Militant Measures 2/3: How a growing crisis has fueled militant housing activism nationwide

Across the country, battles that were fought primarily in courthouses and through legislation, nonprofits and community centers have evolved. Now, some of these battles are waged from behind the barricaded doors of formerly vacant public housing and in front of eviction courts rendered inoperable as tenants link arms, blocking their entrances.

Spurred by the country’s deepening housing crisis, this wave of militant housing activism has enveloped the nation. With roots in Moms 4 Housing’s late 2019 takeover of vacant housing in Oakland, California, the phenomenon has intensified during a pandemic that has caused many families economic pain.

On Christmas Eve, members of Tacoma Housing Now, a direct-action-oriented housing activism group, paid for 16 rooms in a motel just across the Puyallup River from Tacoma, Washington. Then they refused to leave, sending the bill for what would become five additional nights to the city and county.

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