New York City on Monday launched Talk to Tenants, a door-to-door campaign designed to help renters living in buildings with chronic housing violations organize with their neighbors and advocate for safer, healthier homes. The initiative begins in several neighborhoods, including in Flatbush, before expanding across the five boroughs.
Volunteers will visit apartment buildings to inform tenants about their right to organize, connect residents with tenant organizing resources and provide information about city services available to address ongoing housing problems.
The campaign follows the city's Rental Ripoff hearings, where tenants described issues including mold, pests, broken elevators, unreliable heat and years of neglected repairs. New Yorkers interested in volunteering can register through the city's website.
“When neighbors organize, they have the power to hold landlords accountable and win safe, dignified housing," New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. "Talk to Tenants is about empowering New Yorkers to build that power one conversation, one building and one block at a time.”
The effort is especially relevant in Brooklyn, where many renters continue to face rising housing costs alongside aging buildings and unresolved maintenance concerns.
By encouraging residents to organize building by building, the campaign aims to strengthen tenants' ability to work together to address unsafe living conditions and seek long-term improvements, according to city officials.
In addition to door-to-door outreach, the city will host workshops that introduce residents to tenant organizing, explain how to form tenant associations and demonstrate how collective action can improve conditions in their buildings.
Brooklyn residents can attend a workshop in Downtown Brooklyn on Aug. 19 and in Flatbush on Sept. 16. Click here to register.
