Brooklyn residents facing the loss of their properties are trying to come together and form a unified defense. Two separate gatherings over the past week brought different organizations together to talk about property loss disputes.
At Citadel Cathedral of Praise & Worship on Barbey St. in Cypress Hills, the People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft held a meeting to talk about how Black churches can be vulnerable to financially punishing property deals. At 964 Park Place in Crown Heights, the Black Homeowners’ Preservation Coalition and Crown Heights Tenant Union promoted efforts to keep the Robinson-Torain family in their home. Both were efforts to turn an often isolating experience into collective power while waiting to see if government protections will reach them in time.
The Oct. 27 Citadel meeting was hosted by activist Evangeline Byars and featured attorney Jacqueline McMickens and Charles Barron of Operation POWER. McMickens urged those in attendance to realize that debt can drain any of the value that comes with property ownership.
“Some of these cases are dead on arrival,” she said. “I want to tell you that you can overcome [a foreclosure debt]. You have to find a way for the bank to let you back in. But if you get back in and you can’t afford it, you’re wasting your time. You’re only digging a deeper hole for yourself and creating more pain for yourself. Because it is truly painful to give [thousands of] dollars because you think you’re buying a home, and all you’re buying is a place where you can sleep because you don’t own it.”
McMickens described the broader problem as “equity theft” and discussed possible loan modifications. Barron emphasized leverage when dealing with these kinds of issues, rather than pleading: “We’ve got to deal with power,” he said; that’s what can stop the forces of gentrification and subsequent deed theft cases from occurring, he insisted.
When Barron served as a city councilmember, he said he was often approached by developers who wanted to build in his community of East New York, but they were often not creating developments to empower the community. Barron said he was in a position of power with the developers.
“All I had to do was go to the zoning committee, seven members, in the city council and say, ‘I don’t want this project.’ And they will kill it,” said Barron. “That’s power! That’s power! I didn’t have to demonstrate. I didn’t have to call a press conference. All I had to do was use the power of the city council. I’m saying all of that to you because the worst thing a people can have is power, and either, one, don’t realize they have it, or two, be afraid to use it.”
Barron’s message was that collective organizing and relationships with decision-makers can strengthen a community’s negotiating position.
Citadel elder and administrator Edison Bond spoke about how the church had searched for a permanent sanctuary after years of worshipping in rented spaces. The congregation began as a basement Bible study, then moved to Downtown Brooklyn’s Marriott hotel, took space in other churches and even a school at one point. When they purchased a building of their own, it meant they finally had somewhere to hold services, baptisms, weddings, funerals and neighborhood gatherings.
Bond said the Barbey St. property’s asking price climbed from $1.1 million to $2.3 million, although an initial appraisal had valued it at $1.7 million. Congregants raised $1.8 million in cash, he said, and the seller financed the remaining $500,000 through interest-only payments with a balloon payment due after two years. Interest-only payments cover borrowing costs without reducing the principal; a balloon payment requires the remaining balance at once.
Renovations, missed payments, and pandemic hardships put pressure on the church. And Bond said their creditor eventually refused further payments and foreclosed on them. The building was sold at auction in April 2025.
At the meeting, Bond said Citadel had gone to court to keep the property and was waiting on a judicial ruling while seeking community help. “And so the only way you’re going to get help is to open up your mouth and to be able to let people know that we need help,” Bond said: “There is no plan B for us.”
Several at the Citadel meeting talked about the need to connect pastors facing similar financial stress across New York City’s boroughs, so that they could share experiences and bring churches not currently in trouble into prevention work. One participant responsible for a family church said they attended to get ahead of potential problems.
In Crown Heights, Sherease Torain and her mother, Queen Afua, say a fraudulent 2015 transaction stripped them of the deed to the home her grandparents, Ephraim and Ida Robinson, purchased in 1951. Their supporters announced a round-the-clock stoop watch at 964 Park Place beginning Nov. 1 and an eviction blockade beginning on Nov. 6.
Torain-Robinson’s supporters gathered in a circle inside the brownstone on Nov. 1 to talk about the trauma many of them have been experiencing, trying to fight off deed and bank mismanagement issues that have threatened their ability to live peacefully in their homes. People who said they were victims compared disputed property transfers, displacement, and exhausting searches for assistance. “We are not protected,” one participant complained. “The reality is we are not protected. Look what just happened to my family. We are not protected.”
Another felt that more of Torain-Robinson’s neighbors should be helping the family to stay in their property: “Everybody on this block should be out here; everybody on this block should have been outside. …They know what’s happening here. They just don’t know it’s coming for them.”
The residents discussed the importance of documenting their testimonies about the financial challenges they face in trying to retain ownership of their properties. They said that having more of their testimonies in the public would help more people feel less isolated. Standing together in a circle, the group voiced their call to action, chanting, “Stop deed theft in New York now: enough is enough! Stop deed theft now: enough is enough! Stop deed theft in New York now: enough is enough!”
