Category: Housing & Community

Anarcho-Syndicalism and Principles of Urban Planning

By Scott Rittenhouse Urban Planning is neither boulevards for conquerors, nor a landscape for the palaces of the rich, nor an opportunity for land speculators, nor a design opportunity for artists, nor a conspiracy for social engineers. Urban planning is conducted to promote the health, safety, and well-being of people living together in urbanized areas; [...]

Wage Theft in America – Two Approaches

From Trial by Fire Mercedes Herrerra is a 39-year-old Mexican immigrant living in Houston, Texas. Working primarily for staffing agencies, she first started cleaning houses and sports facilities in 1996. Paid meager wages, working long hours and travelling some distance to get to new job sites, her staffing agency charged her as much as $100 [...]

Vacant Hotel Occupied

by Tom Wetzel On July 19th members of Direct Action to Stop the Cuts occupied a vacant 41-room hotel in San Francisco’s Mission District. The action was intended to demonstrate the city’s inaction on housing. While thousands of people sleep on the streets or live in very crowded living conditions in small apartments, potential housing [...]

Beating back a rent hike

By Mike K (Seattle Solidarity) I live at 2212 1st Avenue, the Kasota Apartments. It’s a pretty slummy place. I had been living there for about three years, and then the landlords – Sound Mental Health – told us they were going to raise the rent by 200 dollars at once. They were trying to [...]