New Orleans Renters Rights Assembly

The New Orleans Renters Rights Assembly  is a collective of renters, homeowners, and unhoused people fighting for housing justice in the city of New Orleans and Louisiana.

Over the past year and a half, the New Orleans Renters Rights Assembly has supported renters enduring evictions, helping them secure more time in their homes and recover stolen security deposits. We have also helped low-income homeowners file property tax appeals against inflated taxes driven by gentrification, and more.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have worked to connect renters with "know your rights" materials, legal aid, and other resources. 

As lawmakers continue to  fail to extend renters protections,  we are working to raise funds to build capacity and power and continue the work of holding our public officials to account on the issues of renters rights and evictions and directly supporting renters made vulnerable during the current crisis. 

Any financial contributions are greatly appreciated as we adapt to the next phase of economic and housing insecurity in New Orleans and across the country.


Please see our statement below about the July 30th #EvictTheCourt Action : 

Thank you to *everyone* who came out yesterday to support our action shutting down eviction court! We successfully stopped evictions from occurring on the East Bank. Much love goes out to all of the Renters Rights organizers, Jane Place CLT members, and mutual aid and organizing groups from across the city who supported this. It was a beautiful show of solidarity from so many amazing organizers and community members!

We know that evictions in New Orleans are a racial justice issue, a gender justice issue, a disability justice issue, and an economic justice issue. Before the pandemic, the majority of people facing evictions in New Orleans were households headed by Black women, and the majority of renters were evicted for owing one month’s rent. With the deepening economic and public health crisis, we know that Black residents are even more at risk of job loss, economic insecurity, housing insecurity, and contracting COVID-19. We need to protect people by protecting people’s housing.

Are you upset to hear that people were unable to get to court yesterday, even the people that had nothing to do with eviction proceedings? We are too! It's really unfair that the First and Second City Court judges, the Mayor, and City Council put the hardworking people of this city in the unfair and terrible position to have to reschedule hearings or come back on other days to file paperwork. If they took action in the first place to keep the eviction moratorium in place, no one would have missed their court related business yesterday. Working class people of New Orleans and their allies wrote petitions, emails, and called their offices for months to explain to them that federal assistance was not reaching everyone, was not enough and that people would not be able to pay many months worth of rent that has accumulated, and to ask that eviction court be shut down for the duration of the pandemic. Our elected officials didn't listen to our requests, did not respond to us, and they did nothing to stop all of our people from being ripped from their homes. Since the moratorium was lifted, hundreds of families in New Orleans have already been kicked out of their homes. It’s now estimated that 50% of all renters in Louisiana are facing eviction in the next few months. This is UNACCEPTABLE.

Some folks would like to blame the inconveniences caused by shutting court down on the very people whose aim it is to hold First and Second City Court judges, the governor, New Orleans City Council and the Mayor accountable for their inaction. Some might not agree with this tactic but what we can all agree is that if elected leadership wants it to stop, they should make a move and prioritize public health not corporate wealth! But we know that you understand, that the point of protest is interrupt business as usual. The point is to get those in power to stop pretending that nothing is happening. That 140,000+ people have not died from coronavirus already. It is not normal or moral to evict people during this time (or ever!). Housing is a human right. This is squarely the responsibility and FAULT of the judges, the governor, city council and the mayor. Evicting people in the midst of a pandemic is not just normalizing death, it is violence against working people who are out of jobs because of circumstances out of their control. 300,000 people are estimated to soon become homeless across the state of Louisiana when the federal moratorium lifts.

So, what next?

Please take some time today and call the following elected officials and demand that they close down eviction court!

Chief Judge Veronica Henry, [phone redacted]
Governor John Bel Edwards, [phone redacted]
Mayor LaToya Cantrell, [phone redacted]
Council Member at Large Helena Moreno, [phone redacted]
Council Member at Large Jason Williams, [phone redacted]
District A Joe Giarrusso, [phone redacted]
District B Jay Banks, [phone redacted]
District C Kristin Palmer, [phone redacted]
District D Jared Brossett, [phone redacted]
District E Cyndi Nguyen, [phone redacted]

If the Mayor’s office or council members’ offices say they do not have the power to shut down court, please tell them that since the court resides in a city-owned building, they have the power to change the locks, the power to turn off the power, the power to evict the court itself. We’re tired of watching our elected officials play the blame game with each other while people get thrown out on the street.

Want to get involved in our organizing? Everyone has something to contribute and we would love for you to stand with us!

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Much love and thanks from the New Orleans Renters Rights Assembly!