Last summer, Kristin and RJ — members of the Blake Street Tenant Union in New Haven — were busy planning their wedding. Weeks before the ceremony, the couple faced an unexpected disruption to their plans. Ocean Management, the corporate landlord that had recently bought their building, attempted to evict them and 15 of their neighbors in retaliation for their tenant union’s efforts to collectively negotiate over maintenance standards, lease terms, and rent increases.

The type of eviction that Kristin, RJ, and their neighbors received was classified as no-fault,” meaning that their landlord didn’t need to cite a reason, such as a tenant damaging the property or not paying rent, for the eviction.

A few of their neighbors met the narrow criteria for Connecticut’s existing protection against no-fault evictions, which requires landlords to have “just cause” to evict tenants of certain populations. But like Kristin and RJ, most Connecticut tenants can be subjected to arbitrary evictions whenever their lease is up; or if their lease is month-to-month, with just three days’ notice. If these no-fault evictions had gone through, 16 households would have been suddenly displaced from their homes, some likely adding to the state’s growing rate of homelessness. Kristin and RJ would have been postponing their wedding.

This year, Connecticut has an opportunity to expand its existing Just Cause Eviction Protection law to include all people who rent their home — no matter their age, disability status, Zip code, income, or the size of their apartment building.

In Kristin and RJ’s case, a show of force from their tenant union, which included the largest housing-related protest in recent Connecticut memory, ultimately compelled Ocean Management to drop the evictions and come back to the negotiating table. The neighbors on Blake Street proved that, through tenant unions, renters can negotiate collectively with our landlords for better living conditions, longer-term security, and stabilized rents, even in the absence of rent stabilization legislation.

In our urban centers and small towns, from New Haven to Stamford to Putnam, Connecticut renters are refusing to accept neglected buildings, unaffordable rents, evictions, and rising homelessness as our fate. We are organizing tenant unions and challenging corporate real estate interests head on. After decades of housing prices outpacing wage growth, when more of us than ever are rent-burdened and housing insecure, tenant unions promise a pragmatic and even hopeful path forward for the many Connecticut residents whose wages are too low and whose rents are too high.

Expanding Just Cause this year will ensure that all people who rent their homes can organize a tenant union, negotiate for decent conditions and rents, and advocate for themselves and their neighbors without the threat of a no-fault eviction. Because no-fault evictions allow landlords to evict people without providing a justification, they serve as an easy tool of intimidation. The lack of basic protections against arbitrary evictions jeopardizes good faith negotiation between tenants and landlords — not to mention basic fairness — since landlords can take away a renter’s shelter at any moment, for any reason. Expanding Just Cause to include all renters would prevent such abuses of power.

Like the “Blake Street 16,” many members of the Connecticut Tenants Union have faced down landlords wielding no-fault evictions as weapons.

In Willimantic, Jay dealt with a broken front door at his large apartment building for months. The burden this placed on his disabled neighbors frustrated him. In Avon, Michelle endured over 30 days without hot water. As a result, she and dozens of her neighbors started talking for the first time. In Stamford, Pamela noticed a difference in how property managers treated her as a market-rate renter compared to her neighbors with rent subsidies. She offered to accompany them to meetings with management.

Jay, Michelle, and Pamela all began organizing their neighbors with the Connecticut Tenants Union. At the end of each of their leases, all three received similar emails: “we’re choosing not to renew your lease, and if you don’t move out by x date, we’ll initiate an eviction against you.”

The social cost of not reducing evictions is severe. Evictions disrupt kids’ development and education. They threaten the health of both evicted individuals and their communities. Because a higher proportion of Black and Latino families rent their homes, evictions worsen racial inequalities in health, education, and employment. They further entrench segregation in housing.

Rising rents and evictions even shorten our lives.

Current research supports the idea that universal Just Cause Eviction Protection improves housing stability and protects people without causing unintended consequences. The policy is significantly reducing evictions and stabilizing communities in the five states and 20 municipalities that have already passed it.

Expanding Just Cause Eviction Protection this legislative session could immediately reduce evictions in our state by at least 11%. It will also meaningfully address the multiple crises that renters in Connecticut face. By passing this cost-free policy that will reduce overall evictions, Connecticut can take a significant step toward addressing racial equity, cultivating healthier communities, and reducing the state’s spending on the costly and inevitable fallout of evictions.

By regulating evictions and eliminating the tool most easily weaponized by unscrupulous landlords, we can bolster the tenant union movement and give more people the opportunity to win security, affordability, and respect in their rental housing.

For many in Connecticut, tenant unions embody the democratic promise that working people can initiate change-from-below on the core issues shaping our lives. Anyone interested in a more stable, just, and prosperous future for Connecticut should support an expansion of Just Cause Eviction Protection for this reason.

Learn more about the campaign to expand Just Cause here.

Hannah Srajer and Luke Melonakos-Harrison are President and Vice President, respectively, of the Connecticut Tenants Union.