‘Renter Week’ Brings Protests to Corporate Landlord and HUD Offices

By Lucas Sczygelski, September 19, 2017 - Renters in dozens of U.S. cities are organizing demonstrations this week under the banner of “National Renter Week of Action and Assemblies.” The purpose is to push back against the Trump Administration’s threat to cut billions from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and make the case that renters rights are human rights.

President Trump’s 2018 budget proposes cutting $6 billion from the agency’s $46 billion budget, a move HUD Secretary Ben Carson supports. “We will use whatever resources we have very efficiently,” Carson assured The Hillnewspaper in June.

The mass demonstrations taking place in more than forty-five cities this week will denounce this budget-slashing, and promote other policies to increase renters rights.

“Our communities are under constant attack,” says Darnell L. Johnson, an organizer with the group Right to the City in Boston. “From policies of mass deportation and incarceration to gentrification and mass evictions, we are facing displacement in many forms. Renters have had enough.”

Published in The Progressive. Click here to read the full article.