Community organizers and concerned citizens gathered at Duluth City Hall on Wednesday to launch Duluth Tenants. The coalition of renters hopes to create community-led solutions to the housing crisis. 

TakeAction Minnesota spent over a year talking to local tenants about their issues. DyAnna Grondahl is a TakeAction Minnesota senior organizer and Duluth Tenants lead organizer. 

“A crew of us got together in July [2023] and said, you know what? People are struggling with their rents, people are struggling with getting their repairs done. We should really do something about it. We wanna build something. Let’s build a tenant union,” said Grondahl. “It’s just renters coming together to advocate for themselves and each other as a crew. We’re going toe to toe with landlords and trying to negotiate and work with them and the powers that be to make sure our needs are met too.” 

Naseem Farahid was nervous to start door-knocking at first. Once they did, Farahid found that many other renters faced the same issues with maintenance and unresponsive landlords.

“I was angry and couldn’t just stand by and let all this happen. I just found so much power in being able to relate to people and being able to learn from their experiences and just find that common ground with folks,” said Farahid. “I want us to be able to have renters have a voice, you know, and be able to build power and be able to have some form of autonomy within this landscape.” 

State Representative Liish Kozlowski, Minnesota Nurses Association President Chris Rubesch, and LeAnn Littlewolf from the American Indian Community Housing Organization all spoke at Wednesday’s union launch to share reasons for their support. The focus for Duluth Tenants for the next year is on putting pressure on landlords to complete the necessary repairs needed for safe living spaces. 

“What would you be doing differently if your rent wasn’t a majority of your income, or repairs were made in a reasonable time frame? If you didn’t have to wait for the if you didn’t have to worry about an ongoing water leak in your home, mice, pests, bugs that go unchecked, unresolved mold, and lead pipes, we could live in a city where we know things will be handled and without cutting corners to save a buck,” Duluth Tenants member Will Richardson said to the crowd on Wednesday. “Let’s cultivate hope for a better future by coming together, building our power, sharing our stories, and fighting to change our city. I’m here and you’re here because you know we need to come together because Duluth can be better and it’s time we take action.”

Duluth Tenants will be meeting again from 7 to 8:30 pm on Wednesday, November 6, and Wednesday, December 11. The meetings will be held at the TakeAction office, but there is a virtual option for those who want to join on Zoom. More details about the Duluth Tenants meetings can be found at this link.