Hi First name / friend,
I’ve been pretty vocal about this on Instagram, but I’m exhausted. What’s helped (aside from rest) is taking stock of things I’m grateful for.
High on that list? The fact that I have a stable place to live, one where the monthly cost is pretty predictable (barring anything horrible happening to our building that might require a “special assessment” from our condo board).
For most renters in the U.S., that’s not the case.
Our society pushes homeownership – to build wealth, to be a “good citizen,” to qualify for many entitlement programs like the mortgage interest tax deduction (a program that actually costs the U.S. government more money than would fully funding the Section 8 voucher program, by the way).
Renters are subject to sometimes arbitrary rent hikes, beholden to sometimes neglectful landlords, and receive none of the federal financial entitlements that homeowners have access to.
Some cities, like DC, have stronger renter protections – like rent control, legal resources via the Office of the Tenant Advocate, and other policies.
Still, just up the road from my condo,
tenants are on a rent strike to protest deplorable conditions. Imagine a landlord that refuses to fix the lock on your front door, to provide mitigation against rodent infestations, to fix your stove.
Moving might sound like a good option, but moving is expensive, and in a tight market like DC, there may be few (if any) places tenants can move to. Not to mention the disruption that comes with losing a social network, should folks have to move out of the neighborhood in search of affordable housing.
One thing I’ve noticed is that many of our housing affordability solutions involve helping people buy homes, usually in the form of downpayment assistance.
But solutions like that are frustrating, because for some, homeownership isn’t the right fit. For a variety of reasons!
I was heartened to see the Biden Administration’s “Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights.” It’s great that tenant rights are being discussed on the national stage.
AND YET, it doesn’t go far enough. “The announcement includes no conditions on federal financing, for example, but instead gets closest with a carrot approach, like providing incentives to landlords who accept vouchers” (via
Washington Post).
I believe that in order to create meaningful change for renters, we need more fundamental shifts, one that give less power to land owner monopolies, one that doesn’t mean enormous profit for simply owning land and providing less-than-sufficient service to those who reside on that land.
Okay, so what are we supposed to do?
One of the most basic ways we can support tenant advocacy is to learn more about what tenant organizing looks like in our communities. Give them money when they run fundraising campaigns.
My goal for this year is to slowly get involved in local tenant organizing. It’s scary! I’ve never done it before! I don’t want to overcommit! But, it’s something I recognize as valuable, especially as a highly educated person with political power.
I’m including some further reading in the On My Mind section below that I hope you’ll enjoy. I think it can be easy to feel a nebulous hopelessness, but there are lots of examples that prove solidarity and organizing efforts work! And I think the greater awareness we have of the issues at hand, the better equipped we are to speak out where we can.
Until next time,
Dominique
