About the Ann Arbor Tenants Union
The Ann Arbor Tenants Union has a long and storied history. Students and community renters began the Ann Arbor Tenants Union in 1968 with a fiery beginning in the form of a three-year long rent strike, which forced landlords to the table and showed that organized tenants could wield real power. Over the next several decades, the AATU became a hub for tenant defense and education. In 1976, the AATU won recognition to collectively bargain leases with the landlord Trony-Sunrise Associates, a major milestone. By the 1980s, the AATU had a regular practice of collaborating with the University of Michigan Law School’s clinic and relying on a steady flow of student volunteers. Organizing efforts led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) steered the AATU during these periods continually towards mass organizing.
But decades of funding fights eventually took their toll, and in 2004, after years of struggling with budgetary shortfalls, the Ann Arbor Tenants Union closed its doors. The lesson of that history is clear: when tenants are resourced and organize themselves to fight, we win protections and reshape the balance of power in the city; when that infrastructure is gutted, landlords move quickly to exploit the vacuum.
Flash forward to 2025: In the two decades since the AATU’s closure, it has become evident that tenants in Ann Arbor need to assemble their power in a union more than ever. According to research by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Ann Arbor has the highest percentage of renters in Michigan but is also Michigan’s most expensive city for renters. Research from Ann Arbor City Planner Michelle Bennett has shown that the median household income in the City of Ann Arbor increased by only 27% since 2013, while the median apartment rent grew by 54%, a pace that has left two-thirds of Ann Arbor renters being cost-burdened. Meanwhile, landlords continue to push illegal practices, exploit loopholes around existing tenant protections, and invent new ways to squeeze money out of renters, from $7,000 fees to non-refundable charges for simply applying for housing.
How can we fight this? The City can build more units, it can give subsidies to developers, it can innovate in statecraft, it can provide legal services for tenants. But without organized renters willing to fight back collectively, the City’s balance of power remains stuck in favor of landlords; landlords will always push money into politics to rewrite rules in their favor and grow rich from those same schemes meant to “help” tenants. More than service providers or well-meaning politicians, then, our city needs a fighting culture of tenants that win their own victories—wherein tenants themselves identify shared problems, deliberate together, take collective action, and through all of those win real and lasting victories at both the building and city levels.
Enter the revitalized Ann Arbor Tenants Union, a collective of tenants formed in 2023 to forge that mass culture through no-shortcuts organizing, building by building. We’ve already notched important victories against landlords like Campus Management and Redwood Communities at the building level. At the city level, we've won a ban on pre-tenancy junk fees and stronger versions of the Early Leasing Ordinance and Right to Renew (the first versions of which had also been won by AATU organizers the year prior to the revival of the AATU).
Today, members are drafting a Tenants’ Bill of Rights to close loopholes and establish real penalties for landlords who break the law. At the time of writing in December 2025, the union boasts more than 250 members, with multiple active tenant associations across the city. We invite you to join your fellow unionized tenants in the Ann Arbor Tenants Union. Together, we can win the dignity and affordability for tenants that we deserve.