Tenants Unions: What, How & Why?
As Cincinnati’s housing crisis intensifies and landlords rake in cash, more and more people are being thrown into the streets. As real estate prices continue to rise and housing ownership is further concentrated into the hands of corporate real estate developers (like 3CDC, Vinebrook, Urban Sites, Gaslight Properties, etc.), working class people’s only options are to rent or find themselves unhoused. Every dollar of rent that doesn’t get put back into your apartment goes into their pocket, and the laws are set up in the landlord’s favor, so they can buy up as much property as they can afford and charge whatever they want for it. Landlords lease apartments with broken appliances, mold, and pests all while refusing to fix their apartments when it’s their obligation under both the lease and the law to do so.
While the city of Cincinnati refuses to enforce legislation designed to protect renters and needs to be held accountable, real estate companies purposely make it difficult to enforce legislation or punish these investors. Oftentimes these companies purchase each individual home under a different LLC name, making it close to impossible to keep track of many properties they have altogether and decipher which ones belong to them. Also, companies’ headquarters are often located in completely different states than the states they own property in, which is why it’s so hard for tenants to get any help with issues. The owners have zero interest or ties to the local community or the people in it.
To combat this, we, as renters and working class people, need to build powerful organizations of our own to combat the power that landlords hold over us.
What is a Tenants Union?
A tenants’ union is a collection of renters joining together to build the power they need to make the change they want. These can be tenants who live in the same building, in the same complex, in a given geographical area, rent from the same landlord in different areas, or a region-wide coalition.
A building or neighborhood organization that is made up of and led by tenants themselves with the goal of fighting for collective interests and rights (such as repairs or rent control).
Building-based tenant unions are generally made up of tenants who live in the same building and/or have the same landlord.
Neighborhood and city-based tenant unions are networks of tenants who often have similar issues and stand in solidarity with each other, but live in different buildings or have different landlords.
Why Are Tenant Unions Beneficial?
Power comes in two primary forms: Organized People and Organized Money. Landlords have organized money; to counter this, we need to have organized people.
We all experience fear and isolation when faced with our housing challenges and they are difficult to speak up about as individuals. However, we have strength in our numbers. Being united with other people who share your living environment, means that you have the opportunity to build enough power to stay in our homes, communities, and thrive!
You get to build face-to-face relationships with your neighbors. As you build relationships with your neighbors, you will form a community based on class unity and solidarity that can advocate for mutual rights.
A well-organized tenants union can use their collective power to fight against rent increase, evictions, and displacement. The city of Cincinnati refuses to enforce legislation to protect renters, so it is up to us to organize to protect ourselves and our neighbors and ensure all are aware of our rights.
How Do I Start a Tenants Union?
1. Talk to your neighbors
If you’re experiencing problems with your apartment, it’s likely they are, too! It’s also possible that the landlord is telling you one thing and telling them something else; sharing information among fellow renters reduces the odds of you being manipulated by an unscrupulous landlord.
Take time to build the relationship. Build trust and solidarity with your neighbors.
2. Reach out to your community members
Set a time to go door knocking and connect with other neighbors you haven’t talked to yet.
Share the reason you are organizing. Listen to their concerns; a good rule is to spend two-thirds of your time listening.
Take note of names, phone numbers, addresses, and notes on what you talked about.
Follow-up with them and ensure they know when the first community meeting will be!
3. Form an organizing team
The organizing team is usually three to four tenants who are fed up and ready to do something together. Best practice is for the core group to consist of neighbors—generally older folk who have lived here for an extended amount of time.
Talk about your vision of what you want to do and how you want to do it.
4. Hold your first community meeting
It is difficult to address issues alone, but with collective tenant power, we come together regularly to share our stories, actively listen to each other, and identify our common suffering so that we can propose possible solutions as a community.
What Do We Do Now?
There are a lot of ways to take action to improve your housing together with your neighbors and community members. Typically, after having several meetings, tenants begin to form a campaign, which is your plan to win lasting change on an issue you and your fellow tenants care about. Strategizing for the campaign will include determining your needs and demands, which might include:
Repairs
Restore heat and hot water
Extermination of rodents, bed bugs, or roaches
Address mold or unclean conditions
Maintenance for elevators or other building amenities
Illegal lockouts
Tenant safety concerns
End tenant harassment or frivolous lawsuits
Eviction and displacement stoppages
Before jumping straight into action, take stock of your situation. What does your landlord want? What do they need? What do they have? On your side—what resources do you have? What can you do to affect their ability to get what they need? In general, opponents can be influenced by financial or political pressure, tarnishing their corporate image, or tarnishing the image of the people who work inside the company. All of this is very dependent on local situations—just because a strategy or tactic worked for another group of tenants doesn’t mean it will work for you.
Plan to hold frequent community meetings that all neighbors are invited to! If you can, plan to do a potluck, offer childcare, bilingual services, and more.
Determine your needs and demands
Brainstorm concrete collective action everyone can take to accomplish these goals:
Researching the following:
Who owns the building(s)?
What other buildings do they own?
Search the city records for “code violations”
See if your landlord is mentioned in the media
Find out as much as you can about your landlord by using the Cincinnati Tenants Union city-wide search functionality!
Collective demonstrations, such as marches or vigils, in front of your Landlord
Petition Deliveries
Media Campaigns
Mass 311 campaign calls
Press Conferences
Rent-Strike or Escrow
And far more! Only your union, as a collective, can determine the best course of action!
Delegate any tasks for the next meeting. Decide who will do outreach, who will facilitate, who will keep time, or bring food to the next meeting. This helps with building a sense of shared responsibility in the tenant association.
Share tasks, share information, enjoy yourselves, and reflect! Be creative in your struggle for liberation and understand that your new Tenants Union has your back!
Commonly Asked Questions
What if my Landlord Retaliates?
Landlords are most powerful when they’re targeting tenants individually. But tenants can fight back—there’s power in numbers. Talk to your neighbors! They could be having similar troubles, and no one should be going through them alone. Your local tenant union can help you organize.
Cincinnati law says if you join a tenants' union and assert your rights and your landlord tries to evict you, increase your rent, or make your housing situation worse within 180 days, they are assumed to be engaging in retaliation, which is illegal.
Ohio Law says it is illegal for landlords to retaliate against tenants who join together to negotiate or deal collectively with the landlord
If you do experience retaliation, organize with your fellow tenants to publicly agitate with a landlord retaliation letter. You can contact Cincinnati Tenants Union for a template letter and further assistance!
When organized with your fellow tenants, you can determine various methods of collective agitation in order to win against any retaliation!
Are there legal requirements to form a tenants union?
There aren't any legal requirements in Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana to create a Tenants Association! It’s as simple as organizing collectively and acting in solidarity with your neighbors. We as renters are not powerless against our landlords. Together we can fight for what we deserve!