"The Debt Collective is perhaps best known for the ripple effects of the small student loan repayment strike the group organized against a defunct for-profit college in 2015. The strike grew into a nationwide movement demanding justice for millions of people facing overwhelming student debt. By 2025, the Biden administration had approved $188.8 billion in student debt relief for more than 5 million people."
"On October 1, nine former tenants announced their joint refusal to pay back what the Debt Collective calls "immoral sums" of "illegally held" back rent demanded by Equity Residential, the fifth-largest landlord in the United States. The Debt Collective says it's the nation's first back-rent strike, and the collective action is poised to grow as renters organize with neighbors and across the nation."
"The Debt Collective also launched a new web tool to help Equity Residential tenants and anyone else indebted to a landlord to report abuses and assemble documents for disputing the debt. "The pain of being forced out of our secure home, living in our car for months, and facing the unrelenting burden of debt humiliation and credit damage for a lifetime of trauma due to one missed rent payment I can't explain," said Tai'Leah Paige, a former Equity Residential tenant in Los Angeles, California, during a"
Debt Collective shifted from student loan activism to tenant organizing as housing affordability worsened and pandemic-era rent debt mounted. The group references its 2015 student loan strike legacy and notes $188.8 billion in federal student debt relief approved by 2025 as context for large-scale debt campaigns. Organizers accuse corporate landlords of profiting from subsidies and rising housing prices while imposing evictions, junk fees, and price-gouging on renters. Nine former Equity Residential tenants announced a joint refusal to repay alleged back rent described as "immoral" and "illegally held." The group launched a web tool to help tenants report abuses and assemble dispute documentation.
Read at Truthout
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]