rent strike

American  

noun

1. a temporary, organized refusal by tenants, as of an apartment building, to pay their rent, as in protest over inadequate services.

---

Etymology

Origin of rent strike

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

Flores had attached a sign to the front with a message calling for a citywide rent strike.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 3, 2025

Tenants in 65 San Francisco households have been on a rent strike, some for nearly eight months, withholding their monthly payments over a host of issues they say have made their living conditions difficult .

From New York Times • Jan. 15, 2024

The students leading the rent strike tweeted: "Shame on @OfficialUoM that they would rather do this than consider basic demands for affordable rent."

From BBC • Mar. 22, 2023

Fife, a rent strike activist and organizer of Moms for Housing before she was elected, said she was "disgusted."

From Salon • Mar. 8, 2023

Yet all who have followed the recent rent strike on the East Side, know that the tenement houses there are in large part owned by men as poor as those who live in them.

From Twentieth Century Socialism What It Is Not; What It Is: How It May Come by Kelly, Edmond