Eviction Defense

New Resource: The Tenant Power Toolkit

July 20, 2022 Tenant Power Toolkit. Organize! California, Eviction Defense, Housing, Tenant Rights

Helping each of us fight eviction and debt as individuals in the court system is crucial. But that is only the first part of what we can do together. Filing an answer to Unlawful Detainer or responding to a small claims lawsuit helps us respond to the system, but how can we change an unfair system? How can we change a system that evicts tenants who cannot file complicated legal papers within 5 days, but gives landlords online tools to evict from home? How can we change a system that allows landlords to ruin our credit over missed rent? With consent, we also want to connect users to tenant organizing across California, and eventually, connect users to others in their situation - neighbors; those who share landlords; those on rent strike. Why? Because if I am facing eviction or debt alone, my landlord has power over me.

Eviction Defense Successful Despite Aggressive Contractors

June 11, 2022 Niko Georgiades, Unicorn Riot. Resist! Eviction Defense, Homeless encampment, Housing, Minneapolis

Minneapolis, Minnesota – On June 1, 2022, authorities unsuccessfully cleared an encampment of tents on an unused strip of land off Interstate 35. Eviction defenders thwarted the sweep by asking for documents, helping residents pack and move, and using their bodies and placing objects in the way of authorities. Despite aggression from the contractors hired for the eviction cleanup, no tents were taken. Yet, all residents have since moved. Arriving around 9 a.m., State Patrol officers and Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) workers arrived to the encampment next to the northbound 28th St. exit from I-35W, with plans to clear the tents. Residents of the camp started living there because the previous encampments they lived in were also swept by the city.

Community Begins Eviction Resistance To Combat Wave Of Displacement

November 5, 2021 It's Going Down. Resist! Eviction Defense, Evictions, Housing, North Carolina

Asheville, NC - Community members, including tenants and precariously housed people, have come together on November 4th to resist an eviction in support of a multi-generational family experiencing forced displacement by Buncombe County. A number of people have occupied the property and have refused to leave until the city and county enact real solutions to the widely experienced housing crisis. Dressed as woodland creatures, the group brought a banner that says “Everyone needs a home”. The family being evicted—a mother, grandmother and two children under 5, who wish to remain unnamed due to fear of finding suitable housing in the future—has been living in their home in the Sweeten Creek area for six years in good standing, with part of their rent covered by the Section 8 program.

Palestinians Vow To Fight Jerusalem Evictions

May 29, 2021 Al Jazeera. Resist! colonization, Eviction Defense, Israel, Palestine

At least 218 Palestinian households in East Jerusalem have eviction cases filed against them, putting 970 people at risk of forced displacement, UN says

Eviction Moratorium Is A Useful Lesson In How Reform Happens

January 12, 2021 Ray Valentine, Organizing Work. Organize! COVID-19, Eviction Defense, Evictions, Tenant organizing

It didn’t make a lot of headlines, but in the recent stimulus and government funding deal, Congress extended what is probably the most significant federal housing policy in a generation: the nationwide eviction moratorium. We should study how it came to be, because it illustrates how working class people successfully influence public policy through collective action outside the political process. Originally implemented by the CDC in September, the moratorium is obviously imperfect in a number of ways: it is clearly designed to be narrowly targeted at “deserving” tenants and to compel people to pay what they can, its reach is limited because in practice it has to be implemented by local judges and sheriffs...

Seattle Police And Protesters Locked In Stalemate

December 17, 2020 David Obelcz, Malcontent News. Resist! Eviction Defense, Housing, Seattle, Tent Encampment

December 16, 2020 - Seattle Police appeared to be a no-show for a planned homeless encampment sweep at Cal Anderson Park, as the rain started to fall on a cold December afternoon. Activists built an elaborate series of barricades around the central part of Cal Anderson Park, encompassing the Shelter House and blocking sections of 11th Ave and Nagle Place. Protesters took inspiration from Red House on Mississippi in Portland with their ongoing action to prevent the homeless sweep. As dawn rose over Seattle, spirits were high as mutual aid fed the unhomed and activists. Someone set off a firework in the early morning hours, creating tension in the encampment.

As Millions Of People Face Evictions, Here Is How People Are Fighting Back

December 14, 2020 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast COVID-19, Eviction Defense, Evictions, Homeless encampment

The federal eviction moratorium is set to expire in December leaving an estimated 30 million people at risk of eviction. Members of Congress are still unable to reach an agreement on a relief bill that will extend the moratorium, as well as other important programs that were included in the CARES Act early in the year. I speak with two people about what is being done in their communities. They provide examples for others in similar situations. Joey Lankowski is with Food Not Bombs Las Vegas. They are building tiny home communities to keep people sheltered and physically separated when they have nowhere else to go. Then I speak with William X Nietsche whose family was victimized by predatory lending practices about what they are doing to keep their home. Many people in the community have rallied around them, building an eviction defense camp around their house.

The Red House And The Future Of Eviction Defense

December 11, 2020 David Rovics, Counterpunch. Resist! Eviction, Eviction Defense, Gentrification, Portland

Portland, Oregon has been in the headlines again over the last few days, and this trend will continue. The reasons for the headlines will vary depending on who you ask. If you ask the far right they will say something about Antifa terrorists having violent confrontations with the police because they hate law and order. The mainstream media’s headlines will also tend to lead with the so-called violent clashes, but then they may inform us that the reasons for the confrontation have to do with folks trying to prevent the eviction of a Black and indigenous family that has lived in the Red House at 4406 North Mississippi for multiple generations.

Portland Community Beats Back Eviction, Erects Barricades

December 10, 2020 It's Going Down. Resist! Eviction Defense, Police violence, Portland, Red House

On Tuesday morning, Portland community members successfully repealed heavily armed and militarized Multnomah County Sheriffs backed by Portland police officers, who were attempting to evict the Afro-Indigenous Kinney family, who has lived in the “Red House on Mississippi” in the North Portland neighborhood for 65 years. The eviction began in the early morning, after officers officers “violently dismantled the 75+ day “Red House” [support] encampment,” and then “entered the home itself, destroying its interior, and violently arrested two residents – injuring at least one.”

Red House Remains ‘Unceded Territory,’ Portland Family Says

December 10, 2020 Zane Sparling, Portland Tribune. Resist! Eviction Defense, Gentrification, Indigenous Rights, Portland

A local family says their home in Portland's historically-Black Albina neighborhood remains "unceded territory" — despite authorities' vow to remove barricades and enforce what they say is a lawful eviction. Several members of the Kinney family hosted a press conference outside the "Red House" on North Mississippi Avenue just after 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 9. Since Tuesday, hundreds of black-clad activists have used fencing, plywood and other materials to block access to the area near the home by erecting palisades across city streets. Portland Police Bureau officers and Multnomah County deputies arrived in the early morning Dec. 8...

The Next Steps In Eviction Defense

September 29, 2020 Portland Emergency Eviction Response. Organize! Eviction Defense, Evictions, Oregon, Police

Oregon - Here in Portland, there are signs that the movement for Black lives and the movement for actually affordable housing are increasingly intersecting in all kinds of ways. Among the networks engaged in popular education and resistance organizing efforts around housing issues, you’ll find groups normally focused on the massive problems of killer cops and institutional racism, such as Don’t Shoot PDX. Outside of the home of a family facing foreclosure in North Portland on Mississippi, you’ll find people who have long been involved with the daily protests that have been going on in Portland since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th.

Toronto: Protestors Successfully Prevent Eviction

September 22, 2020 Mira Miller, Blog TO. Resist! Canada, Eviction, Eviction Defense, Police

Toronto protesters engaged in a tense standoff with police outside the apartment building at 108 Goodwood Park Court this afternoon and successfully prevented a resident from being evicted. Tenant advocates and neighbours of the resident facing eviction showed up to the East York location early Monday afternoon in preparation for police and sheriff presence, and officers arrived on the scene shortly after to carry out the eviction.

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