ATA To Launch Nationwide Membership Drive

Scottsdale, AZ, May 11, 2009. The American Tenants Association (ATA), the voice of the country’s 95 million residential renters, said today it is mobilizing the thousands of local tenant organizations scattered throughout the United States in order to strengthen common efforts on behalf of residential tenants.

The ATA said it is developing a comprehensive database of tenants rights advocates and groups to increase the political, economic and cultural clout of tenants at the local, state and national levels.

“For too long, residential renters have been the nation’s political step children,” the ATA’s Executive Director William M. Deegan, said. “Renters are either routinely treated with benign neglect or trampled on by politicians more interested in serving the needs of the nation’s property owners. If we are not ignored in shaping public policy we are discriminated against. If we are not denied the right to basic human decency we are taxed to further the political agenda of the ruling class. The ATA is stepping up to say that these days are over. We are mobilizing and organizing tenants throughout the land to stop this blatant discrimination”, Mr. Deegan added.

Stan Dale, the ATA’s Director of Public Policy, said that the group is reaching out to similar organizations and tenant advocates with the objective of building political strength.

“Tenants tend to be poor, young families, minorities and senior citizens. Their collective participation in the political process is historically much lower than the privileged class. We will increase our political muscle by working with like-minded tenant advocates and groups throughout the country to get tenants into the voting booths. The ATA is leading the revolution in the way renters think about themselves and the way America views renters”, Mr. Dale said.

The ATA is serving as an umbrella group for all tenants associations by providing technical and consulting services through its growing list of supporters.

The American Tenants Association is the country’s only nationwide, grassroots organization representing America’s renters. Membership is free and is open to all residential renters and advocates of tenant rights.