From the Frontlines: Tenant Organizing w/ Josh Poe and Tara Raghuveer

Nov 18, 2025

Tara Raghuveer, a tenant organizer from Kansas City, and Josh Poe, organizing director of the Kentucky Tenants Union, dive into the world of tenant organizing. They discuss the fight against corporate landlords and the root causes of the housing crisis, exposing how rising rents are often a manufactured issue. The pair share insights on building tenant unions, the challenges in Southern states, and the significance of political education in empowering tenants. They envision a future of universal housing and collective ownership that prioritizes people over profits.

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INSIGHT

Organize Tenants For Collective Power

The Tenant Union Federation exists to turn tenant desperation into collective power rather than isolated revolt.
They build methodology and coach locals to assemble tenants across portfolios and win at scale.

ADVICE

Require Supermajorities And Vote Demands

Build tenant unions by achieving supermajorities so they can negotiate like labor unions.
Let tenants vote on demands and use contracts to protect members and enable long-term collective ownership opportunities.

INSIGHT

Rent Is A Power Problem

Rent reflects landlord power and market rules, not housing quality or need.
Tenant unions must confront rent through rollbacks, freezes, and negotiating eviction protections at property level.

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In this episode, part of our ongoing From the Frontlines series, Tara Raghuveer and Josh Poe join us for a conversation about tenant organizing. Tara Raghuveer is a tenant organizer with KC Tenants based in Kansas City, Missouri and with the Tenant Union Federation. Josh Poe is the organizing director with the Kentucky Tenant Union, formerly known as the Louisville Tenant Union and organizes with the Tenant Union Federation along with Tara.

Our conversation opens with a introduction to tenants unions before diving into the specific work that is being done by our guests. We discuss some of the ongoing fights being waged against private equity and corporate landlords by the Kentucky Tenants Union across the state of Kentucky and by the Tenant Union Federation across the country. We explore the root causes of skyrocketing rents and the housing crisis, the idealogical and legal barriers to organizing in the south, and some of the false and real solutions. Finally, we explore what a logical and humane housing system could look like.

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Listen to our ongoing From the Frontlines series

Intermission music: "Forest Floor" by Witchdream Mansion

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