Organizing

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?

Responding to tenants’ top concerns, organizers pivoted from affordability issues to landlord accountability and won a package of new tenant protections.

Landlord-tenant relations are governed by a mix of laws at all levels of government and can vary a lot.

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.

Shelterforce recently hosted a conversation about how to fight, and win, against corporate landlords and their extractive business models. Watch the video or read the transcript.

The National Tenants Union fought for tenant rights in the 1970s and early 1980s. One of the union’s founders reflects on the organization and what we might learn from those times.

After a lull in the 1990s, the tenants rights movement reemerged and has only gained strength. What caused the resurgence and what do tenants’ prospects look like?

Tenant advocates have long been pushing for a “tenants bill of rights” to codify rules that protect renters from landlords. Here’s a rundown of the top protections housing justice activists say need to be included.

Tenants are organizing together with increased urgency to get legal protections passed in their towns, cities, and states. What are the top protections tenants are fighting for?

In “Tenant Power Returns,” Shelterforce examines how the energy and focus in the housing world is returning to tenant organizing.

Yes in My Back Yard activists started with a simple—and some would say simplistic—argument: to solve the nation’s housing crisis we just need to build more housing, of any type and in as many places as possible. But as the movement nears a decade of existence, some of its members argue that their message has become more nuanced.

Residents of two LIHTC developments in Northern Virginia were informed that their rent would be increasing in 30 days, even if their leases weren’t ending for months. Is this part of a larger problem?