Comment Detail

Comment

I help my organization with their tenant organizing efforts. When we do eviction canvasses, tenants we contact often don't know they have an eviction case open against them because their landlord hasn't told them. Many of the buildings have inadequate maintenance, with some buildings having absolutely abominable conditions. The building I've done the most organizing with has numerous leaks, floods, infestations, mold outbreaks, and even mushrooms growing out of a person's carpet. These aren't livable conditions. But people live there anyway, because for many moving away entails displacement from their home and community. And the landlords there have ignored these problems for years. Nothing changed until tenants organized. Landlords, especially ones who receive government funding, need to be held to higher standards of tenant protection. This includes protection of tenant organizing, and protecting tenants from the displacement caused by increasing already high rent.