Building a National Tenant Movement PartI: Campaign to Save Our Homes and Passing the Economic Rights Treaty!
Part II: Fri. 10 a.m. CoboHall D3-27
The US has lost more than 400,000 units of privately owned apartments subsidized by HUD since 1996. Another 230,000 are at risk today, as low income housing loans reach the end of their 40 year mortgage terms. Some 200,000 more Public Housing families have been displaced as local agencies tear down people’s homes to make way for redevelopment schemes.
Tenants demand recognition of their human Right to Housing, yet the US is the only major country in the world that has yet to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which includes the Right to Adequate Housing.
The only resident run national tenants union in the US, the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT) elected board leaders will be joined by key allies to discuss current campaigns to organize tenants on the ground to save their homes, to pass legislation to preserve at risk affordable housing and to broaden the movement to ratify the ICESCR. Workshop participants will be encouraged to present their stories and contribute to campaign strategy discussions.
Panelists: Herman Bonner, President, Drexel Court Tenants Association, Chicago, IL; President, NAHT Board, Judy Montanez, Co-Chair, Castleton Park Tenants Association, Staten Island, NY; NAHT Board, Lonene Crawford, President, UPACA 7 Tenants Association, Harlem, NY; VP/North, NAHT Board, Charlotte Delgado, President, Washington Squares I & II Tenants Assoc, Sacramento, CA; VP/West, NAHT Board, Michael Kane, Executive Director, NAHT; Board member, Habitat International Coal., Cheri Honkala, Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, Victor Monterossa, Greater Newark HUD Tenants Coalition, Newark, NJ, Maria Foscarinas, Exec. Director, National Law Center on Poverty and Homelessness, Allison Garren, Campaign for Basic Human Needs.
