Cambria Heights organizer shares value of homeownership in SE Queens

Opportunities for Southeast Queens Millennials founder James Johnson hosted the first “Buy Back the Block” event on Feb. 22. Photo courtesy of Johnson

By David Brand

A Cambria Heights community organizer has launched an initiative to help young adults purchase homes and resist displacement in the majority black and African American neighborhoods of Southeast Queens. 

James Johnson, the founder of Opportunities for Southeast Queens Millennials, hosted the first “Buy Back the Block” event on Feb. 22 in order to guide young people with practical information about home-buying and to share the value of home ownership. The event attracted more than 150 people.

“We want affordable housing and we want to live in the communities we live in,” Johnson said. We need the opportunities and basic resources to stay in the place we grew up in.”

Johnson organized the event in partnership with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America and the Neighborhood Housing Services of Jamaica, which provide resources to prospective home-buyers.

“We want to live in our houses. We love our houses,” he added. 

Johnson said seniors and older adults tend to be the most civically engaged members of the community, in part because they own homes and have lived in the area for generations. It’s time for millennials to step up, he said.

“We need to get more involved,” Johnson said. “Gentrification is coming and we have to benefit from the gentrification.”