Building Renter Power: Rethinking the Role of the Nonprofit in California's Tenants Rights Movement
Social Sciences
CMMU 194
This senior thesis analyzes the role of Tenants Together, a statewide tenants' rights organization, and the extent to which they have supported local rent control efforts to galvanize a statewide movement. Considering the last two years as a “movement moment,” I argue that when they use horizontal, community led models of organizing and power distribution, tenant advocacy non-profits make essential contributions to the development and nurturing of statewide tenant coalitions. This model strengthens the capacity of tenants and their advocates to learn, organize, and connect with other movements that would otherwise be miles away, geographically and conceptually. I hope to construct an argument that shines light on how, as long as advocacy non-profits take seriously the limitations of their institutional status, they can (and in the case of Tenants Together, do) leverage their resources in solidarity with autonomous social movements and strengthen grassroots power to act on state institutions.
