We are Renters Rising.

As of summer 2022, the National Equity Atlas reported that rent debt was at “crisis levels.” Renter households collectively owe almost, at minimum, a massive $15 billion in back due rent. These households are overwhelmingly occupied by low-income renters of color. This report describes renters’ experiences to highlight outstanding problems with the ERA implementation process. In particular, we share how corporate landlords have abused the system for profit. Though rent relief was supposed to combat housing insecurity, many landlords took the money and still evicted renters or lied about receiving the ERA money to collect payouts from both ERA and renters.

As of January 2022, over 9.9 million renters are behind in rent, and at risk of losing their homes. After 2 years of a pandemic, there are currently no federal eviction protections, and very few state protections. As we have during the pandemic, we are encouraging tenants who are at risk of eviction to organize collectively, build coalitions with local community organizations, create Eviction Defense Networks, access legal support, and advocate for policies to protect renters at risk of eviction.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragility of a range of U.S. institutions, from our healthcare system to our meager social safety net, the U.S. faced a crisis in housing affordability. In 2008, the bursting of a housing bubble created by a deregulated financial industry offering predatory subprime loans and inscrutable financial instruments destroyed the financial stability of millions. The foreclosure crisis, and the financial crisis that followed, cost American households $16 trillion in wealth as millions lost their homes and saw their savings and retirement funds depleted. Black and Latinx households were hardest hit, losing half their wealth.