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Daughter of Bushwick Tenant Advocate Pushes For Street Named After Her

By Gwynne Hogan | April 24, 2017 9:08am
 Tenants whom she fought for remembered her as a tireless warrior.
Tenants whom she fought for remembered her as a tireless warrior.
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DNAinfo/Gwynne Hogan

BUSHWICK — The family of a tenant advocate who passed away in December after battling with cancer, wants the block where her housing advocacy was based to be renamed in her honor.

Erica Coca, 30, the daughter of Luz Yolanda Coca hopes that the corner of Suydam Street and Wilson Avenue, the street where she attended St. Joseph Patron church for more than 30 years and where she founded offices for Bushwick Housing Independence Project, can be renamed after her late mother.

"When she passed I was trying to think of a way in order to give her the recognition that she deserves and to make sure that she remains relevant and still in people's minds," Coca said. "I want this to be a constant reminder that the work isn't over. Just because she's gone, that doesn't mean that people still don't need help."

Her push to get the corner renamed Luz Yolanda Coca Way got the thumbs up by residents at a Wednesday meeting of Bushwick's community board.

It will now go to the city council with the support of local Councilman Antonio Reynoso, his office confirmed.

Coca moved from the Dominican Republic to Bushwick in 1981, not speaking a word of English. She was shot in the leg in 1989 outside of her son's school, a traumatic incident that inspired her to get involved in community advocacy, according to Coca.

"She decided that she wanted to be a voice for the voiceless," Coca said.

She studied English, got her GED and later an associate's degree and started working as a housing advocate for ACORN, a volunteer for AmeriCorp's VISTA program and eventually with Park Slope-based tenant organizers Fifth Avenue Committee.

In 2005 she founded Bushwick Housing Independence Project through the Catholic church she attended, St. Joseph Patron on Suydam Street, which she continued to run until March, when she was forced to step down because of her declining health. But her family and friends said she continued to make phone calls from her sick bed until days before she died. 

When Coca passed away in December, tenants she'd helped stave off evictions and threatening landlords turned out in droves to honor her memory.