|
MET COUNCIL FACT
SHEET
HOW TO FORM A TENANT ASSOCIATION
What is a Tenant Association For?
A tenant
association is a union of all or most of the tenants in a
building. When tenants work together, they can apply more
pressure to make a landlord provide services, make repairs,
and stop harassment—and get the best possible home for the
rent they’re paying. A strong tenant association can force a
landlord to listen; as a group, the tenants can have more
leverage to negotiate, file complaints with the city and
state agencies that oversee housing, get help from elected
officials, go to court, or—if push comes to shove—call a
rent strike.
But besides
working together to make the conditions in your building
better, there are other good reasons for forming a tenant
association. It’s a wonderful way to get to know your
neighbors, make new friends, and build a healthier
community. Tenant associations make the neighborhood a
better place for everyone! Tenant associations also
strengthen the citywide tenants’ movement, which works to
protect and expand tenants’ rights and increase the amount
of affordable housing available for all of us.
There are no
set rules for starting a tenant association. However, based
on the experience of thousands of associations that have
already been organized, you can have a good idea of what to
do and what to expect.
First Steps
If you think
that your building really needs a tenant association, it’s
probably because you have problems that you can’t get
corrected by yourself no matter how hard you try.
It is almost
certain that other tenants in the building feel the same
way—and some of them will be more than willing to start
working together with you. The first step in forming a
tenant association is to find out who those tenants are, and
the best way to do that is to call a meeting and see who
comes. Housing law guarantees your right to meet in a public
space in your building, so feel free to use the lobby or any
other public space for your meetings. You can advertise the
meeting by putting notes under people’s doors, posting
flyers in the hallways, and talking directly to the people
you already know. If more than one language is spoken in
your building and you’re not bilingual, get some help in
translating your written messages and make sure that there’s
someone at every meeting who can provide interpretation—it’s
important to make sure that the “language barrier” doesn’t
keep tenants apart.
At that first
meeting, expect a lot of shouting! Unless your building is
generally well maintained, almost everyone will have a
horror story to tell about the conditions in their
apartment. If the landlord has been really negligent and
abusive, a lot of people will be very angry, and there’ll be
a lot of “venting.” This is where you start finding out
just how urgent the problems in your building are, and what
steps you need to take next.
It’s a good
idea to try to arrive at some kind of agreement among the
tenants about who will represent the association while it’s
starting out, and decide on one or more people to be your
contacts. These could be the people who called the meeting
and/or other building residents who have the respect of the
tenants. You can also ask people to volunteer to be “floor
captains,” so that work and responsibilities can be shared.
The floor captains can distribute meeting notices,
coordinate building surveys, and act as contacts for the
tenants on their floors. As your tenant association becomes
more formalized, the floor captains can serve as members of
the steering committee. Now, you’re well on your way to
building a tenant association!
Getting More People Involved
Door-knocking
Going from door
to door and talking to your fellow tenants directly—and
listening to what they have to say—helps create a sense of
connection around your shared problems, and build support
for the association. This is also a perfect opportunity to
conduct a building survey—to make a record of all the
problems in the individual apartments and public areas of
the building. You can either make your own list, or use
preprinted building-survey forms (use our
Inspection Check List). You can also take this opportunity to provide
everyone with information such as the phone numbers for key
agencies, especially the Central Complaint number for heat
and hot water: 311.
Going around
the building knocking on doors is easier and more fun if at
least two people do it together. It’s especially important
to make sure that the door-knocking team includes people who
represent the different ethnic and language groups in your
building, especially in the beginning, when people may not
know one another very well. This way, everyone gets the
message: the tenant association is for everyone!
Using Notes, Flyers, and Newsletters
A note under
the door is the easiest way to reach everyone in the
building, especially if you want to alert people to an
event—like an upcoming tenant association meeting. Keep your
notes short, sweet, and to the point. You can also post
flyers around the building announcing tenant association
activities. Include the names and home phone numbers of the
representatives of the association. A newsletter is
optional, depending on your resources. You can use it to let
tenants know about the accomplishments of the tenant
association, including negotiations with the landlord, court
cases, and community support for your struggle. You can also
announce the social events of residents in the building,
such as births, weddings, and graduations.
Let the Good Times Roll!
Getting to know
your neighbors is one of the best things about organizing a
tenant association. Make time for socializing! If you can
serve refreshments at meetings, and leave some time for
people to “visit” before and/or after them, they’ll be more
eager to attend. But you don’t have to stop there. Potluck
suppers, birthday parties, and celebrations—especially when
you’ve won a battle—can all be part of the good times.
How to Get the Most Out of Meetings
Effective
tenant associations are highly democratic—they involve as
many people as possible in making decisions, especially
important ones. This means that meetings are important. Here
are some tips for running a meeting well:
Begin and end
on time. Don’t make the people who are prompt wait too long
for the latecomers. Do end at a set time, so that people can
plan their other activities around the meeting.
Have an agenda.
It’s good to have a clear, written agenda, which can be
prepared before the meeting by members of the steering
committee. An agenda can include the following:
1)
Introductions: Make sure everyone at the meeting introduces
themselves. Then you can give updates on recent
developments—and credit where credit is due. This is the
time to thank the people who have made something happen!
2) General
discussion of problems in the building: This may include
individual problems, but now is the time to strategize and
agree on what your next steps are going to be, such as
negotiating with the landlord as a united group, which is
much more effective than making individual requests; suing
the landlord for repairs in housing court; hiring an
attorney; or filing complaints with the Division of Housing
and Community Renewal.
3) Deciding on
a rent strike: Since changes in the rent regulation laws in
1997 and the common practice of "blacklisting" , rent strikes
are much riskier than they used to be. If you decide that the
conditions in your building are so bad that a rent strike is
in order, consider retaining an attorney, either privately or through a
public legal service provider.
4) Figuring out
who’s going to do what: Once you’ve decided on a plan of
action, sign up the volunteers to follow through on it.
Delegating responsibility and sharing tasks helps keep
everyone involved—and the leadership from “burning out.”
Make ground
rules if you need to. You don’t have to try to apply
Roberts’ Rules of Order, but you can remind people to be
courteous, let everyone speak their piece, and be patient
during translations.
Formalizing the Organization
Once your
tenant association is up and running, you may or may not
want to have a formal structure with elected officers,
committees, and by-laws. Many associations get along
perfectly well with nothing more than a steering committee
and floor captains. If your building is very large or
there’s a lot of work for the tenant association, the
tenants can decide whether they want more structure. It’s a
good idea to hold off on this process until people have had
a chance to work together for a while, so that they can get
to know each other well enough to see who has good
leadership skills.
Officers of the Tenant Association
If your
steering committee is working well, you have a natural pool
of talent from which to elect officers for the tenant
association. The officers may be a president,
vice-president, secretary, and treasurer, plus floor
captains for each floor (who may or may not be on the
steering committee).
These are usually the officers’ roles:
President:
Calls meetings of the steering committee, chairs steering
committee meetings and performs whatever other tasks are
given to him or her at the meetings.
Vice-president: Assists and substitutes for the
president.
Secretary:
Takes minutes at steering committee and general meetings,
keeps the association’s files, and is responsible for
correspondence. This is an important role, since the
association will almost certainly correspond with the
landlord to make the tenants’ demands; in very large
buildings, “corresponding secretary” is sometimes a separate
position.
Treasurer:
Collects dues, coordinates fund-raising activities, takes
responsibility for the financial affairs of the association
in general, and issues financial reports to the members.
Floor
captains: Work on their floors distributing flyers,
talking to tenants, and knocking on doors.
Elections
Always give
prior written notice of an election to all the tenants.
Every tenant in the building should have the right to
participate in the elections. You can nominate slates or
elect people to each position one at a time. Again, it’s a
good idea to have a fair representation of different groups
of people in the building when you’re electing officers.
Committees
Committees
really help to keep your tenant association running
smoothly, by dividing up the responsibility of the work of
the organization. Committees can work on things like
drafting by-laws, forming a tenant patrol, putting out a
newsletter, planning social events, and helping to bring
about conflict resolution among tenants.
By-Laws
By-laws help to
avoid confusion about the purpose of your group and how it
goes about carrying out its plans, by putting down in
writing the purpose of the association and the
responsibilities of members and leaders, as well as
formalizing the decision-making process. Keep them as simple
as possible. The by-laws may be drafted by the steering
committee or by a special by-laws committee. Sample by-laws
are available from your local community board and from
community-based organizations. (Met Council can also provide
sample by-laws.)
“EYES ON
THE PRIZE”
Always remember
that your goal is a better place to live—decent, affordable
housing and a healthy neighborhood. If your whole tenant
association is just a handful of people organized in a way
that’s never been done by anyone else, but you’re able to
keep the heat and hot water on, get repairs made, and keep
your building and block safe and sound, you’re a success—and
that’s what matters!
If you have
questions or need help organizing a tenant association,
contact Met Council on Housing at 339 Lafayette St. New
York, NY 10012, 212-979-6238. |
