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Renter's Bill of Rights
We all deserve safe, stable and affordable housing. We can make it happen.
Support the Renters Bill of Rights! - Originally From Portland!
Require 6 months notice before all rent increases
Mandate relocation assistance when rent increases more than 5%
Protect children and education workers from evictions for late rent during the school year
Protect renters from evictions for late rent during extreme weather events
Cap fees such as 'pet rent', late fees, laundry fees, and other excessive charges and deposits
Require that code violations be resolved before rent can be increased
Establish a right to counsel in eviction court – no tenant should go to court without legal defense provided
Demand that local rent control be allowed throughout Oregon
Link rent to the minimum wage such that all full-time workers can afford a 1-bedroom apartment with no more than 30% of their income
Why Now?
Each year, rising rents in our region extract a painful share of working class renters' incomes. Annual rent hikes of up to 10% damage or wipe out any wage increases that workers win. The burden of rent speculation falls heaviest on low wage workers and people on fixed incomes, threatening all low income people with evictions.
The crisis of houselessness extracts a rising cost on all sectors of our society. It is the acknowledged #1 issue on the minds of voters. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year to deal with the crisis, while elected officials have avoided confronting the continuous threat of rent speculation.
We must immediately intervene to protect renters, prevent further increases in houselessness, and build a sustainable future for all.
Independent Political Action
We are for a mass working-class party that contests elections and builds movements. To legitimately represent the working class, such a party must be born out of a level of class struggle and unity far greater than exists today. To do so, we need an oppositional electoral strategy that remains completely independent from the Democratic Party apparatus.
At the same time, we can maintain tactical flexibility on the question of what ballot line socialists run on. In certain cases it also makes sense for us to endorse class struggle candidates who are not socialists but whose campaigns advance key parts of our platform. Such campaigns can help build class consciousness and polarize (and eventually split) the Democratic Party coalition.
Candidates running as socialists should serve the movement, never the other way around. Socialist politicians should act as organizers for the socialist movement and as popularizers of our ideas first, and as legislators second.
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