HUDSON — Local organizations including For The Many, Hudson-Catksill Housing Coalition, Food & Water Watch, Columbia County Sanctuary Movement and Rivers & Mountains GreenFaith held a rally outside Assemblywoman Didi Barrett’s Hudson’s office in support of passing critical housing and climate legislation including Good Cause Eviction.
More than 50 people attended the rally.
The Good Cause Eviction Act prevents tenants from being evicted without a good reason and displaced due to unreasonable rent increases or other scenarios in which tenants are not at fault. The rally also focused on a bill relating to New York state greenhouse gas emission accounting system, and aligns the state accounting system with the intergovernmental panel on climate change accounting system.
“Didi Barrett has betrayed the people of Columbia and Dutchess counties,” said Brahvan Ranga, political director of For the Many. “Instead of working to address the housing and climate crises, Barrett has spent her decade in the Assembly doing the bidding of the real estate and fossil fuel industries. She won’t even meet with our members to discuss how legislation like Good Cause Eviction would help them stay in their homes. Barrett’s support for gutting our state’s climate laws should be the last straw for her constituents. We are discussing our options ahead of next year’s primaries and will announce our decision soon.”
Claire Cousin, former executive director of the Hudson-Catskill Housing Coalition, is challenging for Barrett’s seat in the 106th Assembly District.
“As a lifelong Columbia County resident, Didi Barrett doesn’t represent me, my family, or my community,” said Cousin. “After becoming a single mom at 17, I moved into the Terraces, got my GED and started organizing for youth services. I co-founded the Hudson-Catskill Housing Coalition and for the past decade, I’ve worked tirelessly on issues of housing, criminal justice and social services. Over that same decade, Barrett has prioritized big corporate interests over people like me. She should be fighting for Good Cause Eviction, not to pump more fossil fuels into our environment. That’s why I’ve decided to run against her in next year’s Democratic primary — because Columbia and Dutchess counties deserve better representation in Albany.”
Lukee Forbes, civil rights coordinator for the Hudson-Catskill Housing Coalition, spoke about the importance of housing in Columbia County, the struggle that renters go through when they are at risk of eviction and Barrett’s stance on the fossil fuel industry.
“With Hudson in a housing crisis and tenants at risk of evictions and rent hikes, it’s clear that she is not prioritizing the needs of the community,” said Forbes. “Her alignment with the fossil fuel industry and attempts to weaken climate laws raise serious concerns about her commitment to environmental sustainability.”
Emily Skydel, senior organizer at Food & Water Watch, also spoke about Barrett’s energy policies.
“As energy chair, Didi Barrett could champion strong energy policies that move us off fossil fuels,” said Skydel. “Instead, she is peddling carbon capture, hydrogen and other fossil fuel industry scams as climate solutions.”
Nidia Navarro, a member of the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, spoke about how marginalized members of the community say local officials are ignoring them.
“For far too long, elected officials have seen us as economic and political pawns rather than humans and constituents,” said Navarro. “From Raising the Minimum Wage and establishing the Unemployment bridge program to Access to Representation and Coverage for All, our communities have needs and dreams that have been ignored and deferred. We demand equitable representation for our communities”.
Michael Richardson, co-founder of Rivers & Mountains GreenFaith, spoke about why he opposes Barrett.
“In late March, just one day before the due date for the New York State budget, Assemblymember Barrett introduced a bill to drastically change the New York State Climate Act to allow gas utilities to release more climate-warming methane gas into the atmosphere,” said Richardson. “Where did this come from? Not from one constituent, not from one credible climate scientist, not from one climate advocacy group. It came in a last-minute push from fossil fuel interests without any input from the stakeholders who labored for five years to develop our landmark Climate Act and its implementation plan. Whose interests are Barrett representing — ours or the fossil fuel industry? We feel betrayed.”
In response to the rally, Barrett said people have a right to protest but added that these organizations’ views of her are based on lies.
“I’ve been pioneering in both of those areas in the 10 years that I had the honor of representing this district”, Barrett said. “I passed and led on a lot of legislation and brought money back to the district, millions of dollars for housing, police, library, schools, I’m working to do all the progressive things that I feel that the district wants me to do, I’ve been a progressive my entire life and people can protest, its part our democracy, people need to be honest, there are a lot of lies out there bills that I have nothing to do it, I think that it really unfortunate for an organization to do that and for people to be misled.”