Legendary community organizer, Frank Hutchins dies at 75
Updated Apr 01, 2019; Posted Nov 21, 2009
By David Giambusso/The Star-Ledger
Behind Frank Hutchins' soft spoken demeanor lay what friends and proteges call a "warrior" for tenant rights in Newark.
GEORGE MCNISH/THE STAR-LEDGERTenant organizer Frank Hutchins outside his building, Oliver Plaza in Newark
A leader in the city's historic rent strike in the 1970's, Hutchins has counseled thousands of elderly and low-income residents, formed a slew of tenant organizations, and left an indelible mark on one Newark politician who places Hutchins among his greatest mentors.
"My work with him was the foundation of my professional life in Newark," said Newark Mayor Cory Booker. "The way he went about things really informed and inspired me."
Franklyn Hutchins died Thursday evening at the age of 75, after suffering a bout with cancer.
"I was really broken and shaken up," Booker said today. "He was truly one of the greatest Newarkers I've ever met."
A Philadelphia native, Hutchins came to Newark in the 1960's at the height of the city's civil unrest and worked as a tenant and community organizer. Having attended the University of Pennsylvania, Temple and Rutgers, Hutchins marshaled his education to advocate for Newark's poor and elderly, informing tenants of their legal rights and standing up to landlords and politicians.
"He knew how to stand tall, not only for himself but for the rights of others," said Hutchins' pastor, Rev. Kenneth Pearman.
Hutchins had a major hand in writing the first rent control laws in Newark in 1972. He also engineered "eyes and ears" meetings with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, bringing the housing agency's national leadership in the same room with tenants and building managers.
"It was so effective that HUD adopted that as a model for the nation," said Nancy Zak, a member of the Greater Newark HUD Tenants Coalition, and 27-year partner of Hutchins in organizing tenants.
In April 1970, Hutchins played a major role in organizing tenants at the now-demolished Stella Wright Homes to withhold rent from the Newark Housing Authority for sub-standard living conditions. Three years later, after the longest rent-strike in history, the Essex County District Court granted tenants an 80 percent abatement of the back rent, and allowed them twenty months to pay the remaining 20 percent. The court labeled HUD as "Newark's largest absentee slum landlord."
Those who worked with Hutchins say it was his methodical, unflagging approach that made him so effective.
"What Frank would do was create a laundry list of issues," said Modia Butler, Booker's chief of staff, who also worked with Hutchins in community organization. Then Hutchins would take the most "burning" issues and present them to building managers or landlords.
"The initial attempt was conciliatory," Butler said. "If they didn't respond that's when he would bring the heat."
The "heat" often meant letters from attorneys, rent strikes or the arguments of Hutchins himself, who friends and relatives say had an encyclopedic knowledge of housing laws.
Throughout his career, admirers said Hutchins lived according to his own principles and when landlords had legitimate issues he would defend them as well.
"What was great about Frank was he was not only able to create the protest but he maintained a dialogue," Booker said. "He was one of those people that everybody saw as a real statesman."
Hutchins is survived by his sister Mary Frazier, his nephew William Watson and his niece Wanda Tyson. A wake will be held Friday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Cotton Funeral Service on Bergen Street, and a funeral will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at the same location.