What does a healthy home look like for you?
Secure & Healthy Housing
Arkansas is the only state that does not have laws in place to protect renters. A “Warranty of Habitability” law would allow renters to protect themselves and their families from slumlords who do not make needed repairs or who rent out unsafe and unhealthy apartments and rent-houses.
In order to give renters in Arkansas a voice, members of Arkansas Community Organizations started a renters organization called Arkansas Renters United (ARU). ARU fights for balanced landlord tenant laws so that renters have rights and protections. We aim to mobilize individuals directly affected by substandard housing, focus their attention on speaking out against cruel landlords, and inevitably change the structure of landlord tenant relations in Arkansas.
If you are a tenant in Arkansas experiencing substandard housing conditions such as mold, bug infestations, clogged plumbing, etc, visit our renters group on Facebook, Arkansas Renters United, and find out how you can join the movement to bring about change!
We believe:
Secure and healthy housing is a human right.
Every Arkansan should have a home to thrive.
Those of us struggling with rising rents, eviction, and unsafe living conditions must be the ones to speak their truth to those in power.
Together, our collective power will achieve the change we need.
Read our most recent report - No Shelter in Place about evictions in Arkansas during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our Healthy Housing Platform:
Arkansas should permanently fund the Housing Trust Fund and use it to invest in affordable housing for all Arkansans.
Tenants have rights to safe and healthy housing, and those rights should be encoded in Arkansas law.
Corporate landlords based outside of Arkansas must be accountable to their Arkansas tenants, through organizing renters to alter the power imbalance between landlord and tenant.
Take Action Now
Join ARU - Arkansas Renters United
We’ve fought for the passage of fair landlord-tenant laws at the state legislature.
Now we are …. what do we want to list here?
No Shelter in Place
ACI Eviction Report, September 2023
The Arkansas Community Institute (ACI) is releasing this report as part of our project to reduce debt disparities in Arkansas. ACI is a partner of the Southern Partnership to Reduce Debt. Launched in 2017 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Southern Partnership to Reduce Debt (SPRD) is a multi-year, multi-state effort to close the racial-ethnic wealth gap and bring financial security to households of color. The effort involves several national organizations including—the Aspen Institute, National Consumer Law Center, National League of Cities, Prosperity Now, and the Urban Institute —and more than 20 nonprofit organizations working in seven southern states. These partners are primarily focusing on four kinds of debt: high-cost loans (pay-day loans, auto loans); fines and fees; medical bills; and student loans. ACI believes that eviction policies in Arkansas and other states add to household debt and make it difficult for families to find safe and affordable housing.
Arkansas Community Organizations and Arkansas Renters United collaborated with ACI to reach out to communities in Arkansas and gather data and stories for the report.
Learn About Renters Rising
A stable, safe and affordable home lays the foundation for a meaningful life, a connected neighborhood, and a thriving community. The current reality is that Black and brown people who have lived in city centers and other gentrifying areas are being priced out of the places that they have called home for years. Tenants have taken bigger and bolder action because lawmakers in most of the country have left tenants to fend for themselves. It’s time for us to make sure that everyone can build their life on a strong foundation.
ACO is partners with Renters Rising, a project of the Center for Popular Democracy and Center for Popular Democracy in Action.
Share in the Vision
What is Social Housing? It’s a public option for housing that is permanently affordable, protected from the private market, and under democratic community control. It can be owned by public entities or non-profits. It may be occupied by renters as well as homeowners who have formed cooperatives or who live on community land trusts. Social housing includes public housing for the lowest-income and most marginalized residents, as well as affordable options for low- and moderate-income households.
Social housing is an answer to the current corporate stranglehold over all aspects of housing finance, production, and provision—as well as over our nation’s housing policy-making.
Read about this vision for thriving communities and renter power.
Read the Report
Arkansas has some of the worse tenant laws in the country. We are the only state without an implied warranty of inhabitability — which means that landlords are not required to provide safe living standards or essential services like heat and water.
This means that too many Arkansas families, many with young children, live in unsafe conditions with mold, pests, fire hazards, and extreme heat and cold.
Arkansas Community Institute, in partnership with the Central Arkansas Re-Entry Coalition, UA Little Rock Bowen School of Law Consumer Protection Clinic, and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Public Health published a detailed report on how housing inequalities have directly impacted the health of many Little Rock residents.