Secure Stable Housing for South Bend Tenants
We need your help.
The South Bend Tenant Association (SBTA) is seeking donations from the community to keep our mission alive. SBTA is a volunteer-only, grassroots movement dedicated to ensuring long-term stable housing for all residents of South Bend. To this end, SBTA advocates for tenants in public policy, represents tenants in disputes with landlords, provides tenant resources, and increases tenant education. SBTA seeks to secure all three pillars of housing stability: affordability, habitability, and safety.
SBTA needs money to get us through this summer, including securing business insurance, paying for office rent and utilities, as well as other paperwork and miscellaneous operation costs.
In the past, SBTA has represented the tenants of Rabbi Shulman Apartments, delaying the mass eviction of 112 families during a pandemic until the housing authority devised a plan to ensure every family would be relocated to a new home.
In the midst of the pandemic, SBTA aggregated rent assistance resources and collaborated with the city and local nonprofits to increase knowledge of the many resources available to South Bend tenants. In addition, SBTA launched a city-wide campaign to host food drives with the dual-effort of registering individuals to vote, supporting over two hundred families.
SBTA maintains an intake form online and supports tenants city-wide to advise tenants facing inhabitable conditions. Across South Bend, dated housing supply creates widespread inhabitable housing conditions, particularly impacting at-risk populations. Common problems include rodents, exposed wire, lack of running water, dysfunctional AC and/or heating, broken appliances, leaking ceilings and more.
Meanwhile South Bend is among the worst twenty cities nationwide for eviction rates. Despite this, Indiana legislatures continue to attack the ability for tenant’s to defend themselves, choosing to push through a law preventing cities from regulating any aspect of landlord-tenant relations, legislation that went so far as to prevent city policies aimed at increasing the awareness of tenant’s rights. SBTA joined a coalition that led to the successful veto of the legislation from Governor Holcomb.
But, the fight only continues. This past year, the Indiana State legislature overrode the governor’s veto, enacting the legislation. SBTA will continue to maintain its voice in support of tenant's rights, yet we are at risk of losing our office. We are working on applying to larger community grants, but until then, we need your assistance to sustain us through the summer so that we can continue to assist the tenants of South Bend.
We need your support to continue to educate and empower the tenants of South Bend, fight for fair housing policy, and provide resources to the South Bend community. Can you support us today?
