My name is Bria and I am the daughter of Sherri Culpepper.  I have watched my mom, Sherri, be bullied for over a decade now by the city of New York as she fights to hold on to our home, two lovely side by side historical brownstones located in Harlem.

My mom is a fourth-generation Harlemite, who took over ownership of the properties in 2012 from a long line of our descendants, dating back to her great grandparents who originally occupied the building back in 1929.  The brownstone holds deep, cultural, and familial ties for our family as my mom’s great grandfather was also the accountant for freedom fighter, Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey in the early 1930’s!  And her great uncle, who also resided here,  was one of the Port Chicago 50, wrongly accused of mutiny  by the U.S. Navy in 1944 and represented by NAACP's attorney, the Honorable Thurgood Marshall.

For 42 years, the family rented the property until the owner finally sold the real estate to her great grandmother and four of her children.  For the last 88 years, the only people living in the building were immediate family members and an occasional close family friend passing through.

Because of the massive gentrification effort taking place in Harlem, and in urban communities across our country, our home is now targeted as prime real estate. My mom has been fighting diligently to keep our home in our family lineage, refusing to sale.  She has become to the bane of numerous city agencies as they have unfairly tried to belittle her and intimidate her so that she is forced to relinquish her ownership.

How so you ask?  Well for starters, the building has been systematically entangled in a web of condemning bureaucracy. One of the brownstones, a single family home, was erroneously designated as a Single Room Occupancy (SRO). SRO’s are a form of housing that is typically designed for persons with low or minimal incomes who rent small, furnished single rooms with a bed, chair and sometimes a small desk. This labeling has allowed eight freeloaders to live legally in the property – AND NOT PAY RENT.  In fact, they have been living there for 12 years now, while my single parent and hard working mom and grandmother upkeeps the building. 

My mom’s biggest blow came in 2014 when the brownstone was unceremoniously “selected” by the Housing Preservation and Development’s (HPD) and put in the Alternate Enforcement Program, better known as the “slumlord” program. They then levied 52 costly violations against her.  Over the years, she has corrected 49 of them, but the HPD never administratively removed them from the record books, in turn creating additional ongoing issues and setbacks for her.  Both the SRO and HPD codes have allowed the eight freeloaders pretty much imminent domain in our residence.

My mom was a very successful urban radio personality and producer and has had many careers since.  Her latest feat was becoming an operating engineer, learning how to operate a large variety of construction equipment, including cranes, bulldozers and front-end loaders and then joining the International Union of Operating Engineers-Local 15, all after the age of 50.  Part of her motivation was so she could do a lot of the upkeep and servicing of the brownstones herself and save money to keep paying off the continuous flow of city fines levied at her.

The bigger issue here extends beyond personal inconvenience; it's about fairness in homeownership and the right not to be penalized for creating generational wealth. The American dream has always been rooted in property ownership - it's a symbol of stability and prosperity that should be protected by law.  It's time we address this systemic problem that threatens not just individual homeowners but also the very fabric of our communities.

How you can help?  By signing this petition, we hope to put pressure on the NYC Housing Preservation & Development to remove the erroneous Single Room Occupancy from our brownstone.  It has always been a single-family home – since 1929.  The property does not belong in the Alternate Enforcement Program. My mom is not a slumlord – she has been forced to provide FREE RENT to eight adults for a decade now.

The larger picture is that by signing, we are urging lawmakers to create legislation that ensures equal rights for homeowners – protecting them from unlawful seizures or penalties associated with maintaining their properties or providing shelter for others out of goodwill.

This isn't just about one person or one city; it’s about securing an equitable future where every American can enjoy the fruits of their labor without fear or prejudice. We ask you to stand with us against a system of injustice and provide financial support and donate exclusively on our go fund me page: https://gofund.me/84fd476b

Any love donation is accepted and appreciated….$5, $8, $11, $55, $88, $111.…  We further welcome your support to save our Harlem Brownstone- future site of  “Broadcast, Business, Body and Beyond (B4).”  Please sign the change.org petition. 

(Please ONLY donate to https://gofund.me/84fd476b and thank you in advance) 

Also, check out my short film from 2015 on Youtube: