[1] As the oldest and largest tenants' organization in the city,"[2][3] it has focused on issues including rent regulation and affordable public housing.
[5] The initial founders of the Met Council included Jane Benedict, who had been involved with her neighborhood housing organization, Yorkville Save Our Homes Committee.
[10][11] Early work by the newly-formed Met Council included a 1959 campaign to remove Robert Moses from his position with the Committee on Slum Clearance.
[18] This work on the Housing Crimes Trial showcased general improvements in the Metropolitan Council on Housing's use of media in its organizing work; the Council began to also hold workshops for tenant organizations on how to garner publicity and present their concerns in the media, and published Techniques and Devices to Get Your Press Release into Print.
[22] Metropolitan Council on Housing joined with other local organizations, including New York Public Interest Group and the Sierra Club, in 1985 to form the New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning, specifically to target lead poisoning but more broadly to tackle problems at the intersection of environmental issues and population health.
[30] The Council currently provides advice to tenants on their legal rights through online resources, a telephone hotline,[31] a walk-in clinic,[32] and a free, bilingual newspaper,Tenant/Inquilino.
The group called for an eviction moratorium in New York[35] and offered training to tenants who wanted to organize rent strikes.
[35] Early activism of the Metropolitan Council on Housing was noted for its intersectionality; in the 1960s it advocated for an end to the Vietnam War, and leadership was invited to testify at a 1970 state commission hearing on women's rights.