Organizing

Community development relies on policies, resources, and recognition that were won by decades of organizing—and organizing remains essential to face new threats, preserve existing wins, and continue to fight back against the big lie that the way things are is inevitable.

A nighttime view of Los Angeles from a distance, with glittering lights and above them a sky that's not altogether dark.

How Los Angeles Won the Largest Municipal Housing Program in the Country

The ambitious funding campaign took strong cross-movement organizing and the right political moment.
A tightly cropped black-and-white view of stone Ionic columns at the entrance to a courthouse. Words are carved on the lintel over the columns; visible in this photo are "and blessing."

Six Steps to Ensuring a Strong Right to Organize for Tenants

Getting solid legal protections in place will help tenants stick up for themselves more safely and effectively.
A group of people standing on steps, most holding signs saying "Yes on Rent Control" while at left a man speaks into a microphone. Behind the people, faintly visible, is a large holiday tree with red and silver ornaments.

How We Won Rent Control in Pasadena, California

Never underestimate the power of—and need for—a ground game.
Two-story brick apartment houses surrounded by evergreens and deciduous trees. At right are several parked cars. A woman in a pink top and gray leggings is raking leaves along the curb.

Albany’s Good-Cause Eviction Law Worked—Before the Courts Blocked It

As local tenant protections face judicial backlash across New York, tenants are pushing for a statewide version of the law.
Jennifer Made, a Newark, New Jersey, native who formed the Newark Community Action Network.

Building Community Power in Newark, NJ

Jennifer Made started organizing at 13 and began feeding her community at 19, an effort that grew into the Newark Community Action Network.
Under a blue sky, in a large arching gateway is suspended a banner that reads "End Rent Burden." Below it is a line of 11 picketers holding signs that say "UAW on Strike: Unfair Labor Practice." A passerby is talking to one of the picketers.

Tenants Rights Advance in California

Reaction to the housing crisis in California has led to a series of gains for tenants, including a new Renters’ Caucus.
The card for Women of Color, an interview with Kea Mathis.

Through Her Eyes: Community Organizing in Detroit

Kea Mathis organizes alongside tenants—mostly Black, women-led households—to create and support affordable, quality housing. "It is very hard . . . as a Black woman here, to be the one to try to ask the question first or stand up first,” says Mathis.

How to Build a YIMBY/Tenant Activist Bridge, a Shelterforce Webinar

Shelterforce’s investigative reporter Shelby R. King wrote two pieces about YIMBY (Yes in My Back Yard) groups in 2022, including one that focused on shared interests between YIMBY supporters and housing justice organizers.   The...
Two women in a crowd of protesters hold a big hand-lettered sign that says "Power to the tenants." Other people near and behind them are also holding signs.

Biden’s Renters Rights Blueprint: Meaningful or Not?

What should we make of the administration’s tenants rights announcement?
View from across the intersection of a rundown-looking corner in Baltimore, all two-story rowhouses. Some windows are boarded up. There are no cars or people in the scene.

Building Tenant Power: A Growing Movement Rises in Baltimore

Tenant organizing in Baltimore today is building on a rich legacy of tenant resistance in the city where residential redlining made its debut.

How These NYC Public Housing Residents Became Models for Tenant Rights Activism

Over generations, residents of the Cooper Park Houses in Brooklyn have created a blueprint for successful housing organizing.
Two women in a crowd of protesters hold a big hand-lettered sign that says "Power to the tenants." Other people near and behind them are also holding signs.

Tenant Advocates Wait for Action After Meeting with White House Officials

Tenants got to talk directly to the Biden administration about the need to rein in soaring rents. Will action follow?
Two people in dark winter coats stand at a table alongside a city street.

D.C. Street Vendors Push Back Against Criminalization

Street vendors are banding together to push back against police harassment, keep access to their usual locations, fight for better working conditions, and create sustainable businesses.
A close-up view of 11 glass-domed electric meters in an apartment building. The photo appears to be black and white at first glance, but is naturally a scene of varying shades of gray.

When a Problematic Landlord Is a Nonprofit

While in most cases having a nonprofit as a landlord is considered a win, it doesn’t prevent conflict with tenants. But organizers can take some different tactics when interacting with nonprofit landlords.
A sidewalk view of a front stoop where a man stands holding a bullhorn. Lined up on the sidewalk in front of him is a large group of people, many wearing CLVU's bright yellow-green T-shirts.

Boston Organizers Protect Individual Tenants, While Trying to Change the System

City Life/Vida Urbana is known for successful tenant union organizing and anti-eviction actions, but every individual action springs from a larger vision of system and policy change.

Tenant Protections Take a Step Forward in Maryland

Access to counsel in evictions is now funded statewide, and several other tenant protections have passed, but the Maryland effort shows that solidifying tenant protections can be a multiyear process.

All Tenants Get Right to Counsel in Kansas City

Pandemic evictions heightened the urgency. Then the campaign succeeded by finding local champions, presenting cost and benefit data, and spotlighting tenant narratives.
A view from below of the girders supporting a bridge.

Is a YIMBY/Tenant Activist Bridge Possible?

A culture war between housing justice advocates and YIMBYs began in 2014. While the groups have different priorities, they do have shared interests. Can they be allies or will the habitual quarreling keep them at odds?

How Organizers Won a Tenants Bill of Rights in Miami-Dade County

Responding to tenants’ top concerns, organizers pivoted from affordability issues to landlord accountability and won a package of new tenant protections.
Two campaign signs stand together near the base of a monument in Portland, Maine. The sign at right reads "Say NO to Rent Control (Again)!" The sign on the left has a red arrow pointing to the other sign, and the text says: "Your (still) rising rents paid for that lawn sign!"

How Portland, Maine, Passed Rent Control

Organizers drew broad support with a multi-pronged campaign and found ways to get signatures in a pandemic to win rent stabilization and a slate of other progressive laws.