About the upcoming Renter Week of Action

September 11, 2017 by Fred Allebach

The Homes For All campaign is calling for renters, low-income homeowners, people without homes, labor and tenant unions, and all people who believe that housing is a human right, to take bold, creative and direct action September 18-24.

The Sonoma Valley Housing Group is planning to participate, and make public actions in support of all renters. The Sonoma Valley Fund has produced the Hidden in Plain Sight study, backed up by a recent 2017 demographic profile of Sonoma Valley. Herein lies a compelling story of a social, economic and racial disconnect here in the valley of which housing is a big part. Please consider making your voice heard on local housing issues in whatever ways you can. Letters, phone calls and public comments at city council and Planning Commission meetings are a start.

Much of the information here comes from the Homes For All website.

“Members of the Homes For All campaign are calling for renters, low-income homeowners, people without homes, labor and tenant unions, and all people who believe that housing is a human right to take bold, creative and direct action September 18-24, 2017.

In 75+ cities, towns and suburbs we are organizing a coordinated national week of actions to fight evictions, stop unfair rent increases, stop HUD cuts and corporate giveaways, and to advocate for community control of land and housing. Since 2013, we’ve won rent control or just cause eviction legislation in more than 15 different jurisdictions, supported the creation of land trusts in 5 states and grown from 18 organizations in 15 cities to 64 organizations in 38 cities and 24 states.

This year our fight for a world where all people have dignified and affordable homes is more critical than ever. In cities, towns, and suburbs—on highways and in byways—in the heartland and on the coast—we will demonstrate to the landlords, the developers, and the government that the #RenterNation is rising.

Why do we need the National Renter Week of Action NOW?

We are facing a Renter State of Emergency!

Rampant evictions, rapidly rising rents, spiraling water and energy costs, and developer-driven gentrification are displacing our children, our families and destroying our communities and cultures.  Housing is unaffordable, especially for communities of color, low-wage workers and working class people, mothers and families. One in two renters pay more than 30% of their income on rent and one in four pay more than 50%! (www.nlihc.org/oor)

Evictions disproportionately impact low-income African American women and Latinos – particularly mothers—often lead to job and income loss worsening poverty. Evictions and rising rents lead to stress, anxiety and depression. Displaced children lose educational opportunities and connections to friends, community and stability. Seniors are being forced into substandard housing conditions impacting their health and well-being. Often, the cost of housing and fear of homelessness influence survivors of domestic violence to choose between being on the streets or being threatened with daily violence. Gentrification divides communities and uproots the political and cultural power of our communities.

Massive cuts to the Housing and Urban Development Department threatened by the current administration and Wall Street backed congress are now attacking even the subsistence trickle of affordable housing and social services that our communities fought long and hard for.   Combined with public subsidies and land giveaways to corporate landlords are the leading edge of a comprehensive strategy to marginalize our communities economically and politically by the Wall Street directed US Congress and Presidency.

Racist zoning, financing, and subsidies by state and local government have denied access to housing and land for Black, Latino, Indigenous and Asian communities. Now is the time to demand and win universal rent control, eviction protections and investments in community land trusts and publicly funded infrastructure for the common good.

We need a Renter Week of Action and Assemblies to demand a halt to the racial, gender and economic violence harming our people and to organize together to create new models for community control of land and housing and to demonstrate the growing power of the #RenterNation—110 Million people and growing ever more organized!”