Tenants Organize in Peoplestown, Summerhill, Mechanicsville!

This week tenant leaders from multiple apartment complexes came together to learn how to organize tenant associations across the Peoplestown, Mechanicsville, and Summerhill communities. We were excited to the room absolutely packed with residents ready to organize against what some see as the coming displacement that often comes with big development or low income communities and build strong tenant associations that have the power to improve their living conditions. It's not only exciting that tenant associations are emerging in these communities, they're emerging together as a rising tide.

The room was absolutely packed and clear next steps were made for each complex represented. AFSC has partnered with Occupy Our Homes Atlanta over the last two years to a listening project designed to launch organizing work that's informed and led by residents. The tenant organizing project is one of the results. By the end of the year we hope to see seven new tenant associations in the three neighborhoods, two have already formed!

Issues raised by tenants included black mold, deplorable conditions, poor treatment by property management, retaliation for individual attempts to organize from property managers, and displacement of long term residents. Despite that fact that there is still a degree of fear of retaliation from property management, it was exciting to hear that when residents act as a collective , as was the case recently with Boynton Village, they win!

AFSC is exciting to continue to support this important work as the eye of development becomes more and more fixated on the Turner Field neighborhoods.

Organizing to Win in Peoplestown

We were well represented at the launch of the coalition

So I wanted to update folks on all the exciting work going down in and around the Peoplestown community. Some of you might be aware that last year we partnered with residents and community organizations to facilitate a listening project in Peoplestown. After looking at the results it was clear that Peoplestown residents cared deeply for their community and have deep concerns about it's futures. On the top of the list of concerns was the lack of affordable house, access to good food, and trash in the community.

Canvassing Team Gets Ready to Knock on Doors

Residents Participate in Free Tenant Rights Legal Clinic

Since the listening project I'm excited to report that we have worked with Peoplestown residents to develop and anti-displacement campaign and a series of housing justice training's. One of the exciting developments has been a strong effort to organize tenant associations in the communities surrounding Turner Field. We also launched a weekly free tenants rights legal clinic with Attorney Joshua Davis. It's already been announced that the Braves will be leaving Turner Field in 2017 and all that land will be up for grabs for developers. Fighting mass displacement means pushing for a process that includes long term residents and ultimately benefits the surrounding neighborhoods. If history teaches us anything it's that development comes with lots of promises to the community but usually ends up hurting and displacing long term residents. In order the fight for a process and result that lifts up those that have been holding down the community long before it was cool or profitable to buy property here residents have realized now is the time to organize people around a platform insure residents aren't displaced, real jobs are created, and that those that live here have a say in what happens to the land.

Residents Stand Outside Boynton Village Demanding Fair Treatment

One exciting development is that in the effort to organize a tenants association at Boynton Village tenants have won a huge victory. The owners of Boynton Village, the Woda group, have agreed to sign a new agreement with HUD to keep the complex affordable for the next 20 years. This is a big win considering other apartment complexes will consider converting to market rate as the price of rent in this area continues to increase with each passing month. This may not have happened if residents hadn't organized together, holding meetings, launching petitions, and demanding face to face negotiation with the Woda group. That work has been a launching point to meet with other tenant leaders in the Peoplestown area.

Tommy Moore Trains a New Generation of Gardeners in Pittsburgh

Responding to the lack of  good food in the community we have been working with Pittsburgh(right next door to Peoplestown) resident Tommy Moore to help him raise funds to develop community gardens. Tommy is a miracle worker in the garden and has used the resources to develop multiple gardens sights, teach young people to grow food, and feed the neighborhood free of charge. We're so excited to to able to work with Tommy are currently working with him to break ground on a new garden this month.

Spellman Students Help Facilitate Community Clean-up

We have organized to big trash clean up days with college students focusing on the peoples town community.

During Housing Justice 101 Training

We have joined and put energy into building and strengthening the Turner Field Benefits Coalition, with is a coalition of over 40 groups, mostly based in the neighborhoods surrounding Turner Field. At this point the coalition is fighting to insure that those that live in the neighborhood will have a real voice and an impact on what happens to the land the Braves used after they leave. Sadly up to this point it seems as if community members have not been given space at the table. It's a cruel irony that many of the things the neighbor hood wants did used to exist. Fifty years ago Peoples town, Summerhill, Mechanicsville, Pittsburgh, Adair Park were considered more a part of downtown than Midtown is today. You had everything you needed to survive in the community. From grocery stores to theaters, to doctors offices, and local business. The highway came through, the Olympic stadium, Turner Field, all came with the promise of positive development for the community, all ended up hurting more than helping. We are excited to be a part of a coalition aimed at challenging the model of development that displaces long term residents and treats the neighborhood like a giant ATM.

Peoplestown Tenants Pave Road to Victory!

Last week Occupy Our Homes Atlanta launched an online campaign alongside the Peoplestown Listening Project and residents of Boynton Village after a series of meetings with residents of the longtime Peoplestown apartment complex.  As residents did the hard work of building support in the community, launching an online petition, doing media trainings, agreeing as a group on demands and points of unity, there was an effort to reach out to the property owners(the Woda group) for a meeting.

Last night that meeting happened. A copy of the petition was hand delivered to the Woda group and the property management company. Residents had space to share their concerns and articulate their demands. Besides having serious concerns about maintenance issues, residents are concerned about their right to return after renovations are made to the property. Boynton Village was acquired by the Woda group as obvious shifts were occurring in the Peoplestown community. As the Beltline project in rolling through and Turner Field is being sold many fear that gentrification could destroy the historic community. Many of the Boynton Village residents have lived in Peoplestown their whole life and while they’ve all agreed to move out for three months while the complex is renovated, many fear they will not be allowed to return.

We are very pleased with the tone of the meeting and the willingness the Woda group displayed at the meeting, we know this is a direct result of a strong turnout by residents, community members, and allies. We know it’s also a result of good organizing and points of unity agreed upon by residents.

The Woda group pretty much agreed to all the residents’ demands, which is amazing! It’s important to be clear that we are not celebrating yet. The Woda group has agreed to put everything in writing by December 15^th, so we await that date to confirm. A win for Boynton Village isn't the finish line for housing justice work in Peoplestown, in fact it's only the beginning. Atlanta's gentrifying forces have shifted an eye toward Peoplestown, affordable housing is already becoming hard to find.

We are grateful to the 800 people who signed the online petition! Keep the signatures coming, they do have an impact when met with on the ground organizing! We are excited to continue to work with the brave residents of Boynton Village as we see the beginnings of a strong Boynton Village Tenants Associating in the works to monitor repairs, relocation, renovation, and the return to the property for all.

American Friends Service Committee is proud to be a supporter of the campaign and we will continue to lend on the ground support and give resources to build infrastructure for the housing justice movement in Peoplestown and the greater Atlanta area. Right now there is a need to provide funding for on the group organizers who are longtime Peoplestown residents. Please contact AFSC if you are able to help at tfranzen@afsc.org