Renters are being evicted across the country because they can't pay rent.

And they've been saddled with back rent + utility debt.

"Rental assistance" has been... insufficient.

If you care about climate crisis but *haven't* heard about the renter crisis, thread is for you.

I spent the last 3 years working on a project to encourage utility programs + multifamily affordable housing refinancing + other money to align & make energy efficiency upgrades happen that weren't happening. Housing + energy make up two of the biggest costs of any household.

I learned a lot. Now my focus is on supporting renters' rights and broader societal change within the climate & clean energy silos. Tackling climate change requires tackling building end uses. That means residential buildings. That means renter issues are now climate issues.

This crisis facing renters is critically urgent all on its own. People are dying. Climate or clean energy folks co-opting renter issues to push green stuff is bad. Don't do that. Learn how to show up for renters without centering yourself. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-22/sweltering-heat-and-coronavirus-threatens-inland-empire-homeless-and-shelters

Remember this? Renters in New Orleans @NolaRenters blocked landlords from evicting people from their homes in July- the middle of the pandemic, the middle of the summer, and 15 days before Hurricane Laura first started to develop. https://twitter.com/misaacstein/status/1288846847163998210?s=20

Now renters like @KCTenants today, @WSTASF, @RePower_LA just to name a few, are organizing & taking action to protect themselves and each other from both eviction + utility debt because the government's COVID & "recovery" response has equated to sanctioning violent evictions.

All over the country people are self-organizing to not only stop evictions but re-claim *vacant* housing. Victories have been won for community land trusts & ownership & the work continues: @PhlHousing, @moms4housing and more including @atun_rsia. https://twitter.com/atun_rsia/status/1313935905099456512?s=20

Look for local tenant unions working on renter rights and standing up against evictions. Get involved, support mutual aid efforts, and join in with some I've dropped already if you don't know where to start locally. Next I'll talk data if you're not already convinced.

I focus on people who miraculously survive in America on nearly nothing bc that's who I identify with. When I first shared data like this in the climate + energy space, some were shocked. We need to get serious about poverty as a major obstacle to a clean climate future.

1) 30% of ALL people in the U.S. are living on low incomes. In CA we reached *38%* back in 2012. Also more likely to be non-white, elderly, disabled, and energy insecure. The folks fighting now are first to be impacted and represent a HUGE population, not a minority.

2) FPL is a shit way to measure poor-ness but it's widely used. It's the most conservative measure you can use. I like some of the methodology behind @United4ALICE. If we used ALICE not 200% FPL, 44% not 30% of all Californians would be low income. Map:
https://www.unitedforalice.org 

3) People living on low incomes in CA: majority are renting their homes & majority pay 50%+ of income on rent. Renters as a class are at risk. Without renters' rights, addressing climate will mean accelerating homelessness IMHO

(Analysis by Reem Rayef: https://nrdc1-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/pdelforge_nrdc_org/EetZBNlTiDpPqlfDJTQDJVMBmJwVQFBoYP1AGIQCr1L5zw?e=dabgAt)

4) Rent burden is widely understood but prior to now, energy burden was not. @ACEEEdc @apoetofthedeed and others have shown that below 200% FPL, as much as 8% of income is going to energy costs- more than 3.5x the proportion of income of higher earners. https://www.aceee.org/energy-burden 

5) COVID made this worse, especially for Black and Latinx people. @dkonisky @CarleySanya @MemmottTrevor @GraffMichelle did the research. https://twitter.com/DavidKonisky/status/1309476203301085185?s=20

This is what I believe: if climate + clean energy folks don't take the lack of renters' rights & housing insecurity seriously, there's no path to decarbonization of buildings that doesn't put millions of people on the streets over time.

This will mean changing the accepted capitalist belief that housing should be treated as a commodity, the belief that owner interests outweigh tenant interests*, and that climate change is so urgent that we should address it first and poverty later.

*This thread is long enough already but if you dig around you'll see that community ownership is part of the overall solutions proposed, so that we eliminate the owner class and transform into a system where tenants ARE the owner.

The research so far has raised the profile of this urgent work. That's good. And with that has come a lot of covering old work in "equity". What is needed now is climate + clean energy to re-direct their funding, their analysis and put it in service to the existing leadership.

There is significant *existing* leadership *from affected communities*; you need to follow. Anything that makes renters' work harder - including fighting your ideas because they are harmful - slows everything down and, with active evictions, that obstacle will hurt someone.

Renters across the country are already asking for decarbonized homes, but as a part of the bigger package that we need as renters to survive. Just take a look at @PplsAction and the #HomesGuarantee https://homesguarantee.com  https://twitter.com/WorkingFamilies/status/1245105125317885952?s=20

The folks at @ourcityRTTC are leading a campaign to #CancelRent and #CancelMortgages and create #HomesForAll. They know that the back rent can't turn into long term debt for our people to have a chance at a just recovery: https://twitter.com/ourcityRTTC/status/1316753330450898946?s=20

There's work emerging daily from the people most impacted & those who have a long background in racial equity work. In addition to the already tagged in this thread, follow @PSEquityMatters @GCCLP @weact4ej @CCEJN @antievictionmap @BuildPowerMoKan @rooseveltinst @ChallengeIneq !!