General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Renters' Revolution
Not since the 1930s has America seen the combination of working-class vulnerability and working-class militance that were beginning to see today.
Tomorrow, well see what may likely be the first nationwide rent strike in our history. Weve had plenty of rent strikes before, of course, but they usually are limited to a single building or group of buildings owned by a particularly negligent and abusive landlord. During the Great Depression, however, such actions occasionally expanded across whole neighborhoods where a pervasive loss of income led to an equally pervasive inability to make the rent. Such spontaneous, self-organized actions as urban rent strikes, farmer mobilizations (sometimes at gunpoint) to prevent evictions and property seizures, and neighbors restoration of water and power to homes that had been cut off were common. In a few big cities, neighborhood rent strikes, such as those in Harlem, were organized by a combination of local tenants and such radical organizations as the Communist Party.
The two groundbreaking aspects of tomorrows rent strike are its nationwide scale, and the fact that its been organized by local tenants and many mainstream militant working-class organizationsthat is, groups without an avowedly revolutionary ideology.
Initiated by the Action Center on Race and the Economy, the organizing sponsors include the union-backed Jobs With Justice; such ACORN-successor community groups as the Center for Popular Democracy, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and New York Communities for Change (which initiated the Fight for $15); the living-wage/worker-power advocacy group Partnership for Working Families; the labor militants of Bargaining for the Common Good; Peoples Action Homes Guarantee; and a host of local tenant groups.
Read more: https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/the-renters-revolution/
(American Prospect)
aikoaiko
(34,186 posts)I hung on to my old condo through the 2008 recession thinking that things would pick up again soon. Prices never really come back for entry-level condos in my area.
I had been renting it out to cover the cost of the mortgage, HOA fee, and insurance. There really wasn't even enough to cover repairs or upgrades.
I think there were a lot of people like me with properties that they had to leave because of expanding family or job opportunities in another area/state/country.
If my tenants stopped paying rent, it would have put me into foreclosure within a few months.
Good luck to these renters when it involves corporations.
TexasTowelie
(112,660 posts)between 2000 and 2010, but one of my colleagues at work was getting hit with special assessments so I was unwilling to take that additional risk. Yes, I would have built equity, but the housing market was over-priced and while I had a bit of leeway regarding disposable income, but I didn't want to dispose of it in the housing sector since the insurance company that I was working at decided to go into voluntary liquidation. The best option for me was to remain flexible and not having a piece of property tying me down while waiting for the right time to sell.