In New York, Housing Justice for All, a coalition of nonprofits, successfully fought for new laws and protections such as limitations on security deposit charges and requirements to notify tenants before making certain rent increases. Keep LA Housed, Inquilinos Unidos, and others won Los Angeles City Council approval for protections that require landlords to provide clear causes, like nonpayment of rent, for evictions and relocation assistance for tenants displaced by rising rents. The national tenants movement has helped make recent changes across the nation: “Nothing pulls people in quite like momentum,” says Kevin Simowitz, co-director of HouseUS. It raised more than $4 million in the past three years from grant makers such as the Oak Foundation, which provided $2 million, and the Melville Charitable Trust, which gave $200,000. The fund - which supports KC Tenants, Colorado Homes for All, the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance, and others - has continued to attract money from other large foundations. It received $5.5 million from the Ford Foundation and $2 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which has since awarded another $4 million. In 2021, HouseUS, a national organizing fund that supports local tenants movements, launched with $7.5 million. After losing their jobs during the pandemic, many tenants struggled to pay rent and would have lost their homes without eviction moratoriums.Īngarita says an increase in national grantmakers’ support for local tenant movements is part of a broader shift in philanthropy that prioritizes support for the people most closely affected by social issues. The pandemic “exposed a live wire about the lack of protections and vulnerabilities tenants face,” says Jennifer Angarita, of Funders for Housing and Opportunity, a grantmakers group. Now rents are rising again, and tenant organizers, who led the fight for pandemic-era eviction moratoriums, have turned toward new permanent protections for tenants. The current wave of organizing is the country’s most significant since the 1970s, when inflation and momentum from the Civil Rights Movement led to rent strikes across the country and new policies like rent control. The progress at KC Tenants comes as a growing number of foundations are working with a revitalized tenants movement to confront the nation’s housing crisis. Many operate similarly to labor unions by charging member dues, offering member benefits, and appointing tenant leaders. Tenants unions are membership-based groups that advocate for the collective rights of renters, often at the local level. For instance, the group got its bill of rights enacted by the city and is working to make sure all tenants have the right to a lawyer when facing evictions. (Sam Blaufuss via AP) Sam Blaufuss/APĪfter years of rising rents, a group of Kansas City, Missouri, renters came together in 2019 to form KC Tenants, armed with an annual budget of $30,000 and demands for a bill of rights to protect renters from rising prices, unjust evictions, and landlord abuse.įour years and one pandemic later, KC Tenants is a nonprofit tenants union with a budget that grew almost twentyfold and a track record of advocacy victories. Four years and one pandemic later, KC Tenants is a nonprofit tenants union with a budget that grew almost twentyfold and a track record of advocacy victories. Comments KC Tenants, a nonprofit tenants union, protest at the Tenant Takeover at Ilus W.
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