Issue and Opponent: In Providence, Rhode Island, in 1989, residents of a low-income housing project were frustrated by the lack of affordable daycare for their children. Many of the building’s residents were young, working mothers who struggled to find accessible childcare. Together, residents of the HUD housing project made an effort to call attention to their situation. They wrote letters to the city council, set up pickets, and started petitions to create an affordable daycare in their building. However, their efforts were unsuccessful and they were largely ignored by the local director of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
There is no evidence to suggest that this dilemma action was part of a larger campaign.
Dilemma Action: The group of HUD residents decided to create a situation that would force the HUD director to take action to resolve their problem. On May 13th, 1989, the mothers staged a sit-in at the office of the HUD director. Instead of bringing signs with them, however, they brought their children. They also brought toys, changing tables, cribs, and books, effectively turning the HUD director’s office into a daycare center for the day. The mothers invited the media to the sit-in to capture the spectacle. By staging a nonviolent sit-in protest along with their children, the building residents created a dilemma for the HUD director. If the director forced the protestors to leave the office, it would create a spectacle of bad press with mothers and children being forcibly removed. But the sit-in was also extremely disruptive and created an unsustainable situation for the operations of the HUD office; the only way for the HUD director to clear the office without creating bad press was to give in to the demands of the mothers.
Outcomes: The sit-in and makeshift daycare organized by the mothers at the HUD director’s office created such significant discomfort for the HUD director that the demands of the housing project residents were accepted. As a result of the sit-in, the HUD director agreed to create a permanent and affordable daycare center in the housing project building where the mothers could bring their kids for childcare. By inviting media outlets to cover the sit-in, the mothers succeeded in increasing the pressure and potential for public accountability on the HUD director.