The Tenant and Homeowner Association is a group of renters and homeowners facing foreclosure, as well as neighbors and volunteers who are fed up with what foreclosure is doing to our communities. We are an organizing committee of DARE's Whose Providence? campaign.
Rhode Island's foreclosure rates are among the highest in New England.
Coupled with widespread unemployment and cuts to social services, foreclosures are pushing hundreds of people in our state deeper into poverty. We organized the Tenant and Homeowners Association to fight foreclosures and evictions, displacement and blight, and to hold banks accountable for the economic crisis they started and continue to perpetuate.
To stop the displacement of low-income communities of color we know we have to organize families directly impacted by foreclosure. We train volunteer doorknockers to canvass homes at risk of foreclosure and bring new leaders into the struggle. We push legislative changes to benefit tenants and homeowners and hold out-of-control banks and politicians accountable. We use creative direct action to keep individuals and families in their homes. In front of homes and banks we chant: "When we fight, we win!"
We fought for six years to change Rhode Island's Landlord-Tenant Act to prevent banks from evicting tenants when they foreclose on a home. In July of 2014, we won a change in the law that ends the no-fault eviction of tenants living in a building that gets foreclosed. Now we need to make sure that banks, lawyers, and property managers are abiding by the new law. Check out our Just Cause Campaign 2014 video on Youtube.
If you are facing eviction as a renter or homeowner due to foreclosure or if you're sick and tired of the banks evicting families in our communities, it's time you joined the fight!
To join the fight, contact Christopher Rotondo: crotondo@gmail.com or call 401-351-6960.
We chose Rent Control as our new campaign focus! Come and help us make it happen!
We also now have an attorney from the RI Center for Justice meeting with tenants facing eviction for non-payment of rent! Please encourage those you know with these cases to come to our Tuesday meetings!
Check out this link on how important our rent control campaign is!