Tenant Justice
Sometimes it’s good to start with an introduction, so this is mine.
Hi! I’m Squirrel. I joined STUN in mid 2024 amid a point where I was going through extreme change and conflict in my own life.
Here, lets start over.
Dearest Friends and Tenants it’s my honor to work for all of us to improve housing rights for Springfield as a whole. I’m not super comfortable in the spotlight, but I’ve put myself there a few times for the benefit of our shared purpose. That purpose is helping tenants like me, a disabled woman with a suppressed immune system and a liver transplant, and everyone else besides.
I don’t do what I do for acknowledgement. In fact, that’s not something I really enjoy. What I do enjoy is helping others. I help the world around me in small ways, and some big ways too. Like the rental inspection pilot program. I helped make that possible, but not just me. It was all of us together, because together we build power. Together we build community, and that’s what STUN means to me. They’re my community. Springfield is my community too.
I first joined STUN because our President, Rex, was stepping down from leadership at Poet’s Corner. I’m a poet and it brings me great joy that this is how Rex and I met. He gave a very moving speech about how he had important work that needed doing and he needed to focus on that. I was so moved by the emotions he shared vulnerably that I made it a point to talk to him after to ask what he would be focusing on now, and I’ve never looked back. Now we both share that passion to drive ever forward to help the place we’ve made our homes in safer, healthier, and more equitable than it has ever been in this den of poverty to date.
Before I sign off I would love to share with you the poem I wrote for our Jenny Lind Hall rally in 2024. (I think?) I read it there, and it was my first time writing poetry that could be construed as political. Enjoy.
Tenant Justice
By Squirrel
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Tenants pay rent and get treated like crap!
Jenny Lind Hall is treating their tenants like that!
I’m here to support you
Here against what they do.
Bring their stories into the light!
Make the landlord’s wrongs right!
Private pain into public power
Now is time for actions to tower!
Don’t you see what’s happening here?
They just want us to disappear!
Now is not the time to go away!
I’d rather stand up and say not today!