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Este informe no está disponible en español. THE NEW YORK TIMESDavid Santiago, 49, Leader in Fight Over Public Housing, DiesSeptember 27, 2001 David Santiago, a community advocate who fought for black and Hispanic access to public housing projects in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the 1980's and who more recently coordinated protests against the United States military presence in Vieques, died on Sept. 17 in Fairfax, Va., near his home in Annandale, Va. He was 49. He died during a liver transplant operation and had fought liver disease since 1999, said his companion, Ida Castro. From 1979 to 1994, Mr. Santiago was a co-chairman of the Southside Fair Housing Committee, originally called the Williamsburg Fair Housing Committee, a housing advocacy group that accused the New York City Housing Authority of operating a quota system favoring Hasidic families over those of blacks and Hispanics in three housing projects in Williamsburg. Now, after a series of legal settlements, 42 percent of the projects' units are occupied by nonwhite tenants, compared with 25 percent when the group began its fight, but the two sides are still in court. Mr. Santiago was also active on many other political fronts, perhaps most prominently in his advocacy for a Congressional district with a Latino majority, which came to fruition in 1991 with the creation of the 12th District, covering parts of the Lower East Side, Brooklyn and Queens. A year later, Nydia Velázquez was elected from the district, becoming the first Puerto Rican woman in Congress. Mr. Santiago also worked for the 1990 election of Richard Rivera, who became the first Hispanic civil court judge in Brooklyn. David Santiago was born Dec. 8, 1951, in Brooklyn. He moved to Chicago as a teenager, and in his 20's worked as a labor organizer and political activist throughout the Midwest. He returned to New York in the late 1970's. In 1994, Mr. Santiago moved to the Washington area, where he worked for the National Puerto Rican Coalition as director of membership and special events, and for the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration as director of regional affairs. He was also a prominent organizer in Washington on the Vieques bombing. Mr. Santiago was a skilled and outspoken advocate who, friends and colleagues said, always backed up his positions with hard evidence. He eventually returned to school and earned his associate's degree from the University of Virginia in 1999 and was working on a bachelor's degree. He is survived by Ms. Castro, who was chairwoman of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission during the Clinton administration; his mother, Tomasita Santiago; his children, Nivea, Nicasio and Gabriel Santiago; and two grandchildren.
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