What does it mean to be a tenant advocate?
Text written by Aprili Amani.
Imagine your name is Aprili, you are a tenant advocate, born in the heart of chocolate city, DC, the nation’s capitol, and raised on and off of College Avenue in Indianapolis, and your tree address is a Willow Tree near the College Library - that no longer exists like your family’s name on the deed to the only place you’ve ever called home. You’ve done stints in San Jose. CA, Atlanta, GA and Philadelphia, PA. You’ve visited more than half the states in your home country and 9 other countries between two continents. Finally, you’ve lived abroad for 5 of your mid 30 years of beating the odds.
While your first experience with housing injustice was likely while you were yet a baby. Your first memory of housing injustice is when your mommy couldn’t afford rent on the West side of Indy. Evicted. You were so happy at Martin Manor North with your mommy after not living with her for about 7 years. You were 9.
While you have experienced housing discrimination due to your mental health condition, and housing insecurity, you decided you had time - in 2023. You made time to stand up and say - this was terribly wrong what your landlord was doing to you, harassing you, violating your rights to habitability and to quiet enjoyment of your home. Entering your home while there was a known conflict and not giving you any notice whatsoever. You were unsure as to who entered your unit for days. So yea, You just finished your fight the Friday before speaking on this panel. Nov. 3rd 2023. You were crying the night before because you didn’t understand - why do you have to fight for what’s yours to be returned to you? Your security deposit. Dates in which you paid rent for a dwelling that was not up to code with hot water.
You think to yourself, focus on what you know for sure we can tackle: We need to band together and ask for mutual aid for those of us who need legal representation. We need to tell each other our stories, as we’re doing here. We need to admit that we can do something. We need to call congress about these issues of being forced out of our homes to this cold world. We need to request more funding go towards justice for the oppressed populations.
You’re advocating for tenants because you want people to know that it is worth it to fight for our rights. It’s worth the time off from work, it’s worth reaching out for community support.
Finally, your self interest in being an advocate of tenant rights stems from seeing two sides of a coin. You’ve seen well intentioned moments from otherwise slum lords, you’ve fought a landlord in court. You await your results even as you speak. Your self interest as an advocate is to light a fire within your peer tenants - where they get a taste of their busted lip and the satisfaction of knowing they didn’t back down from a big bully. Just like when you were in the 5th grade and you fought that 8th grader on Fairfield and Winthrop - you may have lost a fight but you sure as heaven did not run. And as it turns out - you got some licks in too.
Aprili’s BIO
Barbara’s oldest daughter, middle child, and favorite, Aprili is driven by her mother’s example of love. Aprili is bold. A humble being, with fierce tendencies, whose life began in the nation’s capitol occupying Turtle Island, she has seen the world turn from spectrums wider than colors. Raised in between Indianapolis and the Bay Area’s San Jose, she’s lived in towns and cities all over the States. One such city is Atlanta, the home of Spelman College, where Aprili achieved her Bachelor of Science in Biology on May 15, 2011 (with honors).
Due to housing instability and neurodivergent challenges, Aprili lived nomadically for nearly a decade before settling in public housing. Since afforded the opportunity to live in her hometown again, she has immersed herself in housing advocacy.
Aprili was honorably mentioned as an author by the 2021 Black Radical Imagination essay contest; she was published by Rice University Business Wisdom in 2020, Disabled Hikers in 2020, America Hates Us in 2020 and 2021, and the 2022 Colorism Healing Writing Contest Anthology. Aprili enjoys biblical audiobooks, storytelling, writing lived experiences, hip hop, and encouraging diverse narratives globally.
You can read more of Aprili’s work at aprili.org