Bay Area

Bay Area TANC Helps Tenants to Unionize

Published

6 years ago

April 2, 2020

Graffiti calling for a rent strike, a tactic used by TANC, appears here on a structure next to Lake Merritt. Photo by Zack Haber.

As the COVID-19 pandemic forces mass unemployment and work hour reductions causing over a million Californians to file unemployment insurance claims, Bay Area Tenants and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) is helping tenants to form tenant unions to protect their housing.

“If you’re organized in some kind of tenant union like TANC, you have a lot more leverage. Landlords are a lot less likely to take 10 tenants to eviction court than one,” said Angel Haza-García,* who is forming a tenant union with TANC’s help and is considering going on a rent strike on May 1.

Haza-García’s union includes the people living in her house as well as neighbors who have the same landlord, more than 10 people in total. The tenants at Haza-García’s home are unsure whether they will be able to afford May’s rent and worry they will eventually be evicted. But by organizing with other neighbors who will, as Haza-García puts it, “have their back” by agreeing not to pay rent in solidarity with them, they feel they’re more protected.

“The eviction process is really expensive to go through. A landlord could evict one person and that would be a cost of process. But if they were looking to evict 10 units, the cost would multiply by 10. It would then make more financial sense to give in to [tenant] demands,” said TANC member Sam Walker.*

Walker saw this process work to help tenants get their demands about two years ago during TANC’s inception and their first landlord/tenant power struggle.

The struggle involved more than 15 tenants who all lived in shared houses and had the same landlord. When roommates moved out of the shared homes, leaving empty rooms, the remaining tenants wanted to fill rooms with new roommates so the total rent cost would be less for each individual. But they found it impossible to fill the empty rooms because they say their landlord would ignore or deny applications for new roommates to move in.

After the tenants organized a few meetings and barbecues with each other and unionized, they wrote a collective statement demanding that their landlord allow new roommates to move into their shared housing or they would collectively withhold rent. When the landlord learned of their tenant’s demands and that they had organized together, the tenants got what they asked for without having to go on a rent strike.

“The landlord totally caved and let all tenants know they could decide who lived in their houses,” said Walker, who specified that the landlord then accepted all the then-current applications to move into empty rooms.

TANC’s current collective demand is total rent suspension for the Bay Area during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We demand rent suspensions from every landlord effective immediately. The fact that anybody has to fear being evicted because of their inability to pay rent during a global health pandemic illustrates the utter wickedness of this system,” reads a collective statement called Rent Suspension Now! that TANC recently posted on its website.

The statement, which also appears in Spanish, emphasizes that there should also be no expectation that tenants pay back rent money they didn’t pay during the COVID19 pandemic.

While The City of Oakland has recently passed an emergency ordinance that prevents evictions for non-payment until May 31, the ordinance still requires tenants to pay their back rent eventually. Although there is language in the ordinance that stops landlords from evicting tenants for rent money due from now until May 31 if the tenant can prove the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented them from paying rent, TANC members feel that rent debt still burdens tenants and makes their housing more precarious.

TANC wants tenants to organize to set the groundwork for future tenant demands and to prevent landlords from evicting people who can’t pay rent in the future and may have difficulty proving their income loss was due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

They’ve recently hosted online trainings and know your rights workshops that have each had between 20 and 90 attendees. Their membership has grown from 40 to 200 during March.

Tenants can visit baytanc.com to join TANC or learn more and can learn about future TANC events, which are open to non-members as long as they are not landlords, by visiting the baytanc calendar. They have also released a guide to tenant organizing.

*Since tenants in TANC are actively organizing against their landlords, they asked that names in this article be changed or omitted.

Zack Haber

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Bay Area

IN MEMORIAM: Longtime OUSD Employee Debra King-Cooper, 73

Longtime OUSD Employee Debra King-Cooper, 73 Caption: Debra King-Cooper. Courtesy photo. Special to The Post Debra King-Cooper, a beloved mother, grandmother, queen, sister, church member, caregiver, and matriarch, transitioned peacefully on May 20 surrounded by family and love i

Published

11 hours ago

June 17, 2026

bpusa-syndication

Debra King-Cooper. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

Debra King-Cooper, a beloved mother, grandmother, queen, sister, church member, caregiver, and matriarch, transitioned peacefully on May 20 surrounded by family and love in the comfort of her home. To her children, she was royalty, grace, strength, and unconditional love embodied.

Debra Diane Edgar was born on May 28, 1952, in San Francisco, California, to Charles Edgar Sr. and Mamie Arthur Edgar. She was raised alongside her younger brother, Charles Edgar Jr., affectionately known as “Little Brother” or “Lil Bruh.” She also shared close bonds with her older siblings Carol Edgar-Lang, Maryann Edgar Calloway, and Lonnie Lewis Sr.

A proud product of San Francisco’s historic Fillmore District, Debra attended Andrew Jackson Elementary School, where she met her lifelong best friend and adopted sister, Lynn Green, in the fifth grade. She later attended Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School, Roosevelt Junior High School and Thomas Jefferson High School.

Debra’s mother transitioned when she was only 17 years old, and her father transitioned when she was 23. Despite these profound losses, Debra remained grounded through the love and support of extended family and lifelong family friends,

In 1971, she married Harold King. On Sept. 24, 1972, they welcomed their first son, Dajuan Artese King, affectionately called “Pop” or “Poppa.” On Aug. 5, 1976, they welcomed their second son, Dante Dupree King, affectionately called “Tay” or “Taboocoo the Baby.”

After her divorce in 1982, Debra assumed full responsibility for raising her sons.

She supported Dajuan’s passion for football by purchasing sports equipment and attending games faithfully. She supported Dante’s love of music by enrolling him in the San Francisco Boys Choir, Oakland Boys Choir, and the Castlemont Castleers.

Professionally, Debra built an exceptional career. She worked at Blue Shield of California from 1973 until 1994, earning multiple promotions.

She later joined the Oakland Unified School District, initially in a temporary role before being promoted into management within the Labor Relations Department. She retired from OUSD in 2015 after years of distinguished service. During her years at OUSD, she built meaningful friendships with her colleagues.

Faith was central to Debra’s life. During the 1980s, following personal hardship, she joined Love Center Church under the leadership of Bishop Walter Hawkins, where she brought her children regularly. She later became a member of Triumphant: A Church Without Walls Ministries under Pastor Dr. Larry Short, who became a beloved spiritual mentor.

After Triumphant closed in 1992, Debra joined Cosmopolitan Baptist Church in Oakland under the leadership of Pastor Larry Ashley, where she remained for the rest of her life.

At Cosmopolitan, she worked in numerous ministries. She served on the usher board, sang in the choir, participated in the AIDS ministry during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, helped feed and support unhoused community members, and mentored and supported a group of young girls.

After retirement, she cared for older adults in her church community, driving them to appointments, cleaning their homes, managing finances, preparing meals, and helping families navigate funeral arrangements after loved ones transitioned.

Even while battling Stage 4 cancer herself, she continued caring for others.

Debra was preceded in death by her parents, Charles Edgar Sr. and Mamie Arthur Edgar; her brothers, Lonnie Lewis Sr. and Charles Edgar Jr.; her sisters, Maryann Edgar Calloway and Victoria Stephenson Knight; and her adopted mother, Clara Oliver.

She leaves to cherish her memory her beloved sons, Dajuan King and Dante King; grandson, Tiyler Dajuan Artese King; sister, Carol Edgar-Lang; goddaughters Monique Belle and Ricketa Matthews Jones (Leonard); daughter-in-love Quiona Sullivan; son-in-love Marcel Walker; sister-in-law Delores Lewis; adopted sisters and lifelong friends Lynn Green, Barbara Stephenson Hill, and Sarah Fine; a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, great-nieces, great-nephews, extended family members, her church family and dear friends.