“If we want to see change in our lives, we have to change things ourselves.”― Grace Lee Boggs
While the student loan system continues to be a dumpster fire by design, our movement had a HUGE win this month. Seven years after debtors represented by the Project on Predatory Student Lending (PPSL) sued the Department of Education, more than 170,000 federal student loan debtors who were defrauded by for-profit schools had their debts erased to the tune of $11 billion dollars — the biggest class-action settlement in U.S. history!
This victory is rooted in a long history of debtor organizing. Following the collapse of for-profit giant Corinthian College in 2015, Debt Collective created the Borrower Defense to Repayment application. The application uses a Higher Education Act provision that gives defrauded students the legal right to seek debt cancellation. Armed with this application, a group of Debt Collective members known as the Corinthian 15 went on the first student debt strike in U.S. history. When the Department of Education refused to process borrower defense applications, student debtors took them to court in 2019. After years of delays, these debtors won more than $23 billion in debt cancellation for half a million student debtors.
While we’re taking a moment to celebrate this historic win, our eyes are still on the prize: broad-based debt cancellation and free college for all. This class-action lawsuit was led by and for debtors, and we will need more debtor power to achieve these long-term goals.
Help us build debtor power for the long haul by becoming a dues-paying member of the nation’s only union of debtors. Dues-paying union members provide the crucial funding we need to develop tools like borrower defense, organize debtors to call for a pause on federal student loan payments, and pressure electeds to support College for All. If you are not in a position to financially contribute, you can sign up as a member for $0 a month — we need you in this fight!
Read on for updates on our campaigns to cancel housing, healthcare, and student debt and upcoming events to plug into!
Housing
This month, our campaign to ban RUBS (Ratio Utility Billing Systems) in Los Angeles reached a crucial milestone.
Late last year, the LA Housing Department published a report recommending that RUBS be banned in all rent-stabilized apartments to protect tenants from unlawful rent increases hidden in opaque utility fees. To urge LA City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee to take action towards banning RUBS city-wide, we convened tenants and Debt Collective members for a rally and press conference at City Hall on August 10. Thanks to the brave tenants who made their voices heard, this event led to greater awareness of RUBS and press coverage in The Guardian, Capital & Main, and The Los Angeles Times.
RUBS utility fees are just one of many junk fees charged to tenants by corporate landlords. RUBS is a growing problem nationally, with tenants from New Jersey to Chicago and San Diego increasingly organizing against landlords’ latest strategy to squeeze more money out of their tenants. A recent merger announced by real estate giants Equity Residential and AvalonBay is poised to further exploit tenants by creating Vivmark Residential, the largest publicly traded apartment landlord in U.S. history. Vivmark now has an effective monopoly in at least seven local housing markets in the U.S., giving them even more power to increase rents while limiting tenants’ options of where to live.
But tenants are far from powerless in the face of this real estate behemoth. We need tenant power to organize for tenant protections — and while this merger grows corporate landlord power, it also increases our leverage as tenants who now share a common landlord. Join us on Tuesday, 9/8 for a townhall on the newest, biggest landlord in town. We’ll share expert analysis on how tenants will be impacted by this merger, and tenants in Equity Residential and AvalonBay will have the opportunity to meet and organize together. We hope to see you there!
Higher Education
Our campaign to demand a payment pause is ON. We kicked off the month with a week of action, driving scores of calls to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office calling for a payment pause and dialing up our storytelling chops at a media and op-ed training. Our efforts are starting to pay off.
Last week, Senator Sanders introduced legislation to halt Social Security garnishment for defaulted student loans. This is an important step towards abolishing mercenary loan collections, but debtors of all ages need much, much more. We need an end to collections altogether. Until that’s guaranteed, we need a payment pause, full stop.
In the coming weeks, we will continue to escalate pressure on political and community leaders to join our demand for a payment pause. Learn more about how student loan chaos is impacting debtors by joining our press conference next Tuesday, and take action by joining our National Campaign Call on 9/23 for the latest updates on our payment pause campaign and ways to plug in.
We are also thrilled to welcome our newest Higher Ed lead organizer, Isaiah Back-Gaal. Isaiah comes to us with grassroots organizing experience in Sunrise Movement, United Students Against Sweatshops, Waterkeeper Alliance, and more. He’s an energetic organizer, campaign manager, and creative storyteller, and we can’t wait for you to meet him!
Healthcare
Our work organizing in Nebraska against the state’s early rollout of the Trump administration’s massive Medicaid cuts continues. Earlier this year, on the eve of the state’s implementation of Medicaid work requirements designed to kick millions of people nationally off healthcare, we launched HealthWatch Nebraska in partnership with the Lincoln and Omaha chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Since May, HealthWatch members have canvassed job sites, county fairs, and community events across Nebraska, talking to hundreds of working class people concerned about what attacks on Medicaid and other social safety-net programs will mean for them with the growing cost of living crisis. We’ve spoken at public hearings and school board meetings, organized HealthWatch teach-ins, and met with decisionmakers.
And our organizing is working: earlier this month, the Nebraska Medicaid Director behind the state’s voluntary early rollout of these murderous healthcare cuts resigned from his post amid growing pressure and scrutiny. After the resignation, we launched a petition calling for an immediate pause on Nebraska’s early rollout of Medicaid work requirements: share it with your friends, family, and loved ones in Nebraska.
The botched federal mandate that’s been implemented in Nebraska is coming for the rest of us soon. These same cuts will take effect in states across the country at the start of the new year. Wherever you live, we need you fighting back with us. Fill out our HealthWatch Interest Form, and we’ll loop you in on our work organizing against fascist attacks on lifesaving public infrastructure for universal public healthcare and medical debt abolition.
Upcoming Events
50 Over 50 Monthly Call
Thursday, August 27 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT
Thursday, Sept 24 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!
Final Friday Flow
Friday, August 28 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT
Friday, Sept 25 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT
Held on the last Friday of each month, these gatherings are designed to remind us that the path to debt abolition and collective liberation begins within. Through guided somatic and movement-based practices, we’ll transform exhaustion into power, fear into vision, and pain into purpose.
How to TikTok: Guide to Making Short Form Videos
Monday, August 31 7pm ET / 4pm PT
Want to make a TikTok video about your debt, and explaining to the world why you need it cancelled? Learn how to make short-form videos for social media at this member-led training session!
Glitches, Errors and Clawbacks: Student Debtor Press Conference
Tuesday, Sept 1 2pm ET / 11am PT
Trump’s Department of Education is making student debt errors, glitches, and mistakes everyday. From false delinquency notices to incorrect payment amounts to illegal clawbacks of payments, the federal government is failing student debtors at every step of the way. Hear from student debtors themselves as they navigate the harms of the student debt system.
Payment Pause NOW: Informal Writing Session
Tuesday, Sept 1 4:30pm ET / 1:30pm PT
Hoping to complete an op-ed draft, but haven’t had the time? Planning to pitch your debt story to news outlets but unsure where to send your pitch? Need a space to write and co-work? Join Kristin Collier and Maddy Clifford for an informal writing session, where we’ll set individual goals and share our progress with each other. This session will be most useful if you’ve reviewed our Op-Ed Toolkit.
Office Hours: Debtors in Default
Tuesday, Sept 1 7pm ET / 4pm PT
Join us as we discuss options for debtors with federal student loans in default or those who know they cannot afford to pay their loans who are thinking through their options. We will share resources and cover options that require repayment, like rehabilitation and consolidation, as well as options that do not, like loan cancellation.
New Member Call
Wednesday, Sept 2 7pm ET / 4pm PT
Curious about the Debt Collective and how we’re organizing to abolish debt? Our New Member Call is a space to learn who we are, what we’re fighting for, and how you can plug in. Whether you’re brand new or have been following our work for a while, this call is a chance to get grounded, ask questions, and connect with others who are ready to challenge the debt system together.
Townhall: The Newest Biggest Landlord
Tuesday, Sept 8 5pm ET / 8pm PT
The merger of Equity Residential and AvalonBay will create the largest corporate landlord in the country overnight. Join us for expert analysis on how the merger will impact tenants, and connect with other tenants living in buildings owned by these corporate landlords.
Jubilee School: What Debt Demands Book Talk with Kristin Collier
Tuesday, Sept 22 8pm ET / 5pm PT
As a young person, Kristin Collier discovered that a family member had $200,000 of fraudulent private student loans in her name. Kristin used memoir, reporting, and history to unpack her own debt story and how debt has shaped our physical, interior, and social worlds. Join our medical debt team for a conversation with Kristin Collier about her new book, What Debt Demands.
We Need a Payment Pause! National Campaign Call
Wednesday, Sept 23 8pm ET / 5pm PT
The federal loan system is in disarray. From soaring payment amounts to miscounted past payment history, from servicer errors to Dept. Ed blunders, the student debt collections system simply doesn’t work. Until these problems are fixed, student debtors need a payment pause. But loans won’t be paused on their own — we will have to organize to win that. Join this national call for the latest updates in our campaign for a payment pause and ways to take action!
9 hours on hold with MOHELA! Unreal! I hate them even more now!
Love seeing all this history in one place 🥹