On January 20, about 70 tenants and tenant leaders braved the first rains of the season to participate in the Central City SRO Collaborative’s Annual Tenant Convention. This year’s convention focused on gathering local SRO residents and community leaders in order to provide the skills needed to organize around the issues important to SRO tenants in the Tenderloin and South of Market.

The program was created and led by the Central City SRO Collaborative’s Tenant Organizers, who are residents of SRO hotels that organize in their community. LaTonya Jones, Tenant Organizer from the All Star Hotel, was the emcee for the day, interspersing introductions and instructions with beautiful inspirational songs. Stephen Tennis, Tenant Organizer for the Hartland Hotel, gave what Supervisor Jane Kim called “one of the sweetest introductions I’ve ever received,” and presented Kim with a certificate of recognition for her work with SRO residents. Tenant Organizers Marzell Brown and Diane Hawkins each co-led organizing skill workshops, and other Tenant Organizers were part of the planning committee that put the event on.

In past conventions, the Central City SRO Collaborative offered classroom style, information gathering sessions. This year staff and organizers chose to offer interactive, organizing skills building workshops to participants that had been identified as leaders in their community. Workshops included Door Knocking, Leadership Development, Identifying Issues and Setting Goals, and Public Speaking.

Each of the skill building workshops were designed around issues important to the tenants. For example, Mark Toney, Executive Director of the The Utility Reform Network (TURN), directed participants to create two-minute speeches about how the Lifeline phone program had helped each of them, as if they were telling their local representatives. “Your job is to open a tiny window into your life. That is what good public speaking does,” Toney said during his workshop.

Guest appearances by Supervisor Jane Kim and THC executive director Randy Shaw expounded on the importance of organizing. “It’s one thing to be able to provide services and give people the resources that they need, but in the long term if you want meaningful impact in our neighborhoods and communities, you need to organize,” Supervisor Kim told conference participants.

Reverend Norman Fong, Executive Director of the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC), gave a rousing keynote address giving examples of successful organizing campaigns from CCDC. Fong spoke of an elder Chinatown resident who became an activist and learned three English words, “we won’t move,” to defend herself and her neighbors from an Ellis Act Eviction. “You are all heroes for the movement,” Reverend Fong said amidst rounds of applause.

Brenda Washington, Tenant Organizer at the Jefferson Hotel, ended the day by telling her story and asking all who attended, “Are you with me?” We were with her, and we hope that all who joined us at the Tenant Convention continue to be with us, using the skills that they learned to organize for sustained change in their communities in the coming years.

Dannette Lambert is a Community Organizer with the Central City SRO Collaborative.