“The landlord has changed, they’ve sold the building to numerous companies, and nothing changes—the managers just come, they don’t fix anything, and they just collect our rent,” says one tenant.

“With gentrification, you know a lot of people who have left, but you don’t know what it’s like to fight to stay.”

Around 150 people congregated in Columbia Heights on Saturday to elect new leaders for a District-wide union that will bring the city’s many housing activists, tenant leaders, and renters into an umbrella organization.