Gentrification and Displacement: Mobilization

Resident-led grassroots organizations are springing up in cities around the country. In 2016, activists against gentrification shut down the Bay Bridge and disrupted a council meeting in Oakland while voters overwhelmingly approved a measure to expand tenant protections. Outside well-known hubs of activism, the “renter nation” movement has won similar policy changes and exposed backroom deals by corrupt city officials. Landlords say tenants are being misled into illegal or extreme tactics such as rent strikes that will only make it harder for them to rent elsewhere. Activists say their movement is using protests to protect the rights of a growing majority.