Tenant organizing is spiritual work because it refuses to accept that a rent increase, a retaliatory eviction, or a landlord’s neglect is simply the way things are. It is the slow, unglamorous practice of remembering that every person who lives behind a door on Soto Street or Rowan Avenue is made in the image of God. In Boyle Heights and unincorporated East Los Angeles, where I have buried parishioners and celebrated quinceañeras on the same block, this work is not a metaphor. It is a form of prayer with your sleeves rolled up. It sits alongside the corporal works of mercy: shelter the homeless, visit the sick, bury the dead. When a family faces a no-fault eviction, the Church is not called to write a strongly worded letter and walk away. We are called to stay.
This article is for parishioners, lay leaders, and neighbors who sense that housing justice belongs to the Gospel but do not know how to begin. It is also for those who have been organizing for years and need a reminder that the work is not only about policy. It is about presence. I write as a pastor, not as a housing attorney. I write from the liturgical calendar, where we are always moving between lament and hope, between the tomb and the upper room. Tenant organizing lives in that same tension.
What Tenant Organizing Means in a Parish Context
Tenant organizing is the practice of renters coming together to understand their rights, name shared problems, and act collectively with their neighbors. In a parish context, it is not a political project first. It is a pastoral one. It begins when a parishioner says, “Father, the landlord raised the rent again,” or “They are not fixing the mold,” or “We got a notice and we do not know what it means.” The parish becomes a place where those words are not met with shame or silence.
In East Los Angeles, tenant organizing often overlaps with code enforcement literacy. A tenant may not know that a broken heater is a habitability issue under California law. A landlord may not know that a rent increase requires proper written notice. The parish can be a place where people learn to read those notices the way we learn to read Scripture: slowly, together, and with attention to what is hidden in the fine print.
Adjacent Concepts and Practices
Tenant organizing is connected to several practices that already exist in parish life:
- Restorative conflict mediation: Before a dispute becomes a court case, neighbors can sit in a room and speak honestly. The parish can host those conversations without pretending to be a neutral referee. We are on the side of dignity.
- Land-use literacy: Understanding zoning, rent stabilization ordinances, and code enforcement is not just for lawyers. It is for grandmothers who need to know why the building next door is being converted into luxury lofts.
- Cultural memory documentation: Boyle Heights has a long history of tenant struggles, mutual aid, and displacement. When we document that history, we refuse to let the neighborhood be erased by a real estate listing.
The Spiritual Roots of Tenant Organizing
The Hebrew prophets spoke constantly about land, rent, and the treatment of the poor. Isaiah condemned those who “join house to house” and “add field to field” until there is no room for anyone else. The Book of Leviticus commanded a Jubilee year, when land returned to its original families and debts were forgiven. Jesus himself was a displaced person: born in a borrowed stable, buried in a borrowed tomb. The early Church in Acts held property in common so that no one among them was in need.
This is not a political platform. It is a biblical pattern. When a parish organizes tenants, it is not importing an outside agenda. It is recovering something that was already in our tradition. The question is not whether the Church should care about housing. The question is whether we have the courage to act like we believe what we read on Sunday.
Lament as a First Step
Tenant organizing begins with lament. Before we strategize, we must name what is wrong. A mother who works two jobs and still cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment is not a statistic. She is a parishioner. A father who receives an eviction notice after complaining about raw sewage is not a case file. He is a brother in Christ. Lament is the spiritual practice of telling the truth about suffering without rushing to fix it. In the parish, this means creating space for people to speak without being interrupted by solutions.
In the liturgical calendar, we do this every Lent. We sit in the ashes. We acknowledge that things are not as they should be. Tenant organizing that skips lament becomes brittle. It becomes a list of demands without a soul. Lament keeps us human.
What Tenant Organizing Looks Like on the Ground
I want to be concrete. Tenant organizing in a parish does not require a grant or a full-time organizer. It requires a few people who are willing to be consistent. Here is what it has looked like in our community:
1. Know Your Rights Workshops in the Parish Hall
We have hosted workshops where a housing counselor explains the basics: what a three-day notice means, how to respond to a rent increase, what habitability standards require. We do not give legal advice. We give people enough information to know when they need a lawyer. The parish hall becomes a classroom, but also a sanctuary. People who were afraid to ask questions in a government office will ask them here.
2. Building-Level Conversations
Most tenants do not know their neighbors. Organizing begins with a simple question: “Who else in your building is dealing with this?” A parishioner who lives in a four-unit building on Lorena Street can knock on three doors. That is not a campaign. It is a beginning. When tenants in the same building talk to each other, the landlord is no longer dealing with isolated individuals. He is dealing with a community.
3. Accompaniment at Code Enforcement Hearings
When a tenant files a complaint with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health or the city’s Housing Department, the process can be intimidating. A parish volunteer can sit with them. Not to speak for them, but to be present. This is what the Church does at a hospital bedside. It is what we do at a hearing.
4. Documentation of Conditions
Tenants need to document problems: photographs of mold, videos of water leaks, written records of repair requests. The parish can help by providing a simple checklist and a place to store copies. This is not glamorous work. It is the kind of work that prevents a family from losing their home.
The Cost of This Work
I will not pretend that tenant organizing is easy. It is not. Landlords push back. Some parishioners will be afraid. Some will say the Church should stay out of politics. Others will say we are not doing enough. A pastor who organizes tenants will be accused of being a socialist by some and a coward by others. That is the cost of prophetic witness.
There is also a quieter cost. Tenant organizing means sitting with people who lose. A family may do everything right and still be evicted. A building may be sold and demolished. The work does not always end in victory. If we only measure success by outcomes, we will burn out. The spiritual discipline is to measure success by faithfulness: Did we show up? Did we tell the truth? Did we stay with people in their suffering?
Restorative Conflict Mediation as a Parish Practice
Not every housing conflict needs to become a legal battle. Some disputes between tenants and landlords can be mediated. The parish can host a conversation where both parties speak and listen. This is not about being neutral. It is about being honest. A landlord who has neglected a property needs to hear from tenants without a lawyer filtering every word. A tenant who has withheld rent without understanding the legal consequences needs to hear that too.
Restorative mediation is slow. It requires preparation, ground rules, and follow-up. It does not work when there is a power imbalance so severe that one party cannot speak freely. But when it works, it can preserve a tenancy and even a relationship. In a neighborhood where people have lived next to each other for decades, that matters.
Cultural Memory and the Long View
Boyle Heights has been shaped by displacement. The construction of freeways, the loss of redlined housing stock, and the gentrification of the Whittier Boulevard corridor have all left scars. Tenant organizing that ignores this history is shallow. We organize not just for the next rent increase, but for a neighborhood that remembers who it is.
Cultural memory documentation can be as simple as recording oral histories from longtime residents. It can be a parish bulletin series on the history of a particular block. It can be a photo archive of buildings that no longer exist. When we document these things, we are saying that the people who lived here mattered. Their stories are not disposable.
Practical Steps for a Parish Beginning This Work
If your parish wants to begin tenant organizing, start small. Do not announce a grand campaign. Start with a conversation.
Step 1: Listen
Ask parishioners about their housing situations. Do not assume you know. A simple question after Mass — “How is your housing situation?” — can open a door. Listen without rushing to fix.
Step 2: Identify Leaders
Look for the people who already know their neighbors. They may not call themselves leaders. They are the ones who check on the elderly woman in apartment 2B. They are the ones who know which landlord never fixes anything. Invite them to a conversation.
Step 3: Partner with a Housing Counselor
Do not try to be a legal expert. Partner with a local housing rights organization. In Los Angeles County, there are nonprofit housing counselors who can provide workshops and individual consultations. The parish provides the space and the trust.
Step 4: Create a Simple Resource Sheet
Put together a one-page sheet with phone numbers: the Los Angeles Housing Department, the County Department of Public Health, legal aid organizations, and the parish contact person. Make it available in English and Spanish. Update it regularly.
Step 5: Pray
This is not an afterthought. Tenant organizing is spiritual work, which means it must be rooted in prayer. Pray for tenants facing eviction. Pray for landlords, that their hearts may be softened. Pray for the courage to stay in the work when it is hard. The parish that organizes tenants without prayer will become just another nonprofit. The parish that prays without organizing will become just another social club.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is tenant organizing political?
It can become political, but it does not begin there. Tenant organizing begins with the Gospel command to love our neighbors. When a family is facing eviction, love requires action. That action may involve talking to elected officials or attending a hearing. But the root is pastoral, not partisan. The Church has always been involved in the public square when human dignity is at stake.
What if the landlord is also a parishioner?
This is a real tension in many parishes. A landlord who sits in the pews may also be the person neglecting a building. The parish must be honest about this. We cannot organize tenants while pretending the landlord is not present. Restorative mediation can be a path forward. The goal is not to shame the landlord, but to call him to account. That is what a parish does: it calls people to account in love.
How do we avoid burnout in this work?
Burnout comes when we believe we are responsible for outcomes that belong to God. We are called to be faithful, not successful. Build a team so that no one person carries the weight alone. Celebrate small victories: a repair completed, a notice understood, a neighbor met. And return to the liturgical calendar. The Church’s rhythm of feast and fast, lament and celebration, is a protection against the exhaustion of constant crisis.
What if our parish is small and has no resources?
Start with what you have. A small parish can host a single workshop. It can print a resource sheet. It can pray for tenants by name. Tenant organizing does not require a budget. It requires presence. The widow’s mite is a housing justice principle too.
A Next Step for This Blog
This article is the beginning of a longer conversation. In a future post, I will write about the specific code enforcement process in unincorporated East Los Angeles: how to file a complaint, what to expect, and where the system fails. I will also write about the history of tenant organizing along the Whittier Boulevard corridor, because we cannot know where we are going if we do not know where we have been. If you have a story from your building or your block, write to me. The parish is listening.
Tenant organizing is spiritual work because it is the work of incarnation. God did not stay in heaven and send a memo. God moved into the neighborhood. The Church that organizes tenants is simply following that pattern: showing up, staying, and refusing to look away.