Notebook: SNCC Strikes the Landlords
Kottler, Neil
"You can't do nothing with them white folks. They have the money and the power. When they feel like doing something, they'll do it. I asked Mr. Barry [the landlord] to fix my bathroom, and...
...We all know that when water comes in of that type, it's certainly going to leak out...
...According to a rent-strike spokesman, there is no way to appeal the case further, since a higher court rarely overrules a lower court on procedural matters...
...Nevertheless, SNCC has organized more than 100 tenants in seven buildings...
...The rent-strike lawyers also want the court or a bank to hold in escrow the tenants' back rent...
...A more organized approach was needed...
...The agent for the building filed a suit for Shuler's eviction with the Landlord-Tenant Court of Washing...
...SNCC's objectives are legislation to protect tenants against arbitrary eviction...
...The Record shows 37 violations of the housing code...
...When they feel like doing something, they'll do it...
...Shuler was not filed on time...
...In other words, the landlord contends it is less important that the water floods the apartment in the first place than that the water stays only a short time...
...In the weeks preceding the Shuler eviction, SNCC students had heard about evictions and often would move tenants back into their apartments...
...Those white folks can't be forced to do things they don't want to do...
...to this end to put Washington on an emergency housing basis which would require rent-control and accelerate public housing...
...SNCC's hope is to rally public opinion behind its campaign by exposing economic and political conditions that have long been concealed...
...The rent-strike lawyers want the court to enforce the District housing code by setting standards for housing conditions that entitle the landlord to his profit...
...Though an inspector recently ordered the landlord to make repairs and fireproof the building, this tenant is resigned to the fact of white power as she has experienced it over long years...
...The tenants must either continue to live in the same conditions or work outside the 'democratic structure.' If they work outside, they will probably be called 'irresponsible.' The courts have not dampened our spirits...
...Shuler...
...Many tenants refuse to join because they fear reprisals...
...Recently SNCC organized 51 tenants in a housing project owned by Negroes...
...Not all the SNCC leaders are enthusiastic about the rent-strike...
...The method SNCC will employ is 'social dislocation.' It is the method we know best...
...SNCC contends that the Department of Licenses and Investigations, responsible for enforcing the housing code, is inadequately staffed...
...Shuler, holding that nonpayment of rent is legal justification for eviction...
...Three other tenants in the building have joined...
...Other prospective rentstrike tenants have since learned about the strike and have contacted SNCC about joining...
...After fourteen years her bathroom ceiling still leaks, rats still run through the building and create an odor from the basement that stinks up the front hallway (causing the tenants to avoid the basement and pile their garbage in the hallway...
...The landlord replied that it would be easier to make repairs without the Shuler family occupying the apartment...
...The Washington rent strike began without the trouble-shooting of SNCC...
...The rent-strike lawyers have filed a stay of proceedings motion pre venting Mrs...
...ton...
...II Prior to the Shuler eviction, the SNCC students in Washington were planning to launch a direct action campaign aimed at dramatizing poverty, unemployment, inadequate housing and schools, and racial discrimination in general...
...But there was no compliance...
...As the strike spreads, the shortage of student-workers is becoming more acute...
...Though the Department claims that every licensed residence (having three or more dwellings) is inspected yearly, it admits its inspectors cannot investigate all complaints and check all conditions...
...The landlord of the first rent-strike building is the vice-president of a banquet hall catering largely to middle-class Negroes...
...SNCC picketed the premises...
...Shuler had housing inspectors survey her apartment and A Report from Washington, D.C...
...He admitted, however, some conditions in the building were not satisfactory: "Mrs...
...to focus attention on the need for greater low-income public housing (the NCHA has estimated that as many as 40,000 dwelling units are needed, while only 8,000 presently exist...
...They have the money and the power...
...Eventually, the rent strike will encompass the entire city, organized on a block-wide basis, and will involve many types of housing, not excluding middle-class...
...But, according to Stokeley Carmichael, a SNCC leader, these "guer rilla tactics" were ineffectual in the long run...
...and finally, to achieve home-rule, which SNCC re gards as the only lasting solution for the District's problems...
...In the Shuler apartment the ceilings are cracked and sagging, whole chunks of plaster are missing from the hallway exposing the boards beneath, the roof leaks causing rain to flood three rooms, and in the living room a large window pane is broken since December, leaving the apartment cold through this past winter...
...SNCC at first concentrated on tenants in the neighborhood of their office...
...Two years ago, the landlord promised Mrs...
...The question remained, however, what problems should be tackled first...
...SNCC's ultimate aim is to mobilize Washington Negroes...
...The rent strike is not aimed exclusively at white landlords...
...Once a majority of the tenants of a building agree to strike, SNCC establishes a trust fund for their rents and arranges for trustees to oversee the fund...
...Shuler wants us to believe that when it rained, a foot of water rained in the upper floor and remained there indefinitely...
...Meetings with tenants are then arranged and in the early stages SNCC students often have to visit them nightly in order to allay their fear of bucking the property system...
...Thorp, a tenant at 2920 13th Street, N.W., has refused to join the rent-strike organized by SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee...
...111 SNCC's objectives are both immediate and long-range...
...The landlord then can collect his rent only if he shows that he has made improvements on the building...
...Prior to this Mrs...
...Meanwhile, SNCC has relocated Mrs...
...Court Transcript, Jan...
...a housing official admitted that the housing market is tight, encouraging landlords to charge high rents without improving their buildings...
...It is noteworthy, however, that the Court allowed a full two days of testimony and subpoenaed housing inspectors...
...In this event the rent-strike lawyers will have to file a new suit showing the court that there is no justification for hiked rents (i.e., used to cover the cost of repairs) insofar as the former rents were charged illegally...
...Shuler's eviction until the case is settled in the courts...
...They admit, however, it will take time to educate the Negro community for home-rule...
...Though many of the violations concern structural defects such as a faulty roof and lack of adequate janitoring, the landlord's lawyer maintained that repairs had already been made but the tenant allowed the dwelling to deteriorate...
...28, 1964...
...Inspectors found the whole building rat- and mice-infested...
...The New York rent strike also encouraged SNCC leaders...
...A majority of the SNCC leadership decided, however, to first launch a rent strike...
...The lawyers' committee plans to take a new case to court during the summer...
...As one SNCC leader remarked: "If they evict these tenants, I will move from my place and pitch a tent where the authorities can see me...
...The National Capital Housing Authority, a federal agency which controls public housing in Washington, has estimated that in 1962 about 25,000 low-income families lived in substandard housing...
...The rent-strike lawyers admit that their court fight is of limited use...
...The rent-strike lawyers in their court fight are aiming to get the courts to enforce the housing code and ultimately put pressure on the District Commission to eliminate substandard housing...
...332 Stokely Carmichael summed up the first phase of the rent strike: "[It] reflects the typical position of Negroes in the North...
...Mrs...
...The Shuler eviction precipitated this...
...They used democratic procedures, and these were proved an abysmal failure...
...Shuler's lawyers challenged it, contending that they were not disputing the merits of the District housing laws, but that in their client's case it is unconscionable to expect her to pay rent in a substandard and uninhabitable dwelling...
...Some students wanted to give priority to poverty and unemployment, and formulated plans to demonstrate against the District Commission...
...Shuler to repair the roof and in March, 1963, the District housing office ordered the landlord to make repairs...
...You can't do nothing with them white folks...
...They maintain that as long as landlords collect rent in substandard dwellings, the court is, in effect, enforcing illegal contracts...
...When the strike began, many Negro organizations that patronized the banquet hall put pressure on the management to require their vice-president to make repairs on his struck building...
...The [rent-strike] tenants went through all the legal channels to try to correct the situation...
...More rent strikes are planned for the summer...
...At least two immediate results can follow...
...Their goal was to crystallize Negro discontent around economic and political grievances and to mobilize political action to achieve home-rule (Washington is about 56 per cent Negro...
...Or the landlords may decide to improve their buildings and hike the rents...
...These students agreed that the real issue was economic exploitation, as manifested in the housing problem, and an irresponsible political system (the House District Committee dominated by southern and mid-western congressmen) which permitted widespread abuse of property rights...
...They urge direct political agitation against the District Commission and Congress...
...Furthermore, according to Assistant Superintendent Strang, the Department shies away from strict policing, preferring to persuade landlords that maintenance of property is in their best interest...
...they ordered the landlord to repair the building...
...In November a SNCC study of District housing conditions revealed that a rent-strike campaign could be useful...
...The economic pressure was so effective that the management claims its business suffered damages of $10,000 and has taken SNCC to court...
...Once a SNCC student even broke into a basement to turn on the hot water that had been shut off...
...And we will not shrink from the label, 'irresponsible...
...The acting rent-strike lawyer, Professor Herbert Reed of Howard University Law School, was out of town when the new bond was asked...
...Some are aware that just for registering a complaint with the Housing division, they risk eviction...
...Ultimately, SNCC plans to help organize rent strikes in predominantly poor white neighborhoods...
...Nor does SNCC wish to spare the feelings of Negroes not directly involved in the strike...
...On January 16, SNCC learned that the Shuler family at 1414 Girard Street, N.W., received an eviction notice...
...The landlords may succeed in causing a large-scale eviction unless the Federal government intercedes...
...Barry [the landlord] to fix my bathroom, and he says he will...
...Some believe that it is too moderate a tactic...
...A Postscripf On April 29, 1964 the District Court of Appeals struck down the first rentstrike case because the new bond of $5,000 that the court required of Mrs...
...The Court ruled against Mrs...
...Instead of spreading the strike across the city, they favor concentrating it in particular areas...
...If evictions occur as a result of the rent strike, SNCC plans to establish "tent-cities" on public grounds, e.g., around the Lincoln Memorial...
...The Shuler case is now being ap pealed to the District Court of Ap peals...
...The courts ruled against them...
...A group of students is assigned to each rentstrike building...
...When a group of tenants is nearly organized, a rent-strike lawyer visits them to explain legal procedures...
...As the laws stand, the court is likely to take the side of the landlord...
...The rent-strike organizers are students at Howard University...
...Because of the demands of organizing and sustaining the momentum of the strike (striking tenants need assurance that others are joining them), the students are under constant pressure to devote much of their time to the strike that would otherwise be used for studying...
...Twelve lawyers have donated their services...
...Of the students who favor the strike many disagree about its course...
Vol. 11 • July 1964 • No. 3
