As you may know, there is a growing (and troubling) “tenants union” movement across the nation. A recent news story from Cincinnati’s WCPO (TV ch 9) talks with organizers and renters who are among a group that recently joined the Cincinnati Tenants Union to negotiate a new lease with their landlord. WCPO says their 25-page proposal calls for a 12-month rent freeze for existing tenants and prohibits pet fees and security deposits. In addition, it adopts “just-cause eviction standards” that are common in other cities but are new in Cincinnati.
Tenant unions are on the rise in the U.S. because of rent hikes and soaring eviction rates in the years following the COVID pandemic, according to Greg Baltz, an assistant law professor at Rutgers University who published research on the topic in 2024.
“The cities with the largest tenant unions are the cities that also have the strongest renters’ protections,” Baltz said. “So, New York City and Los Angeles have two of the biggest tenant movements in the country. But especially in the last 10 years, we’ve seen this resurgence of the tenant movement in cities and states ranging from Connecticut and San Francisco to Louisville, Kentucky, and Bozeman, Montana.”
Kansas City has one of the nation’s most effective tenant unions, Baltz said. It has more than 10,000 members, who’ve emerged as a political force that got city council members elected and used rent strikes to force landlords into concessions.
Click here to read the full story at WCPO (Ch 9 Cincinnati).
