Fran Quigley

1 month ago | popularresistance.org | Fran Quigley

Above photo: Christina Jackson outside Denver City Councilor Flor Alvidrez’s office. Christina Jackson. Deepening connections between U.S. labor unions and renters has helped spur the creation of tenants unions. They are winning concessions across the country. When Christina Jackson first started talking with her neighbors living in a Denver apartment building about their shared concerns about elevators not working, water being shut off, and roaches in their apartments, the response was guarded.

1 month ago | wagingnonviolence.org | Fran Quigley

When Christina Jackson first started talking with her neighbors living in a Denver apartment building about their shared concerns about elevators not working, water being shut off, and roaches in their apartments, the response was guarded. “A lot of the tenants were scared to complain because they worried they would get evicted if they spoke up,” Jackson said. The worry is not an unreasonable one.

1 month ago | commondreams.org | Fran Quigley

Sarah’s situation was one we see a lot in eviction court. Hers was among the 3 of every 4 households whose incomes are low enough to qualify for a federal housing subsidy but do not receive it because we underfund the programs so dramatically. So Sarah had been living for a few years in a dilapidated house where her absentee landlord charged her well below market-rate rent—just $650 a month.

2 months ago | shelterforce.org | Fran Quigley

Or, sometimes, the emails. Writing about housing in media outlets can lead to pushback, especially when referring to housing as a human right.  “Housing is a human right? How?” a reader named “Stabilizer” asked in response to one of my columns. “Housing is a human NEED. Also food, sex, and vacations on a nice tropical beach.”A local lawyer emailed me directly, in part to criticize our law school clinic’s work representing low-income tenants facing eviction.

2 months ago | jacobin.com | Fran Quigley

The displacement caused by the recent Los Angeles–area fires has renewed attention on price gouging in rental housing. Some landlords were accused of increasing their rents by more than 300 percent — spikes that appeared to violate California law, which like many other states prohibits setting unconscionable prices on necessities. Or, as we more commonly know it, price gouging.