Rural Housing, Democracy, and the Fight to Stay Rooted
At Cypress Fund, we understand that democracy is not just a system of governance. It is a lived experience that is deeply influenced by whether people have access to stable housing, whether they feel safe where they live, and whether they are treated with dignity in their communities.
Sustained democracy requires base building, the long-term work of developing leadership and collective power among people most impacted by injustice. It requires organizing, the practice of turning that power into real changes in policy, institutions, and everyday conditions.
Housing is one of the clearest examples of sustained democracy in action. We see it in every corner of the Carolinas — in the bustling cities of Charlotte and Charleston, and also in the most rural parts of our region, from Eastern North Carolina down to the Lowcountry marshes of South Carolina. Whether you’re living in a city of hundreds of thousands or living in a town of a few hundred, housing is a core part of our lives — and democracy plays a powerful role in how and where we are rooted.
Earlier this year, Cypress Fund hosted our ‘Resourcing Housing Justice to Expand Democracy’ webinar, where we heard from our movement partners Nick Macleod and Kenni Cummings from the North Carolina Tenants Union and the South Carolina Tenant Union, respectively, about how housing is not just about shelter: It is about place. It is about identity. It is about dignity.
When people have stable, dignified relationships to place, they are more likely to feel rooted, connected, and invested in their communities. That sense of belonging is what fuels civic participation — shaping whether people engage, organize, vote, and advocate for the futures they deserve. But across both Carolinas, partners have raised concerns about displacement driven by ongoing development, rising housing costs, along with the loss of ancestral land — and how these housing issues are deeply impacting community power and democracy.
Access to rural housing and the fight for democracy
In large cities, tenants unions play a powerful role in pushing for tenants rights to not just survive, but thrive, wherever they live. In the face of ruthless developers and rising gentrification, tenants unions like North Carolina Tenants Union and the South Carolina Tenant Union fight tirelessly for communities to be seen, heard, and cared for. But larger cities aren’t the only place where tenant unions need our support — tenants unions matter in rural organizing as well.
A common thread we're hearing among movement partners organizing around housing justice is how housing issues are more threatening in rural areas due to less access to housing options and the mounting pressure faced by local governments who are cash and resource-strapped. Rural housing conditions in the Carolinas are inextricably linked to the health of local democracy. Let’s paint a picture: A family in a rural eastern North Carolina town has stewarded 10 acres of ancestral land for generations. The rising taxes on the land are becoming increasingly difficult to manage for the family on a single income; and now, a tech company is planning on building a new AI data center across the road from the family’s land. Along with the data center, developers are looking to build a large housing development next door to accommodate the AI data center workers who are relocating to the area from the closest large city.
The family is now faced with a difficult reality about their future: The AI data center will impact their drinking water supply, increase noise pollution, and drive up their electrical bill — common issues that typically arise when data centers move into residential areas. Plus, the new housing development nearby will drive up the steep property taxes the family is already struggling to pay. All of these issues present the family with two options: Either stay and continue to struggle to pay for the land and deal with the potential environmental issues that come with the data center; or, sell the land and move to a town nearby that they can better afford — for now.
The threat of this displacement reveals what’s at stake: Stability for the family who has to uproot their lives and find a new home; the ability for the family to freely leave and return to the land that they have stewarded for generations; and the loss of power to participate in local democracy — something the family has done for generations as dedicated community organizers.
Every time someone is priced out of their neighborhood, democracy loses too. Updating your address, ID, and voter registration with every move isn't a minor inconvenience — it's a barrier that can push people out of civic life entirely. You can't put down roots if you're always being uprooted, and frequent moves don't just disrupt lives — they disconnect people from the communities they're trying to be part of. When you’re constantly moving because of a lack of affordable and stable housing, people’s ability to stay informed about local issues decreases.
We know that local policies, especially in rural areas, are the life force of a community and can determine your health outcomes, where your kids go to school, your access to food, and more. But here’s where organizing and policy work comes in: Investing in rural organizers can shift power through policies and protections for tenants and heirs’ property holders, repair funds for elders and low-income families, land retention, fair zoning, and accountability in county decisions. The organizing happening in rural communities, especially in the Black rural communities in the ‘Black Belt’ of the Carolinas, is where the large-scale, sustained change starts.
What we’re doing at Cypress
At Cypress, we approach housing justice as more than housing policy — we think about it as the infrastructure that makes community power possible. As communities work to build power and strengthen democracy, we're also witnessing significant challenges to civic participation and to the systems designed to protect it.
That means philanthropy has a choice: We can simply respond to crises as they emerge; or we can invest in the long-term conditions that allow communities to thrive long before crises occur. At Cypress, we've chosen the second path.
We've chosen to invest in community.
To invest in relationships.
To invest in organizations that are building power for the long haul.
At the North Carolina Tenants Union (NCTU), they’ve expanded across Durham, Asheville, Carrboro, Greenville, Wilmington, and Winston-Salem, with tenants using legal strategies and collective pressure to hold landlords accountable, including campaigns like No Rent for Slumlords and efforts to require landlords to respect tenants’ Fourth Amendment rights. The work is growing toward a larger statewide fight around the privatization of public housing and tenant control of housing systems.
And our movement partners at South Carolina Tenant Union (SCTU) are strengthening statewide housing justice infrastructure while advancing policy and organizing strategies in key regions such as Charleston, Columbia, and Murrells Inlet. The tenant union serves as the anchor organization for the South Carolina Housing Justice Coalition, which has grown rapidly from four organizations to nearly forty partners. Earlier this year, SCTU scored a major legislative victory after their successful organizing moved South Carolina lawmakers to pass a new law stating that eviction records can now be removed from the public index after seven years, expanding more opportunities for people to access housing.
As Cypress’ movement partners work to preserve place, and protect identity, we know this kind of change doesn’t happen overnight; it’s the result of sustained, collective effort. For our movement partners on the ground: Keep sharing your stories and policy priorities that seek to expand housing access for marginalized communities, particularly for Black and brown communities in rural areas.
To donors: Invest in long-term organizing and housing justice infrastructure and meet the scale of this moment with us. We’ve seen what happens first-hand when donors are educated and engage around the intersection of housing and democracy: They invest, the infrastructure for our movement partners gets built and sustained, and communities have belonging, stability, dignity, and access to democracy. When people have a stable relationship to place, they're more likely to know their neighbors, invest in their communities, and believe they have a voice in shaping what happens there. They attend school board meetings. They organize around environmental concerns. They advocate for safer neighborhoods. They vote. We need to invest in the long-term conditions that allow communities to thrive long before crises occur.
We invite donors and philanthropy to invest not from a place of urgency alone, but from a place of clarity. You have read what is at stake. You have seen what is possible when communities are resourced.
This is a call to make a decision.
A decision to invest in community.
A decision to support the strategy.
A decision rooted in the belief that people deserve the power to shape their own lives, their own communities, and their own futures.
Finally, to our readers: Stay engaged locally. Support the work of organizers advancing housing justice in your community by lending your time, energy, and helping hand to continue to build momentum and push for change. We cannot do this work without you.
We invite everyone to act with us now to resource dignity, belonging, and the conditions for collective liberation.
