About LATU

Illustration of three people in an urban garden with crates of produce.

Mission Statement

Block by Block Towards a World Without Rent

The L.A. Tenants Union is a bilingual, dues-funded union organizing for tenant power. We organize at three scales: through tenants associations in individual buildings, local chapters in neighborhoods, and the union as a whole, which spans the city. 

Our tenants associations and local chapters fight evictions, negligence, cash-for keys scams, and landlord harassment. We teach each other our rights as tenants, but most importantly, our rights to organize, bargain, and protest. 

Together, we fight to secure dignified living conditions for ourselves, our neighbors, and every tenant in the city. With every victory and even every defeat, we learn new ways to support each other, take control of our living situations, and prepare to make landlords obsolete.

Selected Press

Koreatown

Resisting Social Cleansing in Los Angeles: The Origins of the K3 Tenant Council

In Los Angeles, a Friendship Grows Out of Housing Strife (2023)

From Despair to Hope, Tenants March in Koreatown (2020)

Hillside Villa

The Tenant Association podcast (2024)

In Los Angeles, Tenants Just Secured a History Victory Over Landlords (2022)


Flower Drive

Here to Stay: Building a Tenant Association Against Displacement (2023)

USC Alumni Want Flower Drive Tenants Gone, But They’re Here to Stay (2021)

 

Recent Writing by LATU members

Abolish Rent (Haymarket Press, 2024)

How Tenant Unions are Finding Power in Numbers to Fight L.A.’s Housing Crisis (2024)

Hammer It Home (New York Review of Architecture, 2024)

Mohawk

Out With the Old: The Loophole California Landlords Use to Get Around Rent Control (2024)