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  • Health Care Institutions Invest in Tenant Protections for Community Health

    Hospitals and other health care institutions across the United States are investing funds into surrounding communities to tackle issues that directly impact them: Housing stability. They’re funding campaigns that strengthen tenant protections due to the direct link between health outcomes and housing stability.

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  • Trying to prevent evictions one door knock at a time

    Renters facing eviction in Cleveland, Ohio are receiving home visits from members of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). They hand out pamphlets informing the residents of their options, their rights, and the repercussions of having an eviction notice on their file. Some tenants weren't even informed of the eviction until DSA members showed up at their doorstep. DSA also connected people with resources that could help keep them in their homes such as rental-assistance programs and Cleveland's Right to Counsel program offering free legal aid.

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  • Door-to-door: Advocates canvass neighborhoods, informing tenants and trying to prevent evictions

    Chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are using door-to-door campaigns to inform tenants about their rights if facing an eviction. Although evidence is limited about the success in preventing the evictions, some tenants have expressed that the outreach has helped them feel heard and many are more likely to show up in court.

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  • What legislators can learn from a Boston public housing development

    Over the four decades that a major Boston public housing development was run by a tenant management corporation (TMC), residents' safety and relations with police improved in ways that serve as lessons today as gun violence in neighborhoods with high poverty rates has prompted debates over reimagining public safety. As the first of many TMCs in the nation, the one at the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments lowered crime by changing the dynamic between residents and police, through greater community control. The TMC, with its own police department, was disbanded in 2012. Crime since has gone up there.

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  • How Lightfoot and housing activists reached an uneasy détente in the battle for Woodlawn's future

    After tense negotiations and protests, the Coalition for a CBA (Community Benefits Agreement) and the mayor of Chicago agreed to an ordinance guaranteeing a percentage of affordable housing for tenants making below 50% of median income. The coalition expects gentrification to accelerate due to the nearby $500 million Obama Presidential Center, making housing unaffordable for current residents. In addition to negotiations, the coalition organized a blockade of the mayor’s office and set up a “tent city” to emphasize their message. Not all residents want the ordinance and neither side got everything they want.

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  • Renters are rising up to unionise and take on dodgy landlords

    Renters' unions in the United Kingdom have provided more aide recently because the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated problems facing renters. The Association of Community Organisations for Reform Now is one of the largest renters’ unions in the UK and has been helping members fight illegal evictions and stop landlords from breaking lockdown rules. The group fears a “glut of evictions” when the government lifts restrictions. There are many renters’ unions in the UK, which might dilute their effectiveness, and the combined membership in the thousands is just a small fraction of Britain’s 4.5 million renters.

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  • Helping Tenants and Landlords Resolve Issues — Before Going to Court

    The city of Philadelphia piloted a mediation program that showed how landlord-tenant disputes could be resolved short of an eviction lawsuit. Though the program only lasted two months and heard just a handful of cases, it demonstrated that landlords will participate voluntarily in a system that can equalize a power imbalance and resolve disputes in ways that prove less damaging to both parties. Demand for the mediation program could ramp up if an expected wave of evictions hits because of the pandemic's effects on the economy.

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  • Co-Op City Succeeds With Census While Much of NYC Struggles. What's Its Secret?

    In New York City, where the average census response rate is only 49 percent, the city's largest co-operative housing complex achieved over a 70 percent response rate, well above the 40 percent rate typical in the co-op's neighborhood of the Bronx. Co-op City, as it is known, has a strong sense of community and promoted the census through its internal TV station, robo-calls, and community newspaper.

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  • Tenants Organize to Keep Building Affordable Through Nonprofit Purchase

    Affordable housing in San Francisco is becoming more and more unattainable. When the landlord tried to change its status to not be rent-controlled to not, a group of residents at said building banded together with a nonprofit to preserve the building. A nonprofit, the Mission Economic Development Agency, bought the property from the landlord so that its residents could maintain their rent in a very expensive city. Organizations like MEDA are key to helping the city and its residents transition over time to ownership.

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  • A New Kind of Cooperative in Oakland Fights Against Speculative Development Audio icon

    Real estate cooperatives are able to raise capital from their members, ensuring re-investment in the communitie they serve. In Oakland, California, the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EB PREC) finances real estate acquisitions through California’s cooperative ownership model. EB PREC also works with partners from the Sustainable Economies Law Center and the People of Color Housing Network, which provide additional resources and expertise.

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