Causa Justa / Just Cause (CJJC) is a membership based organization committed to organizing Bay Area tenants to advocate for fair housing as a basic human right, to fight against community displacement, and to mobilize for policies that produce social and economic justice in low-income communities of color. This collection contains materials related to the organizational history of CJJC, as well as tenants’ organizations St. Peter’s Housing Committee and PUEBLO; extensive campaign planning and development documents; campaign flyers, resources and media; documents highlighting internal discussions and administrative decision making and newspaper articles and media focused on tenants’ rights and the struggle against gentrification and displacement.

In 2010, Causa Justa / Just Cause (CJJC) emerged from the strategic collaboration of two organizations focused on housing justice and tenants’ rights in the San Francisco Bay Area: St. Peter’s Housing Committee and Just Cause Oakland (JCO). These two organizations represent more than thirty years combined experience working toward housing and racial justice for African Americans and Latinx communities. Working in the Mission District since 1985, St. Peter’s Housing Committee worked to preserve affordable rental housing units and protect the rights of low-income tenants. An important part of that work was the operation of a Housing Counseling program that aided tenants in retaining affordable rental units and improve housing that had fallen into disrepair. Founded in 1999 and developing out of a community-organizing model that prioritized door-to-door outreach to recruit large numbers of members to participate in campaigns, Just Cause Oakland was launched by Oakland activists to head the effort to mobilize for a citywide Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance. One of the most notable accomplishments of CJJC was successfully organizing the passage of Measure EE, approved by Oakland voters in November 2002. Also known as Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance, it meant that Oakland renters are protected from eviction without a “just cause” reason. This victory for Oakland tenants was the result of over three years of grassroots organizing and coalition building as well as collecting over 36,000 signatures to place it on the ballot. Furthermore, CJJC’s has maintained a tenants’ rights clinics that has served more than 1,000 tenants each year, stopping hundreds of evictions, prevented rent increases, and forced landlords to do needed repairs. Throughout its history, CJJC has brought together diverse communities in San Francisco and Oakland to engage in campaign work and fight collectively against gentrification and displacement – successfully passing over a dozen tenants’ rights ordinances in those cities. More recently, the organization has fought deportations of immigrant communities, winning sanctuary city status in both cities and later helping to get motions passed by both counties pledging due process and not to cooperate with Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) on immigration holds.

4 boxes, 2 cartons, 1 oversized folder – 6.17 linear feet

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Collection is open for research.