Five tenants’ unions from around the country convened on Tuesday to announce the launch of a new national organization to take on the power of multistate real-estate capital. The Tenant Union Federation marks the first major national effort at tenant organizing in forty years.

“Every tenant deserves a union — everyone deserves to move with the kind of power I found here,” said Donna Goldsmith, an organizer with the Louisville Tenants Union (one of the federation’s founding members) to a virtual audience of renters from around the country.

Goldsmith moved to a senior-living community in Louisville looking for a fresh start after the murder of her daughter and two grandchildren more than a decade ago. When her apartment began flooding regularly, she connected with the Louisville Tenants Union. At first, she was skeptical, but through building an ongoing campaign for better conditions, ​“I found other people like me,” she said. ​“Now all I think about is the tenant union.”