WE ARE BUILDING TENANT POWER

DURING COVID-19 + BEYOND

EVICTION PROTECTIONS DURING COVID

For close to two years, the tenant movement has stopped almost all evictions across NY State!

On January 15, 2022, the Governor and State Legislature failed NY tenants and let the eviction protections expire. You still have rights: FIGHT TO STAY! READ OUR FULL FAQ ABOUT YOUR RIGHTS! 

HOUSING COURTS MUST CHANGE: OUR DEMANDS DURING COVID-19 AND BEYOND

We are calling on the Governor, judges, and our city and state elected officials to KEEP HOUSING COURTS CLOSED until these 5 demands are met: 

  1. Extend the Universal Eviction Moratorium
  2. Ensure Everyone Facing Eviction Has and Knows About the Right to Counsel
  3. Slow Down Eviction Cases
  4. Hold Landlords Accountable 
  5. Prioritize Health, Safety, and Accessibility

Read more here about these demands and why we need them! ¡Leer más sobre nuestras demandas para cambiar las cortes de vivienda! 

 

WE ARE SUPPORTING TENANTS WHO ARE ORGANIZING RENT STRIKES

As tenants across the state are facing rent demands, many have been asking us for support in going on rent strike. We believe that rent strikes are powerful tools when they are organized, but that they are not an end in and of themselves.

While we are working on fostering a large-scale, coordinated rent strike, we know that many tenants won’t be able to organize their buildings because of physical distancing limitations, or will have concerns and doubts about going on rent strike for the first time. We also know that bold actions invoke increased risk.

We created this toolkit (aquí en Español) as a guide and source of resources to help folks conduct a rent strike in an organized and more powerful way.

More than 50 buildings, made up of 1,000 tenants went on rent strike on May 1. Many of them are still going strong! 

 

OUR DEMANDS TO #CANCELRENT AND #RECLAIMOURHOMES

During COVID-19, we knew that it wasn't our first public health crisis, nor will it be the last. We also knew that our longterm position that evictions are violent was gaining traction.  Eviction moratoriums we'd been calling for before COVID were now popular AND a reality.  We fought hard to shift the narrative and to transform our system of housing so that housing would be for people, not profit.  To do this we worked to advance two critical pieces of legislation: a TRUE, UNIVERSAL eviction moratorium and to CANCEL RENT for all NY tenants.  Read more about the bills here.  The NY State Legislature unfortunately failed to meet the scale of the crisis and instead settled for temporary relief and reliance on the federal funding.  See our full statement here.  While we lost Cancel Rent this round, there are powerful tenant protections tied to rent relief thanks to the work of the tenant movement and more tenants than ever before our engaged in the fight.  We will continue to find for an #EVICTIONFREENY! 

More resources about our work to Cancel Rent and Stop Evictions During COVID:

 

TENANT ORGANIZING RESOURCES