Housing Organizing in the Year of the Pandemic
California housing organizers reflect on what changes, and what stays the same, during a pandemic.
Crossing the Digital Divide During COVID
Flyers, phone calls, and podcasts, oh my! Organizations blend past and present strategies to stay in touch with community members.
Keeping Gentrification From Following Green Space
LA organizers work with park professionals on policies to allow green space investment in neighborhoods that have lacked it without paving the way for displacement.
It’s Time to Move On From Community Consensus
When we rethink the problem as one of political voice rather than community consensus, it opens up new, innovative techniques to determine public priorities.
‘We Need Those Houses’—Activists Take Over Vacant Housing Authority-Owned Homes
About 50 people—mostly single mothers and their children—have been living in vacant Philadelphia Housing Authority units since March. The move-ins are both acts of necessity and a political protest against the PHA.
Did Ithaca Really Cancel Rent?
In early June, residents and organizers successfully pressured the Ithaca Common Council to pass a resolution that requests that the state grant them the authority to cancel rent in response to COVID-19. Contrary to many headlines, it didn't actually cancel rent—yet.
Three Lessons Learned from Working in Isolation
A New York-based organizer says although we may be physically divided due to social distancing, we can be emotionally bounded through our common purpose.
Housing Justice Organizers Don’t Want to Return to ‘Normal’
As they organize for immediate relief for those whose housing was affected by the pandemic, tenant leaders are also building power to demand long-term changes.
Out of the Flames
A review of a documentary about the decade-long period in the South Bronx when 80 percent of its housing, home to around a quarter of a million people, was lost to fire.
Anti-Displacement Organizing Should Start Here
Organizing in AAPI communities has challenges, but their location and composition make them key in the fight against gentrification. Here's why.
When the Homeless Took Over
As the homeless and affordable housing crises become a focus on local and national campaigns, we must remember the rich history and critical contributions of homeless organizers.
How California’s “Sleeping Giant” Woke Up and Won Statewide Rent Caps
California's momentous statewide win for statewide rent caps is owed to organizers and the power of organizing. Now that the giant is awake, what's next?
HUD Finally Puts a Landlord on Notice for Interfering with the Right to Organize
There must be actual, meaningful penalties for landlords that retaliate against tenants who fight for safe, standard home conditions.
The Guadalupe Neighborhood in Austin: 40 Years of Pushing Back Against Displacement
The community of Guadalupe’s 40-year struggle to fight displacement in the face of development pressure is instructive for other communities facing similar challenges.
Moving Beyond Place-Based Community Organizing
How to train organizers to work across various communities, not just neighborhoods.
The Collaboration Behind California’s Successful Statewide Ballot Campaign for Housing
As housing becomes ever more urgent an issue, California's model for running a statewide ballot campaign offers insights to organizations around the nation.
Organizing for Water Security in Detroit
A coalition's comprehensive study on the Detroit region’s water ills also acts as a road map to organizers' work around water justice.
Speaking Up On Race, Housing, and Opportunity in Minnesota
In the housing world, narrative plays an important role in defining whose voice gets heard, how issues are framed, and what solutions are developed. This is especially true in Minnesota.
It Takes Strong Roots to Achieve Climate Justice
Throughout 2018's Sol-2-Sol climate justice convening, indigenous people led many of the actions and activities.
What the Fight for Universal Rent Control in New York Can Learn from Prop...
Voters have set up an unprecedented fight between progressive housing groups and real estate interests. It will be a brutal fight. For proof of this, housing advocates in New York need only to look at California.