City Life/Vida Urbana (CL/VU, clvu.org) (est. 1973)[citation needed] commonly known as "City Life," is a social justice group in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1973, a group of local residents and activists with roots in the civil rights, feminist and anti-Vietnam War movements founded the Jamaica Plain Tenants Action Group, now City Life/Vida Urbana[citation needed]. Since 2008, City Life has focused on preventing evictions of both former owners and renters resulting from a rise in foreclosures[citation needed]. City Life/Vida Urbana is currently based in Jamaica Plain, with satellite memberships in East Boston, Brockton, Lynn, Quincy, and Worcester[citation needed].
Early organizing focused on stopping housing divestment and neglect.[1] Growing numbers of city slumlords had stopped maintaining their buildings – while still raising the rent on units that were unsafe and unsanitary. Others were burning down their own buildings for profit. Tenant organizers identified the worst buildings and organized occupants to take power.[1] Soon thousands of tenants across the city were holding rent strikes, taking owners to court and even picketing in front of their suburban mansions.[1] In response to this powerful movement, the city passed rent control protections, helping tenants for the next 20 years.[1] Several noted property owners were convicted for arson[citation needed].
When the housing market turned around in the 1980s, gentrification, speculation and condominium conversions became the new threat.[1] CL/VU created an Eviction Free Zone in Jamaica Plain, helping hundreds of people to stay in their homes and inspiring similar models in Roxbury, East Boston, Cambridge and cities in other parts of the country.[1]
The loss of rent control in 1994 sparked a dramatic increase in housing prices.[1] CL/VU responded by applying pressure on local property owners to maintain reasonable rents.[1] They also began collaborating with the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) to develop affordable housing.[1] In 1990, the former Bowditch School opened as a 45-unit rooming housing for previously homeless people.[1] JPNDC remains a strong voice for housing justice in Jamaica Plain, having created over 440 additional units since that time.[1]
As the need grew, CL/VU began expanding its efforts across the city in the fight against displacement and for restoration of rent regulation.[1] In just 3 years, tenants’ associations were formed in over 40 buildings.[1] Working with CL/VU, these groups used a collective bargaining model to win affordability contracts, Section 8 rent subsidies, and limit rent increases.[1] Two buildings totaling 435 units were able to win 99-year affordability contracts.[1]
In 2007 CL/VU started noticing the increasing number of foreclosure evictions in housing court, prompting them to launch the Post Foreclosure Eviction Defense Campaign.[1] Since 2008, eviction defense has been the thrust of CL/VU's organizing strategy to halt housing displacement for working class tenants and owners.[1] Foreclosure evictions have disproportionately affected communities of color, and reasserted CL/VU's mission to work toward racial justice as well as confronting bank power with collective people power.[1]
Current Work
City Life has worked closely with Project No One Leaves, the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, and other groups in efforts to pressure banks holding foreclosed properties to resell the assets to community lenders, including Boston Community Capital, which mortgages or rents them to the original occupants at the current deflated market rate.[2]
City Life is not a law firm and does not legally represent former tenants and owners.[3]
City Life employs what it calls a "sword and shield" strategy, including acts of direct action such as sit-ins, protest marches, and blockades as well as the defensive use of the court system by its legal advocates.[4] The City Life strategy is to expand pressure on foreclosing financial institutions adding group action with individualized casework.[4]
Between 2007 and the middle of 2011, City Life helped organize more than 20 blockades to prevent evictions, most of which accomplished their object.[4][5] The organization has also been instrumental in pushing Boston Community Capital to become more actively involved in the financing of distressed properties[citation needed].[4]
The group meets weekly, ending its sessions with organizers leading a chant: "What do we do when the banks attack?" to which the audience responds, "Stand up, fight back!"[citation needed][4]
In the United States, rent control refers to laws or ordinances that set price controls on the rent of residential housing to function as a price ceiling. More loosely, "rent control" describes several types of price control:
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of 4.4 square miles (11 km2) in Boston, Massachusetts. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts. The community seceded from Roxbury during the formation of West Roxbury in 1851 and became part of Boston when West Roxbury was annexed in 1874. In the 19th century, Jamaica Plain became one of the first streetcar suburbs in America and home to a significant portion of Boston's Emerald Necklace of parks, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant. When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner. The term landlady may be used for the female owners. The manager of a pub in the United Kingdom, strictly speaking a licensed victualler, is referred to as the landlord/landlady. In political economy it refers to the owner of natural resources alone from which an economic rent, a form of passive income, is the income received.
Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee.
Equity stripping, also known as equity skimming, is a type of foreclosure rescue scheme. Often considered a form of predatory lending, equity stripping became increasingly widespread in the early 2000s. In an equity stripping scheme an investor buys the property from a homeowner facing foreclosure and agrees to lease the home to the homeowner who may remain in the home as a tenant. Often, these transactions take advantage of uninformed, low-income homeowners; because of the complexity of the transaction, victims are often unaware that they are giving away their property and equity. Several states have taken steps to confront the more unscrupulous practices of equity stripping. Although "foreclosure re-conveyance" schemes can be beneficial and ethically conducted in some circumstances, many times the practice relies on fraud and egregious or unmeetable terms.
The Coalition for Economic Survival, or CES is a grassroots, non-profit community organization. CES works in the greater Los Angeles area in working to influence policy makers to improve the lives of low and moderate income people.
This article is a subordinate article to the subprime mortgage crisis. It covers some of the miscellaneous effects of the crisis in more detail, to preserve the flow of the main page.
Take Back the Land is an American organization based in Miami, Florida, devoted to blocking evictions, and rehousing homeless people in foreclosed houses. Take Back the Land was formed in October 2006 to build the Umoja Village shantytown on a plot of unoccupied land to protest gentrification and a lack of low-income housing in Miami. The group began opening houses in October 2007 and moved six homeless families into vacant homes in 2008. By April 2009, the group had moved 20 families into foreclosed houses. As of November 2008, the group had ten volunteers. Take Back the Land volunteers break into the houses, clean, paint, and make repairs, change the locks, and help move the homeless families in. They provide supplies and furniture and help residents turn on electricity and water. Though the occupations are of contested legality, as of December 2008 local police officers were not intervening, judging it to be the responsibility of house owners to protect their property or request assistance.
Open Communities (formerly Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs) is a nonprofit organization that advocates for fair and affordable housing in 17 northern suburbs of Chicago. Open Communities' mission is to educate, advocate, and organize to promote just and inclusive communities in north suburban Chicago. Open Communities works with current and prospective residents and local groups to promote economically and culturally diverse communities. Free services include fair and affordable housing counseling services, community education, advocacy, and organizing for welcoming communities.
The Ellis Act is a 1985 California state law that allows landlords to evict residential tenants to "go out of the rental business" in spite of desires by local governments to compel them to continue providing rental housing.
Project No One Leaves (PNOL) is a Boston non-profit tenants' rights organization which provides legal education to people living in foreclosed homes to enable them to understand and protect their legal rights. The group was established in 2008 by members of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau who specialized in housing law in response to a perceived spike in foreclosures and mass evictions in low-income Boston neighborhoods.
Squatting in the United States is the unauthorized use of real estate. Historically, squatting occurred during the California Gold Rush and when colonial European settlers established land rights. There was squatting during the Great Depression in Hoovervilles and also during World War II. Shanty towns returned to the US after the Great Recession (2007–2009) and in the 2010s, there were increasing numbers of people occupying foreclosed homes using fraudulent documents. In some cases, a squatter may be able to obtain ownership of property through adverse possession.
Occupy Homes or Occupy Our Homes is part of the Occupy movement which attempts to prevent the foreclosure of people's homes. Protesters delay foreclosures by camping out on the foreclosed property. They also stage protests at the banks responsible for the ongoing foreclosure crisis, sometimes blocking their entrances. It has been compared to the direct action taken by people to prevent home foreclosures during the Great Depression in the United States.
The Costa–Hawkins Rental Housing Act ("Costa–Hawkins") is a California state law, enacted in 1995, which places limits on municipal rent control ordinances. Costa–Hawkins preempts the field in two major ways. First, it prohibits cities from establishing rent control over certain kinds of residential units, e.g., single-family dwellings and condominiums, and newly constructed apartment units; these are deemed exempt. Second, it prohibits "vacancy control", also called "strict" rent control. The legislation was sponsored by Democratic Senator Jim Costa and Republican Assemblymember Phil Hawkins.
Arizona Tenants Advocates (ATA) is a non-profit renters' union and tenants' rights organization located in Tempe, Arizona. It was founded in 2001 by Kenneth A. Volk, a prominent Arizona tenants' rights advocate.
Eviction in the United States refers to the pattern of tenant removal by landlords in the United States. In an eviction process, landlords forcibly remove tenants from their place of residence and reclaim the property. Landlords may decide to evict tenants who have failed to pay rent, violated lease terms, or possess an expired lease. Landlords may also choose not to renew a tenant's lease, however, this does not constitute an eviction. In the United States, eviction procedures, landlord rights, and tenant protections vary by state and locality. Historically, the United States has seen changes in domestic eviction rates during periods of major socio-political and economic turmoil—including the Great Depression, the 2008 Recession, and the COVID-19 pandemic. High eviction rates are driven by affordable housing shortages and rising housing costs. Across the United States, low-income and disadvantaged neighborhoods have disproportionately higher eviction rates. Certain demographics—including low income renters, Black and Hispanic renters, women, and people with children—are also at a greater risk of eviction. Additionally, eviction filings remain on renters' public records. This can make it more difficult for renters to access future housing, since most landlords will not rent to a tenant with a history of eviction. Eviction and housing instability are also linked to many negative health and life outcomes, including homelessness, poverty, and poor mental and physical health.
Invitation Homes Inc. is a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It is headquartered in the Comerica Bank Tower in Dallas, Texas. Dallas B. Tanner serves as chief executive officer. As of 2017, the company was reportedly the largest owner of single-family rental homes in the United States. As of September 2020, the company owned about 80,000 rental homes in 16 markets.
Margot Black is an American tenant rights organizer, activist, grass-roots lobbyist and former political candidate. She helped found and was co-chair of Portland Tenants United, Portland's metro-wide tenant union focused on tenants' rights to secure, safe, affordable and equitable housing, tenant-union organizing, eviction prevention, and providing emergency assistance for renters navigating housing law.
A tenants union is a group of tenants that educate others about their rights and responsibilities as renters.
Moms 4 Housing is a housing activist group in Oakland, California. It was formed and received national attention after three formerly homeless Black women moved their families into a vacant three-bedroom house as squatters without permission from the owner, a real estate redevelopment company. The publicity of their occupation highlighted issues of homelessness, affordable housing, gentrification, and human rights. In January 2020, after resisting a judge's order to leave the residence, "the moms" were forcibly but peaceably arrested and removed by a heavily armed sheriff's department. A few days later, the governor and the mayor brokered a deal with Moms 4 Housing for a local community land trust to purchase what was came to be called the "Mom's House" from the owner. After refurbishing the embattled house, the group began to use it as a transitional home for homeless mothers. The actions of Moms 4 Housing inspired California lawmakers to make changes to housing laws statewide.
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