From Policy to Power: Centering People by Supporting Tenant Unions

Tenant organizing, and tenant unions specifically, are an attempt to ensure that tenants—44 million households nationwide—are not merely consumers of housing policy but authors of their own stories.

Historically, philanthropy has taken a mostly supply-side approach to addressing the housing crisis and has failed to resource the people and communities organizing for change. Because large foundations often struggle to reach nascent, emerging groups and are reticent to fund tenant organizing at scale, intermediaries play a critical role in supporting the tenant movement.

Funds like HouseUS, where I work, and the Fund for an Inclusive California have been moving money to tenant organizing and providing valuable forms of non-grantmaking support for several years.

It is past time for philanthropy to step up. The options are: fund directly, fund through intermediaries, or both.

When it comes to housing justice, the data is clear. More housing alone will not solve the growing crisis of housing affordability.

Simply put: There is no path to economic power, justice, or security that does not contest for control with organized capital—and that means challenging the hold of the investor class over land, homes, and property. It is time for housing justice nonprofits and philanthropy to seriously examine what will be required for them to work in solidarity with organized tenant unions so that together, we can build a housing system that guarantees a safe, permanently affordable home for all.

“Funds like HouseUS, where I work, and the Fund for an Inclusive California have been moving money to tenant organizing and providing valuable forms of non-grantmaking support for several years.”

Kevin Simowitz, Director of HouseUS