Philadelphia Housing Action is a coalition formed over the winter of 2019-2020 between #OccupyPHA and long-time housing and homeless activists. Members are grounded in years of agitation, work and advocacy informed by our collective experiences of homelessness, institutionalization, incarceration, family separation, foster care, public housing, interpersonal violence, immigration, substance use, mental health and all other forms of discrimination and oppression.
Philadelphia Housing Action believes everyone needs housing. Now. Philadelphia has thousands of publicly-owned vacant and viable buildings, more than any other large city in America.
Philadelphia Housing Action believes in taking and supporting direct action to meet the needs of tenants, the homeless, squatters and low-income home owners. We fight against landlords, the police, illegal eviction, ejectment, sweeps / “service days” / “encampment resolutions,” discrimination, mistreatment, displacement, developers, city elected officials, bureaucrats, the housing authority and anyone or anything else that stands in the way of housing for all.
Philadelphia Housing Action’s primary demand is the transfer of vacant, city-owned property to a community land trust for permanent, low-income housing. We do not believe the local government can meet the housing needs of the poor, unhoused, or unstably housed, so we intend to do it for ourselves.