In 2022, JwJ played a critical role in passing the Tenant Right to Organize. The new law—the first of its kind in the country—includes several key features that make tenant associations stronger and safer than ever before:
- The protected right to form an association with the neighbors in your building.
- New protections for flying, door-knocking and holding tenant meetings on-site.
- New legal requirement for the landlord to meet and negotiate with the association.
- These new rights and protections become classified as official housing services.
- If the landlord violates any of these rights or protections, tenants are entitled to rent reductions.
These rights change the landscape for organizing and can shift power relations between landlords and tenants.
JwJ continued to provide support for organizing. Through JWJ, unions and tenants rights organizations have shared lists to cross check which union members live in which buildings, so that when doorknocking is happening in buildings, organizers can make the connections about why the union and the tenant association are both important – a union at work, a union at home.