The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the many failings of the for-profit housing market and the consequences of government inaction to protect renters. It has also reaffirmed the critical importance of community organizing and building deeply rooted organizing networks. In these difficult days, we will need both to fix our broken systems of governance and create a different future for low-income people and people of color.

For weeks, state and local leaders passed responsibility back and forth, each refusing to take meaningful action to prevent a wave of evictions triggered by this global health pandemic. In response, allies stepped up their organizing and helped advance ordinances at the local and county levels to keep families in their homes while the shelter-in-place order issued by Governor Newsom is in effect.

In a more just world, tenant organizers could concentrate on confronting the health crisis and its impact on our communities, instead of also fighting for anti-eviction measures that should have been in place years ago. We hoped that at the very least, the Governor would announce an eviction ban across the state in his address last Friday. Instead, as many housing justice advocates point out, the executive order falls short of what is needed, and will very likely make matters worse for the most vulnerable residents once the state of emergency is lifted and accrued rents become due.

There is a cruel irony in ordering people to shelter-in-place while many are unhoused, and many more are likely to be evicted due to the unfolding economic crisis. But we should not be surprised. The same for-profit market that has undermined our health care system has devastated housing. And the hyper-active economy of the Bay Area, far from lifting all boats, has only fueled regional inequality and resegregation.

For years, renters have been fighting to pass protections against displacement and assert their right to remain in their neighborhoods and communities. And for years, they have been opposed almost uniformly by local government leaders and their allies in the real estate industry. But these fights have taught us many lessons and made us stronger. The recent wave of victories around eviction moratoriums across the region is a testament to one important lesson: organizing works.

But this is just the beginning, recent actions by decision makers on rents and evictions have deferred a crisis that will explode later. The housing justice movement understands this, which is why Urban Habitat is joining our allies who are calling for rent strikes and cancellation of rent debt.

The current emergency has exposed that for-profit markets and the leaders in thrall to them do not respond to the needs of the people. Our demands must rise to this moment and our movement must look beyond to what comes after. As we respond to the challenges that unfold day by day, we also want the time, energy, and resources we put into this work to ensure that we do not return to normal.