Hoboken United Tenants

Short-term rentals destroy a city’s housing stock for profit. Tell the city: no airbnb legalization. Instead, force the housing division to enforce vacancy laws - with the added benefits of freeing up more housing and generating city revenue. Join us at city council to speak. Send the letter here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/ban-short-term-rentals-enforce-the-law?source=direct_link&

Hey neighbor ☺️

Is there an AirBnB in your building? HUT would love to hear about it.

Click the link in our bio and find the “short term rental” survey. We would like to get a sense of where AirBnB is being used so we can better advocate for its regulation, and help tenants push their landlord to stop renting units via short-term rental sites.

Many short term rentals can actually lead to higher rents, overall and we want to be on top of it.

Much thanks and pass on to anyone you know who might know a thing or two about short term rentals in their building!

Confirm your voting location at this link:
https://nj.gov/state/elections/vote-polling-location.shtml

Just some thoughts from your organized tenant neighbors as we move into voting day tomorrow.

If i never see another glossy mailer again it’ll be too soon!

Honestly we feel for the politicians in all this. We can see how the system works and the pressures they face.

That said - the right thing to do is to stand with our neighbors, lower everyone’s costs, and fight for housing for all.

The election is almost done. Get in touch and let’s get organizing in our buildings with our neighbors!

Just reposting the additional voting option opened up today due to expected weather on Tuesday

Hey Neighbor!

Some light reading for your holiday drive or a topic for the dinner table.

Similar to the survey sent to mayoral candidates, we’ve rounded up responses for those vying for a seat in the city council runoffs, on Dec 2.

As a reminder, HUT is not endorsing anyone and you can also vote for Cc members regardless of their slate and mayoral candidate.

As always, we encourage you to look beyond these electoral politics and into organizing.

Stay safe, enjoy your holiday and a moment of gratitude from us to you, our neighbors.

You’re gonna like this one. Share it far and wide.

Since the last analysis we’ve obtained new records… some we had to push pretty hard to get.

Politicians want you thinking about their smiles and personalities and the favors they might do for you. To play that game is to negotiate from a position of weakness, not power. You want power? Understand the money.

Look, bottom line is your city should work for you, not the rich, not your landlord. You. Until we organize to control money & power for the people, all the complaints in the world won’t change it. We want a city for all.

Join up to fight for that kind of city.

More detail here: https://www.hobokenunitedtenants.org/blog/hobokenmayoralrunoffupdate

Love & solidarity
Let’s get back to work
Your neighbors
HUT

Better late than never, we’re releasing the summary of answers candidates gave to our questionnaire.

This was a tough exercise because we did not want to simply amplify the misleading campaigning and vague non-answers you’ve all been subjected to all year. It’s critical to dig deeper, read between the lines and look at histories.

Most candidates will probably not like it, but that’s because our functions are at odds. We’re trying to build democracy from below. They’re trying to govern, normalize, and maintain a system that presently at status quo is heavily stacked against working people.

We have to try and pry truth out of an election system funded by the wealthy, networks controlled by the wealthy, and politicians whose careers depend entirely on getting our votes every few years while protecting the normal systemic power of their real clients and colleagues for all the time in between.

We’ll be glad to be done with the electoral spectacle soon. Back to building real power with our neighbors where we vote together on decisions that affect us. Join up!

We did it! This law, written and sponsored by council members and , passed 2nd reading tonight in another unanimous vote.

As we said all along, it’s common sense: Hoboken supports our rent control laws, but they are not yet being enforced. Step 1 is requiring proof of rent charged. Next, we have to expand transparency and digital records, and provide adequate staffing to fully enforce our laws.

Now let’s get organizing. Thanks to new members for coming and speaking.

All council members ultimately voted with us: , , , , , and , in addition to the laws sponsors and .

Some council members, notably , worried that some landlords may not be able to charge enough under our cities laws if they accidentally charge too little in the past. To this we say: They can file a hardship increase appeal with the rent board if they really need to increase our cities rents.

Thanks again Hoboken!

Tag your fave city council rep in the comments and ask them: bestie how they’re going to vote!

Neighbors, write to us to meet just before the meeting, we’ll give you the run down on the essential facts and how to do public comment!