Rising unemployment, financial instability and pandemic uncertainty prompt uptick in renter organizing
Pandemic woes and landlord harassment sparked a surge in tenant unions.
Early in the third year of the pandemic, as the omicron variant unravels the small semblance of post-vaccine normalcy we’ve managed to cobble together, many still face unemployment and reduced incomes that make it difficult—sometimes impossible—to get the rent paid.
Federal support for renters may dry up soon leaving many in the lurch. The moratoriums on federal and state evictions have expired, and the many renters that relied on them have emerged on the other side facing a mountain of unpaid rent debt and still unstable economic and work conditions as a result of the pandemic.
Housing advocates and renters alike fear an eviction crisis. A protracted period of eviction moratoriums sparked an uptick in landlord harassment, while a simultaneous rise in financial hardship and housing vulnerability has in some instances pit landlords against tenants.
As a result, the pandemic catalyzed a surge in tenant union activity across the country. For those facing eviction or other challenges to housing stability, tenants unions are one of few paths to recourse or leverage.
“For me, and for a lot of other organizers, we see tenancy unions as a way of supporting everybody—like all of us,” Nathan Barton, an organizer for Portland Tenants United, said. “When you have more people, that is just like a powerful force that the landlord or management has to listen to, and has to take seriously.”
Tenants unions are organized groups of renters advocating for decent living standards, protection from harassment and fair treatment. They’re also legal, meaning that landlords can’t evict or otherwise penalize someone for being part of one. Membership is informal—the requirement to join is being a renter and participation is generally voluntary. Starting a tenant union is also comparatively simple—they don’t require votes for approval or as formal a structure as employee unions.
“When you have a bunch of tenants at the same time speaking out, it’s way more powerful than one person that goes up to the management.”
“There are benefits, including having a stronger bargaining position with the landlord and protection from retaliation,” Martha Calhoon of the Portland Housing Bureau said.
Here in Portland, housing insecurity has gone from bad to worse.
“Even before the pandemic, there was no neighborhood in (Portland) that was affordable to rent for the average Black household or the average single mother household,” Calhoon said. “These populations were the most vulnerable to evictions, (and) the pandemic has increased the number vulnerable to eviction.”
Rent strike may be the first thought for many when they think of a tenant union. In practice, Barton says, that’s an extreme tactic of last resort. Rent strikes involve tenants organizing and collectively refusing monthly rental payments until a landlord meets their demands, a strategy that incurs risk for renters.
“If it becomes like such a huge crisis, we will be looking at maybe your rent strike,” Barton said. “In the future, who knows how bad it’s going to get in terms of evictions and having to deal with paying all this back [rent].”
Tenant unions deploy varied strategies to have their demands met. In April last year, Portland Tenants United introduced a Tenant Protection Ordinance they are hoping to get passed by city council that would strengthen protections against landlord harassment and housing livability issues.
Often, they draft letters signed by members, host rallies and organize protests as ways to advocate for things like property improvements or protest things like rent hikes. They also connect renters to resources helping them to understand their rights and link them with free legal resources.
“When you have people that are organizing together, there are many, many strategies and many kinds of tactics to kind of force the landlord into a situation where they would really want to fix these problems or listen to the union,” Barton said.
Generally, a tenant union seeks to organize according to buildings — if an entire apartment complex is on board with demands or actions, it’s more effective pressure on the landlord to comply, Barton says.
“When you have a bunch of tenants at the same time speaking out, it’s way more powerful than one person that goes up to the management,” Barton said. “Because, not only can they get singled out, they can get retaliated against because they’re just alone by themselves.”
Throughout the pandemic, many landlords have been fighting for the ability to evict people. In December 2020, for instance, a group of landlords filed a lawsuit against Multnomah County over the eviction moratorium.
After the eviction moratorium expired June 30, 2021, eviction filings surged statewide. More than 5,000 evictions were filed July through December — nearly 1,000 per month — according to the Oregon Law Center. More than half — 2,804 filings — were for nonpayment.
Incidents of landlord harassment are also on the rise, which consist of things like landlords refusing to repair apartments, intimidating renters and other actions meant to make a tenant feel unsafe or pressured enough to move. A PSU survey conducted in 2020 found 22% of respondents reported hostile, harassing, or threatening behavior from landlords or property managers, a number that jumped to 32% for BIPOC tenants.
During the moratorium, roughly half of the calls to Oregon’s Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT) Renter’s Rights Hotline were from renters wanting to understand how they were protected from eviction.
An analysis of 315 call records made to the hotline found inquiries about no-cause termination notices, nonpayment termination notices and charging late fees despite prohibitions in the moratorium. Roughly 25% reported landlord harassment, including landlords threatening to lock them out. For people of color, 32% reported incidences of harassment.
Some landlords also pressured tenants to prove COVID-19 was the cause of their lack of payment, which wasn’t actually required per protections, and some landlords have increased rent during the emergency, which is legal.
“I see that all the time,” Barton said. “People get forced out of these expensive places. A lot of tenants that came to me last year had their rent raised twice on them during the pandemic. So I’m like, ‘I can’t believe that we let this happen to you.’”
In December 2021, Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) paused its rental assistance program because of dwindling funds. Early this month, OHCS announced a new application window that will start Jan. 26 and estimates the remaining funds will support 6,700-9,300 additional renters.
As of Jan. 31, OHCS has dispersed $256 million in federal funds to 36,632 households.
Also in December, the Oregon Legislature passed SB 891, a bill strengthening protections for tenants and expanding the safe harbor period (eviction immunity for those who have applied for rental assistance) from 60 days to the entire time the emergency rent assistance application is pending.
But the extended safe harbor period only lasts through June 30.
In January, the US Census Bureau found that of one million surveyed in Oregon, more than 5,681 were “not at all confident” they could pay next month’s rent. Another 3,685 planned to defer payment and 67,922 already occupied their homes without paying rent.
The problem goes beyond Oregon. Nationwide, the study found that the number of renters who feared they couldn’t pay rent next month has climbed to more than 8.4 million and another study conducted by the Aspen institute estimates that more than 15 million people are in a household that is behind on rent.
The possibility of a nationwide eviction crisis is real. The pandemic exposed deep inequities in health care and job protections, and also laid bare pervasive housing insecurity, and worsening an existing housing crisis that disproportionately impacts poor and marginalized communities.
“I think it’s going to mean more people having to move out of their homes,” Barton said. “With the way things are now, most people’s jobs still don’t pay enough for basic things like food and utilities, and especially rent.”
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