Portland Tenants Union

Apologies to those who have messaged. This is a zombie page, left over from a failed campaign to organize portland maine's tenants, and the organizers were priced out of portland a long time ago and no new leadership took their place. A tenant's union is still very much needed in Portland, and in every city, but keeping this page active may have actually served as a hinderance to something taking it's place, so this page will be scheduled for deletion.

‘We would literally not survive’: How Trump’s plans for the social safety net would affect America’s poorest About 90 million low-income Americans rely on Medicaid, housing subsidies or food stamps.

""People are suffering now, and we need some rapid action now to protect people from being out on the streets," says Crystal Cron, chairman, Portland Tenants Union.

"We need protections so that ordinary working people can stay in the city they know and love and the city should be for everyone, not just for people who decide they want to come here and make Portland their playground," says Cron."

Portland Coalition for Housing Justice holds a rally at City Hall PORTALND (WGME) -- The Portland Coalition for Housing Justice is looking for solutions to the Portland housing crisis.The group held a rally on the steps of City Hall.They want to see limitations on rent increases and a rise in the general assistance rent

"MacMillan said the tenants union is open to the idea, but said such a commission shouldn’t replace consideration of a separate city ombudsman to advocate for tenants.

“We are interested in discussing the idea on a city-level, but as usual, whether we would support it or not is in the details. Broadly, we support using the city’s influence to make life easier and more regular for tenants and landlords alike,” he said.

“If a tenant were to take their issue with their landlord to such a commission, the tenant would run the risk of being blacklisted by the increasingly small number of landlords in town and labeled a ‘troublemaker,'” MacMillan continued. “Fundamentally, the owner of the property is given all of the advantages. We want to change this. We do support the funding of a tenant ombudsman by the city of Portland, which is an idea often paired with a tenant-landlord commission as presented by Mr. Sweeney.”

Landlords and tenants in Portland both like this idea to improve relations “It doesn’t have to be in favor or tenants or in favor of landlords, but in favor of those relationships.”