Unlock NYC

In a city where housing is increasingly out of reach, vouchers are supposed to be a lifeline for low-income New Yorkers. However, for many tenants, having a voucher can be yet another barrier in a housing market fraught with obstacles. Despite laws prohibiting discrimination against voucher holders, tenants regularly face landlords and brokers who refuse to accept their rental assistance. Unlock NYC, a women-run tech nonprofit, is working to change that.

In 2019, the founders of Unlock NYC met at Blue Ridge Labs, a social impact incubator in Brooklyn that brings organizers, software developers, and community members together to address issues facing low-income residents.

“We talked to dozens of New Yorkers throughout the summer trying to understand what is preventing [them] from accessing housing…The theme that kept coming up… was this issue of discrimination against folks who have housing vouchers” explained Manon Vergerio, co-founder of Unlock NYC. “We realized there are laws on the books to prohibit that kind of discrimination. But it happens all the time.”

Since its inception, Unlock NYC has relied on the lived experience of New Yorkers impacted by discrimination to shape its programming, combining elements of community organizing and participatory design.

“I was a tenant who was facing eviction…and I had no idea what to do or where to turn. Miraculously I found Unlock NYC on a Facebook group,” recalled Jessica Valencia, a born and raised Brooklynite who now works as Head of Communications for the organization. Valencia was invited to test out the beta model of the Rights Recorder app.

The Rights Recorder app allows people to document instances of housing discrimination and adds anonymous reports to a community map. The map gives a breakdown of housing discrimination in each neighborhood, allowing tenants to see where and how it is happening. Oftentimes, landlords won’t explicitly deny housing to voucher holders – instead, they will instate income requirements or ignore inquiring apartment seekers. Unlock NYC’s innovative approach to combat this discrimination employs data visualization and storytelling to expose insidious tactics and empower tenants.

Unlock NYC’s work is making waves on an individual and systemic level. Since the app launched in January 2021, over 2,600 reports have been filed, and the team estimates that it has helped over 200 families transition out of shelters into stable housing. What’s more, the team at Unlock organized and published user-sourced data into a research report detailing the evolution of denial tactics, as well as a Serial Discriminators List identifying repeat offenders. The organization’s data and research products have been viewed or downloaded over 16,000 times.

One of their most notable achievements has been a successful campaign to get the city to invest in enforcement. “We realized that we have these great laws on the books…but if there’s no one on the other end to actually enforce the law, brokers and landlords are just going to keep discriminating,” Vergerio explained. “So we actually won a campaign to get the city to invest over a million dollars in the New York City Commission on Human Rights.”

Brooklyn Org’s support will be critical as the organization expands its operations. “We’re trying to get a lot done with four full-time staff. It is so critical to have general operating support,” explains Vergerio. They’re particularly grateful for the multiyear funding: “That kind of financial stability over three years is totally game-changing.”

The funding will allow Unlock NYC to connect tenants to resources, drive policy change, and empower community members to join the fight for accessible housing.

As Unlock NYC looks to the future, they plan to ramp up fundraising efforts with the hope of raising $1 million in 2025. Most of all, they want to share their tools with even more people. “The fight for fair housing is definitely not over,” Valencia said. “I think this is just the beginning for us, and eventually we’d like to see ourselves across multiple cities in the US.”

This story was written by Kendall Ricks, one of Brooklyn Org’s January 2025 interns from Brown University’s Careers in the Common Good internship program.