On the Home Front

The Memphis Tenants Union (MTU) is honored with the 2025 NLIHC Local Organizing Award in recognition of its hard-fought, multi-year campaign that resulted in improvements in living conditions for residents of the local Memphis Towers and a new owner for the apartment complex.  

MTU is a multi-racial, multi-generational, working-class organization dedicated to building collective tenant power. MTU builds power by facilitating relationships based on trust and accountability between neighbors to identify shared struggles, develop campaigns that win material gains, and fight together for housing justice. 

In 2021, MTU was contacted by residents of Memphis Towers interested in establishing a tenant’s union. Memphis Towers is a 295-unit Project-Based Section 8 apartment complex located in the city’s Medical District. Many Memphis Towers residents are Black, elderly, and live with disabilities. After years of facing disrepair and constant disrespect from management, residents were ready to take action. After establishing what is now the Memphis Towers Tenants Union (MTTU) as a member of MTU, residents launched a campaign to make their building a safe place for the primarily elderly tenants living with disabilities. Tenant leaders such as Ms. Johnnie Mae Lee, Ms. Joyce Warren, and Ms. Peggy Wilkins were fueled with righteous anger around their living conditions and constant harassment from management. They channeled this anger into affirming their rights, organizing and educating their neighbors, and learning about local housing policies. 

In spring of 2023, MTTU delivered their demands to Millennia, the building’s owner and property management company. The demands included increased safety measures, such as round-the-clock security, and desperately needed repairs to the building. The tenant leaders were immediately met with a wave of retaliation. After weathering the storm, MTTU drafted a strategy that included the Health, Educational and Housing Facility Board (HEHFB), a local tax board which provides Memphis Towers with $400,000 in annual tax credits. After creating a strategic media campaign that included months of testimony to local news outlets and elected officials, MTTU successfully pressured HEHFB to put these lucrative tax breaks in jeopardy, a step almost never taken by the board.  

In response, Millennia’s silent partner, The Richman Group, quickly stepped in and removed Millennia from Memphis Towers in April 2024. Shortly after, new management met the tenants’ longstanding demands for 24/7 security, working emergency pull cords, and key fob access. Tenant leaders also successfully organized to win a new water boiler so that tenants could have consistent access to hot water. Lastly, MTTU leaders forced the new ownership to complete long-overdue renovations, including a new community room where they can hold their weekly meetings. 

In addition to organizing tenants in the building, MTTU was also a member of the Millennia Resistance Campaign, which successfully campaigned for Millennia to be sanctioned by HUD for their numerous violations. Millennia recently stated that they are now selling all their affordable housing properties throughout the United States. 

MTTU’s victory over Millennia will directly affect more than 295 residents of Memphis Towers, all of whom qualify for Section 8 and receive SSI or SSDI benefits. In the aftermath of this victory, MTU is currently forming a coalition that will expand the model developed at Memphis Towers to benefit more than 9,000 residents currently living in HEHF Board properties. All the buildings that the HEHF Board serves are affordable housing properties that house low-income and extremely low-income tenants throughout Memphis.  

The work of the tenant leaders endures at Memphis Towers as MTTU leaders have already identified other potential campaigns on issues relating to elevator repairs, improvements to security and safety in the building, and deepened community-building efforts to develop more relationships between residents. In addition, these tenant leaders will utilize their experience to develop citywide campaigns to reform and transform the HEHF board and to ensure greater protections for all low-income renters in Memphis. 

MTU will be officially honored as the 2025 Local Organizing Award winner on Wednesday, March 26, during NLIHC’s annual Housing Policy Forum, where Andrea Smith and Alex Uhlmann from MTU will participate in a plenary panel. NLIHC’s annual Organizing Awards recognize outstanding achievements in statewide, regional, citywide, neighborhood, or resident organizing that further NLIHC’s mission of ensuring that people with the lowest incomes have quality homes that are accessible and affordable in communities of their choice. 

Join NLIHC in congratulating MTU on its major organizing victories! 

To learn more about MTU and its ongoing organizing work, please visit: https://memphistenantsunion.org/