Tenant Power Hotline

After almost 3 years of running our Tenant Power Hotline, the Eviction Defense Working Group has made the decision to put our hotline work on pause while we improve our ability to support tenants facing eviction and other housing struggles. Since it was launched in March 2020, the hotline has fielded over 4000 calls, with the help of hundreds of volunteers. We have set court precedents for extended stay tenants, filed hundreds of eviction answers, mobilized community resources for a land trust, and supported many  tenants in understanding and activating their rights.

This work has put us on the frontlines of an ever shifting eviction and habitability crisis. We have learned first hand just how profoundly unequal the relationship between landlord and tenant is - most especially for our lower-income, Black and Latinx neighbors. In recent months, our all volunteer-run hotline has faced capacity issues that impacted its ability to provide meaningful and timely support to callers. Providing eviction defense support has become increasingly complex. In Atlanta, a record number of investors are owning properties and neglecting them. This creates horrible living conditions when maintenance is not kept up.  Additionally, tenants are caught in an inhumane cycle  of living in these conditions while accruing rent debt. We’ve learned that rental assistance is typically only accessible through the will of landlords to accept it, and this is another way they wield power over tenants. Landlords have zero accountability for these situations they place tenants in, and it is more urgent than ever to form tenant associations. But we also understand that it is extremely challenging to participate in building collective power, and we are committed as a working group to find ways to address these challenges head on.

After many careful discussions, we have decided it is important now to take an opportunity to rest, regroup, and re-orient our work. This way we can develop a more sustainable strategy that meets on-the-ground needs for supporting tenants in the evolving eviction and tenants rights crisis and building tenant power in Atlanta and beyond. 

Please check out and share the following important resources for tenants in Georgia: 

Housing Emergency Resources:

• KCTU’s Guide to Tenant Organizing

• Eviction Defense Manuals - Fulton and Dekalb Counties

• Eviction Defense Manual - Athens

• Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation

• Atlanta Legal Aid Society

• Graff-Radford Law LLC

• Rental Assistance

• findhelp.org

Thank you to the following organizations for signing onto our sample letters to landlords, protecting our communities, and supporting our work:

Noor Family Services

Southerners on New Ground ATL

American Friends Service Committee

Community Movement Builders

9to5

Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America

Counter Narrative Project

Party for Socialism and Liberation

ANSWER Coalition

Women’s Resource Center

Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network

Raksha Inc.

SPARK Reproductive Justice Now!