To the supporters of "Stop Local Systemic Classism,"

Thank you for your support in calling out the inequality and classism embedded in our local systems. When we talk about systemic classism, we are talking about a system where wealth buys safety, while poverty forces families into dangerous conditions.

Nowhere is this injustice more visible than in Berkeley’s housing market.

For too long, we have watched landlords treat our homes as mere cash cows—collecting rent while ignoring mold, pests, and safety hazards. We have seen how the legal system favors property owners over human beings, allowing slumlords to profit off the misery of working-class families. The "cost of doing business" for them is our health, our stability, and our dignity.

It’s time to move from resisting this system to building a new one.

That is why we are launching a companion campaign: The Tenant Ownership and Community Stewardship Initiative.

We are demanding that the City of Berkeley stop simply fining bad landlords and start empowering tenants to take over.

We are proposing three radical but necessary changes:

The Right of First Refusal: If a landlord with a history of code violations tries to sell a building, the tenants living there must get the first chance to buy it.

Eminent Domain for Neglect: If a landlord refuses to fix their property, the city should seize it and transfer ownership to a Community Land Trust or Cooperative managed by the tenants.

The Berkeley Tenant Equity Fund: City-backed financing to help tenants buy their buildings, keeping housing permanently affordable and removing it from the speculative market forever.

Why This Matters: Systemic classism thrives when people are displaced. By transferring ownership from negligent landlords to the tenants themselves, we don't just fix the housing stock—we shift economic power. We stop the extraction of wealth from our communities and ensure that residents control their own destiny.

We need your help to make this happen.

We have created a new petition specifically targeting the Berkeley City Council, the Rent Board, and State Representatives to demand these policies. We cannot win this fight without showing a massive, unified front.

Please click the link below to sign this new petition and help us take the next step in dismantling local systemic classism:

https://www.change.org/p/enact-tenant-opportunity-to-purchase-for-neglected-properties

Together, we can ensure that in Berkeley, housing is a right, not a privilege for the wealthy.

Please share this with your friends, family, colleagues and following alike!