GR groups joins The Rent is Too Damn High letter to Gov. Whitmer with list of demands and announced mass demonstration in Lansing this November

For over a year now, the Lansing-based group, The Rent is Too Damn High, has been making demands of the State of Michigan and working with Tenant Unions in the fight for housing justice.

In September of 2023, some 500 tenants and other housing activists showed up in Lansing with very clear demands, which GRIID wrote about.

Last week, The Rent is Too Damn High sent a letter to Gov. Whitmer – along with other elected officials – with a list of demands and an announcement that they are calling for a mass demonstration in Lansing to get the Lame Duck period of the State Legislature to pass numerous bills that would make the lives of tenants less stressful.

Here is the entire text of the letter:

To: 

Gretchen Whitmer, Governor
Winnie Brinks, Senate Majority Leader
Joe Tate, House Speaker
Jeff Irwin, Senate Housing & Human Services Chair
Jason Hoskins, House Economic Development & Small Business Chair Kristian Grant, House Economic Development & Small Business Vice Chair 

We are tenants’ unions, housing justice groups, and housing service providers, writing to urge you to pass and sign renters’ rights legislation before the 2023-2024 legislative session concludes. Our members and constituents have been devastated by Michigan’s housing crisis, which has grown more dire under the current administration. 

We have held dozens of meetings with state Representatives and Senators, who assured us of their intent to support renters, tenants and the unhoused. And when the Governor acknowledged that “the rent is too damn high!” in her State of the State Address this year, we listened with hope. 

Instead of having renters’ backs, your trifecta government leadership has fast-tracked proposals that prioritize real estate developer’s interests, while leaving renters’ rights to languish in committee. Respectfully, the Governor’s exclusive focus on “build baby build” is not a serious approach to ensure that we all have stable and comfortable housing in the years to come. Supply-side interventions alone will take the better part of a decade to impact housing prices. Renters need protection and relief now! 

There is still an opportunity to do right. Because of our members’ advocacy, your colleagues have introduced a historic number of renters’ rights bills this session. Now they need to be passed and signed into law. Among the dozens of worthy bills introduced, we are united in support of these nine:

We want to be clear: The reason we are so determined is because of the increasing difficulty of daily life for renters across the state. Our members are doing their best to keep their families safe and sheltered as they are nickeled, dimed, and evicted by (increasingly, out-of-state private equity based) corporate landlords. Now we need you to do your best for them. 

On November 13, we will mobilize our members to insist you do the right thing in the Lame Duck session. Renters are fed up with being on the downside of a winners and losers economy. It’s time to give tenants a fighting chance at good housing, by protecting our basic rights. We need these bills to pass this term. 

With conviction, and full of fight for our families and neighbors, 

• MI Rent Is Too Damn High
  Detroit Disability Power
  We The People MI Action Fund
• Ann Arbor Tenants Union
  McKinley Tenants Association
  Detroit Action
  Keeweenaw Tenants Union
  MH Action Michigan Team
• Lansing Rent Is Too Damn High
  Linc Up Nonprofit Housing Corporation 
• Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union
  Community Owns Safety Coalition 
• We The Tenants Kalamazoo
• Traverse City Housing Justice Team 
• Nation Outside

Detroit Tenants Association