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As a sociology professor at Syracuse University, Gretchen Purser regularly researches issues that tenants face across the city of Syracuse. Though admittedly, she has realized her research papers and academic journals are not always accessible to the communities they serve.

This realization led Purser to pursue a new medium to advocate for tenants’ rights: documentary film. Bringing the efforts of the Syracuse Tenants Union to the screen, Purser teamed up with producer Franklin Thompson to create the film “Raise the Roof,” which was first shown Monday evening at Salt City Market.

“Instead of just writing an academic paper, which we are also doing, we wanted to create something that could help the tenant union recruit more members and gain a better political voice,” Purser said. “I think it’s a really important tool to educate people on what tenant unions are and what they do.”

The documentary-style film was created to raise awareness of STU’s work and the violations of tenant rights in Syracuse, Purser said. The film featured interviews with STU leaders and tenants, as well as footage from union meetings and protests. After the screening, STU hosted a Q&A featuring its leadership, the filmmakers and Syracuse City Auditor Alexander Marion.

The movie also highlighted the efforts of STU to push for the local adoption of Good Cause Eviction legislation. The Syracuse City Common Council passed a resolution in support of the statewide law in 2022. Today, Good Cause is awaiting a council vote to opt into the resolution locally. The resolution intends to prevent retaliatory evictions by requiring landlords to prove they have reasonable cause to evict someone and prevent rent hikes.

STU hopes the implementation of this requirement would allow tenants to take action and organize against landlords without fear of retaliation. However, STU faces opposition from landlord associations who claim that Good Cause is encroaching on their rights and would decrease economic gains, not only for landlords but for the city as a whole.

In the film, tenants discussed multiple housing issues, including large rent increases, harmful lead paint exposure and negligent landlords. The film showed poor living conditions of rental residences in Syracuse like caved-in ceilings and broken furnaces.

Tenants featured in the film said that when they would call city code enforcement to report violations, little was done to address their concerns. They also said their landlords would often go unpunished.
Following the screening, a panel of the film’s creators and leaders in the STU held a Q&A discussing landlord abuses, issues of code enforcement and STU’s work to pass legislation protecting tenants.

“The structural arrangement is such that tenants will perennially be at the losing end of the relationship, and will be exploited and will be harmed unless there is a countervailing power that they can bring to bear against the landlord,” said Jamila Michener, an associate professor in Cornell University’s Department of Government who’s featured in the film.

During the Q&A, STU leaders promoted its efforts on Good Cause and the organization’s Rental Registry Proposal. The proposal would mandate lead inspection before a Rental Registry is issued, additional fees for landlords renting unregistered properties, the allocation of funds from landlord penal fees towards repairing damages such as lead paint and mold and registry revocation for code violators.

The discussion also covered where the money from code violation fines collected from landlords goes. In response, Marion then discussed how landlord fines are collected and pooled together.

Fees collected are put into a line combined with all other rental registry collections and then go toward general funds, he said. As a result, he said, it’s harder for the auditing office to figure out how much money is being collected, assess the violations being documented and dictate where that money goes.

“We should be able to make enough money on violations, on fines, on registrations and on inspections that we can fund code enforcement,” Marion said. “Though, we are a long, long, long way from that.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated that Jamila Michener is a professor of sociology. She is a professor in Cornell University’s Department of Government. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on December 3, 2024 at 1:46 am

Contact Anna: aclevitt@syr.edu