Portside

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 diception 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! 

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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.