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When Hunter Boone began organizing their neighbors to protest rat infestations and alleged housing violations by their landlord, they weren’t just met with negligence. They were slapped with a $500,000 defamation suit.
Boone lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in a building owned by Cayuga Capital Management (CCM), a corporate landlord that’s become a local symbol of gentrification. After Boone spoke out publicly about unsafe housing and started the Starr Street Union to hold CCM accountable, the company sued. Not to protect its reputation—but to shut him up.
It’s a textbook example of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or SLAPP. These suits are increasingly being used not just to fight protest, but to criminalize resistance. From oil companies suing Indigenous water defenders to landlords targeting tenant unions, the legal system has become a new frontline in the war against the working class.
Yet CCM also inadvertently appropriates from other legal struggles, including those waged since the U.S. empire’s birth. Afterall, CCM derives its name from the Cayuga Nation, one of the Indigenous Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
And duh, CCM’s founders probably didn’t mean to connect its housing machine to the original peoples’ housing in what’s now called New York. It could be a reference to their second (or third) summer home off one of the Finger Lakes’ shores. Maybe it’s a romantic, but subtle nod to the New York county their nanny/mistress grew up in. Who’s to say?
Members of the Cayuga Nation returned to their land in 2010. While some members are still fighting to reclaim their land, Cayuga Capital has had no trouble acquiring real estate. Since 2004, CCM has amassed more than 400 Brooklyn rental units and hundreds of thousands of square feet in commercial space
‘Ditch your landlord’
“Everyone is having these same problems no matter where you are,” Boone said in an interview with Shadowbanned about the reality of renting. “A landlord like Jacob Sacks, who has apartments all over the country (it’s not just New York), that kind of capital just lets these landlords get away with anything.”
Even still, Boone is struggling against a particular flavor of capital shaped by its unique breeding ground. Cayuga Capital Management, founded in 2004, recognized those distinctions and started its Brooklyn empire with a plan.
In a publicly available slide deck made in 2009 called “Developing Authentic Place,” CCM showed how to attract its ideal tenants – “casually employed, parentally supported” hipsters “less affected by the recession” to Williamsburg and Bushwick.
CCM’s presentation noted the neighborhoods’ demographics at the time: “heavily Latino with smaller [sic] hipster population.” Guess that wasn’t “authentic” enough already. Marketing ideas included “Keep Calm and Carry On” (wow) and “Ditch Your Landlord.” Plus whatever “Model apartments cum art galleries” means???
Another slide highlighted 22 Wyckoff Avenue in Bushwick, a project CCM began in 2007. CCM still owns the one-story commercial space. The slide deck described it as having “metal skin.” It’s intentionally rusted to a color that Healthline.com would describe as, “You’re definitely dehydrated.” And on its website, CCM says that the retail space “helped propel Bushwick into the vibrant and creative neighborhood it is today.”
In our conversation, Boone noted Sacks’ multiple commercial properties in the area. Whether you’d call it vibrant or creative, retail spaces like Wyckoff Avenue’s certainly shaped how gentrification spread in Bushwick.
The New York Times spoke with a developer in 2009 who laid out the retailer-led vision and why the neighborhood was a prime place to park capital.They argued that the 2008 Financial Crisis and government indifference shattered lives (not how th einvestor said it, of course) created a market for cheap real estate.Despite the eviction crisis, Bushwick retained residents because there was rent-stabilized housing. (Boone alleges that CCM has illegally destabilized some of its holdings, more on that below.) At the time Bushwick didn’t have important retailers like grocery stores because capital apparently didn’t care to cater to existing, low-income residents. Investors saw this as a good thing; it gave them space to create businesses to lure in rich kids. “Not high-end retail, but upper-end retail,” as one real estate capitalist told the Times.
From inflatable rats to rat-infested apartments
Hunter Boone started tenant unionizing with their building at Starr Street. The aim: to tackle alleged wrongdoing by their landlord, Jacob Sacks, co-head of Cayuga Capital. Boone had a background in workplace unionizing; first at MTV News, then the New Yorker, then Vox, and finally at the New York Times. So when they were working on a non-unionized reality show, he saw an opportunity to use his “transferable skills.” They talked to neighbors, posted flyers (mysteriously taken down), and built a website for the Starr Street Union.Boone also began to track what he claims are CCM Venture’s number of housing violations (2,249) and 311 complaints (3,349) as well. Separately, RentHistory.org found that CCM Property Management LLC, another company connected to Jacob Sacks, has 2,038 violations and 3,062 complaints.His tenant organizing wasn’t to boost his class-war resume. Boone had serious problems with his apartment maintenance, particularly rats.“It’s not rocket science to seal a building so that rats don’t get in there,” said Boone. “[Sacks] has been sued three times about [rats coming from] the backyard from the DOB, and he just keeps claiming that he fixed it.” According to reporting from News 12, the NYC Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) agency concluded that Sacks falsified many repair records. Boone says the rat problem was unaddressed for so long that he withheld his rent to pressure Sacks to do his job and manage his investment property. Sacks, in turn, took Boone to court to evict him and sue for back rent.
Punching back after you’re SLAPP’ed
Boone shared their story with outlets like the New York Post and News 12 about organizing against CCM with their neighbors. Around that same time, Boone was defending themself at housing court. Scott Gross represented Boone’s landlord. “He’s a good lawyer, but just an overall horrible person,” said Boone. He bases his opinion partly on a public court document detailing Gross’ conduct in a different eviction case on October 23. Gross was representing the landlord but showed up more than an hour late to a hearing, nearly handing the case to the tenant by default. The judge told the court officer to let Gross know that he needed to hurry up. To that, Gross told the court officer to tell the judge to “go fuck himself” and left without arguing his client’s case. He was subsequently sanctioned by the court.
But more happened that same week, according to Boone, like when he waited in the courthouse for his preliminary hearing.“[As you wait, normally] people will open up the door throughout the day from Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Legal Services, other pro-bono attorneys, and they’ll call people’s names out to talk to them before their case to give them advice or free representation that day,” said Boone.
So when they heard their name, they assumed it was someone there to help. But no. “It was Scott [Gross] pretending to be that type of attorney,” said Boone. Online, he says Gross’s headshot is suuuuper outdated (same, tbh), so although Boone knew Gross was his landlord’s lawyer, he didn’t recognize him in person. Boone unwittingly told Gross their legal strategy and supporting evidence. “And he was like, ‘Oh well, sounds like you got a lot. Would you like to go up [...] and see a judge?’ And I was like, no, no, I’m here to adjourn,’” because they needed more time to get a lawyer. “[Gross] was like, ‘Oh, well, that’s your problem,’” said Boone. “And I’m like, ‘Excuse me. Who are you?’”
Luckily, the court gave Boone the adjournment they wanted. As they both walked out, Gross screamed at Boone for allegedly slamming the door in his face as he exited, which Boone denies. But then Jack Underwood, Deputy Program Director at Brooklyn Legal Services, also known as BKA, approached Boone to represent him. Underwood told Boone he’d been following Starr Street Union’s story since the New York Post article came out. Despite the messy encounter, Cayuga Capital Management apparently wanted to get back to the courtroom. By October 30, News 12 learned – before Boone – that Sacks planned to sue Boone for defamation. The eventual lawsuit sought $500,000 in damages. “It’s a SLAPP suit,” said Boone. As noted earlier, the ruling class often use Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPP suits, to stifle critique or protest. Anti-free speech capitalists might not necessarily care if they win their case. Maybe Sacks doesn’t either. Instead, SLAPPs are primarily about intimidating organizers and activists so they don’t speak up and fight back.
For example, Energy Transfer, the investors behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, won a SLAPP suit that, if not reduced or repealed, would make Greenpeace pay $667 million for supposedly organizing the Standing Rock protests. Both Greenpeace and indigenous groups say it was the latter, not Greenpeace, that defended the water and land against capitalist exploitation.Boone says the SLAPP suit is making some tenants scared to talk to the media and go on rent strike. “But when I was served those papers, I just laughed ‘cause everything in the New York Post article was true, and they have a lawyer and everything was fact checked and [Sacks] didn’t sue the Post,” said Boone. Why wouldn’t Sacks sue the Post too, especially since it has more assets he could go after? It’s possible that he recognizes that the Post’s legal defense team could likely win against him or get the suit dismissed. On top of that, Boone poses a threat to Sacks’ interests in a way that the Post doesn’t. In short, whether it’s an oil company, landlord, or some other corporate exploiter, SLAPPs are a common and desperate ploy to stop leftist resistance. We must push through anyway.
Don’t back down
SLAPP lawsuits are designed to isolate and exhaust working-class organizers like Boone. They send a message: speak out, and you’ll be punished. But Boone’s story reveals another truth: legal intimidation doesn’t always work. In fact, it can backfire.The Bushwick Tenant Union has become a model for tenant organizing under threat, reminding us that solidarity grows in resistance.Landlords may control the buildings, but they don’t control the narrative. As SLAPPs rise, we must name them, fight them, and refuse to be silent. Because when organizing becomes dangerous, it also becomes vital. And when the law is weaponized against the people, the people must become ungovernable. The war on tenants won’t be won in courtrooms alone. It will be won in hallways, stoops, and strategy meetings by tenants who choose to keep fighting, together.
So you’re a renter.... What do you do now?
- Talk to your fellow tenants about outstanding maintenance requests, rent increases, and if they’ve faced landlord bias or discrimination
- Research local rental regulations and your building or unit’s rent price history
- Review your state’s housing court records that
involve your landlord
- Find other tenant unions, like the LA Tenants Union or the Autonomous Tenants Union Network, for tips and inspiration
Consider radical strategies like rent strikes and helping neighbors occupy empty units
- Recognize that your landlord might retaliate against you with something like a SLAPP suit – and you must not let it stop you.
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