Who We Be
SC Tenant Union is a force for tenants built by tenants. We exist to take on landlords who exploit, displace, and profit from our need for housing. This is more than a fight for homes—it’s a fight for justice, dignity, and the future of our communities. Grounded in the South’s history of resilience, we’re organizing to challenge a system that was never built for us.
From the Lowcountry to the Midlands, we are tenants taking back our power in a region where systemic racism, poverty, and gentrification often hit hardest. We’re not just responding to landlord greed—we’re creating a vision for what housing should be: a human right, not a commodity.
Our Roots
SC Tenant Union (formerly SC Housing Justice Network) was born out of crisis and determination. In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic exposed just how broken the housing system is, a scrappy group of local tenant organizers and allies came together to fight back. We helped tenants navigate eviction moratoriums, organized wealth redistribution efforts through stimulus donations, and built the foundation for what has become a statewide movement.
But our work isn’t new. We’re inspired by the long legacy of Black organizers and Southern movements that have fought against exploitation and oppression. From sharecroppers demanding fair treatment to modern tenant leaders taking on slumlords, we’re carrying forward a tradition of resistance and solidarity.
What We Believe
Our work is grounded in values that reflect both the challenges and the strengths of Southern organizing:
The people closest to the problem are closest to the solutions. We develop tenant leaders to learn their rights, tell their own stories, and determine their own liberation.
Housing justice is racial and gender equity. Housing justice is education justice, economic justice, criminal justice, labor justice, disability justice, LQBTQIA+ justice, and environmental justice.
Care & Accessibility: We put community well-being at the center of everything we do.
Why South Carolina?
South Carolina has always been a battleground for justice. It’s where enslaved people fought for freedom and dignity yet were denied the right even to call their own bodies home. It’s where systemic oppression has long targeted Black communities and working-class families. And it’s where the fight for tenant power has become more urgent than ever.
Several SC cities, like North Charleston and Greenville, have some of the highest eviction rates in the country. Weak tenant protections leave renters vulnerable to landlords who exploit them with skyrocketing rents, unsafe living conditions, and retaliatory evictions. Gentrification is pushing families out of neighborhoods they’ve called home for generations. But South Carolina is also a place of resilience and defiance, where tenant strikes, civil rights activism, and grassroots organizing have left a powerful legacy that fuels our work today.
Organizing in South Carolina means confronting these challenges head-on and building something transformative. South Carolina tenants aren’t just surviving—we’re organizing, rising, and reclaiming our power.
What We Do
We don’t just respond to problems—we create solutions. Our work includes:
Organizing Tenant Unions: Building power one building, block, and community at a time.
Advocating for Policy Change: Pushing for eviction record sealing, rent control, and stronger tenant protections on a state and national level.
Peer-to-Peer Solidarity Support: Offering support and guidance from tenants who understand eviction, landlord harassment, and housing rights violations.
Leadership Development: Training tenant leaders to fight for their communities through Know Your Rights education, organizing conversations, union-building strategies, canvassing training, and more.
The Path Forward
We believe in a South where housing is a human right, not a privilege. Every tenant who joins this movement strengthens our fight and brings us closer to a future where we control our homes, our communities, and our destinies. Together, we’re not just resisting—we’re building something better.