Housing struggle

November 26, 2023

Un Sistema Totalmente Arbitrario y Explotador

Llegar a los 55 años para muchos hombres de clase trabajadora se está convirtiendo en una amenaza persistente, en un miedo real que podría cambiar sus vidas de manera drástica.
¿Qué pasa a los 55 años actualmente, que provoca perder el sueño en muchos hombres?
La crisis económica, la falta de empleo y las altas rentas golpean fuertemente a un gran sector de hombres y mujeres de esta edad. Especialmente hombres que representan el sostén de la familia.

September 1, 2023

by Sara Garcia Molina

Unite and Fight the Housing Goliath

The growing ambition of the rich and the millionaires becomes more remarkable each day, especially when talking about the powerful class of property owners and landlords. The business of buying and selling property and renting has become extremely lucrative and profitable.
It is frightening to see how far the property owners have gone, increasing the rental and selling prices to levels that are practically impossible for working class people to afford. But the most terrifying thing is to know that they are driven by more wealth accumulation regardless of this social injustice, and as a result hundreds of people are being pushed into the streets. The situation has become devastating for families that cannot sustain the high cost of housing and are facing displacement.

September 1, 2023

by Sara Garcia Molina

Únete y Lucha Contra el Goliat de la Vivienda

Cada día se vuelve más notable la ambición de los ricos y millonarios, especialmente hablando de los poderosos dueños de vivienda para rentar o vender. Este lucrativo negocio de comprar y vender propiedades, y rentar vivienda se ha convertido hoy en día en una inversión demasiado rentable.
Asusta ver hasta donde han llegado los dueños de la propiedad de alquiler y de venta, aumentando los precios de renta y de adquisición, casi imposibles de pagar por un obrero. Pero lo más terrorífico es saber que nada los detiene, y que como consecuencia a esta injusticia social, en las calles van en aumento los cientos de personas sin hogar. Familias que no pueden sostener el alto costo de una vivienda, y esto es realmente terrible.

June 1, 2023

by Sara Garcia Molina and Guadalupe Camarillo

#RelatosInquilinos: Testimonio de Guadalupe

Los ojos de Guadalupe estaban puestos sobre su taza de café desde hacía rato, pero su mente divagaba por otro lado lejos del humo que salía oloroso. Como cada día, su mayor preocupación se centraba en encontrar un empleo permanente para no andar siempre a la deriva, y preguntándose cómo pagaría su renta. Esa angustia constante resultaba abrumadora y desgastante, y a veces, esa misma ansiedad le llevaba a la depresión, más Guadalupe sabía que no podía darse por vencida ni encerrarse en su casa a padecer su miseria, sus hijos necesitaban comida y un techo.

May 26, 2023

by Sara Garcia Molina and Guadalupe Camarillo

#TenantStories: Guadalupe’s Testimonio

Guadalupe’s eyes had been on her cup of coffee for a while, but her mind wandered elsewhere, away from the rising aromatic steam. Like every day, her main concern was finding a permanent job, one where you don’t feel adrift and always wonder how you’re going to pay the rent. That constant anguish was overwhelming and exhausting, and sometimes that same anxiety led her to depression, but Guadalupe knew that she could not give up or lock herself in her house to suffer her misery, her children needed food and a roof.

May 25, 2020

by Julian Guerrero

Building tenants’ power in the Bronx: interview with Manny Pardilla

As of May 7th, at least 33.5 million people are unemployed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The poor response by the state and employers is pushing working class people into tension with the pressures of everyday struggles. Healthcare workers are demanding greater protection, housing activists are calling for mass rent strikes, unemployment claims are expected to grow – this crisis will continue to expand. The push by capitalists to re-open the economy, and the state’s unwillingness to face the deadly realities of the pandemic will mean that Covid-19 is generating the conditions for mass struggle in the United States.

The organized labor movement’s timid efforts to push the Federal Government has been uninspiring and with huge swaths of working people disorganized, the descent into further barbarism stands over us all. The tasks faced by the new socialist movement in overcoming this divide stands over it like a mountain. But there are militants on the ground who are doing what they can to organize the people around them and build independent organizations.

March 30, 2020

by Justin Akers Chacón

How to win a rent strike

This communique is specific to the current conditions facing tenants in San Diego, California, but applicable to renters everywhere. There are specific reasons why tenants go on a rent strike, and there are ways to win. Just like workers in labor unions, tenants use the rent strike as a method to apply pressure and gain leverage in negotiations versus ownership/management. Tenants typically use rent strikes to demand repairs, negotiate better contracts (i.e., lower rent increases), and to protest against abusive management.
Rent Strikes can be effective when they are well-coordinated and based on a sound argument. Uninhabitable living conditions, requesting repairs that have gone unaddressed for over sixty days, gouging rent increases, threatening/bullying/abusive management and landlords could all be valid reasons for conducting a rent strike.

November 24, 2019

by Puntorojo Editorial Collective

Luchadores para el control de rentas

La Union de inquilinos surge a traves de la necesidad de evitar mayor desplazamiento en comunidades de bajos recursos Personalmente como organizadora comuniaria por mas de 15 anos en City Heigts en 2003 trabaje arduamete organizando a mas 300 padres de familia por una major educacion incluyendo respeto a nuestra lengua maternal; debido a que City Heigths es una comunidad con una diversidad multicultural, esto nos llevo a enfocarnos en la problematica de vivienda como un derecho humano y de salud que estaba altamente conectado a la desercion escolar, donde los estudiantes se sentian inseguros al sentir que cada 6meses o cada ano se tenian que ir a vivir a otro barrio e incluso a otro Estado.

Entonces iniciamos un proyecto al cual llamamos PCS (Proyecto de Casas Saludables) el cual fue patrocinado por California Endowment, esto nos dio la oportunidad de evaluar 300 viviendas en CH de las cuales mas del 80% resultaron con problemas realmente graves de humedad e infestaciones de ratas,cucarachas, chinches y otros graves problemas que iban desde tuberias rotas hasta techos rotos, ante este grave problema

October 20, 2019

by Justin Akers Chacón

Rent control rebels

The Tenant’s Union arose from the need to avoid further displacement in low-income communities. I have been a community organizer for more than 15 years in City Heights (a community in San Diego). City Heights is a predominantly immigrant, multicultural, and low-income community. I began organizing alongside 300 other parents to improve the schools for our children, including providing access to bilingual education. Through this work, I learned that there were a lot of problems with housing, and we began to focus on this issue as well as living conditions are highly connected to school dropout.