Buffalo Tenants and Homeless Need a Movement

In recent years, the question of housing quality and affordability has become a central question to the Buffalo poor and working class.  Despite living in a city with a huge number of vacant houses, there are hundreds of homeless people struggling to survive each night.  Meanwhile, public money is used to build new luxury condos and affordable housing at places like the Shoreline Apartments is under constant threat.  In one of the poorest cities in the nation, a powerful demand for housing justice needs to be made.  As has always been the case, a demand for that justice will only be achieved by a movement of those most involved.  Buffalo tenants and homeless need to build a movement to demand that their needs be met!

       

It should be no surprise that there is a need for a movement of low-income people to struggle for greater housing justice.  For most people, housing is a basic need for survival.  However, for many people, housing is a way to create massive profits.   It’s these landlords, development agencies, real estate companies, and banks that have a great deal of power in creating the unjust situation that faces many Buffalo tenants, homeless, and even small home owners today.

        

Fortunately, there is a history of struggle that has won huge gains toward securing a right to quality, affordable housing for all, and the tenants of Buffalo need to start learning from those past struggles.  As far back as 1915, when over 30,000 residents of Glasgow, Scotland went on a city wide rent-strike to stop landlords from the massive rent increases they were demanding.   These tenants held large-scale protests every time eviction was threatened for one of the strikers.  They won ground breaking rent control laws and created a strong tenants union that exists to this day.  Closer to home tenants in New York City have maintained a strong movement for decades that resists unjust evictions, gained rent control, and fights the destruction of public and affordable housing.

          

Only in a truly sick economic world could housing be considered a market for people’s profit rather than an inherent right of all people.  Buffalo tenants and homeless need to learn from these past fights and build some unity.  Let’s stop wasting time and ceding ground!  Let’s build a City Wide Tenants’ Union!