04/28/08
Please share your economic stimulus package
Help Build the Movement for Tenants Rights: Join the Tenants Union!
Washington State tenants have won important legal protections, but these rights don't go far enough. Help build the movement to protect and expand tenants rights and make the promise of safe, healthy, affordable housing a reality: 
Greetings Tenants Union members and allies,
Recently, Congress and President Bush approved an “economic stimulus package” that will distribute cash payments of at least several hundred dollars to almost every household in the United States. But many of us question whether this “stimulus” really addresses the roots of our economic instability or provides the safety net we need in hard times.
Most renters live in economically perilous situations. Those most impacted by a failing economy will be low and moderate income renters and those whose housing expenses force them to live without a safety net or any savings to draw on when times are hard. Cut-backs in government funding for services and housing exacerbate and compound tenants’ struggles to secure affordable, safe and healthy housing.
By giving 10% or more of your economic stimulus to the Tenants Union you can help ensure that we have the resources to sustain our work.
Since 1977, the Tenants Union of Washington has been the safety net that Washington renters turn to. Throughout these years Tenants Union members and allies have pulled together to strengthen and sustain the organizing and services that have proven so crucial:
- Empowerment-based education services that last year alone provided over a thousand renters the information they need to protect their families;
- Legislative advocacy to fight for laws like the Slumlord Accountability Act we helped pass in 2005 and our ongoing work to outlaw discrimination based on a renter’s source of income;
- Building-based and community organizing to transform injustices into powerful victories, like the Benson East in Kent where section 8 tenants were able to purchase their apartments to become the first tenant-owned complex in the Northwest, and the Section Tenants Organizing Project (STOP) which is organizing low-income renters to win fair and accountable housing authority policies.
The Tenants Union will continue to be here to help our community and to lead the effort to win healthy, affordable and dignified housing for all. But we need your help to continue this work, and we ask you to share a portion of your economic stimulus payment to Tenants Union. You can show us what it really means to come together to help our communities in hard economic times. Please give 10% or more of your upcoming payment to the Tenants Union of Washington to help us strengthen and sustain the safety net for Washington renters.
Please send in a contribution today or click here to give on-line today through Network for Good
Thank you for your support,
The Tenants Union staff and board
5425 Rainier Avenue South
Suite B
Seattle, WA 98118