We are stepping back from updating this site, but this site will remain up as an archive.
The rent strike and tenant struggles in general are not over., check out these solid orgs if you’re looking to give or get support:
Autonomous Puget Sound Rent Relief Organizing & Support
May 1st is coming!
Throughout the end of March and into April we have organized with our neighbors, gone on strike, protested city leaders, and helped each other survive. We will continue to support each other as this crisis continues.
May 1st is about to bring another wave of rent strikes and refusals across the city! By April 5th, nearly a 1/3 of all households across the country were unable to pay their rent. No one should be forced to decide between food and shelter, or continue to put themselves in hazardous conditions to maintain a roof over their heads. The COVID-19 crisis has exploded the notion that many of us already understood-the people who own the property are profiting off our survival. On May 1st, many will stand up and say “no more!”
Many politicians are attempting to take your hard work and organizing power and fold it into their campaigns-remember that we keep us safe and do so without leaders or politicians. The stimulus checks that may have dropped into your bank accounts this past week are probably already gone-and the unemployment system is continuing to buckle under the demand. There won’t be an economic fix to this crisis, and every bail out comes with many strings attached. It will be banding together as communities and neighbors that will keep us housed and fed!
Solidarity to all rent strikers everywhere!
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Why strike?
Right now, millions of people are being faced with the reality of being unable to pay their bills. People who already lived from one paycheck to the next have lost their jobs or had their hours cut. The unemployment system is buckling and many are falling through the cracks. Even under normal circumstances, people in Seattle have been struggling to pay rent for years, with rents that are 93% above the national average. It should come as no surprise that in this moment, people simply cannot pay.
Some are calling on the state and federal government to put a moratorium on rent and mortgage collections. If this happens, great. If it does not, this changes nothing. We still can’t pay, so we won’t. Banks and landlords should not be able to continue profiting on renters and mortgages when there is no way to earn money. That’s just common sense. If we can’t make money, neither can or landlords, neither can the banks.
Even if you can personally pay your rent, that doesn’t mean you should. The best way to support those who cant pay rent is for all of us to go on rent strike together. Strikes are dangerous, and we don’t always win but together we make it harder for the authorities to target everyone who does not pay.
Refuse to pay rent until this crisis is over. If not for your own sake, then for the sake of your neighbor. Then take the networks we have built and continue to demand a better world for us, our families and everyone just struggling to get by.
Resources
WA State Covid-19 Legal Resources
FAQs about the Eviction Moratorium
Flyers & Media
