Who We Are

Madison Tenant Power (founded in 2019) is a tenant union formed by and for tenants to defend our rights to dignity and healthy living. A "tenant" is anyone who is not in control of their own housing.

We are a "people-powered" organization. We are not service providers, but are all tenants united to support ourselves and each other. All tenants are welcome to join our membership.

Read more about our principles of unity here.

Who We Are

Madison Tenant Power is a grassroots, volunteer-run tenant union founded in 2019 in Madison, Wisconsin. We’re neighbors organizing together to fight for safe, affordable housing — and to dream bigger: an abolitionist future without landlords. We believe housing is a human right, and we build our power through tenant unions, collective action, mutual support, and standing up for each other.

Housing should be a human right, but now it operates as a commodity. Tenants’ access to housing is held hostage by landlords, whose control over housing is backed by the state, enshrined by lawmakers, and enforced by police. Only the power of a united and self-organized collective of tenants can bring lasting improvements in our dignity and quality of life by dismantling the landlord class.

We're proudly non-hierarchical, intersectional, and driven by the creativity, energy, and leadership of working-class tenants. “Tenant” defines anyone who is not in control of their own housing, including renters, children, mortgage-payers, the houseless, residents in care homes, and the incarcerated. 

We value stability, safety, privacy, comfort, respect, accessibility, and dignity as tenants and as workers. We talk to and listen to our neighbors; we give all tenants the opportunity to speak for themselves. We build community and connection, using the power of our emotional relationships to build networks of support that landlords cannot replicate or break. 

We recognize that we must center the perspectives of tenants most impacted by housing injustice—including elder, poor, Black, brown, disabled, women, children, trans, queer, incarcerated, and unemployed neighbors—for our collective vision to succeed. This includes being mindful of childcare, transportation, language justice, work schedules, racism, sexism, and other factors. 

Together, we will leave the world a better place for those who come after us. Nobody knows everything. Together, we know a lot. Come build something better with us!

How We Fight

The History of Tenants in Madison

Madison used to have a powerful tenant union called Madison Tenant Union (MTU), which operated from 1969 to 1985. Madison Tenant Union adopted a labor-union model of organizing, organizing tenants into unions that would engage in collective bargaining using a variety of tactics including rent strikes to fight for tenants’ rights. The union was a non-profit; the landlord lobby ultimately successfully dismantled the union by attacking its funding sources.

The relationship between landlords and tenants has always been fraught. What’s more, historical race covenants have had a lingering impact on patterns of property ownership in Wisconsin.

Madison has historically had tenant protections that protected renters from displacement. State-wide preemption laws passed in 2011 have significantly limited tenants’ legal rights in Madison.

The Future We Hope For

Our Vision

• good social, affordable housing

• walkable neighborhoods safe for kids and for single moms

• tenant control over their own spaces

• representation by a tenant union

• rental buildings that are publicly owned and managed, administered by a tenant advisory board

Our Immediate Goals

• Repeal of the state-level ban on rent control and other pro-tenant legislative measures

• Implement rent control measures and strong tenant protections

• Lower rental prices and protection against rent profiteering / rent extortion

• No more state intervention in local landlord-tenant issues.

Our Long-term Goals

• Housing will be free and good quality because it is a human right and a necessity.

• We will build a resilient community of tenants who know each other and work together, creating closely connected communities who feel empowered to enforce their rights.

• We will coordinate cross-sector organization to support workers and working families: labor organizing, neighborhood organizing, tenant organizing.

• We will build bridges between various zones of struggle, connecting housing justice to black liberation, abolition, women’s liberation, queer liberation, and reproductive justice. More solidarity, more community. 

Tenant power!