Principle #1: Autonomous leadership from working-class tenants

Principle #2: Organize as a class to abolish landlords

Principle #3: Organization and self-determination

Principle #4: Neighborly relationships and neighborly environments

Principle #5: The tenant struggle is intersectional and ongoing

Deeper Look

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!