Brooklyn, faces accelerating displacement due to rising rents, tenant harassment, and speculative development. While grassroots organizations actively respond to housing crises, there is limited capacity to pursue long-term structural solutions such as cooperative housing and Community Land Trusts.
This project developed a multi-platform organizing toolkit to support emerging housing justice leaders and lay the groundwork for shared ownership models in Sunset Park.
Community Conversation with Local Organizers
Project Background
Revisiting Shared Ownership in Sunset Park
📍 Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Our proposal is inspired by Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes' working group that is training a new generation of community organizers in Sunset Park. Community organizations are often overburdened with day-to-day crisis management, so the opportunity to grow new housing justice leadership is a long-term strategy.
Designing a Toolkit to Grow the Next Generation of Housing Justice Organizers
Objective
Honoring the cooperative legacy of Sunset Park, this project facilitates organizing efforts to build knowledge and power, and, in turn, establish a neighborhood coalition for shared-ownership housing development and rehabilitation opportunities. Through different pedagogical and organizing tools, the project seeks to spark dialogue and bring together neighbors, tenant associations, tenant organizers, emergent and seasoned leaders, civic and nonprofit organizations, and elected officials.
We aim to produce tools and media that are valuable for raising community consciousness and sparking conversation around cooperative housing and other forms of housing justice, but only through a framework of collaboration and an acute awareness of community needs.
With ongoing housing justice work, there is also the opportunity to assist community organizers in structuring learning environments for a new generation of organizers.
Online Repository
The open source tools designed as part of this project include informative short videos, a participatory property mapping guide, several housing justice walking tours, and a number of toolkits for short-term and long-term building organizing.
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PEDAGOGICAL VIDEO
Through concise videos shared on social media platforms, residents of Sunset Park are introduced to tenants' rights, local history, and shared ownership models. This initiative aims to provide historical context, highlight relevant policies, and inspire collective action for equitable and stable housing solutions.
To Spark Interest in Community Land Ownership through Engaging and Accessible media
NEIGHBORHOOD WALKING TOUR
Through walking tours guided by VR and printed maps, Sunset Park residents are invited to engage with the neighborhood’s history and envision its future possibilities. By exploring underutilized spaces, cooperative housing models, and key community landmarks, this initiative fosters a deeper connection to local resources and promotes collective action for sustainable development.
To Connect with Sunset Park’s Housing Justice History
SHORT-TERM ORGANIZING
Short-term organizing equips Sunset Park residents with actionable resources to kickstart immediate community-driven efforts. Through accessible toolkits, including guidance on the Community Land Act, event planning, tenant association creation, and printable materials like postcards, this initiative lays the groundwork for collective action and stronger community networks.
To Kickstart Immediate Community-driven Efforts within Their Housing
LONG-TERM PUBLIC ACTIONS
By fostering collaborative envisioning spaces and empowering emerging leaders, this initiative equips Sunset Park residents with tools and strategies to advocate for housing solutions and community land ownership. Through participatory workshops, planning guides, and events, it facilitates collective action, leadership development, and sustainable community-driven change.
To Facilitate Participatory Workshops and Public Events that Inspire Long-term Collaboration and Shared Visioning among Residents
