Membership

TU Victories

The TU has won significant victories for tenants’ rights in the last 35 years. Below is a partial list of victories TU tenant leaders and members have won. See TU History for a more comprehensive list of Tenants Union work through the last 35 years.

Legislative Advocacy

• Seattle Just Cause Eviction Ordinance
• Statewide One-Year Notice Law for project-based Section 8 tenants
• Right to Organize Ordinance for Seattle tenants
• Seattle Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance
• Statewide Slumlord Accountability Act for tenant relocation
• Rental Agreement Regulation Ordinance in Seattle

Affordable Housing Preservation

• The Section 8 Tenants Organizing Project organized successful campaigns to preserve affordable housing in many subsidized apartment complexes
• Downtowner Tenants preserved their housing as affordable

Tenant Ownership

• Organized the first tenant-controlled low-income rental housing in the Northwest, the Benson East Duplexes in Kent

Civil Rights & Fair Housing

• Organized with tenants at Avalon Ridge to bring a precedent-setting civil rights lawsuit to protect single mothers of color on Section 8 vouchers from eviction

Federal Policy Reform

• Mobilized to win federal legislation protecting tenants’ right to organize in subsidized housing and to protect funding for housing programs
• Leaders from the Downtowner Tenants Association set national precedent for tenants in buildings undergoing subsidy loss

Accountability for Local Policymakers

• Reform of an illegal and unfair grievance hearing process for Section 8 voucher tenants at Seattle Housing Authority in STOP’s SHA Grievance Hearing Campaign

Tenant Education

• The Tenants Union provides resources, education and advocacy to thousands of tenants every year to know and use our rights through through the Education Program