UPDATE 8/31:
We won! Thank you so much for your determination and support through this campaign. Nicco and Bruce have been repaid, released from their lease and are moving forward fighting with other tenants just like them! Another testament to tenant power and a reminder that direct action gets the goods! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
HOUSTON -- This afternoon at 4PM, on August 8th, members of Houston Tenants Union mobilized a short car picket around a landlord's house, while a Southwest Houston tenant, Nicco, delivered demands to her landlord. She demands the total voiding of her lease and the end of the lease term, and the return of her deposit and first month's rent.
Landlords think they can get away with anything because of COVID-19. Moving during COVID-19 can be a nightmare, but mold is also a major health concern. A few weeks ago, NIcco never moved into her new home, because she immediately found mold, which the landlord denied and dismissed was there. Now the landlord refuses to release Nicco from her lease, for a home which was not inhabitable and leased under deceptive conditions. This is the kind of outright abuse that landlords use to close a profit margin. Nicco reached out to her fellow tenants, and now she has the power. Would you be willing to accept having to lease a place you could not move into, because its conditions were not liveable? Can you afford an extra security deposit, first month’s rent, and continue to pay rent while the landlord maybe finds another tenant? Because of solidarity and tenant unionism, Nicco isn’t alone, and Nicco is demanding what is rightly hers! This campaign is just getting started. Please check back for more updates as we get closer to the deadline. If you're experiencing deposit theft or other landlord abuses, please join us to fight back.
Houston Tenants Union is an organization of tenants in Houston, Texas, committed to collective direct action, independence and rank-and-file democracy.
