Although we are still unable to meet in person with newly established and actively engaged tenant groups, we must continue to build and sustain organizing momentum through this pandemic. As COVID-19 continues to create an uncertain economic future, the city’s housing crisis is mounting, as unprecedented numbers of evictions clog the courts and the number of people sleeping outdoors grows larger. This public health catastrophe illuminates all the cracks in our desperate capitalist system.

The more capacity we all have to interact with digital platforms, the more flexible and adaptable we are to face the challenges of long-term social distance. Isolation is not an absolute! It’s a time for us to leverage the knowledge we already have, and to empower ourselves and our neighbors with new skills. This crisis pushes all of us into unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory, but we have it within ourselves to emerge stronger and even more organized on the other side of it.

The tools on the Instructional Guides for Social Media page are useful for tenant organizers who need assistance and support launching a FB page or conference line for their groups. These instructional guides were written and developed by a team of AmeriCorps Public Allies in collaboration with the Homeless Coalition at the onset of the pandemic. The Community Organizing during Social Distance page connects to other resources also developed since the onset of pandemic to give insight into how a new community can connect and initiate organizing when it is unhealthy or unsafe to gather in person.