Find Legal & Organizing Support

If you are facing an eviction alone, your landlord has power over you. But if you are facing eviction with everyone in your building—and with other tenants in your community—then you have the power to make demands. Tenants unions build collective power over landlords.

Organizing with your neighbors and a tenants union can help you:

• Get educated about your rights
• Form a tenants’ association in your building or on your block
• Negotiate with your landlord to make repairs, cancel rent debt, or rollback rents
• Put public pressure on your landlord to meet your demands
• Block illegal lockouts and protect against harassment
• Connect with other people experiencing the same crisis

Find Legal Support

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Stay Housed L.A. is a partnership between Los Angeles County, the City of Los Angeles and local community and legal service providers. To get a referral for legal assistance in L.A. County: https://www.stayhousedla.org/referral

• There is a severe shortage of eviction defense attorneys in Los Angeles County, especially no-cost or low-cost attorneys. The Tenant Empowerment Program (TEP) by the Eviction Defense Network is a system to help tenants navigate the legal process when they do not have access to a lawyer. To find the program, click here.

SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY

San Francisco has tenant Right to Counsel program, meaning you have a right to a free attorney. The Eviction Defense Collaborative coordinates the Right to Counsel program. If you have received a Summons & Complaint or have been served a notice to quit, call the legal assistance line at (415) 659-9184 or email them at legal@evictiondefense.org. You can also find out the drop-in hours at their office on their website, here.

STATEWIDE

If you are looking for your local legal aid organization, visit the website of the Legal Services Corporation - an independent nonprofit established by Congress. You can search for your local legal aid office using your address or city here: https://www.lsc.gov/about-lsc/what-legal-aid/get-legal-help

Please Note: Many legal aid organizations are prohibited by law from providing legal services to undocumented residents - though there are exceptions. The legal aid organization will screen you to see if they can represent you. In the event that they cannot because of your migrant status, request that they provide you a referral to a legal service provider who can help you with your case. If you have any other issues finding legal support, talk to your tenants union organizer or caseworker - they will often know what to do in these situations, which is another advantage of joining a tenants union!

Join a Tenants Union Near You

LOS ANGELES

Join the Los Angeles Tenants Union! The L.A. Tenants Union (LATU) is a diverse, tenant-led movement fighting for the human right to housing for all. LATU organizes against landlord harassment, mass evictions, and displacement. The union has 13 local chapters that meet twice a month. To get in touch with a local chapter of the Los Angeles Tenants Union:

OUTSIDE LOS ANGELES

The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action is a grassroots, member-led, statewide community non-profit organization. ACCE is dedicated to raising the voices of everyday Californians, neighborhood by neighborhood, to fight for the policies and programs we need to improve our communities and create a brighter future. To get in touch with a local ACCE office or statewide:

FIND A TENANTS UNION NATION WIDE

The Autonomous Tenants Union Network (ATUN) is a North American collaborative of tenant unions committed to building tenant power. ATUN has affiliated tenants unions across North America. To find your local autonomous tenants union wherever you are, visit their national directory.

Join The Debt Collective! - the nation’s first debtors’ union

The Debt Collective organizes debtors’ unions. Debtors’ unions work to turn our individual debts (our rent, our student debt, our medical debt, our bills) into a form of collective power. Debtors’ unions work a lot like workers’ unions. Individually, workers are at the mercy of their bosses. But workers can come together in a union to change the conditions of their work: fighting for better wages, benefits, and improved working conditions.

As individual debtors we are at the mercy of our creditors—for our housing, medical care, education, utilities, and more. In a debtors’ union, we come together and fight for better conditions in our financial lives: cancellation and renegotiation of debts. Since the economy is dependent on all of us paying our bills, we have collective power by threatening to stop paying our debts - a debt strike! We can use our power as debtors to fight for public goods including housing, medical care, and education, and to repair ongoing racialized harm (ie, reparations and redress).