#HousingIsAHumanRight

​We demand real changes that mean there is stable & affordable homes where everyone can live with dignity. We will need to transform the material conditions for low- and no-income renters by organizing them to weaken the hold of corporate and other predatory landlords and to building tenant power.

We will need safe, stable, community owned housing that includes care for our environment - both human & natural.
Our past work on this campaign has been as part of Renters' Rising, including our Baltimore Tenant Talk (on IG & Facebook) & online events.

Follow us online at marylandcu
Follow & use the #RentersRising & #HousingJustice to read about & share your thoughts on this campaign

Green Social Housing Campaign

We are building a mass movement of renters around the country to ensure housing is a human right. We will win government funding for green social housing: housing that is truly affordable for low-income families of color, that protects residents from climate disasters, and that is more sustainable for the environment. We will organize tenant unions to take back properties owned by the largest corporate landlords. We will expand tenant rights and protections. Corporate landlords and Wall Street investors are buying up millions of homes around the country. We will stop them from taking over our housing, hiking up our rents, and putting families out on the street! Our campaign will protect renters from eviction now, while building a more just and sustainable housing system. We organize renters against the largest corporate and predatory landlords, to win tenant union contracts, and to win the conversion of 5,000 corporate-owned homes into green social housing.

Goals

• Increase green social housing. We want: 
  • Massive funding. We will win over $1 trillion in federal, state, and local funds to build over 12 million high-quality, permanently affordable, safe and green homes. These homes would be owned by the public or placed under community control.
  • Green housing. We will green homes to resist climate change and deliver savings on utilities, by passing measures in the Green New Deal.
  • Real affordability. We need truly affordable housing that is permanently affordable, that can never be sold off to for-profit investors or corporate landlords. We will get all levels of government to fund and strengthen community land trusts, cooperative housing, and public housing, which we will uplift as models. We will both create new programs and build on what exists.
• Take back our homes from corporate landlords: Organize renters against the largest corporate and predatory landlords, to win tenant union contracts, and to win the conversion of 5,000 corporate-owned homes into green social housing.
• Win tenant protections that build renter power: Win the right to bargain with landlords through tenant unions, protections against eviction, and caps on rent increases.
• Expand a mass base of tenant and climate activists who are taking action against the corporations and elected officials driving our housing and climate crises. Build our electoral power in swing districts.

Targets

• Initial targets:
  • Corporate landlords like Blackstone, Pretium/Progress Residential, Related Companies, and other large corporate landlords; utility companies.
•  Ultimate targets: 
  • President Biden and key members of Congress including swing districts in Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Florida. 
  • THUD Appropriations Committee (Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development)

Tactics

• More base-building with renters and climate activists; 
• Disruptions of landlord conferences; 
• National rally or day of action in DC; 
• Coordinated housing occupations, move-in’s, and tent cities; 
• Testifying at meetings of pension funds that invest in corporate landlords; 
• Occupying land and corporate-owned property;
• Rent and utility strikes; lobbying and electoral organizing. 
• Schedule meetings with willing landlords to set up plans to transition to community property ownership. 

Key Terms

• Green social housing: Housing that is energy efficient, climate resilient, permanently affordable–and forever owned by a public institution or non-profit that ensures democratic community control. Tenant unions have a voice in management.
• Corporate landlords: Giant for-profit corporations that own tens of thousands of homes across the country, and rent these out to tenants, to make a profit for investors.
• Tenant Union: An organization of renters that fights for better housing conditions from a landlord.
• Tenant Union Contract: A legally binding agreement negotiated between a tenant union and landlord that sets limits on rent increases, evictions, unfair housing conditions, and more.
• Tenant Protections: Laws that protect tenants. These include laws that give tenants the right to organize and negotiate with landlords; protection from eviction; limits on rent increases; health and safety standards.
• Green New Deal for Public Housing Act: Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have repeatedly introduced a federal bill that would invest $1.8 trillion to green and repair 1.2 million units of public housing.

Base-Building: Getting the people directly affected by a problem to join an organization and take collective action.