@SeanHun and I met to discuss how we should change our tactics after the first workshop.
Should we be knocking on doors and talking to tenants?
We tried just dropping off flyers and not talking to people. Out of the people that we had extended conversation with, 2/4 people ended up coming. And the two that did come, seemed like they were already taking a lot of initiative on their own, so we can’t expect everyone to be like them.
But having conversations and having a better feel about the situation from tenants would give us a better idea of if a building was worth investing time in.
So at each “building,” we should try to talk to 2-3 people, depending on the number of total units to gauge how likely the building is to want to start a tenant association. We should still record the issues that we run across and maybe rank each building (1-5) so we can keep track. We should also rank each tenant on how likely they are to organize.
Ranking Buildings
5 - Very Low Organizing Potential
- Supportive landlord that is quick to fix issues
- no obvious physical damage or issues on the outside
- Fair rent with minimal or below-market increases
- Positive online reviews
- Low tenant turnover; most residents are satisfied with their living conditions
- Management addresses concerns before they escalate
1 - Very High Organizing Potential
- Negligent/abusive landlord where tenants are already documenting harassment and violations
- Illegal eviction attempts
- Severe safety and health code violations
- Charging them for repairs or using fines to punish tenants
- Tenants already talking to each other about issues
- Shared grievances and likely chance for collective action
Ranking Tenants
- 5 - openly hostile to the idea of a tenant union
- 4 - hostile to wanting to work with neighbors
- 3 - neutral
- 2 - supportive, but does not seem like they would talk to neighbors
- 1 - supportive, would bring others into the tenant association
We also discussed using https://www.solidarity.tech/ to manage the data as well as email, call, and texting communication with tenants and other people on our contact list.