Friend,

Last week we celebrated 14 incredible years as an organization at our annual gala with our movement family. We want to send our sincere thanks to the individual and organizational sponsors who made our gala a success.

Because of your generosity, we were able to hold a wonderful event to celebrate our victories and game-changing 2023 honorees: Assemblymember Latrice Walker, Fred K. Brewington, and Prof. Matthew Desmond and the Eviction Lab.

Last Thursday we also honored the incredible chairs of the NYCC & NYCOFI boards, Marie Pierre and Dorothy Amadi, with the Jon Kest Lifetime Achievement Award for their tireless contributions to our organization. We’re so grateful for Marie and Dorothy’s dedication to NYCC and the movement.

We were deeply saddened to share that Dorothy passed away earlier this week. She was a beloved member of NYCC and a committed advocate for our communities – we wanted to take a moment to honor her and tell you more about her decades-long work with us.

Before NYCC formed, Dorothy was a longtime activist with ACORN. She was one of the original squatters in ACORN’s campaign to turn neglected buildings into affordable housing. Dorothy and others’ activism and sweat equity forced the City to hand over vacant units to ACORN, starting what would eventually become MHANY - which now operates more than 2000 units of affordable housing.

After the housing campaign, Dorothy kept fighting with ACORN for a more equitable and just New York. She was involved in the movement to improve NYC schools by starting a city-wide ACORN Schools Committee in the late 1980s and supporting the organization’s alternative schools.

Dorothy was also part of ACORN’s Secret Apartheid campaign in the ‘90s, a series of reports uncovering systemic discrimination in New York schools against minority and low-income students. Through the years, she supported our family of organizations from formation to present day as an NYCC member and as chair of the NYCOFI Board.

We share our deepest condolences to Dorothy’s family and loved ones. She will be greatly missed by all, and we hope to honor her legacy with our work.

In solidarity,

Olivia & Lucas