In Bloomington, growing concerns over lack of representation for renters have led housing advocacy group Neighbors United to begin the formation of a new ‘Renters’ Neighborhood Association.’

Intended to be an alternative to the current homeowner-dominated neighborhood associations that can be found around Bloomington, the Renters’ Association will provide renter-specific support in the protection of their rights and representation in city-wide decisions.

WFHB met with Andrew Guenther, a local renter involved with Neighbors United, who shared his thoughts on how he would like to see the renters’ association take shape.

“If I were to have my dream come true it would be a multi-layered, multi-tiered system that seeks to, firstly educate renters on things such as renter’s rights, how to read your lease, how to report landlords that aren’t doing what they’re supposed to under the law… to provide those types of resources to renters… to provide that information in a location easy to find for renters, as well as organize renters to advocate for policies that will benefit all people in Bloomington, but specifically renters… policies that focus on housing affordability, housing quantity, housing quality, that focus on how we use our land and how we use our resources are definitely important and have a vast impact on everyone in Bloomington, but particularly renters who are some of the most prone to the influxes and sways of the housing market… even though [renters] make up 65% of Bloomington we are not represented that way in our local government… I’m not saying that the association will necessarily advocate for people to be elected who rent but I think that we will be looking for people in city government to take a more renter friendly approach when voting on issues that affect us.”

Neighbors United hosted a public event this past Sunday afternoon to hear from other community members and initiate the creation of the renters’ association. Guenther, who was present for the event, touched on his initial takeaways from attendance.

“When I went to the event I was impressed by the variety of ideas that came forward. There was an activity where people went around and talked about or wrote down their own ideas for how housing can be improved and how we can improve renters’ experiences in Bloomington and a lot of them were things I just said… It was very cool to gather with like-minded individuals and be on the same page. There wasn’t really any disagreement, every time someone mentioned something everyone else went, ‘oh yeah, I was thinking about that too,”... so I think that there are a lot of core issues that renters can agree on and organize around and it was cool to see that in practice.”

Though the renters’ association is still in the early stages, it hopes to organize as quickly and efficiently as possible to meet the immediate needs of Bloomington renters. The call-out meeting on Sunday was the first step in the establishment of the renters’ association. 

Neighbors United organizer Vauhxx Booker spoke to WFHB about organizational goals for the renters’ association as well as the potential services this group aims to provide to Bloomington residents.

“First, I think it might be important to say why a renters’ neighborhood association; because the city already has the groundwork laid for neighborhood associations, so it's best to kind of piggyback off that existing infrastructure that the city has… I would like to see us eventually create a tenants union with the mission of creating an organization that can give voice to tenants' concerns. Right now, tenants and renters make up 65% percent of the city while we see a very well developed structure that the neighborhood associations have to communicate with the city and communicate with each other that does not exist for renters… So I think that’s the goal,