[3] These long-term circumstances, and a nationwide coal shortage that culminated in a dangerous heating crisis for tenants, catalyzed the subsequent organizing and wave of rent strikes across the city.

The strikes were primarily concentrated within the Lower East Side and led by local Jewish immigrant women in response to rent increases in conjunction with harsh economic conditions.

[33][55][56] One early event was reported on January 4, where the newly formed Yorkville tenant union had started a rent strike in response to the lack of any steam heating.

[63] A few days later, in mid-January, the New York Supreme Court ruled in favor of oral lease tenants, stating that, even in cases with no agreement, if the facilities existed in the tenement, the landlord had to provide heat.

[75] The Brownsville tenants had similarly faced a lack of hot water, heat, or gas during the earlier winter months before the strike began, like many across the city, but struck against rents.

[20] The real estate industry strongly supported the bill because it changed existing law so that all oral leases expired automatically at the end of the month unless written otherwise.

"Police Captain Frank of Brownsville refused to permit the tenants to hold open-air meetings, and prevented them from wearing sashes displaying the address of their struck homes.

GYNTA was not isolated in employing these extralegal tactics—many landlord organizations[j] utilized harassment and intimidation, and hired vigilantes in attempts to break picket lines and their corresponding rent strikes.

[82][83] They worked alongside the more radical Brownsville tenant unions, broadening their focus to fighting rising rents as the heating crisis subsided with warmer weather.

They have been so terrorized by policemen and plain-clothes men, and so many have been arrested and fined for "creating a disturbance" or 'obstructing the sidewalk' or have been put on the landlords blacklist and driven from the district, that they are afraid to further air their troubles to strangers.Aaron Stein said the following,[85] We seem helpless.

[87] Early calls for a fusion ticket movement began in July 1918 by the National Security League's Congressional Campaign Committee, which expected the Socialist party to successfully expand on their 1917 elections wins if the Democrats and Republicans did not strategize to combine their votes.

[95] Throughout the period of rent strikes across the city, Antisemitism and Red Scare rhetoric became common among statements by public officials and the later-formed conservative tenant advocacy groups.

[24][25]: 1–3 [26] The radical politics among many Jewish immigrants, particularly in the Lower East Side and Brownsville, were longstanding in NYC before the 1918–1920 strikes as intentional responses to deal with rampant discrimination and oppression.

Later from June 1919 to February 1920, the committee staged a series of raids within NYC and across New York, arresting thousands and seizing large amounts of radical political literature.

[110] In a letter indicative of this approach, Nathan Hirsch wrote to the Mayor Hylan,[112][110] "The spirit of unrest, by many called 'Bolshevism,' is gaining very rapidly and will soon, if not checked, be a great and grave source of danger to the republic ...

[122]: 62  On April 8, 1919, more than 350 tenants appeared in the Bronx Municipal Court to ask Justice Robitzek to take action to either prevent landlords from raising rent or to delay their evictions.

[12] The BTU issued a call for all "fraternal, religious and civic organizations" to attend a mass meeting at the Brownsville Labor Lyceum[n] the night of May 20, stating the United Hebrew Trades also had sympathy for the strike and might offer material support.

[125] In June, while the Brooklyn Tenants League was on strike, a few strikers were arraigned in New Jersey Avenue court for "disorderly conduct", with $200 (equivalent to $3,515 in 2023) bail, they were jailed on an accusation that they had called people scabs.

"On October 7, the assigned Manhattan District Attorney Anthony Swann followed this, announcing the start of a John doe inquiry into people they claimed to be organizing "fake tenant associations" on the east side.

They attacked Republicans and Democrats for their failure to resolve the crisis, and promised to fight for a standard one-year lease, rent increase restrictions, and tenant rights around evictions.

"Facing a continued cost-of-living crisis, with the price of goods rapidly inflating during and following the war, the Central Federated Union (CFU) demanded that Mayor Hylan address the rent increases with legislation.

[140] In March, NYC's District Attorney staged a string of raids against the Tenants League, seizing records in the process and weakening their organizing in the short term.

[141] The meeting consisted of 640 delegates from several hundred organizations, including Jewish labor and tenant unions, consumer societies, Socialist party locals, synagogues, and fraternal orders.

[143] During this time, Arthur Hilly, the then-chairman of the MCRP, warned of a "Red Revolution" and U.S Attorney General Palmer staged many arrests and raids of tenant leaders.

As Gannon stated in the news article,[16] "In the case of a refusal I call into action the other parts of the city government which are working in close cooperation with my bureau and we make it pretty hot for the landlord, I can tell you.

[13] Several major protections were implemented with its passage:[13][70] One provision gave municipal courts the legal power to grant stays of eviction up to one year if a judge was convinced the tenant was unable to final similar housing at a rent they had been paying.

[161] The Emergency Rent Laws restricted a landlord's ability to deny lease renewals to current tenants, thus relieving the potential eviction crisis on October 1.

[167] In response to the prolonged period of conflict from 1918 to 1920 and the subsequent rent laws, landlords developed a series of new, long-term strategies to attempt to return the discretionary power they had before it.

The "iron-clad lease" created by UREO specifically attempted to waive away the rights of tenants guaranteed by the rent laws, and overturn building, safety, and heat ordinances in NYC.

[170] Oral leases were not necessarily to tenants' disadvantage in many cases, given the freedom it gave to move without legal reprisal and because they had some eviction protections established through common law for most of its existence.