Documentary Showing Hoboken's History With Gentrification To Be Screened Friday

HOBOKEN, NJ — If you moved to Hoboken in the last few decades, you may be only vaguely aware of the challenges and tragedies that tenants faced in the 1980s during gentrification.

As hundreds of apartments were turned into condos, some property owners advertised their buildings for sale as "delivered vacant," meaning, the tenants would be out by the time of sale.

Suspicious (and deadly) fires killed dozens of tenants in the 1970s and early 1980s, but no proof was released that the blazes were set intentionally, and their infrastructure was decades old. However, one thing was clear: landlords found other methods to get tenants to vacate.

Today, some Hoboken tenants still say they're being harassed or told they have to leave their units by landlords despite New Jersey's strict "just cause for eviction" laws.

On Friday, as part of a run-up to an important vote on rent control in Hoboken this November, tenant activist groups are showing Nora Jacobson's award-winning 1992 documentary "Delivered Vacant" as a fundraiser. All are invited, and donations are enouraged.

The film, shot while Jacobson lived in Hoboken, shows the political ups and downs of a city in transition, from wacky mayoral campaigns to tragedies.

The state of New Jersey has laws about how much landlords can raise the rent, and procedures they must follow if they want tenants to leave (usually they need "just cause" not to renew a lease, or for eviction. Find out more here). But that doesn't mean tenants know about the laws, or that they're followed — or that property owners are penalized when they're not.

But another factor in play is Hoboken's local Rent Control Ordinance.

The Rent Control Ordinance, which went into effect in 1973, limits landlords to increasing the rents to certain percentage each year, allowing them to also pass along certain cost increases. They can also get a 25 percent decontrol every three years.

But a property owners' group has said the law needs to be revamped.

They amassed enough petitions on a ballot earlier this year to challenge the law, asking Hoboken residents to vote on a public question this November that would allow landlords to get a one-time decontrol when a current tenant leaves an apartment, if the landlord contributes to an affordable housing fund. Critics say this will lead to more landlords pushing tenants out, because they can get a larger rent increase when a long-term tenant leaves. (See a full story with an explanation here or here).

Shrinking the stock of housing that's affordable now, they say, is a poor tradeoff for theoretical housing years down the road.

Any voter living in Hoboken can weigh in on the public question through Election Day, Nov. 5 — but if they're registered to vote out of town, they only have until Oct. 15 to change their registration to the current address.

What's The Public Question?

Recently, Hoboken's City Council voted to revise the wording of the question on the ballot, saying it was misleading. The city released a new "interpretive statement" that guide voters on what a "Yes" or "No" vote means. Read the language of the statement at the very end of this story.

The tenant advocacy groups asking people to vote "No" are hosting the Friday night showing of "Delivered Vacant" as a fundraiser. The event takes place at 6:30 p.m. at the Community Church at 600 Garden St. More information is here.

"It is an important, albeit horrifying, part of Hoboken's history," said local tenant advocate Cheryl Fallick, "and what people need to know is that, although the fires ceased long ago, displacement hasn't — not for one single day in the many years since."

The event description says, "This is a fundraiser for Hoboken Fair Housing Association. The award-winning documentary chronicles 8 years of housing wars in Hoboken featuring the people that lived it: long-time residents, newly arrived, tenant organizers & the man who would become known as the wackiest mayor in America. The film reminds us of the gentrification that started a long time ago and never ends."

Find out more about Friday's showing here.

Read a story about tenant eviction and intimidation in modern Hoboken here.

Go to the film website for "Delivered Vacant" here.