|
| |
Delaware's State Wide Association of Tenants
|
For more information: swat@housingforall.org
The State Wide Association of Tenants (SWAT) is
an initiative of the tenants of Delaware. SWAT’s objective is to become an
independent vehicle through which poor renters can (1) speak with an increasingly unified
voice, (2) act collectively to address the housing issues that face them, and (3) develop
long-range means of securing tenure for poor Delawareans.
The State Wide Association of Tenants believes that:
We have the right
- to know everything about our homes and communities
- to decide for ourselves our own best interests
- to organize to act together on these interests
- to initiate change rather than submit to it
We refuse to allow poor people to be divided
- by labels such as "deserving" and
"undeserving"
- by race, national origin, or citizenship status
- by age, gender, or disability
We stand for
- a safe, affordable, decent place for each and every one
- the elimination of shelters as the housing of last resort for
poor people
- a return to the policy of one-for-one replacement of
disappearing subsidized housing units
- a re-commitment to the vision of the Housing Act of 1937
- a statewide affordable housing inventory
- a statewide living-wage jobs inventory
- a living wage ordinance for each local government and
statewide
- a state Earned Income Tax Credit and other means of
increasing income to the poor
- an end to contingent, insecure, low-wage employment
- a repeal of public programs which force vulnerable workers
into poverty-wage jobs
- an affordable housing excise tax to be levied against
low-wage employers to be held for the use of nonprofit, community-based development groups
- community management, control, and ownership of housing
|