{"id":274,"date":"2026-09-01T16:41:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274"},"modified":"2026-09-01T16:41:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:41:56","slug":"why-tenant-unions-are-spreading-across-college-campuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274","title":{"rendered":"Why Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Alva Yanowitz spent much of her freshman year sick with a\u00a0mysterious illness. She was tired all the time, with a\u00a0sore throat and cough that wouldn\u2019t go\u00a0away.<\/p>

Read more Selling the Sun<\/a><\/p>\n

In late spring, Yanowitz ran a\u00a0mold test in her dorm room at the University of Vermont (UVM), which she says came back positive. She figured it was too late to report the problem to the university, but as soon as she moved out of the room, she says, \u200b\u201c<\/span>my symptoms went\u00a0away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spooked by the experience, Yanowitz later joined the UVM Student Tenant Union, a\u00a0group spotlighting poor housing conditions on campus. Last fall, the group solicited student housing horror stories through a \u200b\u201c<\/span>Fucked Up Dorm Contest\u201d on their Instagram. After hundreds of students cast votes for four contenders, the \u200b\u201c<\/span>winner\u201d was a\u00a0pile of rags and towels on a\u00a0bathroom floor, soaked through with backed-up sewage. A\u00a0large, perfectly intact mushroom growing from a\u00a0mold-covered slab of wood came in a\u00a0close second.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\nInstagram<\/span>UVM Student Tenant Union<\/span><\/div>
UVM Student Tenant Union (@uvm.stu) \u2022 Instagram photos and videos<\/div>
202 likes, 3 comments – uvm.stu on November 20, 2025: \u201cWE NEED YOUR HELP TO PICK THE WINNER OF OUR DORM CONTEST!!! Which one is the worst?? 1. Active leak (this happened three separate times!)2. Sewage backup (oh my\u2026<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\u201c<\/span>We deserve better than that,\u201d Yanowitz says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s worth fighting to get better than\u00a0that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like many universities, UVM is exempt from municipal requirements for housing inspections. Instead, the school is supposed to inspect its own dorms and self-certify that it is meeting minimum habitability standards. But the university has failed to supply the city with evidence that it is doing either, according to a\u00a02025<\/span> resolution sponsored by Burlington City Council member Marek Broderick, who recently graduated from UVM. <\/p>\n

Last October, the Burlington City Council held the first of several hearings where dozens of students read testimony about poor conditions in UVM dorms. In November, the council passed a\u00a0resolution, sponsored by Broderick, directing the council\u2019s Ordinances Committee to evaluate whether existing regulations were sufficient to ensure that student dormitories were \u200b\u201c<\/span>healthy and safe places to\u00a0reside.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meetings are ongoing between students, legislators and administrators at UVM, which did not respond to a\u00a0request for comment from In These\u00a0Times.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But UVM is far from the only campus where tenant organizers say that the basic descriptors of \u200b\u201c<\/span>healthy and safe\u201d don\u2019t apply to the dorms and apartments where students are spending their formative years. On campus, students typically lack formal tenant protections; off campus, they\u2019re often subject to predatory leasing practices and fees by landlords eager to take advantage of their inexperience\u2009\u2014\u2009including private equity groups, which have rapidly expanded their footprint in the student housing sector in recent\u00a0years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But energized and informed by the crescendo of tenant unions across the country, students are organizing. Some are building upon the skills and relationships formed during the student Palestine solidarity movement. Others have partnered with labor unions representing campus workers to take on private student housing companies pushing universities to maintain lax occupancy standards, or formed chapters of statewide tenant\u00a0unions.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, many students are asking the question that Riley Sandhop, a\u00a0recent graduate in Texas, recalls thinking upon moving into her eight-person, 900<\/span>-square foot freshman dorm unit: \u200b\u201c<\/span>How can they get away with\u00a0this?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
15-Minute Evictions<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

The agreement between a\u00a0university and a\u00a0student living in a\u00a0dorm is generally considered a\u00a0license, not a\u00a0lease\u2014meaning schools aren\u2019t subject to most laws governing evictions, rent increases or other landlord-tenant\u00a0regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Students establish a\u00a0tenant-to-landlord relationship when they sign up for university housing, but they\u2019re not afforded any tenant protections,\u201d says Emma Rehac, the director of New York City\u2009\u2013\u2009based Youth Alliance for Housing, which aims to build tenant power among young\u00a0people.<\/p>\n

Even in the most landlord-friendly states, for example, tenants have the right to a\u00a0court process before they can be evicted. But students in dorms aren\u2019t viewed as tenants, nor are their universities legally considered landlords\u2009\u2014\u2009so that basic protection generally doesn\u2019t apply to\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

That can create incredible precarity, as it did for at least 53<\/span> Barnard College students in 2024<\/span>, when the university suspended them for their pro-Palestine protests, shutting off their access to campus dining facilities and giving them just 15<\/span>\u00a0minutes to gather their belongings from their dorms, according to a\u00a0report in the Columbia Daily\u00a0Spectator.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

(In an email to In These Times<\/em>, a\u00a0Barnard spokesperson denied that students were restricted to 15<\/span>\u00a0minutes to collect their belongings, writing: \u200b\u201c<\/span>If a\u00a0student needed more time, we would have accommodated\u00a0that.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Michael Gross, who leads the Columbia University Tenants\u2019 Union, calls these \u200b\u201c<\/span>15<\/span>-minute evictions\u201d a\u00a0major motivator behind the group\u2019s founding in 2025<\/span>, along with the March 2025<\/span> abduction of Mahmoud Khalil from a\u00a0university-owned apartment. (DHS has since detained at least one other student, Ellie Aghayeva, from Columbia\u00a0dorms.)<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Students and non-students\u2026 depend so much on Columbia for their housing, for their jobs, and for their ability to stay in this country, in some cases,\u201d Gross says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>When Columbia has that much power over you, you definitely want folks to be\u00a0organized.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tenants union aims to address the concerns of both students and non-students impacted by New York City\u2019s largest private landowner, which some Columbia professors have dubbed a \u200b\u201c<\/span>real-estate [empire] with a\u00a0side-hustle in education.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union scored a\u00a0concrete win this March, when Columbia agreed to delay a\u00a0planned 20<\/span>% rent increase for law students remaining in university housing between graduation and sitting for the bar exam. They\u2019ve also successfully pushed Columbia to make several rent-regulated, university-owned units available, by random lottery, to community members not formally affiliated with the\u00a0institution.<\/p>\n

But the Columbia University Tenant\u2019s Union has had less luck at 542<\/span>\u00a0W. 112<\/span>th<\/sup> St, a\u00a0building housing dozens of graduate students, many with families. This spring, the university announced that it would rapidly convert the building into undergraduate dormitories. Current residents must find new housing starting in the fall, with no guarantees that Columbia will provide comparable arrangements. This behavior would likely be considered illegal under New York\u2019s Good Cause Eviction law were universities dorms not explicitly exempt from the policy. (Columbia did not respond to a\u00a0request for comment from In These Times.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

The tenants union has written letters to the Columbia administration asking for more information on housing for non-student and student tenants alike, to little avail. They\u2019ve also been unsuccessful in pushing the school to offer a\u00a0rent abatement to students at Barnard College dorm that has been without cooking gas since May of\u00a02025<\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
Rooms With No Views<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Not only can universities get away with failing to maintain student residences: some residences are constructed in ways that would never meet building codes off-campus. Take the phenomenon of windowless bedrooms, which are banned in New York on health and safety grounds, but which pervade student housing in many other states\u2009\u2014\u2009including Texas, where the University Tenants Union at University of Texas at Austin helped pass a\u00a0citywide ban on new construction of windowless bedrooms in 2023<\/span>. Still, thousands of existing units remain on the\u00a0market.<\/p>\n

In 2023<\/span>, the University of California, Santa Barbara scrapped plans to house 4<\/span>,500<\/span> students in new, mostly windowless accommodations. Dubbed \u200b\u201c<\/span>Dormzilla\u201d by critics, the project instead incorporated screens simulating natural light. UCSB eventually cancelled the project after an independent panel found the idea \u200b\u201c<\/span>unwise\u201d and\u00a0unsafe.<\/p>\n

But Charles Munger, the donor behind the \u200b\u201c<\/span>Dormzilla\u201d plans, had designed a\u00a0similar project a\u00a0decade earlier: Munger Graduate Residences at the University of Michigan, where hundreds of students pay about $1500<\/span> a\u00a0month for windowless apartments shared with six or seven other\u00a0people.<\/p>\n

In the fall of 2024<\/span>, a\u00a0year after re-launching following a\u00a0nearly two-decade period of dormancy, the Ann Arbor Tenants Union attempted to organize the residents of Munger. But according to member Nathan Kim, the transience of student residents made organizing a\u00a0tough sell.<\/p>\n

During the same period, the group also tried to organize at Northwood apartments, where graduate students have faced heating, cooling and WiFi issues alongside steep annual rent increases \u200b\u201c<\/span>three or four times the pace of inflation,\u201d according to Kim. But they once again ran into obstacles, including a \u200b\u201c<\/span>greater degree of fear\u201d at a\u00a0complex where the majority of residents are international students, Kim says, and especially vulnerable to the university\u2019s disciplinary\u00a0powers.<\/p>

Read more The Big Idea: Winning<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The University of Michigan did not respond to a\u00a0request for\u00a0comment.<\/p>\n

The Youth Alliance for Housing\u2019s Rehac sees it as a\u00a0fundamental problem that universities exert control over so many elements of students\u2019 lives, including their access to housing, food, healthcare, employment, immigration status, and of course, their diplomas. It can amount to \u200b\u201c<\/span>another money grab,\u201d Rehac says, when colleges \u200b\u201c<\/span>drain your pockets and make you really, really dependent on one institution for all parts of your\u00a0life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to partnering with university tenant unions like Columbia\u2019s on housing battles specific to their institution, Rehac\u2019s group advocates for legislation that would require universities to enter traditional lease agreements with students, thereby decoupling housing from other university processes\u2009\u2014\u2009and allowing student tenant unions to bargain with their universities over lease provisions covering rent, repairs, and retaliation for\u00a0organizing.<\/p>\n

Rehac also emphasizes that universities should take responsibility for ensuring that their students are safely housed\u2009\u2014\u2009and for halting the waves of gentrification and displacement of which elite institutions of higher education have long been\u00a0culprits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
Private Equity on Campus<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

While universities can make for especially negligent landlords, there\u2019s no guarantee that students living off-campus\u2009\u2014\u2009about 52<\/span>% of undergraduate students at public four-year universities and 44<\/span>% of undergraduates at private ones\u2014 will fare any\u00a0better.<\/p>\n

As state support for higher education has plummeted in recent decades, many universities have scrambled to boost enrollment\u2009\u2014\u2009even as they lack the resources needed to house larger\u00a0classes.<\/p>\n

Between 1999<\/span> and 2010<\/span>, the ratio of dorms to students in states across the country, with the typical university able to house just over one-fifth of its enrolled students by 2019<\/span>. Those remaining are often left to navigate a\u00a0private market increasingly dominated by actors poised to exploit young people\u2019s inexperience with tenancy\u2009\u2014\u2009including private equity\u00a0firms.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the 2008<\/span> financial crisis, some of the same Wall Street landlords that began gobbling up foreclosed homes and multi-family apartment buildings also set their sights on student housing. In 2022<\/span>, the private equity giant Blackstone purchased the real estate firm American Campus Communities (ACC), whose portfolio includes more than 140<\/span>,000<\/span> beds. By 2024<\/span>, Blackstone had become the single largest owner of student housing in the United\u00a0States.<\/p>\n

ACC owns more than a\u00a0dozen properties near the University of Texas at Austin, where more than three quarters of students live off-campus. The University Tenants\u2019 Union has mobilized against alleged neglect by corporate landlords, including a\u00a0March 2025<\/span> incident in which students were forced to move out of an ACC-owned complex due to potentially hazardous structural issues\u2009\u2014\u2009initially without the option to break their leases, according to the union. Students are especially rankled by the fact that the university system\u2019s endowment is invested in Blackstone funds of some $150<\/span>\u00a0million.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Private equity funds like Blackstone often increase their returns by cutting operating costs, including maintenance and staffing,\u201d wrote UT Austin student Tia Chatterjee in The Daily Texan <\/em>in June. \u200b\u201c<\/span>In other words, when our buildings leak, the University gets\u00a0dividends.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email to In These Times<\/em>, an ACC spokesperson wrote that \u200b\u201c<\/span>resident safety and security is always our top priority\u201d and that the company \u200b\u201c<\/span>worked closely with affected residents to accommodate their needs,\u201d including by releasing students from current and renewed leases. UT Austin\u2019s investment company did not respond to a\u00a0request for\u00a0comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Another pressing concern for UT students is the pervasive practice of \u200b\u201c<\/span>pre-leasing,\u201d through which landlords can exploit students\u2019 inexperience as renters and anxieties about scarce housing to pressure them into signing leases as much as a\u00a0year in advance. In extreme cases, this can mean starting the school year from a\u00a0hotel room, as hundreds of UT students were forced to do in 2014<\/span> when the units they signed for remained under construction past their scheduled move-in\u00a0date.<\/p>\n

Then, once students have started living in their apartments, landlords sometimes wait just weeks before they ask tenants to re-sign for the following year. Riley Sandhop, policy co-director of the university\u2019s tenants\u2019 union, says she\u2019s been asked to re-sign for the following year after just two weeks. The process risks trapping students for months or years in unlivable\u00a0situations.<\/p>\n

Sandhop\u2019s group is lobbying the city government to pass a\u00a0law prohibiting landlords from leasing their units more than six months before the previous lease has\u00a0expired.<\/p>\n

In 2021<\/span>, the Ann Arbor Tenants Union helped to pass a\u00a0municipal ordinance preventing landlords from asking tenants to re-sign leases less than 150<\/span>\u00a0days before their\u00a0expiration.<\/p>\n

Ann Arbor\u2019s law proved difficult to enforce at first. A\u00a02023<\/span> report by a\u00a0subgroup of the Ann Arbor Renters Commission, a\u00a0city body, that many landlords had responded to the law by offering financial incentives for early renewal, even if they didn\u2019t technically require it. Others asked tenants to re-sign before the 150<\/span>-day mark but waited to countersign until the legal limit had\u00a0passed.<\/p>\n

Other landlords took an even more profitable tack, charging students for spots on a \u200b\u201c<\/span>waitlist\u201d for in-demand units well before the 150<\/span>-day threshold. These sums ranged from $150<\/span> to $10<\/span>,000<\/span>, . And the sums were refundable only if the landlord was not able to provide the students with a\u00a0unit. If students themselves chose to withdraw from the waitlist, they were not owed the money back. Even when landlords said that their waitlist fees were<\/em> refundable, some students never recovered what they had\u00a0paid.<\/p>\n

Other landlords would charge smaller, but still substantial, waitlist fees that were nonrefundable entirely\u2009\u2014\u2009like Landmark Properties, a\u00a0luxury rental agency that reportedly collected a $375<\/span> fee. In an email sent to the Commission and included in its report, one angry parent did the math. Landmark was renting 608<\/span> units in Ann Arbor at the time, so the agency would pocket $228<\/span>,000<\/span>, even if each unit received just one\u00a0application.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In early 2024<\/span>, the Ann Arbor Tenants Union (whose membership overlaps with the Renters\u2019 Commission, which authored the 2023<\/span> report) launched the \u200b\u201c<\/span>Trash the Junk Fees\u201d campaign, aiming to ban non-refundable pre-tenancy fees. After months of door-knocking, tabling and testifying at public hearings, the union succeeded in pushing the city government to pass a\u00a0near-complete ban in January of 2025<\/span>. (The law carves out an exception for application fees up to $50<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

In February of this year, the city expanded the prohibition to include all non-optional fees in leases, which landlords can use to artificially lower the sticker price on an apartment. The new law took effect on August\u00a01<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We consider this a\u00a0win in transparency for renters,\u201d the tenant union wrote at the time of the first law\u2019s passage. But the union is still pushing for statewide rent stabilization and strengthened protections for tenant organizing, to ensure that no first-time renter or student has to face a\u00a0predatory landlord\u00a0alone.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Our goal is to create a\u00a0culture\u2026 where we [tenants] fight for ourselves,\u201d Kim says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Where we know that we\u2019re the ones who have our best interests in\u00a0mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Rehac, students who learn to recognize the power that comes with their positions as tenants\u2009\u2014\u2009whether in university housing or in the private market\u2009\u2014\u2009will be well-positioned to join one of the most exciting popular movements in\u00a0decades.<\/p>\n

While students have been \u200b\u201c<\/span>conditioned to imagine ourselves as having no agency over our housing,\u201d she says, tenant organizing is a\u00a0powerful answer to precarity\u2009\u2014\u2009and a\u00a0powerful path to solidarity with non-student renters vulnerable to university-led gentrification and\u00a0displacement.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>These are our homes,\u201d Rehac says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>This is how we protect each other and keep each other\u00a0safe.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Against the False Symmetry of the Scissors: An Open Letter While Iran Resists an Illegal War of Aggression<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faced with aging dorms, private equity landlords and few protections, student renters are banding together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses - Summit Relocation Timess<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses - Summit Relocation Timess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Faced with aging dorms, private equity landlords and few protections, student renters are banding together.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Summit Relocation Timess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-01T16:41:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.cdninstagram.com\/rsrc.php\/yr\/r\/rzWiSjZRxk5.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"13 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/78261b7043eb436872da19e7c8eda597\"},\"headline\":\"Why Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-01T16:41:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274\"},\"wordCount\":2679,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/542c243a063bc47fe319c8416d23af69.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Housing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274\",\"name\":\"Why Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses - Summit Relocation Timess\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/542c243a063bc47fe319c8416d23af69.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-01T16:41:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/78261b7043eb436872da19e7c8eda597\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/542c243a063bc47fe319c8416d23af69.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/542c243a063bc47fe319c8416d23af69.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=274#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Summit Relocation Timess\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/78261b7043eb436872da19e7c8eda597\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses - Summit Relocation Timess","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses - Summit Relocation Timess","og_description":"Faced with aging dorms, private equity landlords and few protections, student renters are banding together.","og_url":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274","og_site_name":"Summit Relocation Timess","article_published_time":"2026-09-01T16:41:56+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/static.cdninstagram.com\/rsrc.php\/yr\/r\/rzWiSjZRxk5.webp","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"13 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/#\/schema\/person\/78261b7043eb436872da19e7c8eda597"},"headline":"Why Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses","datePublished":"2026-09-01T16:41:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274"},"wordCount":2679,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/542c243a063bc47fe319c8416d23af69.jpg","articleSection":["Housing"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274","url":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274","name":"Why Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses - Summit Relocation Timess","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/542c243a063bc47fe319c8416d23af69.jpg","datePublished":"2026-09-01T16:41:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/#\/schema\/person\/78261b7043eb436872da19e7c8eda597"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/542c243a063bc47fe319c8416d23af69.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/542c243a063bc47fe319c8416d23af69.jpg","width":1200,"height":630},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=274#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/","name":"Summit Relocation Timess","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/#\/schema\/person\/78261b7043eb436872da19e7c8eda597","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com"],"url":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}