Decisions = Community, Not Just Meetings
Decisions = Community, Not Just Meetings (CHTU Congress, Part 2)
Recap from the Crown Heights Tenant Union Congress: "We are a community, let's act like it!"
Jan 09, 2026
I helped organize the Crown Heights Tenant Union’s 2025 Congress, an opportunity for members to reflect on how we make decisions.
Before the Congress, we conducted a union-wide survey to hear directly from members about their experiences and priorities. That feedback shaped the agenda, ensuring discussions reflected the real concerns of union members.
The main themes were:
Hyperlocal Organizing
Black and Immigrant Participation
Community and Knowledge-Sharing
Decision-Making
Finances and Mutual Aid
I will use a couple of essays to breakdown everything we discussed and decided. By consensus, we agreed to prioritize Hyperlocal Organizing (Part 1) and Decision-Making (Part 2).
This essay focuses on Decision-Making. The Congress showed that decision-making is most effective when it is grounded in real relationships and a shared political program.
Crown Heights Tenant Union members during a Congress session.
Learning From Each Other
Decisions are easier when members share a common political framework and understand one another. Without that clarity, participation can feel intimidating. As one member put it, “I wanted to be more engaged but I usually feel like there’s a lack of clarity.”
This requires grounding union life in everyday tenant experiences. Housing court should be an entry point into organizing. Block parties, picnics, domino nights, and shared meals build trust and help neighbors see themselves as agents of change rather than clients. CHTU’s newly formalized Tenant Circles are small, local, recurring informal spaces that bridge these intimate relationships through collective strategy.
Decision-making, then, is not about speed but about shared ownership. CHTU Members at Congress emphasized the need for meetings that center participation, invest in mentorship, maintain a visible and welcoming presence, and treat political education as a collective responsibility.
Members stressed the need to demystify the union. New members sometimes do not know what CHTU is for, how decisions are made, or where to begin. Knowledge about tenant rights, organizing tactics, and internal processes often “lives in people’s heads.” The Congress called for popular education: toolkits, checklists for common problems, workshops hosted in tenant buildings, and shared political education that links everyday struggles to the broader vision. As one member put it, “Revolutionary theory informs revolutionary practice.”
Crown Heights Tenant Union members hug between Congress sessions.
The People’s Recommendations
Members offered concrete ideas for making decisions more accessible and effective:
Ground decisions in community: Start at the TA level. “The Tenant Association serves as the foundation of each building and the first line of defense for residents.” Decisions built here move naturally into union-wide discussion.
Make pathways clear: Distinguish between quick decisions, long-term strategy, working group proposals, and GMM votes. Clarity allows members to act confidently.
Share knowledge broadly: Accessible materials and political education empower members. “The union is strongest when everyone has the tools to participate.”
Integrate social connection: Social events, shared meals, and informal gatherings are foundational to building trust. “We are a community, let’s act like it!”
Embed a shared political program: When members understand the union’s goals and values, decisions align naturally. Politics must be tangible, connecting repairs, harassment, and eviction to the broader struggle against displacement.
Union Means Community
A recurring concern was that too much union life happens in abstract or inaccessible ways. GMMs can feel business-heavy and intimidating to newcomers, information gets buried in chats, and decisions can appear to be made by a small, confident group. Members repeatedly emphasized the need to “make it easier to plug in, not just join.”
Decision-making is a matter of culture. Members stay involved not because meetings run smoothly, but because members feel connected: to one another, to a shared purpose, and to the belief that their participation matters. As one member said, “We are a community! Let’s act like it!” The Congress made clear that decision-making infrastructure depends upon political education and a unified social life.
While GMMs connect the union, real power is built at the building and block level. Tenant meetings create concrete entry points rooted in lived experience. “Our main power and leverage comes from militant organizing on the building level,” one member said. A common vision allows local groups to act autonomously while remaining aligned with the union’s goals. Another union member said, “If we decentralize with strong connective tissue, we can act quickly and confidently without losing unity.”
Crown Heights Tenant Union members during a Congress session.
Progress Since the Congress
Since the Congress, we have begun hosting “Tenant Circles” at a consistent time and place, making it easier for neighborhood tenants to plug in. Neighbors in the union have started mapping local tenant associations in order to reconnect with inactive buildings and plan toward a Tenant Assembly.
4 Recommendations on Decision-Making from the 2025 Congress
Educate and inform. Every member should have a clear understanding of the union’s goals, values, and strategies through shared political education and accessible materials that make participation meaningful and actionable.
Build local leadership. Rotating roles in TAs and working groups develops experience, prevents burnout, and creates clear pathways for decision-making.
Connect through social spaces. Small, consistent gatherings such as picnics, domino nights, or block meetups serve as entry points for participation. Participation is strengthened by partnering with local organizations, mapping tenant activity, and publicly highlighting victories.
Clarify. Clearly define which decisions happen at the TA level, in working groups, or require full membership approval, and standardize onboarding for newcomers.
Quotes:
“I do not like that so much of the organizing and decision making happens on WhatsApp.”
“Make it easier to plug in, not just join.”
“Streamline the union’s knowledge and make it more accessible and easy to use.”
“Want to get more educated on tenants rights and be able to share info... There is so much knowledge in the CHTU family, but it lives in people’s heads.”
