The Renters and Housing Union (RAHU WA) has recently set up a Western Australian branch. Green Left spoke to Sadie, a delegate for RAHU WA, about the housing affordability crisis and the role the union hopes to play.
What is a renters’ union and why do you think a union can help secure rights for tenants as opposed to other means, such as an advocacy group?
A renters’ union is a lot like a trade union, but for renters. We organise collectively against landlords in the same way that trade unions organise against bosses.
It starts by supporting renters to know their rights to be able to push back against landlords. This moves to community building and the final part, which is where our power lies, is to unionise renters so that they are ready to take action and strike if need be.
Instead of asking nicely, we need to organise. This is where our power lies. When we organise, we push back collectively and hold landlords to account.
As to the second part of your question, I want to mention a quote from Assata Shakur, an ex-Black Panther, who said: “Nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”
The question of advocacy versus organising is a question of power. I have volunteered for many years in advocacy organisations and, fundamentally, it comes down to asking someone politely to remove their boot from your neck.
This is not where our power lies. Individual MPs may be amenable to ideas but, as a whole, they are not our friends.
Nearly two thirds of federal MPs (~63%) own two or more properties. In the 2023-2024 financial year, Labor took more than $2.5 million in donations from a combination of developers and property industry, as well as the banking and finance industry. These businesses earn big bucks from raising house prices.
In addition, the threat of you becoming homelessness is essential to a capitalist economy.
If you’re a single mum with three kids, you don’t have an option to be picky about where you work or rent. You’ll pick the option that meets your basic needs — no matter how low-paying, dangerous and exploitative it might be.
The system keeps wages low and profits high.
Landlords do not provide housing — it already exists — they produce nothing and are allowed to profit from our need to not be homeless.
What is your perspective on the cost-of-living and housing crises in WA?
Readers from smaller states might not appreciate is just how big WA is and how spread out Boorloo/Perth is. We have more than enough land to go around, but it’s treated as a scarce resource. An open house for a property generates lines as long as the street the house is on.
I’m a social worker and have helped a lot of homeless people navigate our public housing system. Even if you are in dire need of a house you could expect an eight to nine year wait. If you are homeless and have exhausted all other alternatives you can apply for a priority listing, which brings it down to four to five years.
Crisis and transitional accommodation for people without shelter do exist, but they are woefully under-resourced.
At my former workplace I would get calls every day from people begging for housing, but we could not help. If you’re lucky enough to get long-term housing, you are not allowed to earn more than a threshold, or you will lose it.
I’ve seen people’s housing at risk because they worked three days a week on the minimum wage. You become trapped in poverty, forced to choose between housing or trying to improve your life.
Corporate media, such as the West Australian, says immigration is one of the main underlying causes of the rent crisis. Do you agree?
Net migration is significantly higher now compared to pre-pandemic numbers in 2020. But this argument contains the same faulty logic as the complaint that immigrants steal our jobs. It disguises the true problem: both are being exploited!
Prosper Australia released a report in July that identified more than 100,000 vacant properties in Naarm/Melbourne. That exceeds newly built homes by 2.5 times and is almost enough to house the homeless.
prosper_australia.png
If a similar analysis was done in WA, we would see a similar pattern. It’s more profitable to build luxury apartments and not sell them until the market is “right” than to build low-cost housing.
What role does government policy play in the housing market?
It has an immense role to play. It’s easy to forget that, even under neoliberalism, the state has a big role in shaping behaviour, distribute resources and ensure that the marginalised are given a level of protection.
The policy of negative gearing incentivises the purchase of housing for investment rather than demand. The construction of plentiful and good quality public housing helps lower demand. The regulation of AirBnBs would have a similar effect.
RAHU has a list of demands, none of which are that radical. They show what we want and allow for some advocacy.
We also need to make sure we focus on where our power truly lies. Something that inspires me on the other side of the world, in Kansas City, is that tenants in federally-financed properties are on strike.
If those in public housing did that, the government would have to sit up and listen.
How is RAHU WA helping those living in the regional and remote areas?
RAHU has online organising and other skills trainings: so much of our work is now online. More remote members can still benefit from our renters’ rights support team. If you’re based in regional/remote WA, we can still support you.
[You can get in touch with Renters and Housing Union here.]