Policy kits to empower tenants within their communities available now
The Democracy Policy Network (DPN) has released three new policy kits, on empowering tenants through increasing housing supply and enshrining tenant protections in state and local law.
From DPN: "The United States is facing a housing crisis on two fronts: affordable housing supply and tenant disempowerment... Meanwhile, the affordability crisis in rental housing is deepening. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the country was facing a deficit of 6.8 million housing units that would be affordable to extremely low-income families. In 2021, that number had risen to 7.3 units — an increase of 8% over just a few years. On any given night in the United States, over 500,000 people are experiencing homelessness. Of extremely low-income households (defined as households making less than 30% of the area median income, or AMI), 70% pay more than half of their monthly income on rent.
Although usually found in different sections of state or local code, the issues of affordable housing supply and tenant protections are inherently linked. Without good tenant protections, even truly affordable housing can be an environment where landlords take advantage of their tenants; without an adequate supply of affordable housing, tenants can feel trapped in a bad situation just because they cannot afford to live anywhere else. Building more affordable housing, empowering tenants to own and organize their living spaces, and clarifying tenant rights in law are all steps states can take to empower tenants within their communities. We hope these three new kits can help in this effort"
1. Social Housing: On how states can enable and empower the creation of municipally-owned, mixed-income housing developments
Read DPN's kit on Social Housing
2. Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives: On how states can support the cultivation of affordable, tenant-owned housing developments
Read DPN's kit on Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives
3. Tenant Bill of Rights: On how states can protect tenants, limit evictions, and increase tenant power in landlord-tenant relations
DPN has also released Deliberative Democracy Processes policy kit, an open resource for legislators, advocates, journalists, and citizens to learn how states can utilize citizen deliberation models to break gridlock, reduce special-interest capture, and build consensus. The kit was organized by Michael Swerdlow, Tenzin Kartsang, and Jordan Lari, in partnership with Stanford’s Deliberative Democracy Lab.
Read DPN's kit on Deliberative Democracy Processes
"A promising method for reinvigorating a democratic spirit within our institutions is to incorporate into governance deliberative democratic processes: formal processes that empower ordinary citizens to deliberate on matters of public importance and to directly advise, decide, or govern public affairs.
American governments have primarily used derivative democratic forms, like representative democracy, in which citizens delegate responsibility to elected representatives, and administrative democracy, in which those elected representatives hire a civil service to execute public purposes. Supplementing these processes with deliberative democratic practices—where, like in ancient Athens, citizens can come together to discuss public affairs, hear each other’s arguments, and vote on public policy—could help address major problems with American governance, including widespread polarization, legislative gridlock, and elite capture.
In this kit, we show seven ways states and localities can incorporate deliberative democracy practices into governance, as well share promising case studies of deliberative democracy in action."