Our Story

Born in 2016 after long-standing community frustrations over substandard housing and corresponding landlord impunity, BASTA believes that the imbalance of power between landlords and tenants must be corrected to secure housing justice for communities of color and low-income, marginalized communities. Building tenant power is the only way to make this change happen, and tenant power is only built by bringing more renters into a housing justice movement that is led by those most impacted.

BASTA uses a two-pronged approach to build tenant power in Austin:

• BASTA’s Organizing Team (BOT): Builds renter power by organizing tenants associations to advance campaigns for dignified, healthy, and affordable homes. We do this by 1) Building a strong renter base, which includes property-level organizing, developing leaders, community and political education, promoting collective accountability, uplifting tenant stories, and campaign strategy and planning; 2) Securing material benefits for renters through tenant-led campaigns that win improvements on the individual, property and citywide scale; and 3) Create community and combats social isolation among Austin renters by bringing people together to realize they are not alone in their experiences and to strengthen social bonds through sharing laughter, anger, sorrow, and joy. 

• BASTA’s Education & Arts Team (BEAT): BEAT erodes the root of landlord power- the eviction- by locating the individual experience of eviction within the context of larger systemic and structural problems in order to: 1) Address Immediate Need by increasing tenants’ capacity to exercise their rights and access existing resources; 2) Build Understanding of the Problem by contributing to development of, and community access to, robust knowledge-base of eviction in Travis County; and 3) Implement and Test Solutions by working towards lowering Austin’s eviction rate and keeping Austinites housed by experimenting with creative interventions.