Tenant / Resident Organizing

Tenants can join together to improve their living conditions. So can residents of manufactured (mobile) home parks. Examples of tenant organizing or resident organizing can include:

1. Electing a formal resident association within a public housing complex
2. Forming a tenant or park resident union
3. Attempting to collectively negotiate with a landlord or park owner over conditions issues and the terms of rental agreements
4. Educating fellow tenants or residents about their rights and providing peer counseling
5. Coordinating multiple individual actions for a bigger impact, such as escrow cases, reports to local code enforcement or reports to legal aid organizations, fair housing centers, other government bodies, or other tenant/resident advocacy groups
6. Publicly exposing bad behavior by landlords, park owners, or their managers or other employees
7. Advocating for government bodies to pass stronger tenant/resident protections and better housing policy at the local, state and federal levels
8. Ballot issue campaigns to increase the rights of tenants and/or park residents
9. Attempting to secure legal representation for the organization

Protections from Retaliation

State law (Ohio Revised Code 5321.02) prohibits landlords from retaliating against tenants who organize by raising their rent, decreasing their services, threatening to evict them, or filing with a court to evict them.

Local laws in Cleveland, East Cleveland, Euclid, and Columbus also prohibit landlords from retaliating against tenants who organize by refusing to renew their rental agreements.

State law (Ohio Revised Code 4781.36) prohibits manufactured (mobile) home park owners from retaliating against park residents who organize by raising their rent, decreasing their services, threatening to not renew their lot rental agreement, refusing to renew their lot rental agreement, threatening to evict them, or filing with a court to evict them.

Organizations in Ohio That Help Organize Tenants

1. Dayton Tenant Union
2. Cincinnati Tenants Union
3. United Athens County Tenants
4. Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition
5. Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless

Organizations That Help Organize Mobile Home Park Residents

1. ROC USA: Resident Owned Communities
2. Manufactured Housing Action

For more information about tenant organizing and park resident organizing, contact COHHIO at 888-485-7999 or rentinfo@cohhio.org