Right to the City

Right to the City (RTTC) emerged in 2007 as a unified response to gentrification and a call to halt the displacement of low-income people, LGBTQ, and youths of color from their historic urban neighborhoods. We are a national alliance of racial, economic and environmental justice organizations.

Mission | Work | Members

Mission

Through shared principles and a common frame and theory of change, RTTC is building a national movement for urban justice, human rights, and democracy.

RTTC seeks to create regional and national impacts in the fields of housing, human rights, urban land, community development, civic engagement, criminal justice, environmental justice, and more.

Work

Right To The City is a diverse movement-building alliance organized into geographical regions, thematic working groups, resource allies and a national center. The backbone of the Right to the City Alliance is comprised of dozens of community-based organizations which organize thousands of RTTC constituents for urban justice and democracy every day.

As of October 2008, Right to the City includes more than forty member organizations and resource allies in seven states and more than a dozen local jurisdictions. Members are organized in regional Right to the City networks, which currently include: Boston/Providence, DC/Northern Virginia, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, and San Francisco/Oakland.

Each regional network of RTTC member organizations and allies meets regularly to collaborate on regional and national issues.

RTTC members and resource allies also participate in thematic working groups which offer a vehicle for innovative, cross-regional and national collaboration, sectoral investigation, movement building and organizing. RTTC’s current working groups include:

Civic Engagement – creating a national learning community and infrastructure to move from voter mobilizing to voter organizing; focusing on voting as an important tactic when integrated with our local, regional and national strategies for progressive social change.
NOLA – developing the New Orleans Right to the City region; creating a program of peer support and technical assistance to New Orleans organizations; and building national support for a just reclamation in the Gulf Coast.
Public and Subsidized Housing – creating a new vision and national agenda for public and subsidized housing in the United States.
Tenants Rights – sharing tenant organizing strategies and elevating the role of tenants as majority stakeholders in major urban centers across the country.
Resource Allies -- Finally, RTTC is supported by a range of resource allies, including researchers, lawyers, academics, movement strategists, and funders. Resource allies provide key technical, research, legal, communications, and funding support to the diverse local, regional, and national elements of the alliance.

Members

Right to the City's national and regional/city chapters are based on a shared three-tier membership structure of core, resource/allied and general members.

CORE MEMBERS

Organizations within RTTC regions/cities that are building a base of grassroots leaders in low-income, working class communities of color to strategically challenge neo-liberal economic policies. Core members are committed to doing political education and leadership development with their membership bases; and engaging in place-based struggles that protect low income communities of color.

RIGHTS & EXPECTATIONS

Core members provide political direction for regional and national work; participate in voting and decision making on a regional and national level; have access to resources to build local and regional capacity; and access to other Alliance members to exchanges strategies and best practices.

Core members are expected to participate in building and shaping national and regional work, engage in fundraising activities, attend national meetings, promote the Right to the City principles of unity and represent the Alliance with positive energy.

RESOURCE/ALLIED MEMBERS

Resource/allied members are individuals and organizations actively supporting base-building organizations through technical assistance, legal, research and media support, and fundraising.

RIGHTS & EXPECTATIONS

Resource/allied members participate in and support national and regional work and have access to Alliance members to exchange ideas and strategies.

Resource/allied members are expected to support national and/or regional/city work upon request by Core Members or the Steering Committee; attend national meetings; promote the Right to the City principles of unity and represent the Alliance with positive energy.

GENERAL MEMBERS

Individuals or organizations that are committed to the Right to the City principles of unity.

RIGHTS & EXPECTATIONS

General members receive updates and access to Right to the City materials.

General members are expected to support public Right to the City events and the principles of unity.