‘We the tenants’: Tenants share housing struggles and dream together at monthly meetings
By Jillian Privott and Ulaa Kuziez
Despite living in a one-bedroom apartment that leaks constantly and has not passed city inspection, a middle-aged Black woman who rents in St. Louis City said her landlord has refused to address the leak. Instead, she said the property owners want to increase her rent.
At a tenant meeting on March 28, she brought a few documents of resources she was attempting to contact for help and a few more that showed how her landlord was failing to keep her place up to standards.
“The housing authority need to move me out. You know what she [from St. Louis Housing Authority) told me? Put your stuff in storage and go stay with someone else. That’s what she told me to my face,” she said at the meeting.
As she shared her experience with others gathered in the room, she found she wasn’t alone in her struggle.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I know one thing. I’m not gonna be homeless,” she said.
Housing issues in the St. Louis Metropolitan region are multifaceted, with problems ranging from scant affordable housing, rent spikes, homeless criminalization laws and evictions. Fatima Kamara, a housing justice organizer with the non-profit organization Action St. Louis said all of these are symptoms of one central problem: a lack of tenant power.
“We are a community of renters, organizers and advocates building a movement to transform St. Louis and our region that enables landlords, property owners, developers, all these people with the upper hand to take advantage of residents…to a place where everyone has access to safe and affordable housing,” Kamara said.
In areas with high minority populations, such as St. Louis, the lack of affordable housing and housing insecurity reflects the region’s history of racial discrimination and housing segregation. According to the most recent data from Equity Indicators, in 2018 Black households paid more than 50% of their income on rent, a result of both low income and lack of affordable housing.
Action St. Louis is working with other organizations in the region to decrease these numbers and bring housing justice and security to those who are often left out.
At their monthly Tenant Power meetings, tenants, lawyers and advocates gather to voice their concerns, get support and dream about what’s possible. The meetings are hosted in the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, a “community action tank” that works to strengthen child health in the region and often partners with and funds other advocacy organizations. Located on N Vandaventer in North St. Louis City, many parts of this area have been stuck in a decades-long cycle of disinvestment.
Over two dozen people were in attendance for the March meeting. As people walked in, they signed in, grabbed a mask and a few self-advocacy pamphlets. These pamphlets included legal advice, instructions on representing oneself in court, information about Action St. Louis and information on rights that tenants deserve. Also available are bright yellow intake sheets that connect tenants with a lawyer from Arch City Defenders, a legal advocacy organization that works closely with Action St. Louis. With food and child care provided, this meeting is meant to be accessible for all to ask questions and voice concerns.
Tenant rights is a far-reaching issue in the United States that many may not be aware of unless it is affecting them. Housing injustice usually sits at the intersection of both race and class, often affecting lower-income minority populations. Not until 1968 did the Fair Housing Act pass in order to attempt to erase racial discrimination in housing. Ever since the Great Depression, housing organizations have placed laws to keep white neighborhoods white and middle class and to keep minority neighborhoods lower class.
“Many of the same zip codes with higher rates of eviction filings, were also hit the hardest during the housing crisis of 2008. The 2008 housing crash led to high numbers of foreclosures and later the number of homes for rent increased. Additionally…neighborhoods…[like] Spanish Lake (63138), Bellefontaine, (63137), Glasgow Village (63137)…were also communities that were historically redlined,” according to the Stop Gap Eviction Report published by the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council in 2021.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused widespread economic disruption and income loss, renters were hit hard. “This unexpected loss of income has especially impacted renters and, layered on top of pre-COVID housing insecurity, has led to increased numbers of people at risk of eviction in the St. Louis region,” according to the same report. With local and federal eviction stays no longer in effect, eviction rates are increasing to pre-pandemic levels, according to data from Eviction Lab.
For renters, eviction is a worst-case scenario. Oftentimes, it is persistent negligence that they experience from landlords.
Richard Lackey and his wife Beverly, an elderly white couple, have been coming to the meetings for over a year now. Following several issues with the conditions of the place they used to rent for the past three years, they have found these meetings to be an outlet and an opportunity to organize with others facing similar concerns.
In their former two-story apartment located in the Carondelet neighborhood in South St. Louis, Richard said they have problems with electricity in their bedroom. When it went off recently, he said he brought a contractor to inspect the wires. It was determined the property had faulty wires. Still, he said the landlord put the blame on him and his wife.
“If they don’t care, why should we pay the rent? If we don’t pay, we get kicked out,” Richard said. “We are stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
According to Missouri’s Landlord-Tenant Law, landlords are “responsible for repairs caused by ordinary wear and tear and natural forces,” while tenants must pay for damages resulting from their own negligence. If a landlord accuses a renter of doing the damages, like in the case of the Lackey couple, they can attempt to release themselves from the responsibility of making repairs.
Beverly said beyond the lack of standards and enforcement of housing codes, the property managers are not respectful of her or her privacy. They came into her place unannounced one afternoon as she was doing a hair treatment with her close friend.
“These landowners they barged right in when I said I am not gonna be available at this certain time, they didn’t care. I am standing in my towel,” Beverly said.
Beverly has since filed a lawsuit against her landowners for harassment and discrimination, but she said the case was dropped and they were told to move out of the property.
With cases like these demonstrating the need for systemic protection in the region, Action St. Louis continues to push for change. In coalition with other housing justice organizations in the region like Housing Defense Collective and Homes for All St. Louis, these groups hope to enshrine tenant power into local law.
St. Louis City Board of Alderman president Megan Green, who joined the tenant meeting to answer questions, says this next legislative session, which starts April 17, will be the “year of the tenant.”
“We recognized that for far too long in our state and in St. Louis, we have favored the side of the landlord and have often not been on the side of the tenant,” Green said during the tenant meeting.
Action St. Louis and other organizations want a comprehensive approach to housing justice that includes measures like rent caps based on income, mediation and rental assistance. Their first step is passing The Right to Counsel bill, which ensures legal representation for tenants facing eviction. This bill has been written but is still waiting on funding, which Green said will be her main mission this legislative session.
In neighboring Kansas City, after years of fierce advocacy from housing organizations, a Tenant Bill of Rights was implemented in the city in 2019. This historic legislation enshrined into law protections for tenants, and Action St. Louis aspires to pass a similar bill in St. Louis over the next two years.
As renters and organizers work together, they want to create and then leverage a strong voting bloc and a tenant union to shift the power imbalances in the region.
“Every day, people are losing ground,” Gerald, a renter in St. Louis City, said at the tenant gathering. As the meeting wrapped up, he looked to his fellow tenants, encouraging them to stay engaged. “If we don’t keep pushing, they’re gonna push us off the planet.”
The meeting ends in a collective chant, a symbol of the group’s dream. “Who are we?” Kamara speaks into the microphone. The crowd replies, “We the tenants!”
