The Buffalo Urban League held a workshop Wednesday evening to help spread knowledge about tenants' rights.
The event featured representatives from Buffalo City Court, the Erie County Sheriff’s Department, the real estate industry and local tenant advocate organizations who helped explain everything from renters’ rights to the eviction process. Christina Banks-Crawford, housing case manager for the Buffalo Urban League, says that bringing different groups together is essential in connecting the community with much-needed education and resources.
"It is very important that we have this kind of networking together," she said. "If we do not have that collaboration, that will not happen, we'll all be on stuck and I like for a flow to happen in the City of Buffalo. We deserve that here."
The Frank E. Merriweather Library on Jefferson Avenue hosted the event, which Banks-Crawford says was intentional to help with increasing access for the Black community. While the majority of all occupied housing units in the City of Buffalo (56.9 percent) are made up of renters, Black Buffalonians are more likely than their white counterparts to be renters as opposed to homeowners — 62 percent of Black-occupied housing units are renters compared to 50.2 percent of white renter-occupied housing units, according to American Community Survey 2024 5-year estimates.
For Banks-Crawford, the objective goes beyond just meeting Black renters where they're at.
"Educating the Black community and getting that homeownership number skyrocketing, that is really my goal," she said.
But she also explained why it’s essential for everyone, regardless of race and tenure, to be educated on tenants 'rights.
“Tenancy isn't just a Black issue, it's an everyone issue," she said. "You're going to become a tenant, whether you're a homeowner first, you're going to have tenants. Either way, tenants' rights need to be known.”
The event encouraged tenants, landlords, aspiring homeowners and the general public to receive information.
