In late Sep­tem­ber, activists staged actions in 45 cities to draw atten­tion to preda­to­ry rent prac­tices and vast cuts to Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment fund­ing. ​“Renters Week of Action” was par­tial­ly inspired by a report put out by the Right to the City Alliance (RTC) high­light­ing solu­tions to the prob­lems ten­ants now face after the fore­clo­sure crisis.

“The major­i­ty of all renters pay an unaf­ford­able rent,” Dar­nell John­son of RTC told In These Times. ​“Evic­tion, ris­ing rents and gen­tri­fi­ca­tion are racial, gen­der and eco­nom­ic vio­lence harm­ing our people.”

The coor­di­nat­ed actions stem from a long his­to­ry. The rent con­trol move­ment gained momen­tum dur­ing the late 1970s and ear­ly 1980s, spread­ing beyond New York City and tak­ing hold in Cal­i­for­nia. In 1978, Cal­i­for­nia vot­ers approved Propo­si­tion 13, which low­ered prop­er­ty tax­es through­out the state.

Many believed that the sav­ings would mean low­er home prices and rents. But almost 40 years lat­er, Cal­i­for­nia is a sym­bol of the era’s failed opti­mism. The medi­an Cal­i­for­nia house costs 2.5 times more than the medi­an nation­al house, and rents are some of the high­est in the nation. Cities through­out the coun­try have now expe­ri­enced decades of gen­tri­fi­ca­tion from a real estate indus­try con­sis­tent­ly look­ing for ways to sub­vert the few remain­ing hous­ing pro­tec­tions that exist for tenants.

Over the last few years, hous­ing activism has boomed — a trend that tran­scends the issue of rent con­trol through its focus on halt­ing gen­tri­fi­ca­tion and pro­tect­ing low-income peo­ple of col­or from dis­place­ment. This work is even more impor­tant in the era of Trump, as the GOP is active­ly push­ing a tax plan to ben­e­fit the rich­est mem­bers of U.S. soci­ety. House Repub­li­cans just passed a tax plan that will cut cor­po­rate rates down to 20 per­cent while increas­ing tax­es for house­holds that make between $10,000 and $30,000 a year.

The move­ment has tak­en hold through­out the coun­try, and it’s recent­ly chalked up a num­ber of impor­tant vic­to­ries. After activists staged a hunger strike in San Jose, law­mak­ers approved some of the strongest renter pro­tec­tions in the nation. Seattle’s city coun­cil was pushed to end hous­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion against for­mer­ly incar­cer­at­ed indi­vid­u­als. Ear­li­er this year, New York became the first city to guar­an­tee attor­neys for low-income renters fac­ing eviction.

One group with a track record of effec­tive strat­e­gy is the Min­neapo­lis-based Inquil­inxs Unidxs Por Jus­ti­cia. Orga­niz­er Rober­to de la Riva told In These Times that the group has a direct-action approach to com­bat­ing his city’s hous­ing cri­sis. The racial break­down of hous­ing in Min­neapo­lis is stark: Most peo­ple of col­or rent, while most peo­ple white peo­ple own homes. He spoke of Lati­no res­i­dents being fined hun­dreds of dol­lars by land­lords for open­ing their win­dows dur­ing the win­ter — and being forced to pay their rent via mon­ey order.

“As an orga­ni­za­tion that works with direct­ly-affect­ed ten­ants in the most afford­able hous­ing in Min­neapo­lis, we see first-hand the amount of pow­er that land­lords hold over ten­ants,” said de la Riva. ​“They can intim­i­date freely with­out any­one hold­ing them account­able and use the sys­tem for their busi­ness mod­el. Because of the lack of effec­tive orga­niz­ing and renter pro­tec­tions like rent con­trol, and just cause pro­tec­tion against evic­tion, land­lords get free reign in the city.”

“When we orga­nize with ten­ants against their land­lords,” he added, ​“we are able to break down fear and iso­la­tion, equal­ize pow­er rela­tions and move ten­ants to defend their rights to nego­ti­ate with the land­lord on renters’ terms.”

One of the most effec­tive ways Inquil­inxs Unidxs Por Jus­ti­cia has fought for ten­ants is through the acqui­si­tion of pro-bono attor­neys to fight for renters in court. This method has led to a major rent return law­suit, charg­ing two Min­neapo­lis land­lords with hid­ing their own­er­ship of prop­er­ties from the city and pur­pose­ly sup­press­ing the costs of repairs for finan­cial gain. If suc­cess­ful, the law­suit could finan­cial­ly ben­e­fit thou­sands of Min­neso­ta res­i­dents. ​“It could be the largest case in terms of dam­ages and rent refunds in U.S. his­to­ry,” hous­ing attor­ney Lar­ry McDo­nough told The Star Tri­bune. ​“I could not find a sin­gle class action around the coun­try that had this kind of price tag on it.”

De la Riva said ten­ants and activists are up against pow­er­ful, mon­eyed inter­ests in Minneapolis.

Accord­ing to advo­cates, this trend extends nation­wide, ​“Entire com­mu­ni­ties and cul­tures are being erased by aggres­sive devel­op­ment,” John­son under­scored. ​“We’re occu­py­ing their offices, tak­ing back our com­mu­ni­ties and esca­lat­ing. Because this isn’t a game. We’re fight­ing for our lives, our com­mu­ni­ties and our futures.”

In Boston, 2016 saw an uptick in resis­tance to preda­to­ry rent prac­tices, with activists fight­ing for ​“Just Cause Evic­tion” rules that would pre­vent land­lords from evict­ing ten­ants for improp­er rea­sons. Through orga­niz­ing, com­mu­ni­ties advanced the Jim Brooks Com­mu­ni­ty Sta­bi­liza­tion Act, a piece of leg­is­la­tion that has already cleared Boston’s city coun­cil and will now make its way to the state leg­is­la­ture. If passed, the act would require land­lords with more than six units to pro­vide a rea­son for evict­ing a ten­ant — and man­date that they report the evic­tion to the city. The city would then be required to noti­fy the ten­ant of their rights as a renter.

Ten miles out­side of down­town Boston is the city of Lynn, where an orga­ni­za­tion of local res­i­dents is fight­ing back against unjust evic­tions and fore­clo­sures. Lynn Unit­ed for Change’s Isaac Simon Hodes told In These Times that unaf­ford­able rent is a mas­sive prob­lem in the city, and the group is com­mit­ted to work­ing with homeowners.

“We bring togeth­er home­own­ers fac­ing fore­clo­sure and ten­ants fac­ing evic­tion because all of these bat­tles are part of the broad­er strug­gle to defend the human right to hous­ing,” said Hodes, ​“Whether it’s big banks that are fore­clos­ing or cor­po­rate land­lords that are caus­ing dis­place­ment, we’ll only be able to chal­lenge the dam­age they’re doing to our com­mu­ni­ties by build­ing a strong and broad move­ment for hous­ing justice.”

Last year, Lynn May­or Judith Flana­gan Kennedy declared that the city already had enough afford­able hous­ing but need­ed more rich res­i­dents for eco­nom­ic expan­sion. ​“Lynn has more than its share of afford­able hous­ing right now,” said Kennedy. ​“We have exceed­ed the goal, and one of the things that Lynn needs to suc­ceed in is its long-term eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment is to have peo­ple with dis­pos­able income in the mix of the hous­ing that we offer.”

Dur­ing ​“Renters Week of Action,” Lynn Unit­ed for Change mem­bers occu­pied a devel­op­ment site demand­ing that afford­able hous­ing be includ­ed in a new set of water­front apart­ments. ​“We do not oppose devel­op­ment,” reads the peti­tion that activists passed out dur­ing the event on Sep­tem­ber 26. ​“We want to see our city grow and improve. But new devel­op­ment will only be good for the peo­ple of our city if it takes our needs and con­cerns into account and does not push out cur­rent residents.”