Tenants Associations
Neighbors get stuff done when they work together.
Texas renting culture privileges landlords while offering few protections for renters. In Austin, tenants outnumber homeowners, and this means lots of folks are affected by and have the potential to change the renter-landlord power dynamic. Tenants Associations can achieve healthier and more dignified housing for all.
Tenant Organizing 101
Step One: Conduct Outreach
Our first step to improving conditions at properties is talking to renters. Engaging renters in conversations helps identify common problems. We employ a variety of outreach techniques to connect with tenants at substandard properties and to figure out what issues are most important to them.
Outreach techniques include: canvassing, one-on-one, conversations, meetings, flyering, attending resource fairs, and conducting educational workshops.
One way we identify substandard properties is through the City of Austin's Repeat Offender Program, where rental properties with numerous health and safety complaints are registered. Did your landlord make the list? Check out the map here. Then give us a call.
Step Two: Form and Develop a Tenants Association
Part of our mission is creating solidarity in tenant communities by developing tenants associations. After initial outreach, our team organizes meetings where we bring neighbors together to discuss their common goals and the role collective action can play in achieving them.
Once formed, we work with tenants associations to build the association's membership, facilitate a culture of consensus-oriented decision-making, and develop the leadership skills necessary to sustain a tenant-led organization.
We help associations navigate the ups and downs inherent to this work. Keeping an inclusive tenant association active requires navigating the challenges of poverty, racism, and a culture of individualism. Organizers help tenant associations overcome these barriers.
Step Three: Strategize to Improve Conditions
We work with tenant associations to choose the best tactics to achieve their desired outcomes and assist in the development and execution of their specific plans.
Our strategies include collecting and submitting written repair requests as a group; tenant association meetings with management, property owners and third parties; making group complaints to Austin Code; and legal advocacy. We are constantly workshopping and improving methods while developing new strategies.
Step Four: Educate on Tenants Rights
Knowing the protections and limitations of Texas landlord tenant law helps renters make informed decisions about their homes. We educate tenants about these rights at tenant meetings, community workshops, and resource fairs.
We use visual aids, participatory skits, interactive presentations, and games to talk about: Repair Rights, Organizing Rights, Retaliation, Evictions & Eviction Protections, Management Interactions.
Step Five: Form and Develop a Tenants Association
Part of our mission is creating solidarity in tenant communities by developing tenants associations. After initial outreach, our team organizes meetings where we bring neighbors together to discuss their common goals and the role collective action can play in achieving them.
Once formed, we work with tenants associations to build the association's membership, facilitate a culture of consensus-oriented decision-making, and develop the leadership skills necessary to sustain a tenant-led organization.
We help associations navigate the ups and downs inherent to this work. Keeping an inclusive tenant association active requires navigating the challenges of poverty, racism, and a culture of individualism. Organizers help tenant associations overcome these barriers.
Interested in organizing with your neighbors? Contact us at 512.522.9984
1. Build Community
Community is the most powerful tool to enact change. Tenants Associations bring neighbors together and build community based on trust and support so that neighbors can use each others skills, resources, and knowledge to express collective concerns and take action.
2. Build Power
Rising rents and dwindling affordable housing enables landlords to think they can get away with providing substandard housing. Tenants associations can leverage renters’ collective power to demand important and necessary changes to their homes. so they all have healthy, safe, and affordable housing.
3. Get support- and results!
Landlords might get away with providing substandard housing to an entire property, but it’s not likely they can evict every tenant - their power knows an end. Tenants Associations can offer protection from individual retaliation by representing the tenant body as a whole and organize renter concerns, issues, and knowledge into targeted campaigns that demand change from their landlords. Often, Tenants Associations can achieve results for tenants that might not be possible through litigation.
4. Grow the movement
We’ve worked with Tenants Associations across Austin who have recognized the power and change they are capable of achieving through organizing. With each new member, Tenants Associations grow stronger and can better advocate for the folks they represent. Renters account for 55% of Austin households- imagine if every apartment complex organized!
5. Hang With BASTA
We are a non-profit project dedicated to supporting Austin renters who want to work with their neighbors to overcome their housing issues, so we have experience with and resources for developing and supporting Tenants Associations, including trainings, educational materials, and legal support for groups. Additionally, we can point you in the right direction if your housing need is outside of our organizations scope.
