The housing crisis is not a glitch. Fighting it takes a network. Here are the organizations building tenant power in Buffalo.

When facing eviction, code violations, or landlord harassment, the current system relies heavily on tenants feeling isolated. Property owners frequently bank on the fact that an individual renter might lack the resources or the knowledge to fight back alone. A highly effective way to counter that isolation is through organized, cross-community solidarity.
The Rising Tide Fellowship operates within a broader ecosystem of groups working to build working-class power in Western New York. Building a functional defense network means connecting legal aid, mutual aid, and direct action into a cohesive front.
Our digital headquarters serves as a directory to connect you directly with these mission-aligned organizations. While we do not maintain formal or official corporate partnerships with these entities, we consider them vital allies bound by a shared commitment to community sovereignty.
This directory includes legal resources like Neighborhood Legal Services, the Western New York Law Center, and HOME. It also links to on-the-ground organizing groups like the Queen City Workers Center, PUSH Buffalo, and Black Love Resists in the Rust (which is currently sunsetting its operations and not taking on new missions, but remains a highly respected part of our local organizing history).
If you are looking to get involved, or if you are currently facing a hostile property owner and want backup, connecting with the groups already doing the work on the ground is a great first step. You can find direct links to these local allies in our directory.
Link: https://linktr.ee/rtfe
#Buffalo #TenantPower #Solidarity #WorkingClass #MutualAid #BuffaloNY #RisingTide #Anarchism #QCWC #PUSHBuffalo #HousingJustice

Stop begging for repairs. How Buffalo tenants are using Article 7-D and pocket escrows to fight back.

With roughly 20,000 people facing eviction proceedings in Buffalo recently, and tens of thousands more dealing with severe neglect, the scale of predatory housing is staggering. Many corporate property owners treat our neighborhoods as extraction portfolios while treating residents as disposable income streams.
Under New York State law (Article 7-D), tenants possess the power to affirmatively sue their landlords for repairs and rent abatements. Instead of waiting for an eviction notice to defend yourself, you can take the offensive. A key tactic in this process is the "pocket escrow." Rather than paying a neglectful owner, a tenant places their rent money into a separate, dedicated savings account. This keeps the funds secure and ready to produce in court when a judge asks for proof of funds, protecting the tenant while stopping the flow of profit to the slumlord.
We highly recommend securing legal representation before taking these steps. Buffalo is home to excellent resources like the Western New York Law Center, Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, Neighborhood Legal Services, Center for Elder Law & Justice, and the Volunteer Lawyers Project. However, with the sheer volume of housing cases, these organizations frequently reach capacity. When free legal aid is full, tenants can explore private contingency firms or prepare to file pro se (representing yourself).
Individual lawsuits are a start, but true leverage comes from collective numbers. Building a citywide tenant union provides the power to pass strong Good Cause Eviction protections, similar to the blueprint recently established in Rochester. Part of this fight is redefining the narrative. A true "small landlord" is an individual who lives in one half of a duplex and rents out the other unit. An owner renting out a non-owner-occupied single-family home, or an owner-occupied triplex, is operating a real estate portfolio.
The Rising Tide Fellowship is helping neighbors navigate these systems step-by-step. Check out our Linktree to connect with our network, find direct links to free legal aid providers, and link up with allied organizations building tenant power across the city.
Link: https://linktr.ee/rtfe
#Buffalo #TenantPower #HousingJustice #Article7D #RentStrike #BuffaloNY #MutualAid #GoodCauseEviction #RisingTide #Anarchism #WorkingClass

This Sunday, February 15, the tenants' union is calling on people across the island to join their closest neighbourhood branch for a day of flyering, postering, stickering, and door-knocking.

We are starting to receive yet another wave of rent increases that for many of us spells further poverty, burnout, or eviction. We will not pay for the riches of landlords. Don't let them take the city while we sleep! We need every hand on deck to organize our neighbourhoods into mass fighting organizations for our self-defence and liberation.

Where and when to join us:
in #Hochelaga: tenant circle at 12 pm; postering and flyering meet-up at 2 pm at 1800 Letourneux
in #MileEnd / #Outremont: 1 pm at 5550 Parc (YMCA du Parc)
in the #PlateauMTL / downtown: 12 pm at 3516 Parc
in #CentreSudMTL: 3 pm at métro Frontenac
in #VerdunMTL: 2 pm at métro de l'Église
on the #LigneBleue: 12 pm at métro Parc

#Montreal #MTL
#TenantPower #TenantUnion #TenantOrganizing

Solidarity is our sword and shield ✊

Today was powerful. Our organisers met with comrades from the @beldensawyertenants Association to share stories, strategies, and the unshakable belief that a better world is possible.

From across so called Australia to the USA, our struggles are connected. We’re all fighting the same system:

- Where we pay too much in rent to fund a landlord’s next investment.
- Where we get sick from mould so they can drive a nicer car.
- Where we struggle to put food on the table so their plate can be fuller.

The fight for safe, affordable, and appropriate housing is a global one. And together, across borders, we are building the power to win.

#InternationalSolidarity #TenantPower #RAHU #HousingJustice #GlobalStruggle #TenantUnion #Organise #LandlordsAreOrganised

SLAM has a union training coming up this Monday (March 24th), 6pm, at 251 avenue des Pins (the Cité-des-Hospitalières). It is for people already familiar with basic union principles which can be found in our constitution, see here: https://drive.usercontent.google.com/download?id=1mYUow0AD3dn42doxNhh9cm2Dhf4LBWvr&export=download

We'll be discussing how to get building meetings together, how to keep them on track, prepare agendas, do one-on-ones with neighbours, map out our potential sources of power and support, as well as how to plan pressure campaigns against our landlords.

We've been seeing a large number of people in our networks participating in the #RefuseTogether rent increase campaign, and see a high demand for support with building unionization & support to keep tenant councils alive once they've gotten going. We planned this training in our education committee's most recent meeting.

See you there! Tell your friends! Please boost!

#Montreal #MTL
#TenantPower #TenantUnion #TenantOrganizing

Our call for tenants to organize with their neighbours to refuse together is doing well this year. Already, many tenants in our union have organized meetings with their neighbours to plan collective refusals. Supporters of our union have been hand-delivered hundreds of pamphlets that have found themselves distributed to their neighbours' doors and mailboxes. We are already hearing some stories of tenants negotiating down their increases through this tactic.

Today and tomorrow, our neighbourhood chapters in Verdun on the one hand, and the Gay Village larger Centre-Sud area on the other, have planned workshops on how and why to organize collective refusals. Join them Tuesday, 6pm, at 4811 rue Verdun; or Wednesday, 6pm, at 1426 rue Beaudry.

Please let us know if you would like to come and would need childcare!

For people who can help boost these events online, it definitely helps us when members and supporters reshare these events. Please post our posters on other socials if you can.

Together we can beat our rent increases!

#Montreal #MTL
#TenantOrganizing #TenantPower #TenantUnion