Something to Help Themselves

Abstract

In San Francisco, a groundswell of tenant activism contributed to the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Born in ideas of democracy and justice, in struggles against inequality and poverty, tenants used the resources of the San Francisco Housing Authority, the local agency in charge of public housing, to build a movement around more and better public housing, useful jobs, civil rights, and child and health care. Public housing tenants and their allies even demanded control of public housing funds and policy making and a more humane urban redevelopment program. Female tenants took the lead in marshalling private and public resources in these organizing campaigns. Tenant militancy peaked at the moment when local and national efforts by tenants met the cuts of the Nixon administration, thus posing considerable financial and legislative constraints on tenant goals of expanding the rights of citizens.

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