Tenants rights groups in Brooklyn, Kansas City, New Orleans, and elsewhere are using physical blockades and direct action to keep people in their homes.
Housing rights activists in California are pushing for taxation of rich residents to help the hundreds of thousands of people who may be at risk of losing housing after COVID-19 eviction restrictions end.
Some are striking because they can’t afford to pay the rent. Others are striking in protest against what they say is inhumane treatment.
Laid-off workers say they face insurmountable debt and homelessness if they have to pay back months of rent after the pandemic.
As millions file for unemployment, tenants are banding together to support their neighbors who can’t pay the rent.
Their proposals move beyond Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 90-day eviction moratorium and call for suspending or forgiving rent payments longer term.
Residents have been told to stay in their homes to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus—but little has been done to ensure they can afford to stay there, activists say.