Biography
Michael Kane has been an organizer and activist in the Boston area since 1972. Since 1983, as the founder and Director of the tenant-run Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants, Michael has helped tenants preserve 12,600 at-risk apartments as permanently affordable housing, one building at a time, through tenant organizing, including 1,377 in eight resident-owned developments in Boston. He has directly organized more than 100 tenant associations that meet HUD standards of democratic tenant unions in Massachusetts over the years.
Since 1992, Kane helped found and has since served as the Executive Director of the tenant-run National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT), the only national tenants’ union in the US. Kane has helped NAHT organize more than 45 national training conferences for HUD tenant leaders and organizers. He has spearheaded NAHT’s successful campaigns to fight federal budget cuts, preserve at-risk housing, expand the Right to Organize and win resources for tenant organizing. Kane has organized NAHT’s biweekly Network calls for tenants and organizers nationwide since 1995 and has provided advice and support to countless tenants in privately-owned, HUD assisted housing. He is also known for his wide-ranging knowledge and expertise in HUD housing policy, especially as it affects tenants.