Tenant Organizing

By Bryan Ketroser
Brandeis University, May 2002

Introduction

“[W]e have a seller’s market. Where this is so, no logical, humane, or legal arguments can overcome the fact that the seller (the landlord) has all the marbles.” [1]

            Every day, tenants all over Massachusetts (and the rest of the country) face a dizzying multitude of problems: poor conditions, rent increases, harassment, fear of eviction, and lack of safety, just to name a few. But a single tenant, to most landlords, is just one of many. Some landlords believe that since they own their apartment, they can do whatever they want with it, which includes increasing a tenant’s rent to astronomical heights. Other landlords truly care about their tenants, but may have their own money problems that prevent them from promptly fixing broken pipes or replacing faulty wiring. Whatever obstacles you’re facing as a tenant, you may feel frustrated and worry that you just don’t have the power to get things changed. But that’s where you’d be wrong.

            While a single tenant might not hold much sway over an uncooperative landlord, when you unite with other tenants, your landlord will pay attention. “One tenant could not hope to gain the landlord’s ear, let alone upset the balance of power. But a united, determined building could – just as the single worker can be ignored but the labor union must be heard.” [2] Organizing is no easy task, but if you care deeply about the place you live in – as most of us do – it can be well worth the effort.

 

Purpose

            This brief article is not meant to be exhaustive by any means. Rather, it’s geared towards showing would-be tenant organizers the power they can have over their own living situation, and some of the methods they can use to go about getting that power. The article will first give you some basic information on tenant organizations, along with general advice. Next, it will discuss some of the weapons that a united group of tenants has at its disposal, and a few facts about using those weapons. When you do decide to get organized, you should read the other, in-depth pieces on this website, as well as seek out assistance from people and groups in your area that are accustomed to helping upstart tenant organizations (a list of which is also available on this site).

 

Getting Started

            One thing to keep in mind during your struggle is that your focus should always be on getting your landlord in the negotiating “mood.” That is, tools such as rent strikes and the press can be very valuable, but the main reason to use them is to get the landlord to see that it is to their advantage to negotiate with you to solve the problems at hand. “The purpose of all strategy is to get the organization to a bargaining table so that they can negotiate out their demands.” [3] Even the court system, while it can force the landlord to deal with some of your complaints, probably will not solve all of your problems. And even those problems the courts do fix can crop up again if you don’t keep the lines of communication open. “The purpose of a tenant union is to permit tenants to bargain collectively with landlords.” [4]

            The amount of effort required to start a tenant organization will depend on a number of factors. In general, any differences the tenant population of a building has – such as age, race, or family size – can make coming together more difficult. These issues “must be confronted early to maintain a trusting, cohesive organization.” [5] It is especially important to focus on your common goals and expectations. Make sure that all of the tenants in your building feel welcome at your meetings: “If you exclude people from the start or make judgments about whether they should or should not participate, those people…may feel left out and resentful.” [6] This will make it easier for your landlord to, as Michael Fogelberg says, “divide and conquer.” [7] Other factors like whether or not there is a high level of turnover in the building will also come into play, since long-term commitment by members is key to a strong organization. [8]

The chief factor that will determine your initial situation, however, will probably be your landlord himself. “[A]n eccentric, somewhat irrational landlord will be easier to organize against, since he will have done things which have made the tenants angry, and he will continue to do so.” [9] In short, the more egregious his behavior is, the easier your job will be. Red Burrows, President and Founder of the former Buckminster Tenants Association (BTA), certainly agrees. He credits the “flagrant arrogance of the landlord” as the biggest help in getting the BTA started and maintaining its membership. Every time the landlord of the Buckminster tried to raise rents or harass tenants, the group would pull together even more tightly.

Even if it seems like you have everything going for you, you’re still in for a fight. Dotty Guild, a member of the Steering Committee of the Piano Craft Guild Tenants Association (PCGTA), knows this well. The PCGTA faced several initial obstacles despite the fact that they shared much in common (they were, for example, an artist community) and even though their landlord had sent notice of staggering across-the-board rent increases. “People aren’t aware of their own selfishness,” she says, noting that many tenants would routinely tell her how they couldn’t make it to the next meeting. “You just have to pull yourself out of it…Be patient.”

Dotty Guild shared the PCGTA’s list of strategies, in order of both importance and implementation. The top three were:

1) Legal Strategy

            2) Political Strategy

            3) Press Strategy

 

Dotty also mentioned a fundraising strategy and development strategy (i.e., a strategy for eventually purchasing the building). Don’t worry about matching this list exactly, as there’s more than one right way to go about using the weapons in your arsenal. Red Burrows, for example, talked about how the press was the BTA’s most effective resource. Since the landlord of the Buckminster “wanted to be seen as a respectable landlord” so badly, “the press was the only thing that would infuriate him.” One size does not fit all; after reading through the following descriptions – and getting more information on the ones that seem particularly appealing – formulate a plan that will work best for your group’s situation.

 

The Law

One of the most obvious tools tenants have on their side is the law. You have, for example, the right to an apartment free from conditions that put you in danger. You also, in the eyes of the law, are presumed to be the victim of retaliation if your landlord tries to evict you within six months of your forming a tenant organization, unless he can prove otherwise. [10] But these rights mean little if you and the other tenants in your group don’t know about them. “Find out your rights before you even start,” says Red, “and keep them in mind as you go along.” Barbara Ward, another member of the PCGTA Steering Committee, says, “If they’re infringing on your rights, get people together and see what you can change.” Consider bringing in either a lawyer or someone else from the building or community who knows, at a minimum, some things about what landlords and tenants can and cannot do. This website is also a good resource for discovering your rights as a tenant. Just remember: You can’t use the law until you know the law.

This is not to say that you should rush off to court. In the beginning, your group certainly might have to defend itself if your landlord decides to retaliate against you. This is precisely what happened to several members of the PCGTA, who went to court to defend themselves against early eviction threats. Because the PCGTA consulted a legal services attorney, none of its members were evicted. If your landlord tries to evict one or more of you, it is a good idea to consult an attorney. If this is not possible, you should at least read up on Massachusetts eviction law as best you can (the “Eviction” chapter of Legal Tactics is a good start, and is available on this website).

Using the law as on offensive weapon can be much more risky. For starters, any time you go into court, you give much of your strategic control over to someone else: a lawyer. This may sound appealing to somebody overwrought with work, but it can be disastrous to an organization as a whole. “Tenants immediately begin to rely on the lawyer instead of their collective power to solve their own problems. Lawsuits take a long time to resolve, maybe a year or two, and during that time the organization stagnates while tenants await the outcome.” [11] When you go to court, you also give control of the outcome over to a third party (either a judge or a jury), when in fact you might be able to negotiate a better solution with your landlord than the court would be able to offer you. Not only can this be an extremely unsettling experience, it can also force you to expend more energy than you would have to if you tried solving your problems in other ways. In general, you should probably only file a lawsuit against your landlord if your group feels confident that it will not allow itself to be controlled by its attorney, determined enough that it will stay together for the long haul (even if that means years of commitment), and that other strategies will not be successful. Just remember that even for “strong” tenant organizations, the goal of a lawsuit should not simply be to win, but to force some sort of agreement: “Any court action that leads you back to the negotiating table, where you have a better chance of controlling the outcome, can be considered a victory.” [12]

 

The Media

As mentioned earlier, one way to both increase support for your organization and reduce support for your landlord is through the press. And while public pressure mounts for your landlord to change the way he does business, he is also less likely to be bringing in new tenants. “Landlords apparently fear both the adverse publicity and the loss of rent.” [13] The first can actually lead to the second, particularly if the landlord rents other, high- or middle-income apartments, where there is comparatively more competition for tenants. Getting your name in the paper will also make it easier for you to organize, since it will “create a climate of awareness and interests in tenants.” [14] This, in turn, will allow you to put more pressure on your landlord.

Don’t be shy about contacting a reporter. Yawu Miller of the Bay State Banner says that although reporters obviously write stories on a case-by-case basis, “No reporter is going to side with the ‘greedy landlord.’” So don’t worry too much about getting bad press. Instead, focus your efforts on making sure you actually do capture the media’s attention. Newspaper reporters are busy people, after all, and the odds are that whatever you’re going through today, ten other people went through yesterday. “They’re all the same story,” Yawu says, “we’ve heard them all.” Your job is to find a way to make your group’s situation interesting to the reader.

Before you begin contacting anybody, make sure that you’ve identified one or two people who can speak for the group. These should be people who are comfortable talking to others, even when they know their words could later be put in print. If possible, they should also be people whose individual stories stand out; for example, a good choice might be a tenant whose children now suffer from lead paint poisoning due to the landlord’s negligence, or an elderly/disabled tenant who has suffered excessively due to the rent’s being raised above the level that their SSDI can pay for. Above all, it is important that whomever the group elects is prepared for their conversation with the reporter: “Reporters are very busy. If you get the facts straight and provide them with good interviews, they are more apt to cover your story.” [15] Yawu definitely agrees, and adds, “Practice your spiel.”

Typically, an organization seeking media coverage sends a press release to either a particular reporter or, if none are known, the news department at a particular paper. Though the precise length may differ depending on the complexity of your situation, your press release should be as short as possible. Yawu suggests a “short paragraph,” highlighting the important information (such as the who/what/where/when/why elements) by using bold. Another reporter also stresses the importance of brevity: “If your release is too wordy, it will likely be ignored.” [16] Follow up on this document with a phone call from your public relations person. And, this reporter emphasizes, tell the truth. “You get caught in a lie every time. Again, your [sic] dealing with a professional questioner, a journalist. Chances are, when he comes there he already has the answer to what he's asking you. He just wants to see what your answer is.” [17]

 

Picketing, Rallying, and Other Events

Media exposure can be useful in that it gets the word about your situation out to large groups of people. The most important people to inform about your organization and its efforts, however, are those nearest to you. Picketing, rallying, and various other neighborhood events can provide a host of benefits. First, they provide the potential to increase support for your organization. In some instances, your neighbors will live in buildings owned by the same landlord who owns your building. If this is the case, it is absolutely vital that you enlist their support, since this is the only way to get a sizable portion of the landlord’s source of income under one banner. Even if they do not pay rent to the same landlord, you can still enlist their help for a variety of other tasks, such as fundraising or helping out with a newsletter (some say that “one of the more pleasant initial ways of banding together and is to get acquainted with one another via the newsletter,” [18] so this is a particularly good option for infant organizations).

Picketing and rallying should be done in an area both “highly visible to the public and relevant to the issue.” [19] One obvious location is the apartment building itself, though if your landlord lives in the area, you can accomplish the same goals and gain a psychological edge by picketing the landlord’s home, where his neighbors can see what you think of him. Unless you physically prevent people from passing through, you have the right to picket or hold a rally on public property. [20] But if you really want to get attention, Yawu Miller says that the media is more likely to cover your event if the law is being broken. As an example, he cites a group in Chinatown that crammed so many people into the streets when it rallied that it stopped traffic. The media responded by covering the story. Of course, one must always be careful when using such tactics, but it is something that should be kept in mind. 

Yawu also suggests getting as many people to your event as possible, and to focus on getting key figures there (perhaps politicians or other community leaders), as these are both things that will increase the chance that the press shows up. Also, make sure you plan ahead; you’re going to need signs, catch-phrases, marching routes, speakers to address the crowd and spectators, and start/stop times, [21] among other things. “Three elements can increase the possibility of coverage of your event: interesting people, interesting places, and interesting subjects.” [22] Therefore, be as creative as you can with your signs and slogans, since this is one of the areas where a group can make itself stand out. One possibility, for example, is to “take a children’s rhyme, simple song, or sports cheer” and “change the words to fit your needs.” [23] A final tip on planning events has to do with scheduling. People take weekends and holidays off – the news doesn’t. If you’re planning an event that you’d like to get media attention for, Yawu suggests planning it for a holiday, when the newsroom is the slowest. And, not only will you get more media attention on a holiday, you will also have more people available to volunteer for an event, since they will have the day off from work.

            While picketing and rallying can be very effective weapons, don’t forget the non-adversarial public events. Neighborhood picnics, block parties, children’s events and voter registration drives, [24] for example, are wonderful ways to raise awareness of an issue and gain support while at the same time maintaining your own sanity. The best offence is a good defense; groups that are able to enjoy themselves more will be less prone to what Dotty Guild referred to as “selfishness,” since members will see volunteer work not as something to be avoided but as something to be looked forward to. This will prevent your numbers from decreasing, which in turn will help keep your organization strong. “[I]f at all possible, strategies should be fun for the people who are participating. That way, they will come back and in telling their friends and neighbors will become recruiters for the organizer for the next action.” [25]

           

Politicians

Whatever other strategies you decide to utilize, contacting politicians can potentially make these efforts more successful. As Yawu said, media exposure has much to do with getting the right people to show up at your events, and somebody running for public office might be very eager indeed to be seen as a champion of the people. But politicians can help with far more than just getting your message to the public. Red Burrows said of a city councilor who supported the BTA “without him, we wouldn’t have had anything.” The councilor – David Scondras – testified during a mediation session between the BTA members and their landlord, and even supported the BTA in public so thoroughly that he wound up getting sued by the landlord for some of his comments. The PCGTA, too, is hoping to use political connections to assist in negotiations with the Piano Factory landlord to purchase the building. Politicians can also find funding for projects and even help try to make beneficial changes to the law in your area.

            Of course, there’s no guarantee that the politician you contact will really be on your side. While it is true that a politician “may see that the people in your building are voters,” [26] it is also true that they may see landlords as both voters and campaign contributors. The media might be unlikely to side with the “greedy landlord,” but a politician might have personal motivations guiding whom they do or do not support. “A politician may not do what she says she will do. She might turn against the group and support the landlord. She may have her own agenda.” [27] Be sure to know a politician’s motivations and probable reaction before you approach them for assistance.

           

The Rent Strike

If your landlord raises rents or refuses to bring your building back up to code because he’s too concerned about his profit margin, what better way to get him to work with you than to stop payment on his paycheck? This is essentially what you are doing what you go on a rent strike. Many consider the rent strike to be “the tenants’ most dramatic weapon against the landlord who won’t listen.” [28] The first thing you need to know is that, if done in the right circumstances, rent strikes are completely legal in Massachusetts. In order to legally withhold your rent, there need to be conditions in your apartment that “materially endanger” your health and safety, and your landlord has to have been informed about them (unless they should have known about them even without being informed). Certain conditions – such as lack of heat or hot water – in and of themselves fall into this category. Other, more minor conditions can also become “material dangers” when added together, or when allowed to go unfixed for a sufficient period of time. [29] You cannot withhold your rent if your landlord cannot repair the conditions without your leaving the apartment, or if you caused the bad conditions yourself. [30]

            If you plan a rent strike, it is absolutely essential that you get as many people to participate as possible. If you have a large enough percentage of your landlord’s source of income being held back, then eventually, “the landlord must come to the bargaining table” [31] or else face bankruptcy. Remember, it’s not the absolute number of tenants striking that counts; don’t rest on your laurels just because you have 25 people withholding their rent if you live in a building with 500. You need to get enough tenants together that it’s to the landlord’s benefit to work with you to reach a solution, not work even harder to resist repairs and try to evict you for being troublemakers.

            In Massachusetts, you do not have to put aside rent money that you withhold. [32] Indeed, this can be a great motivating factor for getting more people to join you in your rent strike, as well as motivation for a landlord to settle quickly (after all, he knows that even if he wins his case in court, he may have difficulty collecting back rent from a group of low-income tenants). [33] Still, it might be better for you and your fellow organization members to consider setting up an “escrow account.” Such an account, if you can get people to keep depositing their rent each month, can be helpful for several reasons. First of all, it could actually be more of a motivation for your landlord to negotiate than not setting aside the money would be, since now the landlord knows that if he appeases your group, there is a large pot of money waiting for him. Second, it increases your credibility if you ever have to go to court over the matter; a landlord can hardly say to a judge that his tenants just want to keep the money for themselves if they have relinquished control over it pending the outcome of a court case. Finally, if the landlord tries to evict you for non-payment of rent and the judge finds that you were not entitled to withhold your rent (or were only entitled to withhold a portion of it), you will need the money in the account to “cure.” “Curing” is when you promptly pay the balance of a judgment against you to the landlord, thereby allowing you to remain in your home. If you do not set up an escrow account and a judge decides that the conditions in your apartment were not bad enough to warrant withholding rent, you will be unable to “cure” a judgment for possession in favor of the landlord. [34]

           

Negotiating

At the end of the day, it’s all about negotiation. Actually, “Alternative Dispute Resolution” (ADR) would be more accurate, since there are really several choices available for tenants who want to work through a problem with their landlord. The PCGTA, for example, eventually reached an agreement with its landlord through mediation, as did the BTA. Still, negotiation is the most common method, and must be understood before the others can be used effectively. Perhaps the best piece of advice for a would-be negotiator is to read the book Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury. In addition, however, you should familiarize yourself with some of the unique aspects of landlord-tenant organization negotiation.

All too often, a tenant organization will form in response to a common problem (say, poor housing conditions), then fizzle out when the problem’s been solved. “Issue-based organization,” says Red Burrows, “doesn’t stick together as well as grassroots organization.” But it makes sense stay organized even in the absence of immediate problems, since you never know when the next problem might arise. Therefore, “a collective bargaining agreement should be included” in your list of demands. [35] This is an arrangement that “recognizes the group as the bargaining agent for tenants,” [36] and is essential because, if all goes according to plan, you’re going to have a long-term relationship with your landlord. If you run into a new problem down the road, then instead of having to go through months of court cases, rallies and rent strikes, you want to be able to pick up where you last left off: the bargaining table.

Negotiating as a tenant organization can be particularly difficult, since people tend to worry about their own problems more than anyone else’s. “People want to make their own issue the issue,” says Gordon Shaw, a professional mediator. Because of this, he advises that tenants go into negotiations with a “uniform voice.” This will prevent your landlord from taking advantage of any divisions in your ranks, and at the same time give your confidence a boost. In order to add to your psychological edge as a united front, try to get as many tenants to sit in on the negotiations as you can. [37]

            One of the most important parts of negotiation is what you do before you get to the table. “Preparation is crucial. First, the negotiators should know their facts as well as possible…Second, they should understand what negotiating is like and what the landlord will try to do. A role-playing session…can be very educational in this regard.” [38] If you still feel like you don’t know much about your landlord, the time to gather this information is before, not after, negotiating. This will help you determine what your landlord’s interests are. (Don’t be too quick to assume that your landlord is only interested in money; they might truly want to make the repairs you keep requesting, but be unable to do so due to their own financial problems). Gordon Shaw certainly thinks this is important, and says that the more you prepare and know both your and your landlord’s needs, “the more productive [negotiation] will be.”

            Two additional things – talked about in great depth in Getting to Yes – will make your negotiations more successful: always remember your options, and be flexible. Getting to Yes coined the term Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement (BATNA). The term means just what you’d think – the best alternative your organization has to negotiating. If your landlord will only relent to one of your demands, and you know you have the ability to get half of his tenants on a rent strike, then your BATNA is probably very good. You can then use this knowledge to either walk away from the table or put pressure on your landlord to negotiate a better deal. In essence, all of the “weapons” described earlier are meant to improve your BATNA (and decrease your landlord’s) to the point where your landlord will agree to settlement that meets your needs.

            Flexibility is also important when negotiating, since it is required to employ creative problem solving. Ury and Fisher frame this in terms of negotiating based on ‘interests’ (“I can’t afford the rent you’re currently charging”) as opposed to ‘positions’ (“You should lower my rent by $50”). [39] This does not mean that you need to give your negotiator(s) unilateral power to agree to whatever they want, or even that they need to have the power to sign an agreement at all. But they should have the ability to do something other than present and reiterate demands. John Coppola, a landlord for more than 35 years, acknowledges that landlords and tenants both have rights, and stresses the importance of “blending the rights of both parties.” “Sometimes landlords say they can’t make repairs without raising rents. Tenants reply they can barely afford present rent scales. There, sad to say, both sides are sometimes right.” [40] In such a scenario, if both sides stick to positions like “You need to make repairs” and “You need to pay more rent,” then neither side can ever really win because neither position is tenable. Yet if the tenants understand that the landlord is unable to pay for repairs, and the landlord understands that the tenants are living in unsafe apartments, alternative solutions can be reached. Perhaps the tenants could call an end to their rent strike and give the withheld rent to their landlord in order to make repairs. Or perhaps the landlord could pay for part of the repairs, and the other part could be paid for with the fruits of the organization’s fundraising efforts. Both of these solutions have the potential to satisfy both parties’ interests, yet would never be reached by parties that stubbornly stick to their positions.

 

Conclusion

            Building and utilizing a tenant organization is anything but easy. At times, however, it is the only way you and your fellow tenants can change your living situation. If you’re fed up with exorbitant rent, poor conditions, or anything else that you think your landlord should change, then call them on it. To repeat Barbara Ward’s words: “Get people together and see what you can change.”

            There are an incredible number of organizations in Massachusetts that assist tenants in their struggles. Your best first move is to search the list on this site to find the organization nearest you, and give them a call. After that, read through Legal Tactics (also included on this website), a text that gives more useful information on organizing, as well as a detailed summary of your legal rights as a tenant. When you’re finally ready, arrange a building-wide meeting, discuss the issues, and get organized.

 

---

[1] Moskovitz, 7

[2] Rejnis, 159

[3] Trapp, “Strategy and Tactics”

[4] Tenants’ Rights, 16

[5] Fogelburg, 150

[6] Ibid., 154

[7] Ibid., 154

[8] Moskovitz, 27

[9] Ibid., 26-7

[10] G.L. c. 239, §2(A)

[11] Moskovitz, 16

[12] Fogelburg, 156

[13] Tenants’ Rights, 17

[14] Moskovitz, 36

[15] Fogelburg, 163

[16] Fennelly, “Press Releases and Calls”

[17] Ibid.

[18] Rejnis, 176

[19] Fogelburg, 156

[20] Ibid., 156

[21] Ibid., 160

[22] Fennelly, “Creating a Media Event”

[23] Fogelburg, 160

[24] Ibid., 149

[25] Trapp, “Strategy and Tactics”

[26] Fogelburg, 164

[27] Ibid., 164

[28] Rejnis, 169

[29] 105 CMR 410.00

[30] Duke, 98

[31] Moskovitz, 42

[32] Duke, 99

[33] Moskovitz, 43

[34] Ibid., 43

[35] Rejnis, 165

[36] Moskovitz, 9

[37] Fogelburg, 158

[38] Moskovitz, 46

[39] Fisher, Chapter 3

[40] Rejnis, 170