Housing Justice Now

Housing Justice Now (HJN) is a grassroots, city-wide tenants union based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We organize with tenants and community members to fight unsafe housing conditions, prevent displacement, and push for long-term, permanently affordable housing solutions. Our work centers tenant voices and builds collective power to hold landlords, developers, and local government accountable.

We believe housing is a human right. Through direct action, policy advocacy, and community organizing, Housing Justice Now works to ensure that everyone in Winston-Salem has access to safe, dignified, and affordable housing.

Housing Justice Now focuses on tenant-led advocacy and structural housing solutions, including:

• Organizing tenants in public, subsidized, and private housing to demand repairs, habitability, and accountability.
• Fighting displacement and the loss of affordable housing, particularly in historically Black and working-class neighborhoods.
• Advocating for long-term affordability models such as cooperative housing .
• Advocate housing policies that protect tenants and expand permanently affordable housing.

• Tenants experiencing unsafe or unhealthy housing conditions.
• Residents facing displacement or loss of affordability.
• Community members seeking collective solutions to the housing crisis.

Housing Justice Now is powered by volunteers, tenants, and community members. There are many ways to get involved, including attending meetings, supporting tenant actions, helping with outreach, and amplifying campaigns.

If you are interested in volunteering, collaborating, or learning more, we encourage you to reach out!

We develop and support public housing tenant unions:

• Crystal Towers United (Instagram)
• Healy Towers United
• Supporting renters across Winston-Salem who want to organize in private and section 8 housing.

Spring Street Co-Op is an in-progress project and will be Winston-Salem’s first Co-Op housing unit!

Our mission is to lead the charge in Winston-Salem for a future where everyone has access to safe, secure, affordable housing, starting with our historic complex on Spring Street. With your help, we can empower local residents to live without landlords and create that brighter, more equitable future.

Learn more on our Open Collective fundraising page.

Crystal Towers United is a Tenants Union based at Crystal Towers in Downtown Winston Salem, Initially formed in 2017.

In 2021, HJN and CTU members campaigned to stop the city’s sale of building to a private developer. On January 18th, 2022, the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem (now called ASPIRE), cancelled the sale of the building.

In Fall 2025, ASPIRE announced they would be selling Crystal Towers to a non-profit developer. Housing Justice Now and Crystal Towers United canvassed Crystal Towers Residents to get 106 signatures, a majority of the building, to demand a say in a transition process that prioritizes the safety and well-being of tenants.

Healy Towers United is a Tenants Union based at Healy Towers in Winston-Salem.

The tenants of Healy Towers United have won multiple victories:

• Elevators have been fixed.
• The wrongful evictions of multiple residents have been stopped.
• Drug treatment (Naloxone) has been made available for residents.
• Since 2019, Healy residents have been promised that their kitchen cabinets would be renovated. But there was no progress from ASPIRE on making this happen. Thanks to HTU’s continued demands and pressure, ASPIRE has now committed to remodeling kitchen cabinets starting in 2026 for $1.4-$1.7 million.
• Day rooms on each floor have been opened and furnished.
• Property management has been changed.
• Through a code enforcement campaign, residents who participated:
  • Received a new sink;
  • Had their AC fixed;
  • Had their apartment painted;
  • Had their bathrooms fixed;
  • Received a new smoke detector;
  • Received pest treatments;
  • Had leaks addressed.

In response to resident demands, the building’s patio has finally been opened up for use by all residents and now has new umbrellas, and the community kitchen has also been opened up for use by all residents.

In 2025, Housing Justice Now campaigned against the Winston-Salem city government to offer free bus rides during periods of extreme cold and hot temperatures.

City of Winston-Salem announcement about free bus rides during extreme cold:
https://www.cityofws.org/m/newsflash/Home/Detail/1862