We The Tenants
Every St. Louisan deserves access to a safe & affordable home!
Who are we?
We The Tenants is an organizing campaign, anchored by ArchCity Defenders and Action St. Louis, that builds power among renters to fight for more affordable and safe housing, fewer evictions, and a true Right to Counsel for everyone facing eviction in St. Louis.
We The Tenants has been organizing renters since 2021. Tenants are the majority in St. Louis, but powerful landlords and unjust eviction laws hold us down and trap us in poverty. Together, we can create a better region that ensures safe and affordable housing for all!
We are in deep partnership with Tenants Transforming Greater St. Louis, a local Black renter-led organization that catalyzes tenant associations and serves as an accountability mechanism for landlords to improve or maintain housing quality. We collaborate on site-based organizing and citywide policy.
We are not a service organization offering rental support or housing assistance. INSTEAD, we build collective power among renters to fight for a region in which we do not need to depend on rental support or housing assistance, because housing is affordable and plentiful.
Join us!
We host monthly meetings on the last Tuesday of each month at 6pm at the Northside Movement Center, 5939 Goodfellow Blvd. St. Louis, MO, 63147. Join us!
You can register for upcoming meetings here: bit.ly/stlwtt.
Tenant Organizing
Do you live in a building where you and your neighbors face common issues like high numbers of evictions, mold and pest issues, or overcharged fees and other unfair landlord practices?
Are you ready to build collective power with your neighbors and fight for real change?
You can start a tenant union!
A tenant union is a group made up of, and led by, tenants to fight for our collective interests and rights. Tenant unions can be building-based, neighborhood based, or citywide (like We the Tenants for St. Louis!).
Connect with us to learn more about how to start your tenant union and what organizing support the We the Tenants campaign can offer. In partnership with TTGSTL, we’ve supported renters across the region in building collective power to fight for change in their buildings.
Key Wins
We The Tenants has helped tenants achieve impactful policy changes, including:
Right to Counsel
Provides renters facing eviction with a no-cost eviction defense attorney. This program is funded by the City of St. Louis and applications can be submitted to the Housing Eviction Law Program at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.
Our top priority is using our power to force the City to fully fund the Right to Counsel program, so that every person evicted in St. Louis City gets a free attorney to defend their rights and keep them housed.
You can learn more about the Right to Counsel program, including how to apply, here: https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/human-services/help-stl/request-help-stl.cfm
Mold Remediation
We the Tenants led a fight to pass Board Bill 125, which protects renters from mold and disease by requiring landlords to disclose and remediate mold in all rental properties or else lose the legal right to rent the property. This ordinance was passed in 2024 and establishes a critical right for tenants, especially given the high rates of asthma among Black residents in St. Louis. Check out TTGSTL’s Home is Where Our Health Is report to learn more.
Rental Registry
Our powerful renters led the fight to create a rental registry in St. Louis so there is a public record of slumlords’ unfair behavior. This registry will be a public city database of rental properties that landlords are required to register their properties with, and will include important information like occupancy permits and past building issues. This is important because landlords require tenants to disclose lots of personal info, but we rarely know anything about our landlords and the properties they own. The registry is expected to launch in July 2027.
Impacted Tenant Fund
This program assists eligible city renters who have been forced to relocate from their homes due to building condemnation & or due to the May 16th Tornado of 2025. This bill was passed a few years back but was not sufficiently funded nor available until after the tornado. WTT fought hard for this critical resource because many renters in STL are forced to relocate after buildings are condemned by the City.
Get Involved
We host monthly meetings on the last Tuesday of each month at 6pm (date is subject to change, please check our social media for updates) at the Northside Movement Center, 5939 Goodfellow Blvd. St. Louis, MO, 63147. Join us!
You can register for upcoming meetings here: bit.ly/stlwtt.
Contact Us
Damon Starks, damon@actionstl.org
Rachel Hurtado, rhurtado@archcitydefenders.org
Will Krueger, wkrueger@archcitydefenders.org