Above Photo: The Eviction Lab
A new national database of court filed evictions filed since 2000 released this week by The Eviction Lab documented an estimated 2.3 million people who were evicted last year. The database – which doesn’t account for hundreds of thousands of evictions through intimidation and deception that happen without ever going to court – found that 2461 people were evicted EVERY DAY last year in the United States. In many communities like Richmond, Virginia, as many as 1 in 9 renters faced eviction. For women, particularly black women, that rate of eviction is even higher.
We launched Homes For All in 2013 because we believe that every single person has a right to a safe, affordable and dignified home. We believe that if we guarantee that every child, person and family can live in a quality home without fear of eviction, rent increases or intimidation our entire society will be better off. Our physical and mental health would be better. Our kids would be safer and more able to thrive. Our neighborhoods would be stable and more connected.
Let’s be very clear, we have enough homes and enough resources to make this a reality. Allowing this outrageous crisis to continue is a failure of elected officials and our entire society. We need bold and firm action NOW!
- We need to rapidly expand renter protections for all renters including rent control, warranty of habitability, just cause eviction protections and the right to a lawyer for all tenants facing eviction. #RentControl4All
- We need public investment from our communities, our cities and our government in affordable, safe and dignified social housing that meets the needs of communities. #CommunitiesOverCommodities
- We need to regulate corporate landlords, developers and banks who prey on our communities by forcing out families, flipping properties and turning our communities into playgrounds for the rich.
To win these things its up to US – the people who are facing this crisis head on.
It’s up to the more than 110 million renters in the country to join together alongside working class homeowners, people without homes and our allies to build a movement so powerful that it is no longer an option to side with greedy real estate companies over communities.
At Homes For All we are a part of building that movement.
We’re organizing tenants unions and community assemblies in communities across the nation to defend each other against displacement, take back our power and launch strategic campaigns to confront the real estate industry and win homes for all.
Register for the next tenant union training April 25th here!
Our members are leading coordinated fights for rent control, just cause eviction and other renter protection campaigns. Watch our recent Rent Control Campaign toolkit launch webinar and download the Tenants Together toolkit!
We are building visionary alternative models of land & housing that are controlled by our communities, not banks and corporate landlords.
Homes For All is heading to the Policy Link Equity Summit April 11-13 in Chicago!
This week 48 Homes For All members are heading to Chicago to participate in and lead the housing track of Policy Link’s Equity Summit. The Equity Summit brings together more than 4000 organizers, advocates, policy makers, elected officials and individuals to set a national agenda based on equity and justice. HFA members from Nashville, Boston, Portland, Oakland, Santa Ana, Santa Rosa, Santa Fe, Atlanta, Miami and more will be leading workshops and speaking on panels about our collective work throughout the week. Check out the Equity Summit Program here!
HFA members are also anchoring or participating in 7 of the 10 city cohorts selected for Policy Link’s new All-In Cities Anti-Displacement Policy Network (ADPN) which will be launched during the Equity Summit. Across the country our members are organizing to ensure that solutions to the housing crisis are led by and accountable to the people who are most impacted by the organizing crisis. Check out more info about ADPN here.
It’s no small feat the HFA is going to be a leading force in the convening. It is the product of incredible and powerful organizing every HFA member is doing across the country. Homes For All members on the ground in more than 40 cities and 25 states building grassroots power for equitable development, renter-led organizing, community stabilization and movement building towards a economy that puts the people & planet before profit.