Convening Agenda

Resident governance is a key pillar of social housing, but it is unfamiliar to many of us outside of the context of homeownership. What does it mean for tenants to have decision-making power in the management of their own homes? This workshop will explore models for empowering residents through community land trusts (CLTs) and models that show us a future without landlords.

Host: Matt Vu (Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust)

Across the country, people are coming together to form tenant unions that can exert collective power to fight evictions, rent increases, and housing quality issues. Tenant unions in California are using some of the most innovative organizing strategies to take on the financialized real estate industry. How do we build power through tenant organizing? And how does that move us toward social housing?

Hosts: René Moya (Debt Collective, LATU) and Maria Zamudio (HRC SF, Homes for All CA)

Frontline communities have long borne the burdens of being treated as sacrifice zones, resulting in neighborhoods and communities poisoned by fossil fuels, pollution, and hazardous chemicals. Our vision for green social housing and healthy homes will require us to grapple with this legacy and the need for remediation. This workshop will explore the history that has led us to current conditions, and the solutions that point the way forward.

Hosts: Jennifer Ganata (Communities for a Better Environment) and Deja McCauley (PSR-LA)

A wonk’s guide to social housing finance and the question on all our minds: how are we going to pay for it??

Host: Liz Ryan Murray (Alliance for Housing Justice, Public Advocates), Daniel Pelegero (Public Banking Alliance)

There is growing concern among tenant, climate, and environmental justice groups that decarbonization policies and home retrofit funding will lead to negative impacts for tenants through rent increases, eviction, and displacement. These programs can provide urgently needed home upgrades that deliver health, safety, and economic benefits to residents. As we take urgent action to decarbonize and invest in our communities, we must ensure that we have anti-displacement policies in place. This workshop will discuss new home decarbonization programs and policies, and the tenant protections we need in order to keep communities rooted.

Hosts: Grace Hut (Strategic Actions for a Just Economy) and Edgar Barraza (PSR-LA)