Jane Benedict Hawley, an activist for affordable housing and tenant protections, will be remembered at a memorial on Oct. 22. Benedict-Hawley died of pneumonia in June at the age of 93. Her career was long and distinguished. In the 1950s, when demolition associated with the post-WWII housing boom threatened poor residents in her Yorkville neighborhood, Jane co-founded the Yorkville Save Our Homes Committee, a tenant movement fighting for rent control and housing preservation. Benedict-Hawley founded Met Council on Housing in 1958 and led it until the 1970s, remaining on its executive board for another two decades. Using rent strikes and rallies, she led tenants in the fight for the Rent Stabilization Act, and subsidized housing including the Mitchell-Lama program. A memorial will be held on October 22, 11:30 a.m., at the 92nd Street Y. “We all admired her for her bravery,” said Jenny Laurie, director of Met Council on Housing. “She thought nothing of starting an impromptu sit-in outside the office of a [housing] commissioner or a Republican senator in Albany, or going face to face in a debate with an angry landlord at a picket.” (E. Holmgren) [10/17/05]