Join Today’s (7/7) “Tenant Talk Live” on Leveraging Local Elections to Advance Housing Justice

By NLIHC IDEAS Team 

Join today’s “Tenant Talk Live,” a virtual meeting focused on tenant and resident leaders, at 6 pm ET (5 pm CT, 4 pm MT, and 3 pm PT). This month, organizers Divya Sundaram, Lex Rountree, and Joanne Grell from the New York State (NYS) Tenant Bloc’s Freeze the Rent Campaign will discuss how tenant leaders and advocates used local elections to advance housing justice. They will also share lessons learned from the New York City mayoral primary and strategies for building local political power nationwide.  

Register for today’s webinar here.  

Divya Sundaram (she/her), Freeze the Rent’s campaign manager, joined the team in January to launch the initiative and has coordinated the collection of 20,000 signatures in support of a rent freeze, built a tenant-led field program, and strategized around activating the tenant vote. Previously, she worked as the Director of Intergovernmental & Legislative Affairs in the NYC Comptroller’s Office, the NYC Organizing Director of the NY Working Families Party, and as Deputy Campaign Manager for Tiffany Cabán’s Queens District Attorney campaign. Her experience blends electoral and issue organizing. 

Lex Rountree (she/her) is a tenant organizer and data strategist based in Flatbush, Brooklyn. She has been a volunteer field lead for the NYS Tenant Bloc’s Freeze the Rent Campaign since March, organizing weekly canvasses in the neighborhood to activate tenants around electing a rent freeze mayor. She has carved out a niche at the intersection of digital organizing, data infrastructure, electoral politics, and housing justice through her various roles at the Right to the City Alliance, Florida Rising, the New Georgia Project, Brand New Congress, and Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign.   

Joanne Grell (she/her) is a Bronx-based housing justice organizer and co-chair of the Freeze the Rent campaign with the New York State Tenant Bloc. She is also a Member Leader at CASA (Community Action for Safe Apartments). She began organizing during the pandemic, moved by the urgency of the housing crisis and the strength of her community’s response. At CASA, she leads strategic planning, grassroots campaigns, and educational workshops that center on tenant leadership. Joanne also serves on Bronx Community Board 10, where she sits on the Housing & Zoning and Municipal Services Committees, helping to shape local policy from the ground up. As a member of the Right to Counsel Coalition, she has spoken on panels about movement lawyering at both Brooklyn Law School and New York Law School, bringing her lived experience and organizing perspective to future legal advocates. As a single mother who raised two children in a rent-stabilized apartment, Joanne fights for a New York where all tenants can live with dignity, stability, and power. 

Register for today’s “Tenant Talk Live” to learn more from these speakers.   

“Tenant Talk Live” would not be possible without tenants! We strive to connect and engage with tenants and tenant leaders through our webinars. If you are a low-income tenant and have a topic you would like to propose for an upcoming “Tenant Talk Live,” or if you would like to participate as a speaker on an upcoming call or webinar, please email: [email protected] 

Stay up to date on “Tenant Talk Live” events via the Facebook group.