The Debt Collective is perhaps best known for the ripple effects of the small student loan repayment strike the group organized against a defunct for-profit college in 2015. The strike grew into a nationwide movement demanding justice for millions of people facing overwhelming student debt. By 2025, the Biden administration had approved $188.8 billion in student debt relief for more than 5 million people.

With the affordability crisis forcing even people with jobs to live in their cars , the Debt Collective is now building a movement of tenants to take on corporate landlords that cashed in on pandemic subsidies and rising housing prices but have continued squeezing working families with threats of eviction, junk fees, and price gouging schemes .

On October 1, nine former tenants anno

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