There is power, too, in language. By renaming ourselves as the SC Tenants’ Union we are showing our clear commitment to building a tenant class and crystalizing our central work – that of collectivizing our needs to transform our lives and guarantee homes for all of us.
SCTU Kickoff Celebration in Charleston, January 2025.
With this name there is no confusion about who we are. We are a dues paying organization with a democratic and equitable infrastructure. With this name there is no confusion about our mission. We want to see a tenant class rise up. We’re continuing the work we started in 2020 as the South Carolina Housing Justice Network with renewed vigor, momentum and support. With this name we choose to publicly claim our identity as a union in a state that has one of the lowest labor union densities and one of the highest eviction rates. We’ve been knocking on doors across South Carolina and eliminating barriers to joining to grow our membership base and leave no tenant behind.
SCTU canvassing event.
It is with rigor in our relationships that we determine how we fight. We know that the people closest to the problem are closest to the solutions. This is exactly how we came to our fight for eviction sealing in South Carolina. Every tenant we talked to expressed that the hardest part of eviction is its aftermath. Many of our members live in hotels not because they don’t have the income to afford an apartment but because there’s an eviction on their record. Eviction sealing quickly and clearly became the thing that could change our lives forever. One of our members and leaders shared that she had an eviction on her record and couldn’t find better housing despite her ability to afford it (ironically the company that caused the eviction renewed her lease). Because she’s part of the union she’s become politicized over the issue and is now leading this legislative fight for the bill. It is through our trust in relationships with one another that we came into our legislative lobbying work this year with the Eviction Record Sealing Bill, which we introduced into the SC General Assembly in March. In addition to pushing this bill with our elected officials, we’ve embarked on a political education campaign to inform people about the impacts of eviction records. We’ve even talked with landlords who had no idea this was the case and expressed deep regret for filing evictions because they weren’t aware of the fact that they were permanently marking people.
SCTU members at lobby day in Washington D.C. meeting with one of Nancy Mace’s staffers.
Here at the SC Tenants Union we are building the power that it will take to go on a rent strike, the power to make transformative change.
Visit our new website at www.sctenantunion.org.
Join our union here.
Donate to support our work here.
Follow us on Instagram @sctenantunion.
