landlords

Landmark lawsuits in D.C., New York, and California make source of income discrimination risky for landlords. 

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

Over generations, residents of the Cooper Park Houses in Brooklyn have created a blueprint for successful housing organizing.

A participatory theatrical arts group takes on tenant and landlord woes, and brings the audience into the action.

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.

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.

Pandemic evictions heightened the urgency. Then the campaign succeeded by finding local champions, presenting cost and benefit data, and spotlighting tenant narratives.

A deadly fire in an affordable housing complex in the Bronx was said to have been caused by a space heater. But a pattern of negligence created the conditions for the tragedy, and made the fire more deadly.

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

Some leases plainly contradict state law or include questionable, punitive, or egregiously anti-tenant clauses.

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

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.