A September 9 court date drew Harlemites, housing advocates, influencers, and members of the People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft to Manhattan’s 111 Centre Street, but the appearance ended before it ever fully began.
Supporters of “Queen Mother” Dr. Delois Blakely, the Harlem activist fighting to remain in her longtime home at 477 West 142nd Street, filled the courtroom. They expected to hear arguments about why Blakely and her disabled daughter, Ini’Chinwa Thomas, were being evicted. Instead, after they waited nearly 90 minutes, a court officer announced that Judge Emily Morales-Minerva would not be coming down for the hearing.
“Why would she not come down?” people in the courtroom started asking. Those present, including attorney Jacqueline McMickens, said it was because the opposing lawyer, Alan J. Weintraub, was worried about how many Blakely supporters were there. He said the crowd might cause trouble.
“He told the judge that there would be a disturbance,” McMickens told the AmNews in an interview. “He sort of asked for protection in the courtroom because he thought that the spectators would cause a disturbance.” McMickens, who represents Blakely’s daughter’s interests, said Morales-Minerva’s court attorney heard the matter in conference instead. “She was very thorough, knew the contents of the case, and the judge said she would make a decision. She reserved a decision.”
Supporters of Dr. Queen Mother Delois Blakely (above) expected to hear arguments about why Blakely and daughter, Ini’Chinwa Thomas, were being evicted. Instead, after nearly 90 minutes, court officer announced that Judge Emily Morales-Minerva would not attend hearing because opposing lawyer feared crowd might cause trouble. (Credit:Jason Ponterotto) Credit: Jason Ponterotto
Blakely supporters who heard the reason for the postponement were not happy. “In other words, one of you all are intimidating him,” Sharonne Salaam, mother of Councilmember Yusef Salaam, said sarcastically.
“It’s the fact that all of these people are here,” another courtroom observer said.
“And it’s the color of our skin: That’s what they’re saying,” one woman insisted. “That’s like the seed — they planted a seed in the mind of the judge.”
Ambassador Raheem Allah Bey, who has served as part of Blakely’s peace security for several years, made it clear that Blakely’s supporters will continue to show up.
“You don’t want to come see us now. The next time, it’ll be more of us,” Bey said. “The more you wait, it could be a day, it could be a week, it could be a month, it could be a year, we’re gonna come with more and more.”
For Blakely, who is nearly 85 years old, seeing the benches filled with supporters was touching. “I was so moved because the community was with me,” she said outside the court. “I did not stand alone, going on 85 years.” She explained that the hearing was meant to determine whether her daughter could stay in the home she has lived in since childhood. “What was upsetting me,” Blakely added, “is that they were supposed to have dealt with my daughter and allow her to remain in the home she’s been in since 1978.”
Court records show that Blakely helped organize the 477 West 142nd Street Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC), a limited-equity cooperative formed through New York City’s Tenant Interim Lease program that allowed low-income residents to create HDFC co-ops. The city sold the property to the cooperative on December 7, 1982, and Blakely and six other low-income residents acquired shares for $250 per apartment.
Blakely told the AmNews the building was a safe space, created during Harlem’s roughest years. “No one wanted to live there. It was a blight to Harlem where I live,” she said, remembering the 1970s. “Some of us wanted to deal with that and serve our people, and I happened to be one of them.”
By 2003, the city started a tax foreclosure against the co-op because of unpaid property taxes. To keep from losing the property, the co-op took out a $650,000 mortgage on September 20, 2007, from Madison Park Investors LLC and ER Holdings LLC. Blakely has called that loan predatory, claiming the lenders went into it expecting the co-op to default. They knew that a subsequent foreclosure would allow them to own the building, she said, but courts have denied her claims and agreed with the bankruptcy court’s decisions. By 2015, new owners agreed to restructure the co-op’s finances and offered to allow the current tenants to remain in their units with a “Life Occupancy Lease” of $400 a month. By 2017, all of the co-op shareholders except Blakely agreed to the deal.
According to McMickens, this Blakely case is less about deed theft and more about equity theft. “Queen Mother’s building should never have been mortgaged,” she stated. “They didn’t make enough in their rent rolls to pay any mortgage at all.” She explained that because a co-op owns the underlying building and residents own shares, the financing didn’t have the same protections as a standard homeowner’s mortgage. “A co-op is not a home; it’s shares,” she said. “You own the shares; you don’t own the underlying property. There would be no way for them to have made that mortgage on the rent they were paying because they weren’t paying enough to even keep the building. They were in tax arrears. How are you going to pay a mortgage if you can’t pay your taxes?”
The 477 West 142nd Street bankruptcy case took a long time to settle. Court records show that Amsterdam Key Associates LLC was established by the previous lienholder to purchase the property from the debtor after the bankruptcy.
McMickens pointed out that the issue of representation for Blakely’s disabled daughter was never dealt with during these court cases. “The daughter has not been represented at any time properly in this seating,” she said.
After the September 9 conference, McMickens said the court paused Blakely’s eviction, appointed a guardian for her daughter, and scheduled both sides to return in 60 days. During this time, the city marshal cannot forcibly remove Blakely or her daughter from the property. The new legal guardian for Thomas will spend the next 60 days reviewing her medical records, checking her care environment, and setting up protections. “Yes, in the meantime, they can stay,” McMickens said, “and it’s my goal that the daughter will be able to stay until she dies.”
Attorney Alan J. Weintraub, representing the owners, Manhattan Lending Partners, declined to comment when reached by the NY Amsterdam News.
Blakely is a world-renowned humanitarian activist, Pan-African leader, and educator, who was designated as Community Mayor of Harlem in 1995. She has said the film “Sister Act” was based on her story and 1987 memoir “The Harlem Street Nun.”
