Appearing in Vox on September 30, 2025, Rachel Cohen Booth talks to Chi Chi Wu, the director of Consumer Reporting and Data Advocacy at the National Consumer Law Center about how The Debt Collective hopes a rental debt strike will lead to tenants having rental debts canceled in their entirety.
The timing of the rent debt strike comes at a particularly vulnerable moment for consumer protection. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which had been actively investigating debt collection practices and rental housing issues, saw its enforcement powers significantly curtailed when the Trump administration took office.
“You had an active agency trying to look out for renters,” Wu said, “and now you don’t have people making sure lenders are not engaged in abusive practices.”
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