Building Tenant Power & Taking on the Real Estate Lobby: Lessons from New York State’s Housing Justice Movement

Join Seattle Democratic Socialists of America and Be:Seattle in conversation with Cea Weaver of Housing Justice For All to discuss the movement behind New York’s historic wins for tenant rights in 2019.

In the last 5 years, Housing Justice for All, a statewide coalition of 100 grassroots organizations, tenants, and homeless New Yorkers, created a movement that has shocked New York’s powerful real estate lobby and is shifting the power balance at the state capital. As Washington State ends its legislative session, New York’s housing justice movement is a lesson on creating coalitions with the power to demand sweeping tenant protections that extends beyond each legislative session.

Cea Weaver is a housing organizer, community advocate, and urban planner in New York City. She currently coordinates Housing Justice for All, a statewide coalition of over 100 organizations that represent tenants and homeless New Yorkers in Albany. She coordinated the 2019 campaign to strengthen and expand tenants’ rights across the State and in 2020 worked to win an eviction moratorium during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has worked in affordable housing policy and planning in NYC for over a decade.

Bridget McGuire is a Brooklyn-based artist, educator, and tenant organizer with NYC DSA.

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