Our current landlady is the very image of one of those landlords whoād be spared the guillotine.
Sheās an older, polite, maternal (white, middle class) woman who just happened to have enough money to buy a spare house, and is renting it to top up her pension. She reads The Guardian and asks after my family and does the occasional repair when necessary. Sheās not one of those evil landlords.
She also just repeatedly lied to our faces about our contracts to try to get us to forfeit most of the rights we have as tenants. She also visits frequently, criticising how we live and reminding us that our home belongs to her. She also condescendingly and unnecessarily explains to us how boilers and washing machines and carpets work.
She explains to us how renting works.
She explains it with an indulgent smile, like a grandmother talking to a child, as if sheās being terribly patient about correcting our misunderstandings.
And she lies.
She lies because as much as she wants to convince us, everyone else, and even herself that sheās a good person, our entire relationship is based on the power she holds over us. She uses her wealth and position in society to extort payment from us, who have nowhere to live. We sacrifice to her the majority of the income we spend our lives earning, just so we can have a roof over our heads. But any time we donāt show proper deference to her, she could have us out on the street in weeks or months. Weād lose our home, because to her it is merely an asset which in no way belongs to us, the people who live there.
Today she repeatedly lied to us about our contract, and about the law, because she wanted us to have the minimum legal power possible. If I didnāt organise with a local tenantsā union, I wouldnāt have known my rights. And if I didnāt have the security of being a member of that union behind me, I never would have had the guts to challenge her. My housemate had no idea she was lying, and would have trusted her, signing away what few rights we had under the law.
As part of this tenantsā union, Iām always fighting with the worst landlords - the ones who keep people living in squalor, the ones with a dozen properties, the ones who are violent and abusive. But today has reminded me that even the āniceā landlords are still scum.
A genuinely good person who has enough spare money to buy a spare house (which is a lot of money! they wouldnāt need more!) would just let people who need a home live there, not bleed them of their income for the privilege of a warm place to sleep.
Never trust a landlord.
But more importantly, join a tenantsā union, and take back the power they hold over you. It was one of the most empowering things Iāve ever done.
In London, I recommend London Renters Union.
In Scotland: Living Rent.
In the rest of the UK: ACORN.
+ there are tenantsā unions all over the world, and housing co-ops where everyone who lives there part-owns their home and thereās no landlord to answer to
Here are various links to tenantsā unions and solidarity networks involved in tenant organizing and support around the US:
Nationwide
Homes for All / Hogares Para Todxs [national org, unsure of locals]
California
Tenants Together [statewide]
Alameda Renters Coalition
Berkeley Tenants Union
Center for Community AdvocacyĀ [Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties]Ā
Los Angeles Tenants Union
Isla Vista Tenants Union
Oakland Tenants Union
Pasadena Tenants Union
South Pasadena Tenants Union
San Francisco Tenants Union
Mountain View Tenants Coalition
San Diego Tenants United
Santa Cruz Tenants Association
Protect Culver City Renters
Glendale Tenants Union
Sacramento Tenants Union
Colorado
Colorado Springs Tenants Union
Florida
Miami Tenants Union
Palm Beach County Tenants Union
Georgia
Housing Justice League [Atlanta]
Iowa
Ames Tenants Union
Iowa City Tenants Union
Illinois
Autonomous Tenants Union [Chicago]
Metropolitan Tenants Organization [Chicago]
Indiana
Bloomington Solidarity Network
Louisiana
New Orleans Renters Union
Massachusetts
City Life / Vida Urbana [Jamaica Plain]
Tenant and Housing Association of Worcester
Ā Springfield: No One Leaves
Minnesota
InquilinXs UnidXs por JusticiaĀ (Tenants United for Justice) [Minneapolis]
Mississippi
Cooperation Jackson
Nebraska
Lincoln Tenant Action
Omaha Tenants United
New York
United Tenants of Albany
Crown Heights Tenants UnionĀ [Brooklyn]
New Settlement Apartments ā Community Action for Safe ApartmentsĀ [Bronx]
The Greater Syracuse Tenants Network
Oregon
Portland Tenants United
Southern Oregon Tenants Union [Jackson County]
Springfield / Eugene Tenant Association
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Tenants Union
Pittsburgh Tenants Union
Texas
Texas Tenants Union [Dallas]
Houston Tenants Union
Tenants Union of San Antonio
Virginia
New River Tenants UnionĀ [Christianburg]
Washington
Tacoma Tenants Organizing Committee
Tenants Union of Washington State [statewide]
Washington, D.C.
DC Tenants Union
Vermont
Burlington Tenants Union
Landlords, like cops, are one of those functions that are inherently always bad.
Like, if you are a landlord, you are using the fact that you have more houses than you need to make someone who has less than you give a large chunk of their income to you because they need a place to live to survive and a home to be happy.
Thatās inherently bad. Period.
Never trust a landlord. Join a tenants union.
