Tag: landlord-tenant relations
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...
Over generations, residents of the Cooper Park Houses in Brooklyn have created a blueprint for successful housing organizing.
Navigating the End of the Eviction Moratorium in New York City...
A participatory theatrical arts group takes on tenant and landlord woes, and brings the audience into the action.
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.
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.
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.
Is Everything in Your Lease Legal? Quite Possibly Not
Some leases plainly contradict state law or include questionable, punitive, or egregiously anti-tenant clauses.
What Are Your Landlord’s Legal Obligations? Depends on Where You Live
Landlord-tenant relations are governed by a mix of laws at all levels of government and can vary a lot.
The Rise and Fall of the National Tenants Union
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.
Organized Tenants Are Baaaaack
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?
Top 6 Tenant Protections Renters Are Fighting For
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?
Tenants Rights: It’s Not a Moment, It’s a Movement
In "Tenant Power Returns," Shelterforce examines how the energy and focus in the housing world is returning to tenant organizing.
Mid-Lease Rent Hikes Surprise Affordable Housing Tenants
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?
How Hidden Property Owners and Bad Landlord Patterns Are Revealed in...
Housing tools in New York City demystify building ownership information and help renters, policymakers, and housing advocates spot and address problematic landlord behavior. Could tech-savvy groups outside The Big Apple replicate these tools in their communities?
How One of Boston’s Top Evictors Changed Its Ways
After learning it was one of the city’s most prolific evictors, a for-profit affordable housing provider created a tenant retention program that’s being touted as a model for other developers.
Minor Defendants: Kids Are Being Named in Evictions
When landlords name minor children in eviction filings, the negative effects could haunt them years later.
Landlords Don’t Have to Control Security Deposits
The UK saw a dramatic change in landlord behavior once security deposits were put into the hands of a third party.
Keeping an Eye on Landlord Tech
The landlord tech industry, while alive and well prior to COVID-19, has ramped up in the past year to develop new ways to accumulate wealth at the expense of tenants.