Fran Quigley

3 weeks ago | jacobin.com | Fran Quigley

The storylines in Slumlord Millionaire, the documentary about the struggle of New York City tenants and homeowners confronting predatory real estate interests’ fast-gentrifying neighborhoods that is opening in theaters in New York today, are disturbing. The youngest son of the Bravo family in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, struggles with asthma, like over 300,000 other New York children, his condition deeply connected to the mold and rodent droppings that the landlord has refused to remedy.

3 weeks ago | commondreams.org | Fran Quigley

Ronald Reagan famously said that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help. That was a lie, and it was a deadly one. Like so much of what came out of Reagan’s mouth, this clever quip provided a folksy façade for a brutal attack on the most vulnerable Americans. Before Reagan’s election in 1980, homeless shelters and evictions were rare.

2 months 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.

2 months 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.

2 months 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.