Red Alert - November Edition
Support tenant and debtor organizing by becoming a dues-paying union member!
“Advocacy is not just a task for charismatic individuals or high-profile community organizers. Advocacy is for all of us; advocacy is a way of life. It is a natural response to the injustices and inequality in the world.” – Alice Wong
Last week, President Trump and NYC Mayor-Elect Mamdani found surprising common ground — affordability. While Trump’s budget has gutted anti-poverty programs to give tax breaks to billionaires, he seemed to agree with Mamdani that the costs of housing, child care, groceries, and utilities are unaffordable for most Americans.
This last expense, utilities, has become unbearable. As the Trump administration slashes investments in renewable energy, 1 in 20 households are facing collections on their utilities debt. Meanwhile, AI companies are building massive data centers that will use as much power as entire cities, and states with high concentrations of these centers are already seeing electricity prices surge by 12% or more.
We can’t wait for politicians to give us debt relief — we have to take matters into our own hands.
For nearly seven months, Los Angeles tenants at an Equity Residential building have been on a RUBS strike in protest of the billing system which has more than doubled the cost of their utilities. In response, their corporate landlord has returned more than $25,000 to tenants — but the strike will continue until Equity Residential can demonstrate how their bills are calculated, with the ultimate goal of lowering utilities fees and inspiring other tenants to organize to ban RUBS altogether.
As Giving Tuesday approaches, we’re aiming to bring in 100 new dues-paying union members to strengthen our tenant organizing and build debtor power — and we’re already on our way to reaching this goal!
Dues-paying members provide the crucial funding we need to launch and sustain debt strikes, build tenant associations across California, and scale up to organize tenants in Equity Residential buildings across the U.S. Your contribution is an investment in the nation’s only union of debtors.
Become a dues-paying member today for as little as $5 a month!
Special shout out to our dues-paying union members and paid Substack subscribers for investing in the nation’s only union of debtors — this work is only possible with your support. Below, you’ll find updates from our Higher Ed, Medical Debt, and Housing teams, plus a rundown of events through the end of the year. Let’s get into it!
Higher Education
Earlier this month, Debt Collective joined the American Association of University Professors and a coalition of higher ed students and workers to take action against Trump’s higher education compact. We assembled and protested outside of the NYC headquarters of Trump-supporting billionaire Marc Rowan’s private equity firm, Apollo group. So far, all but two universities approached to sign Trump’s compact, which is essentially a loyalty oath for institutions to sign onto in exchange for additional funding, have rejected the offer. In addition to supporting the compact, Rowan also owns the University of Phoenix, a notorious for-profit scam school.
Rowan and his Apollo group embody three prongs of the right-wing attack on higher education: privatizing education through for-profit schools that see students as dollar signs, forcing academic institutions to bend the knee and abide by the Trump administration’s fascist agenda, and turning taxpayer-backed federal student loans into shareholder profits.
Next month, we anticipate that the Trump administration will further rewrite the rules on school accountability by removing the guard rails that prevent for-profit schools from scamming borrowers. We’re also gearing up for a 12/11 hearing in the Sweet v. McMahon (formally Devos/Cardona) lawsuit, which would provide cancellation for more than 250,000 defrauded borrowers. The hearing will determine if the Department of Education can get an 18-month extension to process debt relief applications. If approved, this extension would cost these debtors an additional $17,000 each in accrued interest.
For over a decade, Debt Collective has fought these attacks on all fronts by developing an application known as Borrower Defense to Repayment, which allows students defrauded by for-profit schools to take advantage of a provision in the Higher Education Act to cancel their loans. Learn more about the landscape of borrower defense and how defrauded debtors can organize to fight back at our next monthly higher education call on December 4 at 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT.
Medical Debt
The longest federal government shutdown in US history came to an abrupt end earlier this month after eight Senate Democrats unceremoniously struck a deal with Republicans to reopen. The biggest losers in the deal? All of us who rely on healthcare to live with dignity.
Here’s why: these Democrats had been holding a line against funding the federal budget established by Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill — budget legislation that slashed Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and many other social welfare programs, and functionally ended the subsidies most people on Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans need to afford their health insurance premiums. The shutdown was primarily about defending healthcare.
The full devastating effects of these Dems breaking rank will become clear over the months and years ahead, with 18 million people expected to lose Medicaid coverage and another 24 million on ACA plans being forced to decide if they can still afford health insurance as monthly premiums skyrocket. But it should already be apparent that we must not limit our political power or imagination to what can be won through the actions of Congress alone.
So what is to be done? We think part of the solution is something that’s still being built: a radical coalition of patients, medical debtors, healthcare workers, and clinicians across the country who have had enough of a healthcare system that doesn’t work for any of us. Earlier this year, Debt Collective established the Healthcare Worker Solidarity Collective as part of the work building toward this vision of a health care constituency that can wield real political power. The collective is a group of individuals committed to building solidarity and power among healthcare workers, patients, and all those suffering at the hands of our for-profit healthcare system through education, organizing, and collective action.
Next Saturday, December 6 at 12:30pm ET / 9:30am PT, the Healthcare Worker Solidarity Collective is hosting Capitalism Can’t Stop Our Care, a virtual event with leaders of abortion accompaniment networks and feminist collectives from Ecuador, Argentina, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Join us to discuss the relationship between debt and restrictions on bodily autonomy as tools of social control, learn from these leaders about ways the accompaniment network model transforms care, and reflect on what it could look like to build networks of support to help each other navigate debt, access resources, and deepen communities of care in the U.S.
Housing
On November 12th, Los Angeles passed the strongest reform to its rent stabilization formula in over 40 years. Existing rent stabilization laws in LA allow rent increases of 3-8% depending on inflation, as well as plus rent increases for utilities. As a result, rent has played a driving factor in overall inflation for years.
The new changes, supported by the Debt Collective and a broad coalition of organizations, will cap rent between 1-4% a year at 90% of local inflation. This law also removes rent increases for utility charges and strengthens protections by eliminating rent increases when moving in a new dependent tenant.
Through October of this year, we have helped roughly 1 out of every 6 tenants facing an eviction in LA County avoid a default judgement with our Tenant Power Toolkit. Three years into providing legal mutual aid to tenants, we’re excited to expand our reach in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area!
Finally, as tenants at Virgil Square enter their 7th month on RUBS strike, we’ve been meeting with tenants across Los Angeles who are also dealing with this unjust and opaque utilities billing process. Across buildings and geographies, the same patterns of opacity and threats have emerged as an enduring feature of RUBS and the related junk fees that corporate landlords impose on their tenants. If your corporate landlord is charging you junk fees, violating your lease agreement, or if you owe rent debt, fill out our Landlord Reporting and Rent Debt Tool and join us on Monday, Dec 8th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT for a debt defense workshop, where we’ll help tenants like you understand how you can fight back against debt collectors and hold your landlord accountable.
Upcoming Events
Building Blocks for Budget Justice
RSVP: Tuesday, December 2nd 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT
Amid political repression and a deepening affordability crisis, what can communities do to fight against austerity policies to get access to necessary resources? Presented by scholar-activist Celina Su, our final Jubilee School session for this semester will center budget justice, participatory democratic experiments, and people’s budget campaigns around the country to outline key challenges, tensions, and possibilities covered in Su’s new book Budget Justice: On Building Grassroots Politics and Solidarities.
New Member Call
RSVP: Wednesday, Dec 3rd 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT
At our monthly new member call, we’ll break down what we’re organizing for, the campaigns we’re fighting, and how you can plug in. Whether you’re a longtime supporter or brand new, there’s a place for you here.
Right to Learn: The Landscape of Borrower Defense – The battle of defrauded debtors
RSVP: Thursday, Dec 4th 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT
What is borrower defense? The history of organizing defrauded borrowers and the rocky landscape ahead. At our monthly Higher Ed call, we’ll discuss the Right to Learn and organize to win debt-free, liberatory, fully-funded free public higher education.
Capitalism Can’t Stop Our Care: Lessons from Abortion Accompaniment Networks Across the Global South
RSVP: Saturday, Dec 6th 12:30pm ET / 9:30am PT
More than three years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion has become more difficult and expensive to access in the U.S., increasingly putting pregnant people at risk of criminalization and medical debt. But across the Global South, feminist organizers have long navigated oppressive political conditions to build accompaniment networks, volunteer-led organizations that help people self-manage their abortions and much more.
Join the Debt Collective’s Healthcare Worker Solidarity Collective for a panel discussion with leaders of abortion accompaniment networks and feminist collectives from Ecuador, Argentina, and Sub-Saharan Africa. We’ll explore the potential of the accompaniment network model to transform care into collective power through mutual aid, feminist organizing, and international solidarity.
EQR Debt Defense Workshop
RSVP: Monday, Dec 8th 8pm ET / 5pm PT
Do you owe rent debt? Fill out our Landlord Reporting and Rent Debt Tool and join us for a debt defense clinic. Organizers and housing experts will break down strategies for fighting back against debt collections and abolishing our unjust debts. This event is open to all tenants, but we are particularly interested in tenants who currently live in or owe rent debt to apartment buildings owned by Equity Residential.
50 Over 50 Monthly Call
RSVP: Wednesday, Dec 10 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT
Are you 50 years old or older? Do you have student loan debt? Join our 50/50 meeting for student debtors aged fifty and above to discuss action steps, organizing plans, and build solidarity. Newcomers are welcome!
Solidarity,
Debt Collective
P.S. Your contribution is an investment in the nation’s only union of debtors. Become a dues-paying member today by giving what you can!
