On April 9, Red Hook West Resident Association President Karen Blondel crashed a canvassing event meant to inform residents about PACT-related risks, disrupting conversations with residents and yelling expletives at an organizer.
“Don’t fuck with me, alright, cause I’ll get you barred from this neighborhood,” Blondel said to a young man who showed up to the canvassing hosted by Save Section 9, a public housing advocacy group.
The inflammatory response from Blondel was triggered by someone saying she “sounded a little bit like [President] Trump” after Blondel spoke about plans she envisioned for a “big beautiful building” on the site of a community farm on the complex.
“That’s where that big beautiful building’s gonna go up,” said Blondel, pointing to the small farm managed by the nonprofit Red Hook Initiative.
While Red Hook West has not officially undergone any PACT conversion, a series of visioning and information sessions about the program have been held for months.
Stopping the bleed
“That [PACT] doesn’t mean anything to us other than that we are exploring and visioning what we could do here to stop the bleed,” Blondel directly told the Star-Revue before the canvassing event, noting several infrastructure issues within the complex’s buildings.
Civil rights activist and staunch critic of NYCHA, Reverend Kevin McCall, was also present at the canvassing and asked the officers to “de-escalate” Blondel’s outburst. A confrontation erupted between McCall and the officers when McCall said, “You gotta do your job,” to which one officer replied, “Listen, we’re hiring if you want to take the test.”
After tensions rose between McCall and the officers, McCall phoned the NYPD’s central command at One Police Plaza to defuse the situation.
“Don’t weaponize the police,” McCall said of Blondel’s actions at the canvassing. “That’s not going to help.”
Informing tenants about PACT
While McCall and Blondel engaged with officers outside, the original intent of the canvassing continued as organizers moved through the floors of 80 Dwight Street, informing residents about PACT and the possible outcomes of the program based on other PACT conversions.
“The tenant associations constantly attack me, villify, do whatever they can to undermine,” said Ramona Y. Ferreyra, the founder of Save Section 9, during the canvassing session. “If the police get involved, they usually do whatever the tenant associations say because they have relationships.”
As for handling potentially-heated interactions with Blondel in the future, Ferreyra said, “Karen [Blondel] is not my priority; I just can’t put energy into her. It’s just not fruitful.”
In a phone call, Blondel told the Star-Revue that Red Hook West residents have “a great vision” for the complex and that “the momentum is building.”
Blondel also took time to comment on controversies with PACT conversions, saying, “I kind of know where the issues are with public housing and why they would be afraid of a transition,” adding that she felt sorry for developments where PACT didn’t work out favorably.
Prior to the incident Blondel disrupted a conversation between Ferreyra and a resident who showed up to the canvassing to hear more about how PACT conversions work from Save Section 9.
“Based on what everybody else is telling me that they’ve experienced around her before, is that she does this because it gets her results – normally people back down and normally people leave,” said Ferreyra, using Blondel’s comments about lynching as an example.
Ferreyra mentioned that she intends to file a formal complaint with NYCHA regarding Blondel’s conduct.
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One Comment
What I witnessed at Red Hook Houses West was not leadership. It was intimidation.
I was present during a peaceful, resident-led outreach effort where young tenants, alongside organizers from DARE to Struggle, were tabling and sharing information with residents about potential changes to their housing, including conversion from Section 9 to Section 8 under the PACT program.
I want to be clear about why I was there. Residents of Red Hook Houses West reached out to me because they were concerned and looking for guidance. I am involved in housing justice work, and I attended as a spectator to better understand what residents knew and what they were being told. I am not affiliated with DARE to Struggle. I was there to observe and learn.
This was not agitation. It was education.
Residents were engaged. They were asking questions. Many were learning for the first time that their homes could be privatized, that their community farm could be replaced, that major decisions were being discussed without their knowledge. Some didn’t even know who their tenant association president was.
That should alarm everyone.
Then Karen Blondel arrived and turned an educational moment into a scene of chaos.
She didn’t come to inform. She didn’t come to listen. She came to shut it down.
She shouted at young residents. She verbally attacked organizers. She made accusations and created a hostile, volatile environment that left people shaken. These were not outsiders. These were her own neighbors. Young people trying to understand what is happening to their homes.
As someone with years of experience in tenant advocacy, I can say this clearly: this is not how leadership behaves.
You can disagree. You can debate. But you do not silence your own community through fear.
And make no mistake, that is exactly what happened.
The consequences were immediate. Two young residents who had begun organizing are now stepping back. They are scared. One broke down in tears. Another has withdrawn completely, even deleting her social media presence out of fear.
That is not community engagement. That is intimidation.
If residents are afraid to ask questions, if they are discouraged from learning the facts, if they are made to feel unsafe for simply participating, then something is very wrong.
No matter where you stand on PACT or redevelopment, one principle should be non-negotiable: residents have the right to know what is being planned for their homes, and they have the right to speak freely without being shouted down.
What happened that day was not just inappropriate. It was a warning.
When information is suppressed and voices are silenced, the entire process loses legitimacy.
Red Hook Houses West residents deserve a vote. Every voice should be heard and counted.