Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis - Paperback

by Tracy Rosenthal (Author), Leonardo Vilchis (Author)

Abolish Rent takes aim at one of the foremost engines of inequality and injustice.

Rent drives millions into debt, despair, and onto the streets. The social cost of rent is too damn high. Written for anyone fed up with the permanent housing crisis, complicit politicians, and real estate greed, Abolish Rent dissects our housing system from the perspective of those it immiserates. Through unsparing analysis and striking stories of resistance, it shows us how tenants can, through organizing and collective action, harness our power and win the housing we deserve.

From two co-founders of the largest tenants union in the country, this deeply reported account of the resurgent tenant movement centers poor and working-class people who are fighting back, staying put, and remaking the city in the process. Authors Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis take us to trilingual strategy meetings, raucous marches against gentrification, and daring eviction defenses where immigrants put their lives on the line. These are the seeds of the revolutionary movement we need to make our housing, our cities, and the world our home.

Author Biography

Tracy Rosenthal is a co-founder of the L.A. Tenants Union whose writing has beenpublished in The New Republic, The Nation, LA Times, and other outlets. Rosenthalis now on rent strike in New York City.
Leonardo Vilchis has been organizing tenants in Boyle Heights for more than thirtyyears. Trained in liberation theology, he co-founded Union de Vecinos in 1996 andthe L.A. Tenants Union in 2015. He lives in Los Angeles.