When I’m not writing on Substack, I’m fighting for tenants rights.

That’s because housing in America is broken and needs fixing; the burden of grief is falling on those who are barely scraping by.

The stark realities of housing insecurity, corporate negligence, and tenant disenfranchisement is a brutal cycle – one that will repeat if left unchecked.

I know this because I have experienced it firsthand.

My names Red Young – I’m a community organizer in my hometown of Hell’s Kitchen, New York, and the cause I support is Housing Freedom. 

This video is my testimony to the New York State Senate, telling my personal story and belief in Housing Freedom that speaks for millions of others across the country.

The premise of Housing Freedom is simple: We pay too much for something that wedon’town, and it doesn’t serve us.

We deserve more, and much like previous rights of freedom in this country, they must be fought for.

In fact, our flimsy housing is an impediment to our success and overallhealth.

I write a weekly newsletter — Down to Earth — lighting up the path toward wholistic health and wellbeing. In that same vein, I believe housing serves as the foundation of all health. 

I see strong, secure housing as the gateway to community, connection and happiness. If we have a home to go back to each night, we can contribute during the day in confidence and earnestness. 

There are unlimited paths toward freedom. The one I invite you all to join me on is ownership. A nation of community-based living, where rights of the tenants — the people — come first. 

We can achieve these dreams of community ownership through legislation like the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), which would allow tenants to purchase their homes, should the landlord choose to sell. 

With a housing crisis nearing irrevocable depths, I believe this is a solution that could thoroughly satisfy the needs of ownership for our struggling communities, while creating more opportunities for much needed affordable housing.

By giving tenants the rights to purchase their homes, the predatory landlords and equity firms that see people and their homes as profit are disjointed in their efforts to posses every bit of remaining real estate in the country.

I told the senators something similar, and my appeal seemed to reach them in a way that is both logical and human. Freedom and home ownership just makes sense — I mean, isn’t that what the American Dream was supposed to be?

I hope you can see my vision with the same clarity I do. A future where communities are self sustaining and just is inevitable.

We will secure Housing Freedom in some shape or form, and the fight has to start somewhere.

So I invite you to follow me on this journey to a place of promise and dignity, and to join the wonderful community of tenants, organizers and good people who believe in housing as a human right.

You’ll feel right at home. 

Please follow me on Substack, subscribe to my newsletter and check out my content on housing through YouTube to learn more about this movement. 

Our freedom can’t wait 🕊️

Youtube: youtube.com/@Redisdownt…

Newsletter: