Look for the Tenant Union

Housing is most Americans ’ biggest monthly bill.

Half of all tenants spend over 30 percent of their income on rent, with more than one-quarter spending over 70 percent .

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide $150 billion in annual loan backing to the multifamily rental market, guaranteeing landlords’ loans on lucrative terms.

Tenants want to see the government regulate the core necessity that is their home.

They say rent caps are the urgent solution that meets the scale of the crisis tenants face in their homes today .

The federal government has the power, even without congressional action, to take key steps toward a national regulatory agenda for housing.

Three weeks into the strike, the tenant unions won $1.35 million for long-needed repairs at Independence Towers , another federally backed building in the Kansas City area.

The rent strikes resumed on November 1 , and tenants are organizing in North Carolina , South Carolina , Kentucky , Michigan , Montana , and Illinois .