April Tyler, Tenacious Harlem Housing Advocate, Dies At 60

HARLEM, NY — April Tyler, a prominent activist in West Harlem who fought for affordable housing as a district leader and community board member, died suddenly this week at the age of 60.

Tyler, who had been in good health, was found unresponsive at her home early Tuesday, according to Michael Palma Mir, who worked closely with Tyler on Community Board 9 and the HDFC Coalition, an affordable housing advocacy group.

"The impact of her passing is kind of hard to assess right now, it’s so huge," Palma Mir said.

Friends and colleagues described Tyler as a selfless and tenacious fighter for her neighborhood, passionate about preserving affordable housing and local landmarks.

She was also effective: her recent victories included defeating a proposal by the city to remove the tax breaks that help keep HDFC co-op apartments affordable, and persuading the City Council to amend a 2018 law that advocates said imposed onerous regulations on apartment owners.

"She was this rare combination of raw intelligence, decades of accumulated knowledge, real personal integrity, and putting the community’s needs ahead of whatever personal goals or desires she might have had," said CB9 chair Barry Weinberg, who counted Tyler as both a friend and mentor.

"April asked the right question"

A Bronx native and a realtor by trade, Tyler began her crusade for housing preservation in the 1980s, when she and her mother moved into a condemned, decrepit building on Amsterdam Avenue near West 138th Street.

The building had no running water, a reputation as a drug den, and no working elevator, forcing her to lug her children and belongings up seven flights of stairs, Tyler told the Columbia Spectator in 2018.

In time, Tyler and her fellow tenants won repairs to their building. A few years later, advocates formed the HDFC Coalition, devoted to maintaining the city's roughly 1,000 affordable co-op buildings. Tyler revived the group in recent years after HDFCs came under new threats.

For years, Tyler was chair of CB9's housing, land use and zoning committee, giving her a front-row seat to nearly every new development proposed in West Harlem — and the ability to grill developers over their plans.

"The developers try to get away with a lot and they ask for a lot. In almost every instance, April asked the right question," Palma Mir said.

A savvy political operator, Tyler also served for 18 years as a Democratic district leader before losing a hotly contested election in 2011, and worked as a consultant for the iconic Harlem strategist Bill Lynch.

Her ongoing projects before her death included working to preserve the RKO Hamilton Theater on Broadway, and pushing for new affordable housing on the site of a former Amsterdam Avenue church, which the city is seeking to develop into a shelter.

West Harlem has lost another cherished leader.

I am devastated by the sudden passing of April Tyler, one of the smartest, most committed activists I have known. She was a force for affordable housing, economic justice and more. My deepest condolences to her family & loved ones. https://t.co/6mHgHswlLe
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) February 17, 2021

A cause of death has not been announced. Tyler is survived by her mother, Sylvia, two adult sons, Dietrich Geister and Thabo Geister, and three brothers, Michael, Anthony and Kofi.

Those paying tribute to Tyler have included several candidates for City Council in District 7, as well as incumbent Councilmember Mark Levine, who called her "a force for affordable housing, economic justice and more."

Palma Mir said he was daunted by the prospect of continuing the board's work without Tyler's expertise.

"It’s going to require many of us in the community to level up our game and try to fill those shoes," he said.