Peoples Defense Initiative

“Description amountdepreciation from 4562 6,134advertising & marketing 1,688automotive expenses 953bank charges 538dues & subscriptions 725event expenses 203insurance 2,968meals for events 951office supplies & software 1,373telephone 365travel 1,810”

“Category beginning of year end of yearpodemos cost share agrmt recvb 0 652vehicle (net of acc depr) 27,603 21,469”

“Category beginning of year end of yearpayroll liabilities 737 0”

“Exempt purpose/mission - the peoples defense initiative is a community-led grassroots organization focused on uplifting and implementing progressive and inclusive policies which promote community engagement and defend human rights. Through direct action organizing, transformative leadership development, advocacy, coalition building, and education, pdi seeks to defend and uplift the voices of marginalized communities by catapulting their leadership directly to positions of public office. Social & economic justice for all people regardless of their gender, socioeconomic background, ability, or immigration status. We are committed to purposeful and radical inclusivity of all people regardless of their sex, gender, class, education, immigration status, sexuality, physical ability, and faith. Program accomplishments: over the past 6 years pdi has led on many efforts, both electoral and non-electoral. Most notably, we put two initiatives on the tucson city ballot- prop 205 (tucson families free & together) in 2018 and prop 206 (tucson fight for 15) in 2021. Prop 206 won 2-1 at the ballot box and will provide roughly 85,000 tucsonans with a pay raise as well as establish tucsons first office of wage enforcement and labor protection. Further, prop 206 will protect workers in other measurable ways: -prevents employers of misclassifying workers as independent contractors--prevents employers from shaving off time from a shift. -provides workers with more stable work hours. Through these campaigns alone, our team and dedicated base of volunteers gathered over 45,000 signatures. We also mobilized at least 250 new volunteers, completed over 4,000 canvassing shifts, knocked on almost 60,000 doors with over 500,000 voter impressions made, and empowered dozens of new community leaders. Our bold and creative leadership has led to many victories outside the electoral arena as well. In march of 2021, pdi wrote a proposal which sought to provide legal representation to all tenants facing eviction in pima county. After a few months of engaging our community and mobilizing our base, our proposal was brought up for a vote and passed with only one pima county supervisor voting against. This vote led to the founding of pima county emergency eviction legal services (eels) office, which is the only one of its kind in arizona. Eels provides free legal help to tenants in need of legal advice and representation. Additionally, eels provides navigators to explain the process and connect tenants with other county and community resources, like rent assistance, jobs and more. Pima country is the 6th locality in the nation to provide this service as a right to its residents. Currently, our team is focused on building arizonas first and only tenants union. At the start of 2020, our team set out to address the alarming housing crisis growing rapidly in our community. In arizona, lack of accessible safe, affordable, and secure housing had already become an existential threat for many, with hundreds of families and tenants being forcibly displaced every single week. The covid pandemic only exacerbated this crisis. We identified four key contributing factors undermining the ability of arizona residents to stay in their homes: lack of affordable housing, prevailing poverty, lack of legal representation, and lack of tenant-centered collective power.in early 2020, our team rolled out our housing justice program: the tucson tenants union (ttu). The tucson tenants union is a tenant-led collective fighting for safe and secure housing as a human right and against the displacement, abuse, and exploitation of tenants. We define tenants as anyone who is not in control of their own housing: renters, the unhoused, and folks whose homes are owned by banks. Since the implementation of this program, ttu has brought together hundreds of tenants to collectively develop our constitution, core values, and goals. These goals include: housing for all: construct and advance transitional an”