From the Ground Up: Connections and Contradictions Within the United States Housing Movement

This thesis investigates why strategic interactions between tenant and unhoused organizations are important, and how this can translate into stronger solidarity networks within the United States housing movement. Because tenants and the unhoused seem to occupy different modes of shelter, they are seen as disparate groups of people. The boundaries demarcating tenancy and homelessness, however, are more obscure than what this assumption suggests. Since working class tenants and their unhoused neighbors are subject to similar experiences of housing precarity, they have a lot to gain from establishing solidarity with each other. Using interviews with organizations from Los Angeles, Portland, and Eugene, I find that tenant and unhoused groups who have a large number of weak ties are more likely to establish relationships with each other. Organizations that share tactical priorities and have similar leadership structures are also better equipped to participate in a shared network. The goal of this thesis is to investigate how tenant and unhoused organizations navigate these collaborative relationships as they respond to the contemporary housing crisis on a local and national scale