HTU Session One: ABOLISH RENT Book Club

The rent is too damn high—but it's not too late for tenants in Houston to organize and fight back! The purpose of this study is to learn about the organizing strategies shared in , a new book from Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis, co-founders of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, and to discuss how Houston tenants can organize with their neighbors to build power and fight against displacement, evictions, gentrification, rising rents, the criminalization of homelessness, and more. This study is open to anyone who is interested in the end of the exploitation of tenants in Houston and beyond!

For the first session of our four-part book club, we will be discussing the short piece written by Tracy. We will be hosting the discussion in person at 20 N Sampson Street with a virtual option on Zoom (link below). Copies of Abolish Rent will be available for purchase and free to pickup for HTU members.

Zoom Link: https://bit.ly/HTUoctober24

Accessibility/Accomodations:

• Free food will be available with options for a variety of diets.
• Childcare will be available on site.
• MASKING IS REQUIRED. Testing beforehand is highly encouraged.
• Our physical meeting space is wheelchair accessible with gender neutral bathrooms available.
• Please reach out to 210-548-6713 if you have any additional accessibility questions or need further accomodations.

If you are an HTU member who would like your free copy of Abolish Rent please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/8QdHwtZpZ5yZwyTs9

About Abolish Rent: 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 brisk, unequivocating analysis and striking stories of resistance, it shows us how tenants can, through organizing and collective action, finally rebalance the scales.
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.

Host or Publisher Houston Tenants Union