This is what housing justice and housing solidarity looks like in Grand Rapids

If you have been following the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union (GRATU) on social media lately, then you are aware of what we have been doing with a tenant that has suffered the violence and trauma of an eviction. 

For the past several years GRATU has been working with one particular tenant that has been threatened with eviction repeatedly. In addition to the constant threat of eviction, this tenant has dealt with a landlord who would not meet aspects of the lease agreement, such as taking care of the lawn, snow removal or trash removal in a timely fashion. On top of that, the landlord failed to make repairs when the tenant made them know to the landlord, and in many cases waited months until dealing with the problem.

Once the landlord finally got around to fixing basic things like a sink, they would then charge the repair costs to the tenant, even though it was not part of the lease.

Over the past two years GRATU has written letters to the landlord asking them to be responsible and not retaliate against the tenant. GRATU has also done pressure campaigns, which involved getting as many people as possible to send Emails or make phone calls to the landlord, in order to pressure them to meet the demands that the tenant crafted.

In addition, GRATU has done court support for the tenant, which often is just being present for someone who has to go before a judge to either plead their case for what has been happening or because the landlord had begun eviction proceedings. In the last court appearance of this tenant, they had friends and a member of GRATU present, both for support and to offer testimony to support the claims of exploitation and intimidation from the landlord. The judge refused to allow other people to speak and said that the case was closed.

At this point it is important to note that, including all of the eviction threats, failure to make repairs and failure to fulfill their end of the lease agreement, the landlord had also raised the cost of rent by $450 a month in recent years. At a mediation between the tenant and the landlord earlier this year, when asked why the landlord had jacked up the rental costs so much, she simply said, “because the market says I can charge this much.”

The tenant has had a fairly fixed income, so how do landlords and the courts expect people to pay skyrocketing rental fees, when their personal income is not increasing at the same rate? 

Alarmed at what the judge said and the fact that the landlord had filed another eviction case with this tenant, the tenant asked GRATU to organize a protest at the home of the landlord.

On April 30th, about 15 people showed up to support the tenant and participate in a protest at the landlord’s home, which GRIID posted about here. What was interesting about the protest was that the neighbors didn’t know that their neighbor was a landlord and some of the neighbors thought that the house the landlord lived in was a rental property, especially since they were not taking care of the property, which had high grass, weeds, a car in the driveway with a flat tire and a garage that was filled with stuff and partially open. The landlord came home during the protest and right away called the Kentwood Police, which could do nothing because the protest was on the sidewalk. 

In the afternoon of May 20th, someone from the court came to the tenant’s residence and posted a notice to vacate, but the notice did not provide the legally required time to allow the tenant to vacate the property. (Notice can be seen here on the right)

GRATU then put out a call to people to provide some eviction defense. The tenant, who was now very afraid of what was happening, decided that they no longer wanted to live in a property owned by this landlord. The tenant asked if GRATU could help them move. GRATU agreed to assisting the tenant with moving, beginning on the morning of the notice to vacate.

GRATU volunteers and the tenant were packing things up and loading them onto a U-Haul truck, when the same person from the court who posted the notice to vacate showed up. This person, who was rude and combative said that the tenant needed to be out immediately, before the movers who worked for the landlord came and put the tenants things by the curb. The person from the court could clearly see that people were there and moving items into the U-Haul truck, but that did not matter to him. He decided to be petty and called the landlord.

Within 30 minutes of the confrontation with the court employee, people who worked for the landlord showed up and began taking stuff out of the house and placing them in the grass near the edge of the street. These people could have just as easily put these items in the U-Haul, but chose not to and yet another retaliatory action. This retaliation went on for several hours and even before the tenant got all of their property out of the home they had lived in for 10 years, the landlord had their workers change the locks on the property, even though the tenant had not removed all of their items from the home.

Despite this awful display of retaliation and vindictiveness, the tenant with GRATU volunteers were able to get everything out later that day.

Infuriated, the tenant asked GRATU to organize another protest a week later. Not as many people were able to attend a second protest at the landlord’s home, they did make yard signs and left them in the front lawn with messages like Eviction is Violence, Rent Control Now, Josephine Cole is a Slumlord and Don’t Ever Rent from Josephine Cole. 

GRATU even created a Mutual Aid request for the tenant, to provide some economic relief for the tenant who was forcibly evicted because the courts sided with an exploitative landlord who had an awful track record of not caring for her properties. 

While the outcome was traumatic and violent, GRATU volunteers did an amazing job of demonstrating solidarity with a tenant that was being evicted. For those of us who do solidarity and Mutual Aid work we often say, “We take care of each other.” In fact, what the GRATU volunteers did with this tenant was a demonstration of housing justice. While those in power are demanding more housing, they do nothing to support the thousands of tenants in Grand Rapids who are housing insecure and facing constant harassment from landlords, including threats of eviction. The Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union chooses to practice housing solidarity and housing justice.

If you are a tenant that is experiencing the same kind of issues or you know someone who is, please have them contact the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union at gratunion@gmail.com.