Due to mass evictions and police brutality, the strike was broken, though approximately 2,000 successfully halted rent increases.

It provided striking tenants with a lawyer to assist them by contesting cases on technical grounds to gain adjournments.

[5] The rent strike began December 26, 1907, and lasted until January 9, 1908, primarily led by local housewives who canvassed the neighborhood tenements for support.

[5][6] Pauline Newman, then 16 years old and working in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, helped organize the strike and was labelled in city newspapers as "The New Joan of Arc.

[4][5] Due to the strike's association with the Socialist Party, it was considered a leftist activity by much of the New York City public.

[5] On January 5, 1908, under the direction of the landlords, police brutalized strikers after they had refused to disperse meetings and take down the red flags and protest signs hung up.

[3][4] On January 12, 1908, Yiddish poet Morris Rosenfeld published a one-act play titled Rent Strike in The Daily Forward.

[5] The strike drew the attention of women leaders in the settlement house movement, who would then introduce the concept of rent control into NYC politics.