Corporate Landlord Organizing Team

Corporate Landlord Organizing

Our Corporate Landlord Organizing began as a response to Veritas Investments, San Francisco’s largest private landlord. In 2017, we launched the Veritas Tenant Association (VTA), uniting tenants across more than 100 Veritas-owned buildings. Through the VTA, renters came together to assert their rights, fight against unjust practices, and secure meaningful improvements in their housing conditions. Since then, we have expanded our focus to many corporate landlords across San Francisco.

As corporate ownership of San Francisco’s housing stock grows, so has our fight. What started with Veritas has evolved into a broader movement against major corporate landlords who put profit above people. Today, our Corporate Landlord Organizing unites renters from across the city, empowering them to defend their homes, stop evictions, and fight for fair housing conditions.

What We Do

Our organizing approach is rooted in empowering tenants to take collective action against corporate landlords who prioritize profits over people. We go door-to-door, building relationships with tenants, fostering leadership, and supporting them in organizing their buildings—starting with petitions and progressing all the way to direct negotiations with landlords. We focus on large corporate landlords as part of a strategic intervention to challenge the financialized real estate system and shift the balance of power in favor of tenants.

We’ve supported renters across San Francisco secure rent reductions, improve building maintenance, and win debt forgiveness. We work closely with tenants, developing their leadership skills and ensuring they have the tools needed to advocate for themselves and their communities.

The Veritas Tenant Association (VTA), launched in 2017, remains a cornerstone of this movement, organizing renters in more than 100 Veritas-owned buildings. VTA members have fought for and won major improvements, from better construction practices to rent relief.

In 2022, our work led to the passage of the Union-At-Home ordinance (more info here) which grants tenants collective bargaining rights and redefines organizing as an essential housing service. This legislation has opened the door for tenants citywide to negotiate directly with corporate landlords, establishing a new era of tenant power in San Francisco.

Major Wins

  • 2024

    Tenants won rent decreases, waived late fees, and other benefits, such as multilingual notices for tenants, elevator modernization and pest control commitments, and access to vendor contracts and financial ledgers.

  • 2023

    As Veritas defaulted on major loans and began selling off parts of its portfolio, the VTA supported tenants through rent strikes and eviction defense. We mobilized to challenge habitability issues and fought to ensure tenants weren’t displaced as buildings changed ownership.

  • 2022

    We secured the groundbreaking Right to Organize legislation, which grants collective bargaining rights to tenants in 33 buildings. This legislation paved the way for direct contract negotiations between tenants and landlords, with a focus on issues like rent increases, habitability, and tenant debt.

  • 2021

    The VTA led a debt strike involving 60 tenants across 40 buildings, resulting in an estimated $100-150k in rent debt forgiveness per unit. This strike was part of our larger effort to address the burden of rent debt accumulated during the pandemic.