Abolish Rent takes aim at one of the foremost engines of inequality and injustice.
Rent drives millions into debt, despair, and onto the streets. The social cost of rent is too damn high. Written for anyone fed up with the permanent housing crisis, complicit politicians, and real estate greed, Abolish Rent dissects our housing system from the perspective of those it immiserates. Through unsparing analysis and striking stories of resistance, it shows us how tenants can, through organizing and collective action, harness our power and win the housing we deserve.
From two co-founders of the largest tenants union in the country, this deeply reported account of the resurgent tenant movement centers poor and working-class people who are fighting back, staying put, and remaking the city in the process. Authors Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis take us to trilingual strategy meetings, raucous marches against gentrification, and daring eviction defenses where immigrants put their lives on the line. These are the seeds of the revolutionary movement we need to make our housing, our cities, and the world our home.
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Wait time: About 2 weeks
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 24, 2024 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9798888902752
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9798888902752
- File size: 1658 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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September 1, 2024
Los Angeles holds one of the largest unhoused populations in the U.S., the city's wealth disparity making encampments for the destitute as prominent as its manicured mansions. Out-of-control rent increases and renters' inability to tolerate them have resulted in even more displaced citizens. Fed up with the uneven power dynamic between landlord and tenant and landlords' refusal to repair their properties while still increasing monthly rents, a group of people formed the L.A. Tenants Union in order to bargain for their housing rights. From building to building, inhabitants of various apartment complexes may not speak the same language, but they are unified in resistance. Rosenthal and Vilchis show how our current housing crisis goes much deeper than homeowners defaulting on faulty mortgages. They deftly offer examples of renters challenging landlords and emerging victorious--particularly in the case of the 2016 Boyle Heights renter strike--and provide rational solutions to renter-owner conflict, such as rent cancellation if sufficient repairs are not made. At its core, this is a book about community empowerment.COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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