How to Organize as a Tenant
There are two main ways to organize tenants to fight for better housing. The first, is to form tenant unions or associations of tenants who share a common landlord and are facing similar acute issues. The second, is to organize tenants across different buildings or geographic areas to fight for issues that affect everyone, regardless of who their landlord is. The tactic that you choose will depend on what you’re asking for and who can make it happen (i.e. the demands and the target).
Organizing methods are generally the same, no matter what the final goal or tactics are. The most important things are to talk to people, ask them to get involved, and keep taking action on your demands to keep the pressure on your target.
The first step to organize is to figure out who is affected and to reach out to them about having a conversation. You can do this by setting a date to meet in the building lobby, at the public library, or in your living room. Go door-to-door in the building, or wait at the front entrance so you can tell other tenants about the meeting details and invite them out.
Organizing In Action:
A tenant, C, at 123 Main St has had a cockroach infestation since they moved in last year. They’ve told the landlord many times but they refuse to spray. C talks to their neighbour D and finds out they also have cockroaches and the landlord has known about the problem for 3 years! C and D figure if they have cockroaches, everyone else probably does too.
They decide to have a lobby meeting in two weeks. C goes to the library, prints off flyers, and slips them under people’s door. D visits people she knows in the building and tells them about the meeting and encourages them to talk to other neighbours to get them out.
The second step is to come up with a list of problems and determine what solutions tenants want. This can be done at the building meeting or when you go door-to-door. Tenants can take turns talking about the issues in their unit and what they would like to see happen, and other people can take notes. Once the issues are identified and tenants come up with solutions, they can determine their next steps.
Organizing In Action:
At the lobby meeting, C and D introduce the problem by talking about the cockroaches. As they go around the circle, most tenants say they also have cockroaches, but people also have fridges that don’t work, the carpet is torn up, and they’ve been waiting months for basic repairs. While people share, C makes a list of all the issues and D goes around and gets everyone’s contact information so they can follow up.
The tenants decide they want to demand the landlord spray for pests, replace the broken appliances, do repairs, and clean up garbage around the outside of the property. They also decide to start a Facebook group so they can keep in touch and share issues as they come up.
The third step is to pick a target. This is generally the person who is responsible for resolving your problem. Usually this is the landlord, but when tenants don’t know their landlord they can also target their demands at the property manager or superintendent. Sometimes the issue is bigger than the landlord, and in fact deals with an unjust law. In this case, the target could be your local MLA, city councilor, or perhaps the Minister of Housing.
Organizing In Action:
Now that the tenants of 123 Main St have a list of problems, demands, and a way of keeping in touch – they have to decide who they want to give their demands to. The building is owned by a corporation from Toronto, so they can’t go directly to the landlord. The tenants all pay their rent to the same address, and when they look up that property it looks like it’s owned by the same corporation. There’s a rental office at the front, and the tenants determine that there must be a property manager there to collect their rent cheques.
They also decide to flyer the other address, to see if tenants from that building are having similar issues and invite them to join in.
The final step is to determine a course of action. This can take many different forms, but regardless of what tactics they choose, it should happen soon after the building meeting to keep up the momentum. Always consider where your power comes from when taking action.
Thought Exercise:
If one tenant goes to the landlord’s office and drops off a demand letter, what would the landlord do?
How about if ten tenants go to their office? What about twenty?
