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Rent Strike

Corporate Landlords Should Cancel Rent, Mortgages And Utlities During COVID-19

May 23, 2020 Sophia Lopez and Sarah Mykelburst, ACRE Action Center. , , ,
While so many of us struggle to survive, some of the richest billionaires in the world dominate the residential real estate industry in the United States. These corporate landlords are companies owned by extremely wealthy individuals, Wall Street entities like private equity firms and hedge funds, and institutional investors. Corporate landlords include many well-known entities like Kushner Companies, Mosser Capital, Equity Residential, Related, Essex, Starwood Capital, CBRE, Blackstone, and Irvine Company. Across the country, from New York and California to Arizona, Georgia, and Florida, these companies own large apartment complexes, office buildings, hotels, single-family homes, and a significant chunk of our mortgage debt. Corporate landlords do not pay their fair share in taxes at the local, state, or federal level.

Rent Strike 2020 A Historical Perspective

May 10, 2020 Rob Rooke, Socialist Alternative. , , ,
This country has been catapulted into the biggest health care, economic, and social crisis in generations. One-third of apartment renters were unable to pay their full rent in April and millions more will be in the same position in May. The three million people who signed on to the RentStrike2020 petition signals the outline of an organized response to this current crisis.  To help us navigate the coming period where the inability to pay rent will likely become ever more widespread, it may be useful to get a perspective on the historical and international experiences of rent strikes. In this article we look at a few rent strikes spread out around the globe from the 1800s to today. The vast majority of rent strikes are triggered by one of two things: inability to pay due to a rent hike, or protesting landlord neglect of buildings.

Rich Peasants, Poor Peasants And ‘Mom-and-Pop Landlords’

May 4, 2020 David Rovics. , , ,
In the course of the evolving patchwork of rent strikes happening right now across the US, there is suddenly a lot of talk in the press about how much the landlords are hurting. The landlords, of course, own the press, control the federal government, run all fifty states, and have a stranglehold on most of the city councils, so this shouldn't come as a surprise. My landlord, an investment company called the Randall Group that owns hundreds of residential and commercial properties up and down the west coast, reacted to the rise of a pandemic and the lockdown of the country by raising our rent, as they do every year, bringing it now to exactly 150% what it was when we moved in, in 2007. Back when I made much more money, as a touring musician in the era when people still bought CDs, when we moved in here, the rent was $500 a month.

#GeneralStrike2020: How To Participate On The May Day Launch

April 30, 2020 Popular Resistance. , , ,
On May Day, the first of May, the #GeneralStrike2020 (and beyond) campaign launches across the country. Learn more about the overall campaign in our most recent newsletter, "The Era of Mass Strikes Begins On May 1; First Day of General Strike Campaign." This prolonged and broad campaign will organize around a list of basic demands, as outlined here. Not on the list, but included is the demand to save the US Postal Service. The campaign will follow a three-prong strategy - resistance through noncompliance, mutual aid and building alternative systems in our communities rooted in cooperation, solidarity and participatory democracy. On May Day and extending through the weekend, there will be many activities. Read through and decide how you can best participate in the actions. There is something for everyone to do. Be creative!

‘Cancel the Rents’ Car Caravans Protest In 40 Cities

April 28, 2020 Party for Socialism and Liberation, Popular Resistance , ,
From Los Angeles to San Francisco to Chicago to New York and more than 40 cities across the country. On April 25 cars rolled through neighborhoods and shopping districts, stopped in front of jails, and drove by the homes of local politicians to demand that all rents and mortgages be canceled. Every car caravan took extensive precautions to conform to physical distancing requirements. It's perverse that the government, after shutting down the whole economy, won't now cancel rents and mortgages. Make the bailed-out banks absorb the cost.

Nationwide Car Protest Demands ‘Cancel The Rent’

April 26, 2020 Dan Koob, CBS Local. , , ,
Philadelphia - The Philadelphia Museum of Art was a scene of a protest on Saturday as demonstrators say they can’t afford to pay rent because of the coronavirus pandemic. They’re demanding that the payments are canceled. Protesters say they can’t work and just don’t have the money to pay rent, but landlords are naturally pushing back, saying not so fast. May 1 is less than a week away and with any calendar turn, come bills. “If we can’t work, we can’t pay and that the dignity of our people is of the utmost concern,” Lia Ferrante, with the Party of Socialism and Liberation, said. Renters and landlords alike are worried about the new month.

April 25: National Day Of Car Protests To Cancel The Rents

April 24, 2020 Cancel The Rents. , , ,
On Saturday, April 25th cities and towns around the country will mobilize to demand: A national cancellation of all rents, mortgages for homeowners, small landlords, and small businesses, for the duration of the Pandemic.  The patchwork of city and state moratoriums on evictions is not enough. In a few months when these moratoriums are lifted and the rents come due -- we will still not have the money! Join thousands of people across the country in car caravan protests on Saturday, April 25 to demand the cancellation of rent and all debts to landlords for the duration of the pandemic. 

New York Tenants Plan A ‘Massive Wave Of Rent Strikes’

April 20, 2020 Steven Wishnia, The Indypendent. , , ,
With hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers unable to pay rent after being forced out of work by the coronavirus epidemic, a group of housing activists is organizing what they call “a massive wave of rent strikes” beginning May 1. Their aim is to pressure the state to cancel all rent payments for April, May, and June. “My building is going on rent strike starting May 1,” Lena Melendez of Washington Heights, a member of the Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association, said during a telephone press conference April 16.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 90-day moratorium on evictions won’t protect tenants, she added, because when it ends, they’ll owe three months back rent— often adding up to $6,000 or more. There will be “massive evictions” when the courts reopen, she predicts.

Protect Tenants From COVID-19 By Nationalizing Landlords’ Assets

April 17, 2020 By Phillip Mendonça-Vieira, Passage. , , , , ,
With the economy grinding to a halt due to the social distancing measures and emergency lockdowns imposed in order to fight COVID-19, more than a million of Canadians have lost their jobs and are filing for employment insurance.  This poses a unique danger to tenants. A half century of housing and tax policies that discriminate against tenants has highly stratified who rents and who owns their accommodations by income — as of 2016, the average household income of Canadian homeowners was nearly double that of renters. Many tenants are now, or soon will be, having to choose between buying groceries and paying rent, as the government’s support programs exclude a great deal of people.

Tenant Advocates Call For Mass Rent Strike On May 1

April 17, 2020 Jake Offenhartz, The Gothamist. , , ,
New York tenant leaders are planning a “massive wave of rent strikes” across the state, the latest escalation in a campaign to force action from Governor Andrew Cuomo as he continues to resist calls to lift rent obligations for those financially impacted by the coronavirus public health crisis. With just two weeks before next month’s rent deadline, the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance and the Met Council on Housing launched a pledge on Thursday urging New York tenants to collectively withhold their rent on May 1st, regardless of whether they can pay. The largely unprecedented organizing effort would send convulsions through New York’s already cracking rental market and, in theory, leave Cuomo with no choice but to take action. It comes as the number of New York residents who’ve applied for unemployment in recent weeks skyrocketed past one million.

Over 30% Of US Renters Didn’t Pay April Apartment Rent

April 14, 2020 Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge. , , ,
Landlords across the country have been left in the lurch after nearly one-third of apartment renters in the US didn't pay any of their April rent during the first week of the month, according to new data from the National Multifamily Housing Council to be released Wednesday. The shocking figure comes as 10 million new unemployment claims were filed in the past three weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the report cited by the Wall Street Journal, just 69% of tenants paid any rent between April 1 and 5 vs. 81% the same week in March and 82% in April 2019. The count includes renters who only made partial payments. Many renters who haven’t yet paid may still pay later this month, NMHC said, and an uptick in paperless payments over the weekend may not be reflected in this initial count.

Rent Strikes And Beyond

April 14, 2020 Alysia Harris, Scalawag Magazine. , , ,
On last week’s call in Scalawag’s Solidarity Over Distance series, organizers and legal advocates across the South were excited to share both immediate and long term strategies to address the housing realities in their states laid bare by the COVID-19 crisis.   Cooperating attorney for Fair Housing Center of Northern Alabama, Richard Rice, managed to speak optimistically of the moment. “We have a captive audience—and folks are ready for new ideas... The crisis is obviously severe... however, we do have an opportunity it presents as well to change things to change the dynamics on a fundamental level. Some of those things look like cooperative housing, community land trust, talking to folks who live in public housing about organizing tenant associations.”

A Call To Action: Towards A General Strike

April 11, 2020 Cooperation Jackson, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the world before our very eyes. In less than 3 months, it has exposed the grotesque nature of the capitalist system to millions, ground the world economy to a halt, and revealed how truly interconnected our little planet really is. As bad as this crisis is on its own terms, it is made considerably worse by the misleadership from the White House, Congress, and many state and local governments. President Trump not only failed to heed the advice of the state's intelligence services regarding the potential threat of the coronavirus, but he downplayed its severity for months as well, and has refused to mobilize the vast resources at the disposal of the US government to address the crisis.

Residents At An Apartment Complex Prepare To Strike

April 11, 2020 Eliza Berkon, WAMU. , ,
A month ago, Sami Bourma had two jobs. He was a cafeteria cook at the National Institutes of Health and an Uber driver. Now, he can’t work. Furloughed from his NIH job and wary of picking up passengers during the coronavirus pandemic, Bourma has no income. He can’t pay his rent at the Southern Towers apartment complex in Alexandria. But rather than tell his landlord he can’t pay, Bourma is organizing a property-wide rent strike, with more than 300 households all saying they not only can’t pay … they won’t pay. “I started talking to people in the hallway and the lobby just to have an idea how people feel,” he says. Within an hour, Bourma says, his neighbors were in tears. “Some of them, they don’t have money completely, because they’ve been laid off early.”

In The Face Of Corporate Bailouts, Rent Strikers Demand Relief

April 10, 2020 Indigo Olivier, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
On April 1, tenants at 1234 Pacific Street in Crown Heights dropped white sheets over their fire escape — a symbol borrowed from organizers in Montreal — to inform their neighbors that they would not be paying rent this month. These tenants are part of a wave of recent rent strikes in cities across the country responding to nearly 10 million new unemployment claims so far as a result of the coronavirus shutdown. After Pacific Street’s management company refused their collective bargain offer to reduce or eliminate rent for tenants who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, the building’s tenant association formally declared they were on strike and are instead appealing directly to the governor — #CancelRent Cuomo, one banner reads.
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