The fight over the Bedford-Union Armory is bigger than one city block. It represents the last stand of Crown Heights residents against relentless gentrification. Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio told Crain’s that Crown Heights residents who oppose the armory project just don’t understand how good it is for them. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In Crown Heights, nearly 60% of households are rent-burdened. This has led to surging evictions and record homelessness. Only 18 of the 386 units of housing proposed at the armory would actually be affordable to community residents. The inclusion of luxury condos and market-rate units is "let them eat cake" housing policy at its worst.

It is unacceptable and immoral that this project be allowed to move forward.

Developers and status-quo politicians would have you believe that advocating for a better way forward is an extreme position held by “intransigent” activists. They could not be more wrong.

What's extreme is building 56 luxury condos down the street from the Ebbets Field Houses, which saw 1,800 eviction cases from 2014 to 2016. What's extreme is the desperation of landlords across the city to find rich buyers for their vacant condos while we have record numbers of homeless people sleeping in our shelters. What's extreme is the New York City Housing Authority slipping into over $17 billion in needed repairs, while the top 10 richest developers in the city are worth more than $45 billion.

No one is surprised that Brooklyn's Community Board 9 unanimously voted down the current plan. After all, the city's request for proposals called for a private developer to obtain public land by building a recreational center, perfectly echoing the tactics of white imperialists who seized Manhattan island in exchange for $24 and some beads. While the developer would make millions, the community is left to negotiate over scraps. The members of CB 9 would prefer not to be displaced. And none of them is foolish enough to swoon over the community benefits agreement of a project that will help exterminate the current community.

It doesn't have to be like this. Not if we stopped prioritizing the profit of a few over the needs of District 35 residents. We could place the entire site into a community land trust, and use the city’s vast resources to build real low-income housing on our own land. Under this model, neighborhood residents and housing experts would organize into a community-controlled, publicly funded nonprofit entity that would steward the land. We could have community-led development—a world-class recreation center and low-income housing—that’s truly focused on what’s best for the neighborhood, rather than the profit margins of a Trump-supporting developer. We could fund it using the same city and state subsidies that the project is already receiving. We could have our cake and eat it too.

This could also serve as the model for all public land in the city, and ultimately all land in New York City itself.

Housing is a human right, and we can start acting like it by placing the Bedford-Union Armory into community control.

Jabari Brisport, an artist and resident of Prospect Heights, is a candidate for City Council in the 35th District, which includes the Bedford-Union Armory.