Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT)

From 2018 through 2023, we worked with the Community Alliance of Tenants to support their communications strategies, advocacy efforts, and strategic planning. With an increased focus on renters and housing policy across Oregon and the country, we helped the Community Alliance of Tenants communicate their members' stories and priorities, and position them in public conversations.

CAT is the only statewide organization led by tenants in Oregon, and our team has worked closely with staff to help raise their media profile and shape the legislative conversation on rent stabilization – simultaneously staying authentic to the desires of their membership and passing meaningful legislation to protect renters

In 2021, we began work to help them develop a new Strategic Plan. Between October and December of 2021, Praxis conducted or helped to organize 21 virtual focus groups of over 150 tenant participants in groups across seven major Oregon Counties. We held five culturally-specific focus groups for Black Tenants, Asian Tenants, Latinx Tenants, Pacific Islander Tenants, and Indigenous Tenants. We also held focus groups that were language-specific offered in Spanish, Vietnamese, Swahili, Amharic, Tigrinya, and Oromo.

We spent over 6 months breaking down the data we learned in each focus group, drawing conclusions, drafting the plan, and working with staff and CAT members to adjust and approve the final plan which was presented to the CAT Board and at the Annual Membership Meeting.