When Tenants Organize: The Fight for Safe, Affordable Housing in Rogers Park
In Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, tenants are organizing to protect their homes, and they’re not doing it alone. Following high rent increases by landlord Imran Khan in 2025, four Rogers Park buildings banded together to demand better living conditions and fair rents.
This union, known as Fuerzas Activas de la Damen (FAD), is backed by local housing organizers and Beyond community partner, the All Chicago Tenant Alliance (ACTA). After countless failed attempts at reaching a resolution with Khan, the union was forced to push back against Khan’s gentrification efforts through rent strikes and other measures, ensuring long-time community members could remain in the neighborhood. In doing so, FAD has become part of a broader rent strike movement across Chicago that is reshaping how tenants challenge landlord’s abuse of power at communities' expense.
Following Khan’s acquisition of four buildings in the Rogers Park neighborhood, residences began to receive varying rent increases, with some hikes nearly doubling the original rent. For residents, this felt like a slap in the face, as many had been living in their units for decades before Khan became their landlord. Further, many of the units were also in states of great disrepair, including holes in ceilings, poorly insulated apartments, and outdated appliances. Rather than addressing the issues, Khan raised rents. Many residents were forced to deal with pest and mold removal themselves, as management continued to fail to address these issues. FAD believes that through his actions, Khan has made it abundantly clear that he had little regard for the neighborhood, and was actively contributing to the gentrification of one of Chicago's most diverse communities. FAD began a rent strike in November of 2025 following Khan’s failure to meet tenant demands. While Khan claimed that he was working with management to address issues and preserve affordable housing, residents of his buildings continued to face squalid conditions and expansive rent hikes.
Union members took additional legally protected steps to demonstrate their frustration with the lack of change. They called the city for inspections, sought assistance from their alderperson, and organized protests. Khan attempted to union bust by offering incentives to relent – such as new appliances – to tenants who were able to provide identification and were willing to sign year-long leases. Not only did many residents dismiss these as false promises, they also recognized the violence Khan was enacting against a mainly Latinx resident community. In addition to creating unstable living conditions, Khan additionally hired private security teams to tail residents in an attempt to scare them. With rising violence against immigrants by ICE and the federal government, this sentiment is especially cruel. Khan may claim to care about the interests of the immigrant community, but FAD believes that his actions further contribute to the ongoing violence against oppressed groups within Chicago.
Most recently, Khan filed lawsuits against seven members of the tenant union and three members of ACTA for defamation and tortious interference. Khan's lawsuit claims that members of these groups have severely maligned his reputation. This feels especially facetious, considering Khan’s own public behavior in a recent episode of Below Deck: Mediterranean, in which he repeatedly referred to the staff as “servants”. Members of ACTA are categorizing this as a SLAPP lawsuit. According to the ACLU of Illinois, a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) is designed to punish or silence organizations that participate in constitutionally protected speech by speaking out against public injustices. FAD and ACTA are actively helping to amplify tenant rights by drawing attention to poor living conditions at Khan’s properties, challenging broader power dynamics between landlord and tenants.
Many believe that landlords maintain full control over rent prices and lease terms while tenants have little legal recourse; this is simply untrue, and Beyond and ACTA are challenging this narrative head-on. In Chicago, tenants are protected by the Residential and Tenant Landlord Ordinance (RTLO), a municipal law that helps protect renters’ rights and offers legal recourse for disputes. By demanding better conditions, FAD and ACTA are exercising rights explicitly guaranteed under the RTLO. Thus, Khan’s lawsuit seems to be needlessly dragging marginalized tenants back into court as a retaliatory measure intended to suppress organizing overall.
With assistance from ACTA and Beyond Legal Aid, Fuerzas Activas de la Damen continues to fight against the many injustices created by slumlords like Khan. At a recent press conference, Beyond Legal Aid staff attorney Michael Drake called the lawsuits “baseless,” adding that they are “just one more attempt to silence these tenants.” For residents of the Damen and Fargo buildings, the legal battle is about more than one landlord or one set of buildings. It is about defending the right of Chicago tenants to organize against unsafe living conditions and unaffordable rents. As tenant unions gain momentum across the city, it is more vital than ever to support legal aid organizations like Beyond Legal Aid while staying educated on the issue.