Inquilinxs Unidxs Por Justicia

Mission: 

United Renters For Justice/Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia (IX) works for permanently affordable democratic housing and structural changes: tenant unions, rent stabilization, stronger enforcement of renter protections, and community owned housing. The four pillars that make up our organization are Community, Justice, Transformation and Struggling Together.

Who we are: 

Inquilinxs Unidxs Por Justicia (United Renters for Justice) is more than just a non-profit. It is an organization that is built from the ground up by the community for the community. We are an organization that is led by tenants who are affected by abusive landlords and are being pushed out of their communities due to gentrification. Here at IX we bring groups of tenants in Minneapolis’ worst housing systems together in order to analyze problems occurring in their living situation and then strategize and organize around those problems to create affordable and dignified living spaces in Minneapolis.

Our work started back in 2014 when organizers and volunteers from the Lyndale Neighborhood Association (LNA) convened a group of 20 Latinx renters [Latinx is an all-encompassing convention which embraces all genders and identities] in a small church in the Lyndale Neighborhood to discuss their housing problems. Renters spent hours sharing the daily abuses which their landlords and management companies were inflicting. At the end, the renters realized they needed and deserved more.

LNA hosted several weekly tenant meetings where tenants were able to find an opportunity to tell their stories, refined the trauma they had suffered into a communal narrative, a story they all shared in which they had each struggled alone and against unfair housing systems. Once tenants were able to leave behind their fear and gain strength from the shared experience, they began organizing around their struggle and crafting solutions to common problems through rent strikes, press conferences, demonstrations outside of landlord homes, and rent escrows. 

IX is committed to continue to fight alongside Minneapolis tenants for safe, affordable, dignified housing. In order for IX to continue to support tenants we need your support. You can donate here. Every gift supports the work that IX continues to do across the city of Minneapolis, we need your support this #GivetotheMax2022

Campaigns

Progress Residential (Also known as HavenBrook):

Wall Street's private equity landlord Pretium Partners is one of the largest real estate companies that owns around 200 single-family rental homes in primarily low-income, Black neighborhoods in North Minneapolis. These single-family rental properties are managed by Progress Residential. Tenants who live in Progress Residential homes describe large rent increases, unnecessary fees, mold, lack of communication, going weeks without heat, pest infestations, and such deplorable conditions that families had to send their children to live with relatives or friends. Tenants are calling for a long-term solution where they have safe and dignified housing.

Tenant Unions: 

The housing crisis in South Minneapolis has led to landlord's exploiting workers, undocumented tenants, and people of color with large increases in rent and fees. Back in 2018, tenant leaders from past IX campaigns came together to raise their voices and organize to create the Tenant Unions campaign. 

In Tenant Unions tenants learn how to lead and organize within their buildings. Tenants have changed the collective narrative around what it means to rent within and outside of the city of Minneapolis. They came together to create a vision where Minneapolis is a pro-tenant city with a safe and accessible housing system. Tenants testify, engage in electoral work, connect with the press, and collaboratively create pro-tenant policies. Most importantly members are able to learn about their rights and transform their vision and understanding of what it means to be a tenant. 

Home to stay: 

In 2021 Minneapolis voters across race, zip code, and income levels came together to overwhelmingly say YES to Question 3. Despite record-setting money spent by developers to scare and divide homeowners and renters, voters made it clear they wanted to see changes. Voters made a clear demand for a rent stabilization ordinance that helps address the housing crisis and protects Minneapolis families from displacement from relentless and unreasonable rent increases. 

The Home to Stay Rent Stabilization coalition was founded by a coalition of members that includes IX, ISAIAH, SEIU, Jewish Community Action, and Unidos MN. It is a coalition that is aligned with organizations and unions who represent thousands of Minnesota residents across race, income, and zip code. The coalition supports changing the charter this year to give Minneapolis the power to pass a Rent Stabilization policy in 2023.