Pasadena Tenants Union Statewide Recognition

(R-L) Nicole Hodgson and Barbara Nishikawa accepting the award on behalf of Pasadena Tenants Union (Photo PTU).

Pasadena Tenants Union (PTU) received Tenants Together “Displacement Resisters Award” for 2018.

By News Desk

PTU received the award in recognition of mobilizing a new coalition for housing justice and inventing creative new tactics in its push to get rent control and Just Cause on Pasadena’s ballot in 2018. While the local fight for rent control continues past 2018, PTU organizing showed how quickly dedicated organizers can build solidarity and expand the horizon of what’s possible for the renters’ rights movement.

Nicole Hodgson, one of PTU’s three proponents of the 2018 Charter Amendment for Rent Control and Just Cause, said:

57.1% of Pasadena residents are renters, and yet we have no housing security in the City.

Pasadena has always valued a diverse community, and as a community, if we do not have a rental policy that recognizes both tenant and landlord stability we’ll be left with a community that no longer strives to be inclusive.

“How many neighbors who are renters have disappeared (read article) due to the rental-housing crisis?”, she asked. “Renters are part of the fabric of Pasadena and we’re your neighbors who care for and love Pasadena”, she added.

Tenants Together, California’s statewide renters’ rights organization, began as an experiment and grew to be the longest running statewide tenant organization in California history. The organization celebrated its ten-year anniversary at Verdi Club in San Francisco on Friday, September 21.

Pasadena residents are being evicted from their apartments (Photo – ColoradoBlvd.net).

> What is Rent Control and Just Cause?

Rent control provides renters assurances the rents may increase a certain reasonable amount each year while providing landlords the assurance of economic security.  Just Cause provides the security to tenants that evictions are based on lease violations while protecting landlords with cause to evict tenants for non-payment of rent and unlawful activity.

Source: PTU