 | |
| Abbreviation | TUF |
|---|---|
| Formation | August 6, 2024 |
| Location | |
Director | Tara Raghuveer |
| Website | tenantfederation.org |
The Tenant Union Federation (TUF) is a national federation of tenants' unions in the United States, describing itself as a "union of unions". [1] [2]
The TUF was founded in 2024 by the Kansas City Tenants Union, Connecticut Tenant Union, Louisville Tenant Union, Bozeman Tenants United and Not Me We.
The Director of the Tenant Union Federation is currently Tara Raghuveer.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw tenants face increased housing insecurity, due to many landlords' hiking rents, as well as an increased threat of eviction during lockdowns and slowed economic activity. [3] [4] This compounded with existing factors, such as high rents and poor housing maintenance by landlords [3] [4] These issues resulted in the formation of new tenants' advocacy organizations in the form of tenants' unions [3] [4]
Some tenants' unions considered that local organizing only within their city area had limits whilst many landlords' property portfolios and political influence span beyond that locality. [1] [3] Responding to this, efforts began in April 2024 to form a national organization between five tenants' unions—Kansas City Tenants Union, Connecticut Tenant Union, Louisville Tenant Union, Bozeman Tenants United and Not Me We. [5] After the members of the five unions voted in favor of forming a federation of the trade unions, in June, the national leadership team of the TUF held its first meeting. [5] The Tenant Union Federation was officially launched in August 2024. [1] [5] [6] The establishment of the TUF marked the largest campaign of tenant unionism since the National Tenants Union of the late 70s and 80s. [1] [4] [7]
Each union sends two representatives to the national leadership team of the TUF. [5] KC Tenants Union representative Tara Raghuveer was chosen as the first Director of the Tenant Union Federation [3] [5]
Tara Raghuveer has said that the TUF plans to expand the membership of the federation in 2025. In the meantime, the TUF is focused on developing training and support for new tenants' organizations. [1] [3] [5] The TUF also intends to connect with organized labor. [1]
Subsidized housing is government sponsored economic assistance aimed towards alleviating housing costs and expenses for impoverished people with low to moderate incomes. In the United States, subsidized housing is often called "affordable housing". Forms of subsidies include direct housing subsidies, non-profit housing, public housing, rent supplements/vouchers, and some forms of co-operative and private sector housing. According to some sources, increasing access to housing may contribute to lower poverty rates.
A rent strike, sometimes known as a tenants strike or a renters strike, is a method of protest commonly employed against large landlords. In a rent strike, a group of tenants agree to collectively withhold paying some or all of their rent to their landlords en masse until demands are met. This can be a useful tactic of final resort for use against intransigent landlords, but can carry risks for the tenants, such as eviction, lowered credit scores, and legal consequences.
The Northern Student Movement (NSM) was an American civil rights organization that drew inspiration from sit-ins and lunch counter protests led by students in the south. NSM was founded at Yale University in 1961 by Peter J. Countryman, which grew out of the work of a committee formed by the New England Student Christian Movement, and was affiliated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Countryman began NSM's work by collecting books for a predominantly African-American college and raising funds for SNCC. He then turned to organizing tutoring programs for inner city youth in northeastern cities. By 1963, NSM was reported to be helping as many as 3,500 children using 2,200 student volunteers from 50 colleges and universities. NSM also encouraged direct-action protests, sending volunteers to sit-ins in the South and organizing rent strikes in the North. In the early 60's, NSM's work was divided into three areas which were each headed by an executive committee: "the campus, the community, and the south."
Rent regulation is a system of laws for the rental market of dwellings, with controversial effects on affordability of housing and tenancies. Generally, a system of rent regulation involves:
John I. "Hans" Gilderbloom is a Dutch American community organizer, academic, author, and researcher. He works as an international consultant on creating livable neighborhoods and cities, owns a real estate company that renovates historic housing, and is a professor of urban and public affairs at the University of Louisville. In 2014 he was nominated as a Fellow of the Scholars Strategy Network housed at Harvard University. He has been ranked as one of the "top 100 urban thinkers in the world."
The Crown Heights Tenant Union (CHTU) is a tenants union created in October 2013 to unify old and new tenants against the gentrification of the neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City. The CHTU has pushed for local collective bargaining agreements between tenants and landlords to be written into the deeds of buildings that would regulate rent increases and codify repair and renovation standards. They also assist individual tenants, educating them on their rights and how to enforce them, lobby in Albany for better rent laws, and participate in direct action, targeting predatory equity real-estate companies they believe to be involved in illegal evictions and harassment tactics.
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.
The Metropolitan Council on Housing is a tenant rights organization in New York City founded in 1959. As the oldest and largest tenants' organization in the city," it has focused on issues including rent regulation and affordable public housing.
Strikes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic due to many factors including: hazard pay or low pay, unsafe working conditions, inability to pay rent. These strikes are separate from the various protests that occurred over responses to the pandemic.
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, also known as a tenants association, is a group of tenants that collectively organize to improve the conditions of their housing and mutually educate about their rights as renters. Groups may also lobby local officials to change housing policies or address homelessness.
The Renters and Housing Union (RAHU) is a syndicalist tenants union based in Australia. RAHU organises for safe and secure housing through self-advocacy, education, and eviction defence. This includes supporting tenants through processes like evictions and bond recovery, with the union recouping $12,000 in members' bond money in a year.
The Kansas City Tenants Union, also known as KC Tenants, is a non-profit tenant's union in Kansas City, Missouri. It was founded in 2019 by Tiana Caldwell and Tara Raghuveer.
The 1907 New York City rent strike or the East Side rent strike lasted from December 26, 1907, to January 9, 1908. The rent strike began in response to a proposed rent increase in the wake of the Panic of 1907 which saw tens of thousands unemployed. It began in the Lower East Side and the predominant organizers were Jewish immigrant women in the neighborhood such as Pauline Newman, who played a major role in organizing the strike. It eventually spread to other areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn, comprising approximately 10,000 tenants. The strike was taken over by the Eight Assembly District of the Socialist Party of America in early 1908. Due to mass evictions and police brutality, the strike was broken, though approximately 2,000 successfully halted rent increases.
The 1918–1920 New York City rent strikes were some of the most significant tenant mobilizations against landlords in New York City history. A housing shortage caused by World War I had exacerbated tenant conditions, with the construction industry being redirected to support the war effort. In addition, newly available defense jobs attracted thousands of new families to the city, further reducing property vacancy rates. As a result, overcrowding, poor conditions, frequent raising of rents, and speculation by landlords were common. These long-term circumstances, and a nationwide coal shortage that culminated in a dangerous heating crisis for tenants, catalyzed the subsequent organizing and wave of rent strikes across the city.
The 1904 New York City rent strike was the first mass rent strike in New York City. It took place in the Lower East Side in the Spring of 1904, spreading to 2,000 families across 800 tenements and lasting nearly a month. The strike was a response to proposed rent increases amid a housing shortage. It was primarily organized by local Jewish immigrant women with organizational strategies and language learned from the 1902 kosher meat boycott and the history of labor organizing in the area. Tenant organizers, socialists, and local labor unions united as the New York Protective Rent Association; women who had initially organized the strike such as Bertha Liebson were removed from leadership positions. The strike was successful in the short term, halting the majority of proposed rent increases for the following year. However, landlords began raising rents again a year later, leading to the 1907 New York City Rent Strike.
Tenant right to counsel (TRTC) guarantees that eligible tenants will be provided legal representation, especially when tenants face eviction. Without a right to counsel, tenants are represented by lawyers around 3% of the time on average, whereas landlords have legal representation in 84% of cases. TRTC is viewed as a form of homelessness prevention, but eviction potentially implicates a number of other basic human needs, such as child custody, education, employment, and physical/mental health. Generally, tenant right to counsel programs are successful, resulting in lower eviction rates and more time, reduced rent arrears, and a sealed eviction record for tenants for those who cannot or do not want to stay in their homes.
Bozeman Tenants United is a tenant's union based in Bozeman, Montana. According to the Tenant Union Federation, which Bozeman Tenants United cofounded, the union has over 200 members and 130 pay union dues. Its founders are organizers who were involved in Bozeman United for Racial Justice.
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The 1925 Tenant Movement, also known as the 1925 Tenant Strike, was a rent strike, and series of labor strikes and other demonstrations in the Republic of Panama. The Tenant Movement was primarily active in the cities of Panama City and Colón, and was organized to achieve rent reductions.