Taking Back the Housing

I guess I'm "pro-decision" now

Welcome to a premium Thursday evening edition of Progress Report.

Tonight we are going to take a nationwide survey of how activists and local lawmakers are tackling the housing crisis with creative campaigns, novel approaches, and tireless advocacy.

But first, a quick follow-up on the abortion maelstrom and what we discussed in Tuesday’s issue of the newsletter…

Dick Durbin, the normally mild-mannered senator from Illinois, was fired up. Nine days after Samuel Alito’s draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked out to the public, Democrats were preparing to vote on legislation to salvage and codify abortion rights. Republicans and several Democrats were lined up to block its passage, dooming tens of millions of Americans to terrifying fates unknown.

“It’s reprehensible,” Durbin said during a TV interview from inside the Capitol. The Democratic whip and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman was live on CNN, scowling at the coordinated encroachment on the right to privacy that should be guaranteed to every Supreme Court justice.

Durbin was admonishing the pro-choice protestors that gathered outside the homes of Justices Kavanaugh and Alito, two of the five members of the majority that will soon strip them of their fundamental rights.

My expectations were already buried at the bottom of a crater, but somehow, Democrats have managed to further fumble the abortion narrative.

Durbin’s comments came hours before the doomed vote, which was followed by the news that Attorney General Merrick Garland is assigning US Marshals to protect the justices from people with signs in front of their driveways. A little over 60 years ago, US Marshals accompanied young Ruby Bridges as she walked past screaming, violent racists on her way to desegregating the New Orleans public school system.

By so eagerly providing security to the justices over so little, Democrats further opened their own voters to attack. I don’t want to bore you, but it’s worth noting that Missouri’s white nationalist senator Josh Hawley took advantage and sent a letter to the AG equating the pro-choice activists to Jan. 6 insurrectionists (ignore the fact that he was pro-insurrection).

This afternoon, the ineptitude reached tragicomic heights as a messaging memo sent to House Democratic caucus members surfaced and then quickly circulated on Twitter. Leadership, presumably on the advice of some well-paid guru or harebrained pollster, counseled them to no longer use the word “choice” in the context of abortion, and instead replace it with “decision.”

The rest of the memo continued to emphasize that Democrats focus on medically necessary abortions while dropping any allusion to individual liberty or bodily autonomy. It’s not only a stupid change, because Americans value their freedom to do whatever the hell they want more than anything else, but it also essentially shames women who opt to end pregnancies simply because they don’t want to be pregnant or have a child. That implicitly concedes a preemptive concession on the larger issue — Alito’s draft ends the right to privacy altogether, so its terrible impact is likely to be much more far-reaching.

Alright, let’s end this section on a good note: The bill in Louisiana that would have made having an abortion a crime of murder has been gutted — at the urging of the state’s leading anti-choice groups. Even they thought it was too extreme… for now.

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by Natalie Meltzer

Tenants and communities across the country are organizing to address surging rents, landlords’ harassment and neglect, and politicians in the pockets of real estate. 

As we’ve reported, private equity vultures have effectively taken over the housing sector across the country. After hoovering up properties with cash offers, these corporate landlords quickly drive up rents, impose new fees and scale back on amenities, allow buildings to fall into disrepair, and aggressively pursue evictions against tenants.

This trend is not just hitting urban areas with multi-unit apartment buildings; it’s an increasing problem in every region, from big cities to rural towns. But because corporate landlords buy properties through shell corporations nested like Matryoshka dolls, it is difficult to get a full picture of their footprint. 

A major investigation in North Carolina found that just 20 companies now own more than 40,000 single-family properties in the state—including one-quarter of all the rental houses in Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County. In one part of northwest Charlotte, more than half of all home sales in the past six years went to these rental companies, instead of individual buyers.

Despite growing awareness of the problem, no state or local government has figured out how to regulate corporate landlords. 

Without government intervention, many tenants and communities are organizing to stop corporate landlords in their tracks.