Learn More About Housing Justice

Tucson and Southern AZ Specific Information

Housing Crisis: A Microcosm (AZPM, June 2022)
Tim Steller's column: Tucsonans demand more as cheap housing disappears, (AZ Daily Star, June 2022)
Pima County Affordable Housing Task Force
MAP Affordable Housing Dashboard The Making Action Possible for Southern Arizona Affordable Housing Dashboard project was created to measurably improve Southern Arizona through data driven collective civic action and education. This website provides users with indicators on our region’s progress, as well as access to the latest information and research. MAP fills a gap by providing a common collection of information upon which to evaluate our community and collaborate to address our shared issues.
Eviction Map of Tucson
La Calle (University of Arizona Press, 2016). This book is a must read for understanding the history and continued impact of urban renewal in Tucson.
Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, the main law in AZ regulating house rentals and what is allowed and not allowed in lease agreements.
Arizona Manufactured Housing Landlord Tenant Act (applies to people who own their home, but not the land on which it sits)

National and Systemic Information on the Housing Crisis

“Affordable Housing is a Scam” by LA Tenants Union
A must-read! This article outlines the history of Affordable Housing policy in the United States, including the Nixon area shift from public housing to government sponsorship of “affordable housing” by private developers and the role that “affordable housing” can actually play in gentrifying neighborhoods by demolishing existing housing and building fewer units that are called “affordable” but for families of far higher income brackets than existing residents.
How the US made affordable homes illegal (Vox, August 2021)
Why big investors are buying up American trailer parks
Legal Structures for Radical Real Estate presentation from the Sustainable Economies Law Center: Link to Video (2 hours) and Link to Presentation Slides
The Preservation of Subsidized Housing: What We Know and Need to Know, a report from the Lincoln Land Institute
Does “Affordable Housing” Deliver on its Promise? (New Republic, April 2021)
The Rent’s Too Damned High (Medium, June 2021)
A History of Landlords: Rent & the Feudal Origins of a Non-Working Class, by John Laurits, Oct 2, 2018, 11 min read
Evicted by Matthew Desmond https://evictedbook.com/

Case Studies From Other Cities and Regions

How Houston Moved 25,000 People From the Streets Into Homes of Their Own (NY Times, June 2022)
East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, a democratic, People of Color led cooperative that takes land and housing off the speculative market to create permanently affordable, community controlled land and housing.
In Los Angeles, tenants in the Boyle Heights apartments went on rent strike for 9 months after the new corporate owners threatened to increase rents 60-80%. The tenants, many of whom are mariachi singers, successfully organized to stop the increases.
Tenants in L.A. Asked the City to Buy Their Building. Surprisingly, the City Agreed (Next City, June 2022)
In Oakland, CA, Moms 4 Housing took over an unoccupied, corporately owned building and made it into housing for Oakland moms. While they were evicted, they continue the fight, especially as there are 4 vacant homes for every vacant person in the city.