Organizing for Housing Justice & A Home to Thrive

Our homes are the foundations for our lives. They are gathering places, and spaces where we recharge and connect with ourselves and our families. 

Too many people are forced to lay their foundation on shaky ground. Because of outrageous rent hikes, poorly-maintained and underfunded public housing, racial segregation of neighborhoods, increasing urban displacement, and corporate tax and land giveaways, more and more people in this country lack a home to thrive.

CPD and our network of state-based affiliates are leading local, state, and federal campaigns to challenge the racist and corporate roots of our housing system, and to build a model that works for us all.

Our policy priorities include

• Universal rent control and tenant protections;  

• Deep investments in affordable housing; and 

• Rules for the rental market that protect tenants against the predatory behavior of corporate landlords. 

Together we can curb displacement and foreclosures, reduce evictions and homelessness, and rein in corporate landlords. We can build a future of housing stability for renters, low-income homeowners, and manufactured housing residents across the country.

Recent campaign highlights include:

• We worked with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to write the “A Place to Prosper” Act as a part of her “A Just Society” bill package.

• We wrote and released a report with PolicyLink and the Right to the City Alliance called Our Homes, Our Future: How Rent Control Can Build Stable, Healthy Communities on the rent crisis and the need for rent control to protect 42 million households across the county.

• We supported our California affiliate, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and their state-wide coalition to pass the Tenant Protection Act of 2019. The bill, AB 1482, expands protections to eight million tenants, covering more renters than any single tenant protection bill in recent U.S. history.

• We supported our New York affiliates, New York Communities for Change, Make the Road New York, Churches United for Fair Housing, and MHAction, in a historic win, passing the strongest renter protections in a generation. These protections affect one million rent regulated households and provide an opportunity for the expansion of rent control across all of New York State.

• We won expanded tenant and eviction protections for renters in Nevada with Make the Road Nevada;

• We wrote and released a report with Hedgeclippers and ACCE called Billionaire Corporate Landlords are Exacerbating California’s Housing Crisis. 

• We supported 11 local and state campaigns in California with ACCE, in Nevada with Make the Road Nevada, in Colorado with UNE, in Chicago with KOCO, in Detroit with Detroit Action, in Arkansas with Arkansas Community Organization, in Florida with Organize Florida, in North Carolina with Action NC, in Maryland with CASA, in Philadelphia with OnePA, and in New York with NYCC, Make the Road New York, CUFFH, and MHAction.