[Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:01:05 Hi, everybody. Welcome. Welcome to April Tenant Talk Live. Welcome. I see some familiar faces in the chat. We'll give it like a minute or two before we get started. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:01:18 Well, congratulations. All right, call you. [Claudia Swaney] 18:01:19 Hi, Sid. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:01:25 Welcome. Hey, Talisa. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:01:33 All right, we'll give it just a minute before we get started, everybody. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:01:40 Thank you for being here. [Claudia Swaney] 18:01:45 Sid, I got new glasses. Yeah. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:01:49 It's so nice. Are they like aviator style? I love how I leaned into They look nice. [Claudia Swaney] 18:01:53 Yeah. [Telissa Dowling] 18:02:00 I got new glasses too, girl. Some Alexander McQueen. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:02:06 It's the season for renewals. Exactly. [Telissa Dowling] 18:02:07 I treated myself for the new year. [Telissa Dowling] 18:02:14 Oh, and Renee was great at the National Action Network conference. She spoke on a panel with Sean Donovan and Ms. Anna Oliver. It was awesome. And oh, you can see all of the conference on YouTube. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:02:32 All of us. I haven't seen it yet. [Telissa Dowling] 18:02:32 Renee did a great job. Yeah. No, I didn't get… Yeah, I didn't get a chance to speak to her because it was so much going on. But I did shoot her an email the following morning saying, I do apologize for not being able to [Telissa Dowling] 18:02:46 You know greet her while she was there. But I was the one clapping in the audience that understood what they were talking about the housing policy I was the crazy lady with the white, the red hat on. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:02:59 I'm glad you were able to go to that. I'll have to check it out later too. [Telissa Dowling] 18:03:03 Yeah, it was really good, very informative. She did a good job, yeah. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:03:07 Thank you, Talisa. We'll go ahead. [Telissa Dowling] 18:03:10 It was a long week. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:03:13 Yeah, especially after we just had our forum too. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and get us started just because we have a lot to get through today but I know I didn't get a chance to say this before, but if you're just joining us, feel free to drop where you're joining us from in the chat. I always like to see. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:03:31 Where everybody's from across the country. But yeah, thank you everybody. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:03:36 I'm going to start the recording now just so that we can share this with our friends online later. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:03:43 Awesome. Well, okay. Thank you, everybody, again, for being here and welcome to April's Tenant Talk Live. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:03:49 Today's theme is leveraging Citywide Partnerships to advance tenant unionization And for folks that might be new and to friends that are here again, my name is Sid Betancourt and I'm a project manager for inclusive community engagement at the Coalition. And I use she, they pronouns. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:04:05 And again, you're currently joining Tenant Talk Live. For folks who might be newer, this is where we can provide opportunities for you to connect with fellow tenants and residents across the country, share best practices. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:04:17 But also learn how to be more involved in influencing federal advocacy or housing policies in your communities. And today we're joined by two awesome guests, which I will introduce shortly, but before We do that. I'll do some NLIHC updates really quickly. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:04:34 So first, we'll just review our community agreements, which we came up with at the beginning of the year. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:04:41 And if you weren't part of constructing those, don't worry about it. You still have time to provide feedback throughout the year if you have any. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:04:49 Additions or tweaks to make. So these are agreements for 2025. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:04:56 A rule for myself or an agreement for myself is just to remind everybody that this call is being recorded to share with those online that might not be able to attend at the time. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:05:07 The first rule is our platinum rule, which is treating others the way they want to be treated. And the reason why it's worded that way is just to consider how others might be treated and how that might differ. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:05:17 From how you want to be treated and it kind of puts empathy at the forefront of that. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:05:24 And then number two is we respect We show respect to others by being considerate of our interactions and accountable for our actions. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:05:33 Number three is we listen actively with an open mind and empathy. We listen with the intent to learn something of value from those who are sharing. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:05:41 We are as attentive to and present with each other as possible. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:05:44 And then the fourth one is we take up space. There's a typo there, which I'll fix in a little bit. But we take up space and remember to give space to others to ensure everyone feels empowered to contribute to this conversation. And this includes muting your microphone. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:06:01 When others are speaking. And in the future we've had We've had people in the past read those out loud, but I want to make sure we're able to get through everything today. But if y'all have any thoughts again, feel free to email me if you have any [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:06:16 Recommendations or suggestions that you want to make or if you have any feedback at all. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:06:22 And then we always send out the materials for this call. So if you miss any links in the chat, if you want to see the recording, we'll be sending that out. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:06:30 With our recap materials this Friday. With the connection e-blast that comes out around 1 p.m. Every email. So if you're not signed up for NLIC emails, we'll make sure to drop that link in the chat for you. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:06:43 And for our last update, I'm going to hand it over to my colleague, Courtney Cooperman. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:06:48 Who is our program manager for Our Homes Our Votes campaign to share more about a really new exciting program that we just started up. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:06:55 Thanks so much, Sid. Hi, everyone. I'm Courtney Cooperman. I use she, her pronouns. It's great to see some familiar faces and some new ones as well. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:07:05 So as Sid mentioned, we are launching a brand new tenant leader fellowship for Our Homes, Our Votes. Now, what is Our Homes, Our Votes? [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:07:13 Our Homes, Our Boats is our nonpartisan initiative to increase voter turnout among renters with low incomes. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:07:19 And to elevate housing as an election issue. So our goal is really to increase participation in the democratic process And we know that many of you have been really involved in civic engagement and election work and that tenant leaders are really the backbone of this, that tenant leaders are the ones who have the power to have conversations with their neighbors and encourage [Sophia Glover] 18:07:40 Oh. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:07:41 Participate in the political process. So we're really excited to have this opportunity. We'll have 20 tenant leaders in the cohort from all over the country. The cohort will meet virtually every other month. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:07:53 And there will be a component of like an independent project that our tenant leaders will work on throughout the duration of the fellowship. So if there's something like You know, you want to organize a ride to the polls for an upcoming election. [Annette Tomlin] 18:08:08 Check. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:08:08 Or do a voter registration drive or write an article for a local paper about why voting matters. Those are just a few examples. Definitely doesn't need to be one of those. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:08:18 Individual things. And the fellowship will be paid. There is a stipend upon successful completion of the fellowship of $1,000. We know that your time is valuable and it's very important to compensate you for doing this leadership work. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:08:34 So the application is live now. The deadline is April 18th. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:08:39 At midnight. We have a PDF document that gets into some more details about the program. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:08:47 Answer some FAQs and then has all of the questions that are in the application. The application is like a type form survey, so you can't View all the questions at once, but you can view them all on the PDF. So we'll share that in the chat. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:09:02 And then the link. So there's the, thank you. So Kenza just shared the link to the application itself on Typeform. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:09:09 And the program description and application guide. So that's the gist of it. I definitely encourage you all to apply. I know some of you have applied. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:09:17 Already and we're just looking forward to launching this fellowship and elevating the leadership that many of you are bringing to your communities. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:09:29 Awesome. Thanks so much, Courtney, for sharing. And it's a really exciting opportunity. And I hope some of you are able to apply for that program. And if you have any questions. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:09:40 Brittany, can they email you? Yeah. [Courtney Cooperman (she/her), NLIHC] 18:09:43 Yeah, I'll put my email in the chat. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:09:44 Awesome. Thank you so much. Okay, great. We'll get started. So just some logistics. Again, if you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the chat. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:09:54 But we just ask that you stay muted if you're not speaking. But if you're not able to catch it in time. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:10:00 Someone on staff might be able to get to you before you do that. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:10:05 But I'm not going to introduce our lovely speakers that are joining us for today's call. So today we have Sarah White and we have Luke Milanakos Harrison joining us from Connecticut Sarah is a staff attorney with the Connecticut Fair Housing Center, where she focuses on [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:10:22 Of a variety of housing issues actually but for foreclosure prevention, mortgage servicing, and fair lending. And she also works really closely with the Connecticut Tenants Union. And Luke is a tenant union leader based in New Haven, Connecticut, dedicated to ensuring stronger protections for tenants in his community. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:10:41 So thanks again, Sarah and Luke, for joining us. You can learn more about their organizations In the chat, which we will share shortly. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:10:50 But before we get started really fast, I want to make sure that I give you all a chance to connect again. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:10:58 So I will be putting you all in breakout rooms We just ask that you introduce yourselves to each other I know it's been a rough couple of months for everyone. I don't want to ignore that elephant in the room. But I do want to give you all the opportunity as we head into spring or we are already in spring to talk a little bit [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:11:19 About maybe one thing that has brought you joy or hope and hopefully that continues to inspire us as we move into this hard work together. So I'm going to do Breakouts really quickly. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:11:32 And again, just introduce yourselves to your group and share something that's giving you hope. So give me a quick minute to do that and we'll give you 10 minutes to do that. [Cynthia Gilkey] 18:12:10 Peace. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:12:18 They should be all open now. So feel free to join them. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:12:52 If anybody that's here with us right now has any questions about getting into the breakout rooms, feel free to let me know. Otherwise, we can hang out in here together. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:13:01 And have our own little breakout room. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:13:12 And then Sarah and Luke were like about two minutes behind but we should be We should still have enough time. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:13:55 My dog just was scratching at my door and this was the perfect opportunity to let her [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:15:15 Hello, is it pollut who just joined us? Yes, welcome, welcome. We're doing just a quick round of breakouts for folks to connect before we get started. Did you want to join a room or do you just want to hang out and hear with us? [Kholoud Rashid] 18:15:18 Yes, collude. [Kholoud Rashid] 18:15:30 Whatever, I'm okay with either or. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:15:33 There's like about five minutes left so there might be some time just to introduce yourself really quickly, but no pressure. [Kholoud Rashid] 18:15:39 Okay. Yeah, no, you could add me to a group. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:16:36 Hi, is it Datrice? Thank you for joining us. We're just doing breakouts really quickly, so you can feel free to hang out for a second. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:20:23 We have some people coming back. We'll give it a minute for everybody to get back in here. [Sophia Glover] 18:20:29 I'm all tall. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:20:55 Welcome back, everybody. Almost everybody. We'll give it another second to make sure everybody comes back. [Patricia Boyd] 18:21:06 In simpleness, which officials say we continue to end June. [Monica Delancy] 18:21:12 Thank you. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:21:14 I think everybody's back now, so we'll go ahead and keep it moving. But is there maybe one person that wanted to share something from the group that they joined? [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:21:25 Some inspiration that they wanted to share with the group before we move forward. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:21:30 And you can feel free to raise your hand virtually or drop it in the chat too. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:21:52 No. No inspiration from anybody today. That's okay. You guys are here and that's like the biggest thing. [Annette Tomlin] 18:22:01 I'll say something. I'm inspired. Okay, this is Annette speaking. I am inspired to see all of us here on this forum, okay, that wants to be a part of change. We are change agents. [Annette Tomlin] 18:22:12 And we will not just sit back and not just complain to do nothing at all. [Annette Tomlin] 18:22:17 But we're here to make a difference. And our voices matter. And it's not just about us it's about others And that's a great thing. [Annette Tomlin] 18:22:26 You know, in times of trouble, we are those people who we sometimes read about Okay, so we are making history because we're making a change and difference. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:22:39 Thank you so much for sharing in that. Oh, sorry to lisa. [Telissa Dowling] 18:22:40 I second that. No, and I second that. Yes, ma'am. I was sharing in my group how seeing the people come out Saturday and hit the ground. [Telissa Dowling] 18:22:51 That was so inspirational. I was just on the phone with my board of elections saying, look, I want to know how many people voted in my area, how many people didn't vote. [Telissa Dowling] 18:23:00 Who do I need to start door knocking, talking to my neighbors about? That was exciting. And to be able to explain what's going on to my grandchildren. [Telissa Dowling] 18:23:10 If we don't fight, we don't win. So we got to get [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:23:17 Amazing. Thank you, Talisa and thank you Annette for sharing. And I saw a few answers in the chat too if you all want to go through and read them, but some folks just sharing Some thoughts about being able to overcome this like we have in the past and someone's [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:23:34 Someone's daughter is actually graduating from college so Great, great news all around. But thank you everybody so much for sharing and For real this time, I'll pass it over to Luke and Sarah now to present and share some information with you all. [Sarah White] 18:23:53 Thank you so much, Sid. I'm going to have Luke start us off and we're going to kind of focus on talking about You know, our theory of change, how we've worked together in three main areas. [Sarah White] 18:24:05 Supporting building base tenant union organizing, which is really the bread and butter of the work we've both been involved in. [Sarah White] 18:24:13 And then doing local legislative campaigns and then state legislative campaigns. [Sarah White] 18:24:17 Which we're very much in the thick of with a fight right now in Connecticut to expand Just Cause. So I'm going to pass it to Luke to start us off. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:24:25 Hey, everybody. My name is Luke. My title is vice president of the Connecticut Tennis Union, and I wanted to just share a little bit about The history of Connecticut Tenants Union or CTTU for short kind of how we got started and what the organization looks like now. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:24:44 I think I knocked on my first door for tenant tenant rights issues at the end of 2020. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:24:52 Whoops, sorry, I'm so sorry, Luke. I'm going to start the recording again over time. [Sid Betancourt, NLIHC (she/they)] 18:24:57 But feel free to pick up. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:25:00 Okay. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:25:04 And Sarah was also involved at that time. And we were just trying to figure out what tenant organizing could look like in connecticut And that developed into the legislative campaign of 2021, where we fought for a tenant's right to counsel. And then coming out of that campaign. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:25:21 In the summer of that year. Was when I was involved in the first real tenant union that got organized at a building here in New Haven in the city where I live. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:25:33 Over the course of the next several years, we learned a lot tried a lot of things, some things that worked, some things that didn't. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:25:42 But really became convinced through experience that the best way to build power as tenants is to organize tenant unions where in an apartment building or complex, you're aiming for a majority and ideally a super majority, so over two thirds of the residents are all in [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:26:02 The tenant union together and have a clear communication structure where each resident can get in touch with the leadership of the union and the leadership of the union can get in touch with all of their members, all of their neighbors [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:26:18 In a really fast manner, faster than the landlord or the property manager. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:26:23 And that has been figuring out how to do that and what that looks like has really been like the core thing that CDTU has been working on for the past few years. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:26:33 We hit a major milestone in 2023. Spring spring of that spring and summer where we took the tenant unions that we had organized at several different apartment complexes in different parts of the state. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:26:47 All came together and decided to sort of formalize the statewide Connecticut Tenants Union. So the structure that we have now is each local tenant union is a chapter the statewide Connecticut Tenants Union. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:27:06 And then we also have our at-large chapter, which is for tenants who don't yet have a tenant union in their building, but still want to push our work forward and participate. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:27:15 They can be an at-large member. Each chapter has a vice president that represents them on our tenant council which is our central decision-making body And then there are three of us. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:27:28 Who are elected by the full membership [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:27:52 To get a majority into the union and then push the landlord to negotiate for things like limits on rent increases maintenance repairs that need to be done. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:28:04 You know, both inside and outside of people's apartments, fair treatment from property managers and staff. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:28:11 You know and ultimately just a seat at the table and a voice in a voice our own housing conditions, the places that we call home. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:28:20 So we've been able to block a lot of rent increases, prevent a lot of evictions, get a lot of things fixed. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:28:27 Of course, it's been, you know, we've had lots of difficulties that we've had to overcome along the way but i'm just really, really proud of everyone that I get to organize with on a daily basis. There's just a lot of commitment in our union [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:28:45 The long term, really building an organization that will last, building a movement that will last and being committed to that. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:28:54 Even if some days are really hard. So that's a little bit about Connecticut, Tennessee, and I'll pass it back to you, Sarah. [Sarah White] 18:29:03 And so I am a lawyer. I'm also in many ways an organizer at heart and have been involved at times in the past, in particular also organizing tenants. [Sarah White] 18:29:13 But my job at the Connecticut for Housing Center, we are a nonprofit law firm, mostly And traditionally have done a lot of fair housing discrimination cases, foreclosure defense But my orientation to being a lawyer is what's sometimes called movement lawyering or community lawyering. [Sarah White] 18:29:32 Where I believe [Sarah White] 18:29:55 And are taking direction from the people that are really building the power that we change the laws to change what our buildings look like, what it means to be in our homes. [Sarah White] 18:30:07 So that's sort of the orientation I take to my work with the Connecticut Tenants Union. [Sarah White] 18:30:13 And over the last, I think like now almost five years of working with Luke and the other tenants and tenant organizers in our state. [Sarah White] 18:30:21 Have gotten to support in all sorts of ways. Being a movement lawyer being a lawyer you're sort of like a Swiss army knife You get to do a lot of different things, sometimes random things you wouldn't ever think of, everything from policy to cases in court to just helping to demystify the law. [Sarah White] 18:30:40 Because in so many ways, the language of court, the language of law is intended to keep people out. [Sarah White] 18:30:45 And one thing I want to do is to make it accessible for people so they can understand their options, strategize about how to organize. [Sarah White] 18:30:52 And build the tenant unions at the local level and state level that we're going to need to really shift things. [Sarah White] 18:30:59 So Sid, with that, if you could start our slides. We're just going to go through and talk about some of the campaigns we've worked on together. [Sarah White] 18:31:09 And if we can go to the next one. [Sarah White] 18:31:14 So Luke, do you want to start talking about The recent work we've collaborated on with the Concord Hills Tenant Union [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:31:21 Yeah, so this was an apartment building in the city of Hartford, Connecticut Which has 120 units 50 of those units, like a whole wing of the building was displaced by an electrical fire in August of last year. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:31:37 The fire only affected a handful of units directly, but the damage from the smoke and the sprinkler system And then some other damage that happened in the building as a result of shady work being done. [CJ OHara] 18:31:54 Okay. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:31:57 Ended up affecting 50 households. So it was over 100 people were displaced and put up in motels by the city of Hartford. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:32:06 Originally thinking they would be able to move home in just a few weeks because at first glance it seemed like The damage to the building was not necessarily that severe and it seemed, you know, everybody was thinking at the time [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:32:21 This should be two to three weeks worth of repairs and then people will be able to go back home but That ended up turning into a five month battle. On two fronts, we were fighting both The City of Hartford to get people into [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:32:38 Appropriate temporary housing conditions where they could cook a meal while they were displaced. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:32:44 And be safe and not be breathing moldy air, which is what the situation at the motels where they were originally placed. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:32:52 And then also to get maximum enforcement against the landlord who was totally dragging their feet on doing these repairs. And so then we were also fighting the landlord to get them to do the repairs. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:33:04 It was… It was an intense fight where we were doing rallies and press conferences and speaking to city council And at one point even drove three hours away to downtown Manhattan to the corporate office of the landlord company where we picketed them [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:33:22 On their home base. We were doing all of those actions It's sometimes almost on a weekly basis For several months. So it was an intense fight where people had to consistently show up and stick together. But it was also a very [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:33:43 Dedicated group of folks who were fighting for their housing and knew that the thing that stood between them and housing instability and potentially even homelessness was sticking together and fighting it out as a tenant union. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:33:58 And by the end of that fight. Tell you the happy ending. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:34:03 We were able to get just about everybody placed either in other apartments on the other side of the building, even at the same rents that they were paying before, even though those were renovated units. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:34:15 Or in other buildings owned by the landlord The same landlord at rents that they could afford, or in some cases people got basically temporary rental assistance directly from the landlord so that they could move on and start with a new apartment. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:34:31 So it was a really tough fight But in the end, we got people in stable housing. [Luke, CT Tenants Union] 18:34:39 Really against I guess it was quite an uphill battle against a lot of odds [Sarah White] 18:34:44 And just like from the legal side, I think is so often the case, as everyone on this call knows, you have laws on the books. [Sarah White] 18:34:51 That simply are not enforced or blatantly violated and without a lot of people power You know, pushing for the city or the state to do something. [Sarah White] 18:35:01 The rights that we do have like can be really hard to even recognize. And in this case The city was legally required to put people into safe temporary housing for up to four months and was absolutely dragging their feet on it. So a lot of the work I was doing [Sarah White] 18:35:18 Was helping get the tenant union members up to speed on what their rights were as they directly negotiated with the city The landlord kept trying to charge people rent on these condemned units that were completely unlivable, damaged by fire, yet was still threatening people if they didn't pay. So helping push back against the landlord so [Sarah White] 18:35:41 This was a situation where I was able to help bolster the organizing that the tenants were doing