I live in a small trailer park with a lazy worthless fuck of a landlord. I know my neighbors have had problems with him the entire time he’s owned the park. I currently have one big problem and other smaller problems. The septic system has been backed up for weeks and he’s done nothing about it. It’s now affecting my home. my drains are now clogged and the wax ring under my toilet busted from plunging it and so it started leaking water under the trailer. I had to shut off the water last night with a 2 year old at home. And According to the trailer park supervisor, I’m not the only one having problems like this. Knowing this scumfuck the way I do, he’s not going to address this problem as quickly as it needs to be addressed.
So my main reason for posting here is that Id like to start a tenets union with my neighbors and if he doesn’t start addressing problems in a timely manner, using rent strikes to light a fire under his lazy bloodsucking ass. And also keep him from raising lot rent as he’s talked about doing. So does anyone here have experience organizing one of these or are a member of one that might be able to give me some insight? I have a bit of social anxiety so I don’t know most of my neighbors and I’ve lived here for almost a year. I do know that I live in a very conservative area. Any help is appreciated.
Edit: I just want to thank everyone for their input and whoever made this a featured post. I’m going to start talking to my neighbors and the park supervisor (who also thinks the landlord is a lazy fuck) and get a gauge on what other people are experiencing. I know my next door neighbor is having issues with him. We have a tree between our trailers that’s dead and falling apart, damaging both of our trailers on top of the septic problem. So I’m going to talk to the other residents I haven’t introduced myself to. Hopefully we can get the ball rolling on some of this shit through collective action, because he’s damn sure not doing it on his own. It’s legal for tenets in my state to withhold rent as long as the landlord is made aware, and the money is used on repairs. I found a list of resources for my state including legal advice, and numbers for government officials who would like to know I’m without water. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any existing tenets unions in my state. I did contact the local dsa chapter, if for nothing else than for resources. I figure it can’t hurt. Again thank you everyone.
This is mostly good info but start with trying to get at least 1 of 2 of your neighbors on your side first and committed to your goal first. No one ever organized a union solo
Also don’t go to PSL or IWW directly. Theres all sorts of socialist groups made explicitly for forming tenants unions. Autonomous Tenants Union is the only national group I know of. Scan Facebook for local radical tenants rights groups first. Usually those people will also be involved with groups like the IWW, DSA, or PSL.
as someone who has organized a tenant union, the person you really want on your side is someone who acts as like a social glue/ connecting tissue in the trailer park. in the apartment building I helped to organize, it was the neighbor who said hi to everyone, knew everyone’s business, and had been there 30 years. If there’s someone like that, they would be a HUGE get, and probably have tons of insitutional knowledge about the place and the people who may be on board/ may not.
I’d approach that person (hoping they exist) and complain about the issues you have been having and ask about their problems.
everything above is great advice too