Stand with your fellow tenants by filling out the membership form at bit.ly/JoinAATU!
Why should I be a member?
Unfortunately, the past fifty years has shown that no nonprofit, government agency, developer, or (God forbid) landlord can save us — only tenants can, by assembling and wielding our collective power. Alone, our rents are a burden, but together those rents are our leverage into ensuring each landlord will never exploit tenants again. Becoming a member of your tenants union is the first step to winning that power.
As a member, you’ll be supported by other members of the Ann Arbor Tenants Union, with everything in our power to support you, in every struggle you have as a tenant. When your landlord ignores pests in your house, lets your roof drip, raises your rent, or cuts your lease early — your fellow members of the AATU will be there to yell alongside you, to recruit legal help with you, and to mobilize your fellow residents so your landlord will never be able to do this to you or other tenants again.
“I joined the AATU because I wanted to stop being just being informed about what was going on in the world and begin doing something about it. This is collective praxis and a great way to create community!”
~ Elijah S.
What should I do once I become a member?
First, join our primary Signal group: bit.ly/AATUSignal (our membership form should direct you to this after you fill it out). This group chat is our primary home for day-to-day conversations and updates. If you prefer not to download a new app or join a new chat, that’s okay, there are other ways to keep up and get caught up that are listed here.
Second, meet with an AATU organizer to talk about your experience as a renter and what you’re interested in organizing around with your fellow renters. We try to reach out to everyone that fills out the form proactively, but if you haven’t heard from us in a few weeks or would like to meet sooner, please send us a message at annarbortenantsunion@gmail.com.
That conversation with an existing organizer should hopefully identify paths for you within AATU that are right for you. But generally, we recommend a few options, most valuable being listed first:
Get to know other members of the AATU — it’s most important for us as tenants seeking to effect change to create a strong and tight-knit community of organizers that can support each other in the fight.
Talk with your immediate neighbors. For the most part, we’re isolated in our own complexes, and need to rebuild the social bonds that have been robbed from us by parasites (landlords) in order to build effective unions.
Join the AATU organizing committee. As a coordinating group within AATU generally, we share strategies across complexes and work together on citywide campaigns. This group is our most important formation for expanding the AATU and building tenant power.
Join a different subcommittee. AATU’s bread and butter is complex-level organizing that requires folks to simply talk to each other and to their neighbors, but we are an ambitious org with many needs — we need social media content, people knowledgeable with finance, people who are willing to lead legislative priorities, people to build strong relationships with other organizations, and so on.
What are my duties as part of the union?
Becoming a member fundamentally is a commitment to your fellow tenants of Ann Arbor that you stand alongside them in our fight for a dignified home and community, and against the bad actor landlords that exploit tenants for personal gain. It’s a recognition that as tenants, we share interests; we all want dignified and affordable housing, and we’re all dealing with landlords who use the same tactics to deny us the housing we deserve.
AATU strives to be a democratic, member run organization. AATU members vote on major decisions of the union. More importantly, as an AATU member your active participation in our organizing work will shape the direction and capacity of our union as we work together to build tenant power in Ann Arbor. Lastly, we plan to begin collecting dues from members but strictly on a voluntary basis— we believe this is important for maintaining our independence.