What We Do
Our
Mission & Values
We are a tenant-led movement fighting for safe and secure housing as a human right.
The Tucson Tenants Union is a tenant-led organization fighting for housing justice in Southern Arizona. We believe that housing is a human right, not a commodity. We are a grassroots, anti-capitalist organization fighting against the displacement, abuse, and exploitation of tenants. We define tenants as anyone who is not in control of their own housing: renters, the unhoused, and folks whose homes are owned by banks. We seek to advance an intersectional movement that fights against structural oppression and the exploitation of the working poor by organizing tenants and allied groups. We believe that solidarity is key to building the power for transformational change: The right to universal safe and secure housing will only be won with a movement that builds collective power and is led by those most affected: communities of color and the working poor.
Our Core Values
RESPECTING INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY
We recognize that we’re occupying the ancestral lands of the Tohono O’odham.
HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT
Our homes and our communities are not commodities to be exploited for profit, they are precious resources that should be used to meet people’s needs. No person, regardless of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, age, disability, citizenship, or previous criminal or housing record should be denied a home.
SOLIDARITY
We believe that solidarity is key to building transformational change. The right to universal safe and secure housing will only be won with a movement that builds collective power. This includes movements rooted in racial, gender, economic, migrant, environmental, and disability justice; trans and queer liberation, and indigenous sovereignty.
COMMUNITY CONTROL
We reject corporate ownership of land and homes and promote a model that values direct participation by and for the community. Housing must be designed and planned with equitability in mind.
SUSTAINABILITY
We acknowledge that the climate crisis disproportionately affects the working class. Housing must be designed and planned with practices that are in line with a livable planet and makes these tools accessible to all communities.
Our Goals
HOUSING FOR ALL
Construct and advance transitional and transformative solutions to the housing crisis to defend and fight for affordable and accessible community-controlled housing and remove land and housing from markets that put profit before people.
END DISPLACEMENT
Assert renters’ rights locally and nationally through organizing mass numbers of renters into tenants unions and mass-resident association to win collective-negotiations with Landlords and push for the passing of local, city and state-wide renters rights legislation to defend against displacement and gentrification.
EDUCATE AND MOBILIZE COMMUNITIES
Shift popular thought around land and housing to build support for equitable planning of our cities that ensures that the people who live, work, and exist in communities can thrive.
END CRIMINALIZATION OF HOUSELESSNESS
Dismantle policies that single-out and cast-aside houseless residents and which deepen the criminalization and dehumanization of poverty.
LEGAL REPRESENTATION FOR ALL TENANTS
Guarantee the right to free independent counsel for those facing eviction, while providing community access to legal advice and representation.
Our Impact
Feeding Those Who Feed Us
In 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic swept the nation, the community of Tucson organized to help those in our community who were most affected. Many found themselves out of a job, unable to pay for rent, groceries, utilities, and other basic needs. Our community came together to help members who made a living from the restaurant and service industry who were now facing obstacles in providing for their families. The People’s Defense Initiative (PDI) and the Tucson Tenants Union (TTU) partnered with La Cocina to provide free, healthy meals weekly to out-of-work cooks, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, and others in the food and beverage industry. Thanks to this partnership and various local businesses who joined in our efforts, Feeding Those Who Feed Us was able to provide more than 4000 free meals to community members in the restaurant and service industry who had been affected by COVID-19.
Monterey Garden
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
When our community asks for help, we always show up.
In 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic swept the nation, the community of Tucson organized to help those in our community who were most affected. Many found themselves out of a job, unable to pay for rent, groceries, utilities, and other basic needs. Our community came together to help members who made a living from the restaurant and service industry who were now facing obstacles in providing for their families. The People’s Defense Initiative (PDI) and the Tucson Tenants Union (TTU) partnered with La Cocina to provide free, healthy meals weekly to out-of-work cooks, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, and others in the food and beverage industry. Thanks to this partnership and various local businesses who joined in our efforts, Feeding Those Who Feed Us was able to provide more than 4000 free meals to community members in the restaurant and service industry who had been affected by COVID-19.
Housing Justice and Dignity for All Tucson Barrios & the Unhoused/ No Gentrification
Tuesday, July 12,2022
Currently, TTU is working with Casa Maria Catholic Worker Community, Pima Area Labor Federation, People’s Defense Initiative, Barrio Neighborhood Coalition, Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Tucson Alliance for Housing justice on the “Housing Justice and Dignity for All Tucson Barrios & the Unhoused/ No Gentrification” campaign to demand that our elected officials do their job and address the housing crisis with concrete solutions. Collectively we are demanding that:
- No Bus Rapid Transit through South Tucson and the south side unless there is a commitment to build large amounts of truly affordable housing at the bus stops
- Create or preserve 200 housing units in South Tucson that current residents can afford by 2025 with funding from The City of Tucson, Pima County, and other community partners. No luxury, market rat, or so-called workforce housing. Do this by bringing housing units up to code and making/keeping them affordable. Also, offer low/no-interest loans for low-income folkd to renovate/repair their home.
- Rent control or rent stabilization- Enlist South Tucson, the City of Tucson, Pima County, the Tucson Association of Realtors, and many others to get the state of Arizona to allow local jurisdictions to implement rent control
- Create one or more temporary camps for unhoused people. Part of our coalition adds that all camp sweeps be stopped
