After a year, NC tenants’ union has success, but Charlotte no longer connected
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- NC Tenants’ Union ended Charlotte partnership but continued expanding in other places
- Union secured repairs, halted evictions and aided post-disaster relief efforts.
- Challenges include private housing laws, political barriers and limited tenant rights.
The North Carolina Tenants Union, originally established to represent six communities, which included Charlotte, has grown and has helped hundreds since launching in 2024.
Notable wins include quadrupling its ranks and successful campaigns to get landlords to repair apartments and remove black mold from some units.
But its relationship assisting Charlotte renters is over for now.
“Right now we don’t have an active presence in Charlotte,” Nick MacLeod, who heads the tenants’ union, said. “We would love to in the future.”
When the union began, Action NC was its Charlotte affiliate, but the nonprofit is no longer involved, Jessica Moreno, community organizer with the group, confirmed.
Action NC decided to leave the union last fall because “we were dealing with reduced staff capacity and a demanding local campaign to curb corporate ownership of housing here in Charlotte, and felt we couldn’t fulfill the expectations of partner groups at that time,” Moreno said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer. She added, that the group would welcome an opportunity to be involved again.
However, through its Tenant Organizing Resource Center, Action NC, which has locations in Durham and Fayetteville, continues to help Charlotte tenants. The 15-year-old organization focuses on racial, gender and economic justice. They have six initiatives including campaigns for immigrant justice, senior citizen rights and tenant resources.
Meanwhile, the tenants’ union has five tenant affiliate unions in Asheville, Winston-Salem, the Raleigh-Durham area, New Bern and Wilmington. It is in the process of establishing another in Greensboro.
The union had initial goals to stop arbitrary evictions, rent gouging, reforming code enforcement and forcing repairs, MacLeod said. But it has made the most progress in winning repairs and ensuring Municipal Housing Code Enforcement is fair and accurate.
Stopping arbitrary evictions and price gouging takes a long time to achieve, he said, since they require changes to state laws. The union works with tenants through training, mentorship and by engaging with media.
Union accomplishments
After Hurricane Helene swept through Asheville leaving debris and damages, residents received notices on their doors telling them they still owed rent for the next month, despite not having any electricity or running water.
The tenants’ union jumped into action, something it was able to do by building relationships with tenants prior to the storm, MacLeod said.
The notices added on to an already scary time for the community, MacLeod said. Many renters had spent their money on buying supplies ahead of the storm or for repairs following the storm. Community members also did not know when they would be able to go back to work, he added.
The tenants’ union held meetings that resulted in several actions by large groups of people bringing in hardship waivers for rent cancellation to management offices. This led to rent cancellation and stopped evictions by highlighting the amount of people with the same struggle.
The tenants’ union also conducted emergency triage and well-check visits.
“While the housing authority was not prioritizing wellness visits, we were able to coordinate getting people medicine that they needed for home-bound tenants and getting water to folks who needed it,” MacLeod said.
In 15 months, the union has grown from around 75 to 336 active members. It has won campaigns for repairs, including replacing elevators, installing lights, fixing leaky roofs, and dealing with pest infestation. There are currently building campaigns assisting 1,425 units.
The union’s most recent efforts toward fire safety follow a members’ death in an apartment building in Winston-Salem.
The Crystal Towers residents are pushing to receive fire extinguishers in each unit, unexpired fire suppression hoods, (devices that fit over stove tops to contain fires) and maintained elevators for elderly and disabled residents.
Challenges
The challenges the union has faced include assisting tenants in unregulated private housing and navigating the political and legal landscape.
When dealing with private housing, there is a lack of tenant protection that allows renters to be evicted with no cause and rent prices to be tripled, MacLeod said.
He added that the political and legal landscape is not pro-tenant friendly. He attributed this to cuts to places like Medicaid and federal agencies and North Carolina laws.
“There’s quite a bit of North Carolina landlord-tenant law that is a legal framework that allows for unscrupulous landlords to really take advantage,” he said.
If a landlord hires someone to fix your roof and the company doesn’t come do the work, the landlord is not legally required to pay them, MacLeod gave as an example. That is not true of tenant-landlord contracts, he said.
“In North Carolina tenants are not allowed to withhold rent, even when their units are unlivable,” he said. In cases it is possible, if the tenant has the order of a judge, but it still may be difficult for those without access to a lawyer.
It is also a challenge working with misconceptions people and lawmakers have about renters, MacLeod said. Some think of evictions flippantly because they believe tenants aren’t invested in their communities and can easily move. Renters’ neighborhoods are their community as well, he said.
The tenants’ union recognizes there are risks that come with organizing including retaliation through intimidation and withholding repairs. MacLeod reminds tenants that the risk of doing nothing is displacement and unhealthy living conditions.
With each challenge MacLeod said he has learned that “when tenants fight alone they lose.”
For the next year
MacLeod expects the union’s second year to focus on responding to essential service cuts and stabilizing public housing authorities so there is not mass displacement and homelessness. Another focus would be to keep undocumented tenants safe.
The main unmet needs for tenants right now include dangerous living environments, the rise in prices taking more of renters’ income and landlords using fines and fees to generate revenue.
It comes down to tenants having control of their own lives, MacLeod said. “This can be a hard process but you do not have to do it alone, our job is to be here to back you up and teach you how to do it.”
MacLeod understands why tenants feel like getting what they need is impossible, he said, especially when landlords can be more powerful and have more money. Having enough resources and people to organize is important, he added.
“You’ve gone to the management office and asked them to fix the ceiling that’s collapsing in your unit,” he said. “But have you ever gone with 30 of your neighbors behind you, or 50?”
This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
