Greater Austin Tenant Organizing (GATO) is a new tenant union project started by Austin community members who want to build tenant power in our city. Our vision is to support tenant struggles across the whole city, and to connect these struggles into a unified movement that can stand up to the landlords and developers. Whereas landlords and developers are only interested in making Austin a profit-generating business, we want Austin to be a thriving and healthy community for all working people.
GATO was formed under ETOC, the Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee, which is dedicated to building a network of tenant unions across the United States. We work closely with other tenant unions, learning together as we strengthen our movement.
We are a new organization with a group of core volunteer organizers, so we are still in the process of building GATO from the ground up — come be a part of this process!
As tenants, our housing is controlled by landlords. Simply because they have enough money to own extra housing, landlords take a big chunk of our hard-earned money and put it right into their pockets. They get richer, we get poorer.
Over 55% of Austinites are renters — we are a tenant city.
The rent is too damn high — 47% of Austin renters use ⅓ of their monthly income to pay rent; 23% of Austin renters use ½ of their monthly incomes to pay rent.
Rising rents lead to displacement, gentrification, eviction, and homelessness.
Many landlords refuse to make necessary repairs, leading to undignified and unsafe housing.
Many landlords abuse and harass tenants.
At a broader level, landlords and developers make decisions about our whole city and we get no say. They tear down our homes, favorite local businesses, parks, and community spaces to make way for more profitable luxury housing that does not serve the people who are already in our communities.
The only way you can stand up to your landlord is to join together with your neighbors to exert collective power. The only way that we can shape Austin to be a liveable, flourishing city for working people, is to band together against the landlord class.
GATO is a volunteer organization, driven and led by tenants. The organization is responsive only to what the membership needs and decides!
We do not organize underneath paid staff, boards, state agencies, donors, or any other group that could exert control over the union and its membership. Rather than relying on politicians or advocacy groups, tenants take control of their own lives by struggling collectively and democratically deciding together.
We welcome all tenants and anyone who supports the tenant movement against the landlord class. A tenant is anyone who does not have control over their housing. They have no option but to pay a landlord a fee for a place to shelter — something essential for survival. Landlords profit off of this universal need for a place to sleep at night. If you have no choice but to pay rent to someone else and sleep on their property, you are a tenant.
Our plan is to:
Identify buildings where there is ongoing conflict between tenants and the landlord.
To learn about ongoing tenant struggles, we will knock on doors, table at events, hang up flyers, and talk to our neighbors.
Help tenants organize so that they can collectively win demands against their landlord.
To support tenant struggles, we can help tenants form a tenant association for their building.
To build community in the building, we can organize social events and facilitate mutual aid among neighbors.
To pressure their landlord, tenant associations can use tactics such as petitions, call-ins, protests, rent strikes, and occupations.
Connect tenant struggles across Austin, so we can gather the power we need to influence how the city is run.
To connect ongoing tenant struggles, we can organize city-wide social gatherings and political actions that unify us against the landlord class.
Sound housing policy is good! Tenant-friendly legislation is good! We welcome the ongoing efforts of organizations working toward these advances.
However, under capitalism, housing is built to make money, not house people. In GATO, we believe that only a mass grassroots tenant movement has the power to transform this system at its root to prioritize shelter for people over profits. Policy negotiated without a mass movement will not go far enough, and can easily be eroded without the movement to protect it.
GATO is focused on building the movement first. Truly transformative housing policy and legislation follows from this movement.