CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A new tool is available for renters and homeowners in North Carolina.
The new North Carolina Tenants Union is made up of six local tenant advocacy groups in Charlotte, Asheville, Raleigh-Durham, and Winston-Salem.
This comes as rent has increased and owning a home has become out of reach for many North Carolinians. Nearly 50% of renters in the state are cost-burdened by their rent, according to the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency.
“We’ve seen across North Carolina as rents continue to go up and wages don’t, that just squeezes folks," Nick MacLeod, the Executive Director of North Carolina Tenants Union, said.
Now a statewide collaboration is helping renters across North Carolina.
The North Carolina Tenants Union is fighting for housing as a human right by helping renters understand their needs. They aim to cap rent increases, prevent evictions, and force landlords to make repairs.
It's something tenant advocacy group Action NC says is much needed.
“We felt like we needed something that was stable and forever, that was mission-driven to protect tenants and fight for those issues, instead of a reactive approach, a proactive approach to organizing statewide," Jessica Moreno a Community Organizer for Action NC, said.
This comes as a recent report from Mecklenburg County shows that evictions and the number of people who are homeless all increased last year.
Advocates say the start of the union is a milestone and will help renters across the state.
“The reality is that a vast majority of the time, when a tenant tries to assert their rights and fight a landlord on their own, they lose because the power dynamic is so skewed to the landlord," MacLeod, said.
In Charlotte, Action NC is already fighting against corporate landlords who gobble up houses not giving first-time home buyers a chance. They also burden tenants with rising rents.
Now, there's hope this new union will be able to tackle these issues with more strength.
"Many of these important levers do live at the state level, so we want to make sure we can get to the root of this so we can shift some of the big underlying tenant law," MacLeod, said. “You're not alone, and there’s a lot of power in the fact that your neighbors have gone through a similar thing that you are."
Action NC is also looking at possible solutions to housing instability like green social housing, which is public and permanent affordable housing.
If any renters in Charlotte want to be a part of the union and organize they can email Action NC at rentersrising@actionnc.org for any renters that want to be a part of our union and organize.