Housing Working Group

The Housing Working Group organizes for social housing, where people live where they want, with whom they want, and how they want. The capitalist model puts housing on the speculative market, which oppresses the working class and puts people at risk of homelessness. As rents continue to rise, more and more people struggle to meet their basic needs and keep their homes. 

We organize tenant unions to build tenant power because housing is a human right. Every single person deserves safe, stable, and dignified housing. We imagine a future without the oppression of landlords and rent. In 2025, we launched our Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee (ETOC). Each month we identify opportunities for forming a tenants union. The Housing Working Group works with Boston DSA members and tenants to launch a tenant union in their building. Since launching ETOC, the Housing Working Group has unionized buildings in Merrimack Valley and the Greater Boston area. Through this work we have connected with Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants and expanded our tenant organizing to low-income and HUD buildings.

The Housing Working Group believes in ending all evictions. We organize canvasses with Boston DSA neighborhood groups to reach our community neighbors who are facing evictions. We provide tenants with information regarding the eviction process, their rights in court, and we help tenants organize to stop displacement. 

The Housing Working Group engages in housing justice campaigns to reduce the burden that renters in the Greater Boston area face. In 2025, Boston DSA electeds help organize a state wide ban of the predatory tenant-paid broker fees saving tenants having to pay $10,000 just to move into a new apartment, but the work isn’t done until housing is a human right. That’s why we are organizing for rent control, and to increase fines for housing code violations. For too long, landlords have taken advantage of the working class by charging obscene rental prices, passing on fees, refusing to do routine maintenance, and harassing tenants who speak up for their rights. We work with other housing justice organizations in the Greater Boston area, fight for legislation to protect tenants, and campaign to remove housing from the speculative market.

We believe in building towards socialized housing at every step of our work. We support community land trusts, affordable housing units, and tenant-led unions. The Housing Working Group meets monthly to discuss our current priority campaigns, to identify ways we can support the campaigns of local housing justice organizations, and to develop strategies to build tenant power.

If you’re interested in recent examples of Boston DSA’s Housing work, here’s some news coverage from both pro-worker outlets and pro-corporate outlets.