When you bring tenants together, whether you are a group of 2 or 20, if you want to do something about a problem, you need to clearly define the problem and then identify what you want to change.
- Get repairs made?
- Prevent a steep rent increase and keep rents affordable?
- Improve security in the building?
- Improve maintenance and management?
- Protect tenants from being evicted?
- Change the ownership of the property?6
It is important to be as specific as possible about what you want. If tenants are not clear about the goals, organizing will be difficult and frustrating. If a group identifies several goals, you may need to pick one that you are going to work on first. You can also identify goals by whether they are long-term, short-term, or immediate, and this can help a group prioritize what work needs to be done first.
Effective tenant organizing requires thinking strategically about how to solve a problem. It takes time and information to develop an initial plan of action or strategy. Strategies or campaigns (we use these words to mean the same thing) also evolve, change, and are refined over time.
For Example
Your goal may be to keep rents affordable and get repairs made. Your strategy may be to try to negotiate new lease agreements and a repair schedule with the landlord. If the landlord refuses to negotiate, you may have to develop a campaign using other tactics in order to achieve your goal. Or the group may decide that the strategy should be to try and interest a local nonprofit housing organization in taking over the property in order to keep it affordable.
There is no one strategy that fits all situations. A strategy will depend on many different factors, including the existing relationships between the landlord and the tenants—which are as varied as the people themselves. If the relationships are bad, how does the strategy address this? If the relationships are worth saving, how does a strategy accomplish this?
When a group maps out a strategy, it is helpful to ask a series of questions to sort through what leverage or power a group has, and what points of pressure may be applied to bring about the group's desired goals.
What follows are some questions to help your group look at different options in order to shape a strategy—along with some sample answers. Bring these questions to your meeting and figure out which ones make sense for the group to answer. Write the group's answers on sheets of paper posted up on the wall so people can see that their ideas are being recorded. When you write these ideas up on the wall, people will begin to see connections and you will begin to sort through the information in order to develop a strategy.
Questions to Ask
- What is the problem?
Repairs not getting made. - What is causing the problem?
Landlord refuses to make repairs.
Landlord cannot manage property.
Landlord is financially in trouble.
Landlord cannot afford to pay high mortgage and make repairs. - Who has a direct interest in solving the problem?
All tenants.
Some tenants. - What is the solution?
Landlord makes the following repairs:
(List repairs) - Are there any "legal handles" (violations of law) that will give a group leverage?
Serious violations of the state Sanitary Code.
Illegal retaliation by the landlord.
Landlord has interfered with utilities. - Who has the power to help bring about the solution?
Landlord—can agree to a repair schedule.
Housing inspector—can issue a repair order.
Court—can order a landlord to make repairs. - Who are potential supporters that can help you?
Neighbors
Community advocates
Local elected officials
Local city or town health and safety officials
Lenders
Nonprofit housing developers
Faith-based organizations
Unions
After a group decides on a strategy, the group should map out the specific tactics to carry out a plan. The tactics a group uses will also depend on many factors.
Some specific ideas for developing strategies and tactics related to bad conditions, rent increases, and landlord harassment are in the next section of this chapter.
In addition to materials that tenant organizing groups have developed based on their local experiences, some good resources on developing strategy that are available online are:
- Roots to Power: A Manual for Grassroots Organizing, by Lee Staples (3rd Edition 2016)
- Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy for Activists, by Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max (4th Edition 2010).
- Organizing Guide: People, Power, Change, by Leading Change Network, Marshall Ganz, New Organizing Institute, Peter Gibbs, Shea Sinnott, available on the Commons Library.
Tactics are the steps you can take to accomplish your goals. They are the moves made to gain more leverage, more bargaining power, more public support.
As a general rule, the goal that every group should have is to try to negotiate a solution directly with the landlord. By negotiating your own solution, you may have more control over what the terms of an agreement are—as opposed to having a judge control the decision. For example, tenants in Massachusetts are achieving substantial victories by negotiating collective bargaining agreements (agreements for all the named tenants) directly with landlords that establish fair rent increases for a set period of years, see Sample Collective Bargaining Agreement (Form 22).
Half the battle, however, is getting a landlord to the table to negotiate. A landlord may refuse to negotiate with your group, insisting that they will deal only with each tenant individually.7 To succeed in your struggle, you will have to stay unified and resist such efforts to divide and conquer. If your landlord refuses to negotiate directly with your group, you may have to use other tactics that put pressure on the landlord to negotiate. These other tactics will, if successful, bring your landlord to the negotiating table willing to work through a fair agreement.
Many factors will influence what tactics a group chooses to use and when to use them. Different tactics will have different effects in terms of escalating pressure. Some tactics change the struggle—from being tenant vs. landlord to community vs. landlord.
New information may surface that offers tenants unexpected opportunities and new ideas for tactics. Likewise, unexpected opposition may also rear up in response to organizing. It is important for a group to constantly evaluate its tactics and retool according to the situation.
When deciding what tactics to use, brainstorm about all the possibilities. Then evaluate the pros and cons of each. For example:
- Do tenants feel comfortable with the tactic?
- What are the possible gains?
- What are the possible risks of a tactic?
- Do you have the people, time, and resources to carry out the tactic?
- Will the tactic build the group's power?
- How will the tactic be perceived by the community and the media? Positively? Negatively?
There are many different types of tactics tenant groups have used to achieve their goals. Different tactics can also be woven together to achieve the desired goal. Below is a list of possible tactics to consider at different stages of a struggle.
a. Letter Writing
One of the most important first steps in negotiating with a landlord is letting your landlord know—in writing—what the group's concerns and demands are. Letter writing is fundamental to any negotiation between a tenant group and a landlord. Letters or emails provide a "paper trail" or documentation of the dialogue between both parties as it unfolds and can by themselves lead to a negotiated solution.
Figuring out what to include in a letter is what takes time. Putting a group's demands in writing, however, forces tenants to be clear about what they are trying to convince a landlord to do.
A group can also use “Public Letters” to a landlord to establish more accountability between the tenants and the landlord by sending them to other people. This is done by putting "cc:" followed by the names of the other people at the bottom of your letter. The "cc" (which stands for the now old-fashioned "carbon copy") tells the landlord that a copy of the letter has been sent to the people who are listed after the "cc."
For Example
You may want to "cc" elected officials for your area, the Board of Health (or Inspectional Services Department), religious institutions, or other community and political leaders. When you do this, the landlord will know that the people who have been "cc'ed" know what is happening and are watching. To whom the letter is "cc'ed" is a strategic decision that needs to be thought through by the group. See Sample Letter from Tenant Group to a Landlord (Form 25).
Another advantage of using the tactic of letter writing (including Public Letters) is that it is evidence of your organizing activity and helps your retaliation claim or defense if you go to court.8
b. Petitions
A petition is a statement that people sign because they support that statement. Petitions are a great way for tenants to build support on an issue. They are a way to communicate with the landlord that a lot of people are concerned about an issue. You can take a petition door-to-door and get it signed. You can use a petition as a way to let elected officials and the media know that a lot of tenants are concerned about an issue and are making a demand for change.
Never give away an original petition. Although you can always show an original petition to the landlord or the press, if you want them to have a copy, make them a photocopy. See Sample Organizing Petition (Form 24).
c. Board of Health Inspections
Inspections of more than one apartment by a local Board of Health (or Inspectional Services Department) may put enough pressure on a landlord to make repairs. Chapter 8: Getting Repairs Made tells you more about how to get an inspector. When you contact the Board of Health, be sure to let them know how many apartments need to be inspected before they come out to the property. Also, a tenant should be with the inspector from the beginning of the visit to the end. If several apartments are being inspected, it is valuable for several tenants to be with the inspector as the inspector goes from apartment to apartment. If you are working with an organizer, ask the organizer to be present to take notes and to document what is happening. After the inspections, you must make sure you get from the inspector copies of all reports.
Tenants may have to put pressure on a local Board of Health to do inspections. For example, tenants in Lynn, with the help of legal services, requested a hearing before the Commissioners of the Board of Health to report that inspectors were not giving the tenants timely inspections and failed, once they did, to report obvious violations. As a result of the organizing, the Commissioners demanded that the inspectors improve their services and meet state requirements for timely and complete inspections.
d. Rallies, Pickets, and Demonstrations
Rallies, pickets, and demonstrations are very effective tactics to put public pressure on your landlord if they fail to negotiate or fail to negotiate in good faith. The success of a rally or demonstration depends on how well it is organized. What is needed are people, signs, and coverage by the media.
Care should be taken to choose an appropriate location, preferably one that is highly visible to the public and relevant to the issue, such as your apartment building or your landlord's office. If you decide to picket, you should choose several people to act as leaders to discuss with the police the manner and location of your picketing.
Generally, you have a right to picket on public land as long as you do not physically block access to the place you are picketing. Your picket line must keep moving in a circle; otherwise you may be accused of "obstructing access." Your picket line should be vocal and spirited. Be prepared with chants.
Tenant spokespeople should also be prepared to speak with the press about the group's demands. Bring leaflets to give to the media and people passing by that will tell them why you are picketing.9 Some tenant groups have also used civil disobedience as a form of protest. For example, to protest rent increases, tenants and their supporters held a sit-in at an owner's office, resulting in 14 people being arrested and subsequently that landlord did agree to sit down with the tenant group and negotiate. For more tips on how to plan and conduct a demonstration, see the section of this chapter called Organizing Actions.
e. Window Signs and Banners
Signs and banners proclaiming tenants' goals hanging from a building and taped on the insides of people's windows can be an effective way to make a public declaration that tenants are pressing the landlord for improvements or fighting displacement. (For example: "Anti-Displacement Zone: We Will Not Be Moved!") Make sure the letters on the signs are large and readable. Banners and signs can stay up for a while and they provide a good opportunity for the media to take pictures.10 They also send a clear message to real estate agents and potential buyers that this is an organized building who will not be cleared out without a fight. This message is especially impactful on a “flipper” who intends to buy the building, evict everyone, make some minor upgrades, and to sell for much more than they paid for it.
f. Media
Landlords who refuse to maintain their properties, who seek steep and unreasonable rent increases, or who try to displace responsible tenants for higher profits are vulnerable to bad press. So are city officials and code departments that refuse to do inspections or to cite landlords for serious violations.
The media can be a powerful tool. Through holding a rally and inviting television and print media outlets, opinion pieces, and social media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, tenants can put increased public pressure on the landlord.
g. Resolutions
Tenants have used resolutions passed by a local town or city governing board as a way to develop support for their campaign. For example, some tenants have brought resolutions that urge the landlord to negotiate fair rents. Resolutions are a way to put increased public pressure on a landlord who refuses to negotiate. They are often covered by the local press. They can also build support among local officials. See Sample Resolution (Form 23).
h. Rent Strike
A rent strike occurs when the majority or all of the tenants in a building withhold their rent or refuse to pay a proposed rent increase. Solidarity in refusing to pay a proposed rent increase (while still paying the rent) is a necessary part of a struggle against a landlord's effort to increase your rent. Withholding rent is a lawful tactic that can be used to pressure a landlord to make repairs.
Before undertaking a rent strike, tenants should clearly understand that, although a rent strike is perfectly legal, it may lead a landlord to attempt to evict tenants. It is essential to get legal advice before embarking on a rent strike.11 For example, it is important to understand that withholding all your rent can lead to a “non-payment” eviction case, in contrast continuing to pay your old rent and refusing to pay the increased rent can lead to a “no fault” case which is easier to fight in court. For more about proposed rent increases and the options available to tenants, see Chapter 5: Rent. For more about how to withhold your rent, see Chapter 8: Getting Repairs Made.
i. Community Reinvestment Act Complaints
Tenants have used the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) as a way to get the attention of local lenders who may hold mortgages on properties where landlords refuse to make repairs or who are displacing tenants with steep rent increases. CRA is both a federal and state law that requires banks and savings institutions to take affirmative steps to help meet the credit needs of the entire community they are chartered to serve, including low- and moderate- income areas.12
For Example
A number of years ago, one tenant group in Lynn, with the help of legal services, sent a CRA complaint letter to the landlord's lender concerning the owner's plan to displace dozens of low-income and minority tenants because of rent increases of 60-70%. The tactic, in conjunction with media and other advocacy, led to pressure that resulted in a negotiated agreement between the landlord and the tenants that lowered the rent increase, set a repair schedule, and drew up a one-year lease, which facilitated accessing local rental assistance funds for the tenants.
j. Court Action
Legal action may be one tactic among many that may be available to address a particular problem. Before you decide to go to court, you should carefully evaluate the following:
- What you want,
- Whether you have a good case,
- Whether there are other ways to resolve your problem, and
- Whether you need and can get an attorney.
If your landlord violates the law, there are a number of ways that a court may be able to help you. These are called remedies. For more about different types of remedies that a court can provide, see Chapter 14: Using the Court System.
While courts can be helpful, it is always important to keep a perspective on the legal process. Any court action that leads you back to the negotiating table, where you have a better chance of controlling the outcome, can be considered a victory. If you do go to court, try to pack the courtroom with lots of tenants. Some tenant groups have everyone wear stickers or t-shirts expressing their support. Judges may act differently if they see a number of tenants who are interested in the outcome of the case. Try, when possible, to do some research about a judge’s attitude towards this type of action because it could hurt your campaign.
k. Political Support
Tenant groups who are fighting to improve their buildings and save their properties have developed important support from local, state, and national politicians. Whenever you ask for a politician's support, it is always important to think through this strategy. For example, it is not always a good idea to get politicians involved right at the outset. A politician may not do what they say they will do. They might turn against the group and support the landlord. They may have their own agenda. The may try to act as a mediator between you and the landlord without your wanting them to do this.
On the other hand, a politician may actively support your cause. They may speak out at a rally because they want to be seen as a leader on the issue of affordable housing and get the exposure. Seeing that the people in your building are voters, they may write a letter to your landlord supporting your demands. They may send a letter to a government agency supporting your request for funding.
Figure out who your elected officials are from town or city council level, to Massachusetts State House, to the United States Congress. Once identified try to research what particular interests or concerns those elected officials have that may be helpful to your situation. For example, you may find that your state Senator or Representative is on the Housing Committee or that a local city councilor grew up in subsidized housing. It is very important to develop a relationship with your elected officials.
To figure out who your state or national elected official is see Find a Legislator.
To get the support or attention of elected officials, make sure that all tenants in the group are registered to vote, if they are eligible to do so. Getting the support of neighbors who are registered voters also makes sense. Registering to vote is easy. Contact your city or town hall and ask for voter registration forms and procedures.
- Get repairs made?
- Prevent a steep rent increase and keep rents affordable?
- Improve security in the building?
- Improve maintenance and management?
- Protect tenants from being evicted?
- Change the ownership of the property?6
It is important to be as specific as possible about what you want. If tenants are not clear about the goals, organizing will be difficult and frustrating. If a group identifies several goals, you may need to pick one that you are going to work on first. You can also identify goals by whether they are long-term, short-term, or immediate, and this can help a group prioritize what work needs to be done first.
Effective tenant organizing requires thinking strategically about how to solve a problem. It takes time and information to develop an initial plan of action or strategy. Strategies or campaigns (we use these words to mean the same thing) also evolve, change, and are refined over time.
For Example
Your goal may be to keep rents affordable and get repairs made. Your strategy may be to try to negotiate new lease agreements and a repair schedule with the landlord. If the landlord refuses to negotiate, you may have to develop a campaign using other tactics in order to achieve your goal. Or the group may decide that the strategy should be to try and interest a local nonprofit housing organization in taking over the property in order to keep it affordable.
There is no one strategy that fits all situations. A strategy will depend on many different factors, including the existing relationships between the landlord and the tenants—which are as varied as the people themselves. If the relationships are bad, how does the strategy address this? If the relationships are worth saving, how does a strategy accomplish this?
When a group maps out a strategy, it is helpful to ask a series of questions to sort through what leverage or power a group has, and what points of pressure may be applied to bring about the group's desired goals.
What follows are some questions to help your group look at different options in order to shape a strategy—along with some sample answers. Bring these questions to your meeting and figure out which ones make sense for the group to answer. Write the group's answers on sheets of paper posted up on the wall so people can see that their ideas are being recorded. When you write these ideas up on the wall, people will begin to see connections and you will begin to sort through the information in order to develop a strategy.
Questions to Ask
- What is the problem?
Repairs not getting made. - What is causing the problem?
Landlord refuses to make repairs.
Landlord cannot manage property.
Landlord is financially in trouble.
Landlord cannot afford to pay high mortgage and make repairs. - Who has a direct interest in solving the problem?
All tenants.
Some tenants. - What is the solution?
Landlord makes the following repairs:
(List repairs) - Are there any "legal handles" (violations of law) that will give a group leverage?
Serious violations of the state Sanitary Code.
Illegal retaliation by the landlord.
Landlord has interfered with utilities. - Who has the power to help bring about the solution?
Landlord—can agree to a repair schedule.
Housing inspector—can issue a repair order.
Court—can order a landlord to make repairs. - Who are potential supporters that can help you?
Neighbors
Community advocates
Local elected officials
Local city or town health and safety officials
Lenders
Nonprofit housing developers
Faith-based organizations
Unions
After a group decides on a strategy, the group should map out the specific tactics to carry out a plan. The tactics a group uses will also depend on many factors.
Some specific ideas for developing strategies and tactics related to bad conditions, rent increases, and landlord harassment are in the next section of this chapter.
In addition to materials that tenant organizing groups have developed based on their local experiences, some good resources on developing strategy that are available online are:
- Roots to Power: A Manual for Grassroots Organizing, by Lee Staples (3rd Edition 2016)
- Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy for Activists, by Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max (4th Edition 2010).
- Organizing Guide: People, Power, Change, by Leading Change Network, Marshall Ganz, New Organizing Institute, Peter Gibbs, Shea Sinnott, available on the Commons Library.
Tactics are the steps you can take to accomplish your goals. They are the moves made to gain more leverage, more bargaining power, more public support.
As a general rule, the goal that every group should have is to try to negotiate a solution directly with the landlord. By negotiating your own solution, you may have more control over what the terms of an agreement are—as opposed to having a judge control the decision. For example, tenants in Massachusetts are achieving substantial victories by negotiating collective bargaining agreements (agreements for all the named tenants) directly with landlords that establish fair rent increases for a set period of years, see Sample Collective Bargaining Agreement (Form 22).
Half the battle, however, is getting a landlord to the table to negotiate. A landlord may refuse to negotiate with your group, insisting that they will deal only with each tenant individually.7 To succeed in your struggle, you will have to stay unified and resist such efforts to divide and conquer. If your landlord refuses to negotiate directly with your group, you may have to use other tactics that put pressure on the landlord to negotiate. These other tactics will, if successful, bring your landlord to the negotiating table willing to work through a fair agreement.
Many factors will influence what tactics a group chooses to use and when to use them. Different tactics will have different effects in terms of escalating pressure. Some tactics change the struggle—from being tenant vs. landlord to community vs. landlord.
New information may surface that offers tenants unexpected opportunities and new ideas for tactics. Likewise, unexpected opposition may also rear up in response to organizing. It is important for a group to constantly evaluate its tactics and retool according to the situation.
When deciding what tactics to use, brainstorm about all the possibilities. Then evaluate the pros and cons of each. For example:
- Do tenants feel comfortable with the tactic?
- What are the possible gains?
- What are the possible risks of a tactic?
- Do you have the people, time, and resources to carry out the tactic?
- Will the tactic build the group's power?
- How will the tactic be perceived by the community and the media? Positively? Negatively?
There are many different types of tactics tenant groups have used to achieve their goals. Different tactics can also be woven together to achieve the desired goal. Below is a list of possible tactics to consider at different stages of a struggle.
a. Letter Writing
One of the most important first steps in negotiating with a landlord is letting your landlord know—in writing—what the group's concerns and demands are. Letter writing is fundamental to any negotiation between a tenant group and a landlord. Letters or emails provide a "paper trail" or documentation of the dialogue between both parties as it unfolds and can by themselves lead to a negotiated solution.
Figuring out what to include in a letter is what takes time. Putting a group's demands in writing, however, forces tenants to be clear about what they are trying to convince a landlord to do.
A group can also use “Public Letters” to a landlord to establish more accountability between the tenants and the landlord by sending them to other people. This is done by putting "cc:" followed by the names of the other people at the bottom of your letter. The "cc" (which stands for the now old-fashioned "carbon copy") tells the landlord that a copy of the letter has been sent to the people who are listed after the "cc."
For Example
You may want to "cc" elected officials for your area, the Board of Health (or Inspectional Services Department), religious institutions, or other community and political leaders. When you do this, the landlord will know that the people who have been "cc'ed" know what is happening and are watching. To whom the letter is "cc'ed" is a strategic decision that needs to be thought through by the group. See Sample Letter from Tenant Group to a Landlord (Form 25).
Another advantage of using the tactic of letter writing (including Public Letters) is that it is evidence of your organizing activity and helps your retaliation claim or defense if you go to court.8
b. Petitions
A petition is a statement that people sign because they support that statement. Petitions are a great way for tenants to build support on an issue. They are a way to communicate with the landlord that a lot of people are concerned about an issue. You can take a petition door-to-door and get it signed. You can use a petition as a way to let elected officials and the media know that a lot of tenants are concerned about an issue and are making a demand for change.
Never give away an original petition. Although you can always show an original petition to the landlord or the press, if you want them to have a copy, make them a photocopy. See Sample Organizing Petition (Form 24).
c. Board of Health Inspections
Inspections of more than one apartment by a local Board of Health (or Inspectional Services Department) may put enough pressure on a landlord to make repairs. Chapter 8: Getting Repairs Made tells you more about how to get an inspector. When you contact the Board of Health, be sure to let them know how many apartments need to be inspected before they come out to the property. Also, a tenant should be with the inspector from the beginning of the visit to the end. If several apartments are being inspected, it is valuable for several tenants to be with the inspector as the inspector goes from apartment to apartment. If you are working with an organizer, ask the organizer to be present to take notes and to document what is happening. After the inspections, you must make sure you get from the inspector copies of all reports.
Tenants may have to put pressure on a local Board of Health to do inspections. For example, tenants in Lynn, with the help of legal services, requested a hearing before the Commissioners of the Board of Health to report that inspectors were not giving the tenants timely inspections and failed, once they did, to report obvious violations. As a result of the organizing, the Commissioners demanded that the inspectors improve their services and meet state requirements for timely and complete inspections.
d. Rallies, Pickets, and Demonstrations
Rallies, pickets, and demonstrations are very effective tactics to put public pressure on your landlord if they fail to negotiate or fail to negotiate in good faith. The success of a rally or demonstration depends on how well it is organized. What is needed are people, signs, and coverage by the media.
Care should be taken to choose an appropriate location, preferably one that is highly visible to the public and relevant to the issue, such as your apartment building or your landlord's office. If you decide to picket, you should choose several people to act as leaders to discuss with the police the manner and location of your picketing.
Generally, you have a right to picket on public land as long as you do not physically block access to the place you are picketing. Your picket line must keep moving in a circle; otherwise you may be accused of "obstructing access." Your picket line should be vocal and spirited. Be prepared with chants.
Tenant spokespeople should also be prepared to speak with the press about the group's demands. Bring leaflets to give to the media and people passing by that will tell them why you are picketing.9 Some tenant groups have also used civil disobedience as a form of protest. For example, to protest rent increases, tenants and their supporters held a sit-in at an owner's office, resulting in 14 people being arrested and subsequently that landlord did agree to sit down with the tenant group and negotiate. For more tips on how to plan and conduct a demonstration, see the section of this chapter called Organizing Actions.
e. Window Signs and Banners
Signs and banners proclaiming tenants' goals hanging from a building and taped on the insides of people's windows can be an effective way to make a public declaration that tenants are pressing the landlord for improvements or fighting displacement. (For example: "Anti-Displacement Zone: We Will Not Be Moved!") Make sure the letters on the signs are large and readable. Banners and signs can stay up for a while and they provide a good opportunity for the media to take pictures.10 They also send a clear message to real estate agents and potential buyers that this is an organized building who will not be cleared out without a fight. This message is especially impactful on a “flipper” who intends to buy the building, evict everyone, make some minor upgrades, and to sell for much more than they paid for it.
f. Media
Landlords who refuse to maintain their properties, who seek steep and unreasonable rent increases, or who try to displace responsible tenants for higher profits are vulnerable to bad press. So are city officials and code departments that refuse to do inspections or to cite landlords for serious violations.
The media can be a powerful tool. Through holding a rally and inviting television and print media outlets, opinion pieces, and social media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, tenants can put increased public pressure on the landlord.
g. Resolutions
Tenants have used resolutions passed by a local town or city governing board as a way to develop support for their campaign. For example, some tenants have brought resolutions that urge the landlord to negotiate fair rents. Resolutions are a way to put increased public pressure on a landlord who refuses to negotiate. They are often covered by the local press. They can also build support among local officials. See Sample Resolution (Form 23).
h. Rent Strike
A rent strike occurs when the majority or all of the tenants in a building withhold their rent or refuse to pay a proposed rent increase. Solidarity in refusing to pay a proposed rent increase (while still paying the rent) is a necessary part of a struggle against a landlord's effort to increase your rent. Withholding rent is a lawful tactic that can be used to pressure a landlord to make repairs.
Before undertaking a rent strike, tenants should clearly understand that, although a rent strike is perfectly legal, it may lead a landlord to attempt to evict tenants. It is essential to get legal advice before embarking on a rent strike.11 For example, it is important to understand that withholding all your rent can lead to a “non-payment” eviction case, in contrast continuing to pay your old rent and refusing to pay the increased rent can lead to a “no fault” case which is easier to fight in court. For more about proposed rent increases and the options available to tenants, see Chapter 5: Rent. For more about how to withhold your rent, see Chapter 8: Getting Repairs Made.
i. Community Reinvestment Act Complaints
Tenants have used the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) as a way to get the attention of local lenders who may hold mortgages on properties where landlords refuse to make repairs or who are displacing tenants with steep rent increases. CRA is both a federal and state law that requires banks and savings institutions to take affirmative steps to help meet the credit needs of the entire community they are chartered to serve, including low- and moderate- income areas.12
For Example
A number of years ago, one tenant group in Lynn, with the help of legal services, sent a CRA complaint letter to the landlord's lender concerning the owner's plan to displace dozens of low-income and minority tenants because of rent increases of 60-70%. The tactic, in conjunction with media and other advocacy, led to pressure that resulted in a negotiated agreement between the landlord and the tenants that lowered the rent increase, set a repair schedule, and drew up a one-year lease, which facilitated accessing local rental assistance funds for the tenants.
j. Court Action
Legal action may be one tactic among many that may be available to address a particular problem. Before you decide to go to court, you should carefully evaluate the following:
- What you want,
- Whether you have a good case,
- Whether there are other ways to resolve your problem, and
- Whether you need and can get an attorney.
If your landlord violates the law, there are a number of ways that a court may be able to help you. These are called remedies. For more about different types of remedies that a court can provide, see Chapter 14: Using the Court System.
While courts can be helpful, it is always important to keep a perspective on the legal process. Any court action that leads you back to the negotiating table, where you have a better chance of controlling the outcome, can be considered a victory. If you do go to court, try to pack the courtroom with lots of tenants. Some tenant groups have everyone wear stickers or t-shirts expressing their support. Judges may act differently if they see a number of tenants who are interested in the outcome of the case. Try, when possible, to do some research about a judge’s attitude towards this type of action because it could hurt your campaign.
k. Political Support
Tenant groups who are fighting to improve their buildings and save their properties have developed important support from local, state, and national politicians. Whenever you ask for a politician's support, it is always important to think through this strategy. For example, it is not always a good idea to get politicians involved right at the outset. A politician may not do what they say they will do. They might turn against the group and support the landlord. They may have their own agenda. The may try to act as a mediator between you and the landlord without your wanting them to do this.
On the other hand, a politician may actively support your cause. They may speak out at a rally because they want to be seen as a leader on the issue of affordable housing and get the exposure. Seeing that the people in your building are voters, they may write a letter to your landlord supporting your demands. They may send a letter to a government agency supporting your request for funding.
Figure out who your elected officials are from town or city council level, to Massachusetts State House, to the United States Congress. Once identified try to research what particular interests or concerns those elected officials have that may be helpful to your situation. For example, you may find that your state Senator or Representative is on the Housing Committee or that a local city councilor grew up in subsidized housing. It is very important to develop a relationship with your elected officials.
To figure out who your state or national elected official is see Find a Legislator.
To get the support or attention of elected officials, make sure that all tenants in the group are registered to vote, if they are eligible to do so. Getting the support of neighbors who are registered voters also makes sense. Registering to vote is easy. Contact your city or town hall and ask for voter registration forms and procedures.
6. Some tenant groups have found ways to transfer the ownership of their property to more responsible owners, local nonprofit housing developers, or even themselves. For example, tenants have worked with local community development corporations to purchase properties at a good price and convert them to affordable housing. An owner-occupant who is having trouble managing their property may welcome having a local group manage the property or turn it into affordable condominiums that the condo group manages.
7. An effort by tenant advocacy groups to get the Boston City Council to enact an ordinance that would have required certain landlords to engage in collective bargaining with duly formed tenant associations was defeated in the summer of 2007 by a vote of 8 to 5. No such law exists anywhere in Massachusetts—although a landlord's refusal to collectively bargain might be seen as an unfair business practice and thus a violation of the state's consumer protection statute. See G. L. c. 93A. San Francisco recently passed an ordinance requiring landlords to confer in good faith with tenants which places an obligation on landlords that does not exist in Massachusetts. However, the San Francisco law also establishes the right to form a tenant association in buildings with 5 or more units. Massachusetts does not have a minimum unit size for a lawful tenant association to exist. The San Francisco law is called the “Tenant Right-To-Organize legislation” or “Tenant-At-Home Ordinance." For more information about the law go to, www.sf.gov/news/new-legislation-tenant-organizing-and-tenantassociations#:~:text=The%20Right%2DTo%2DOrganize%20legislation,non%2Dresident%20advocates%20or%20guests
8. The anti-reprisal claim and defense in both G. L. c. 186, § 18 and G. L. 239, § 2A contain a “rebuttable presumption” that an adverse action, such as notice to quit or a rent increase, within six months of organizing or joining a tenants’ union is presumed retaliation. This presumption is extremely important because it means that the landlord can only rebut with “clear and convincing” evidence that it was not retaliation. If you do not fall within the presumption, it is difficult to prove intent to retaliate by the landlord. Therefore, anchoring the timing of the organizing with a dated letter can help the tenants prove that they are entitled to the rebuttable presumption.
9. You can distribute leaflets on public property, such as sidewalks and in the landlord's neighborhood. The First Amendment protection extends to the peaceful distribution of literature on public streets and peaceful picketing. For example, you can picket any office as long as you stay on the public sidewalk, aren't obstructing access or acting violently, and aren't pursuing an illegal objective. In Organization for a Better Austin v. Keefe, 402 U.S. 415 (1971), the Supreme Court removed an injunction against a citizens' group that was distributing leaflets against a realtor who made his living from blockbusting (the illegal practice of inducing homeowners to sell their properties by making representations regarding the entry or prospective entry of persons of a particular race or national origin into the neighborhood). (Keefe, at 420.) They left the leaflets at the doors of his neighbors and gave them to people coming out of his church and at shopping centers. (Keefe, at 417.) The court said that this activity was legal. (Keefe, at 419-20.) However, you may not distribute leaflets on private property if the owner or tenant has forbidden you to come onto the property. See G. L. c. 266, § 120.
10. There is no legal basis for a landlord to demand that you take down a sign hanging on the inside of your window— although they may try.
Lawyers advising tenants on a rent strike for conditions of disrepair should be aware of G.L. c. 239, § 8A and its requirement that the tenant will have to prove the landlord knew of the conditions before the tenants withheld rent. While it is possible to prove knowledge through constructive notice, it is safer to ensure actual knowledge either through written communication from the tenants to the landlord or an inspection report by a local board of health or inspectional services department.
12. The Federal Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”) is 12 U.S.C. § 2901 and regulations 12 C.F.R. parts 25, 228, 345, and 563e. For more about federal CRA history, regulations, and how to access CRA lending information, see the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council website at www.ffiec.gov/cra/default.htm. The state Community Reinvestment Act is G. L. c. 167, § 14. Regulations for the Massachusetts CRA can be found at 209 C.M.R. § 46.00. See the Commonwealth’s website at www.mass.gov/ocabr/banking-and-finance/banks-and-credit-unions/community-reinvestment-act/.