Resident Organizer & Project Manager

ABOUT OUR COOPERATIVE

The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EB PREC) is a multi-stakeholder co-op that facilitates BIPOC and allied communities to cooperatively organize, finance, purchase, occupy, and steward properties, taking them permanently off the speculative market. We create community controlled assets and empower our communities to cooperatively lead a just transition from an extractive capitalist system into one where communities are ecologically, emotionally, spiritually, culturally, and economically restorative and regenerative.

We are a team of sixteen full-time and part-time staffers. As a new employee, you will be eligible for Staff Ownership in the coop after a candidacy period of 18 months and 500 hours (review our bylaws to learn what it means to become a Staff Owner). You will be expected to develop your capacity to operate effectively in a collective. At times this may look like taking direction from other staff or community members, holding yourself accountable for responsibilities, stepping into leadership roles, or sharing leadership with other cooperative members.

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative is seeking a dedicated and community-minded Residential Organizer and Project Manager to lead, develop and grow the participation and leadership capacities of our Resident Owners (review our bylaws and website to learn more), both in the stewardship of their sites as well as the entire cooperative.

This role requires a person who is comfortable collaborating and organizing alongside people from a wide range of economic and social class positions, from those at the lower stratum of the working class who might be struggling to manage several jobs with family, to educated class individuals. They are able to communicate in accessible, considerate and inspiring ways, through one-on-one meetings as well as education curriculum. They know how to be a leader that organizes alongside other leaders (our resident organizing team) while developing the leadership capacities of our residents.

This role also requires project management of the material base of our Residents and their properties. This includes managing discreet capital improvement, maintenance, and repair construction projects, as well as familiarity or the willingness to learn and apply basic property management practices and legal requirements to support the basic functions of our residential projects. The role requires the ability to be creative and develop new cooperative methods alongside and on top of baseline requirements.

Our residential portfolio includes single-family homes, and small apartment buildings, located in Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond, CA. We have 14 residential units currently, and are seeking to grow in the coming years.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

ABOUT RESIDENT ORGANIZING

An organizer is a leader who “has one eye to the sky and one eye to the ground,” meaning they can see a destination on the horizon and can mobilize relationships and resources in order to get us all there. This role has this capacity and skill, which includes:

• strategic and efficient evaluation about what is possible now and what could become possible if we change a few things,
• the ability to articulate and inspire others towards those changes, and
• the warmth, relatability and confidence to make those changes happen in relationship and coordination with people.

In addition to the theory and methods of organizing, this role must be versed in operations related to stewarding properties. The latter is conventionally known to be property management, and while the ideal candidate will be familiar or have transferable skills to do property operations well, they will also need to be creative about what this practice can look like in a context where resident engagement and participation is a goal.

What This Could Look Like

On the individual sites, this could include:

• Creating an ecosystem of relationships that supports the long-term maintenance of resident sites, from landscaping and groundskeepers to handypersons.
• Creating proposals to implement new policies, practices and priorities, either with other residents or with staff
• There is the possibility of long-term financial management, such as maintaining their own yearly operating budgets for occasional review from staff

In the overall cooperative, this could include:

• Creating proposals to implement new policies, practices and priorities across the cooperative, such as programs for workforce development (i.e. creating an ecosystem within the cooperative where residents can also become staff at the commercial sites) or supportive programs to prevent eviction from nonpayment.
• Organizing with residents and their neighbors around specific needs or new acquisitions.

While the ideal articulation of this role would blend resident organizing with project and property management, some of the tasks are differentiated below. Our ideal candidate would be able to do most of the below responsibilities with limited training.

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Resident Organizing & Relationships
   1. Organize with residents by helping plan and facilitate property and portfolio-wide Resident Meetings
   2. Develop and lead resident political education so residents can learn about:
      1. Collective stewardship, cooperative and organizing lineages
      2. How to apply these lineages to their situations
      3. Their agency and role in the cooperative to hold a specific kind of power, specifically (1) the ability to define and 2) the ability to influence activity
      4. Become skilled and familiar with how to exercise that power with others within the cooperative and their sites
   3. Address resident concerns in ways that allow them to become participants and protagonists in the change they want to see happen
   4. Participate in tenant and community organizing for new acquisitions alongside other staff
   5. Onboard new Residents to our cooperative and train Resident Owners in co-ownership - this includes implementing the current education modules and refining and developing new content as needed.
   6. Organize and help lead workdays with residents at residential properties, bringing in community support as desired, in alignment with residents’ vision, and property management and development plans.
   7. Responding to resident needs as they emerge. Supporting residents has also looked like navigating access to resources with them, whether it be subsidized housing (ie Section 8), family services, or new job searches.
2. Project & Property Management
   1. Coordinate with existing property manager and resident engagement team for messaging, documentation, strategy, and sharing resources.
   2. Build out and implement marketing strategies (in coordination with our Communications Team) to lease up vacant units in the portfolio to mission aligned individuals and families. Market available spaces effectively and conduct property showings, tours, and outreach.
   3. Coordinate with the construction manager to identify and execute maintenance or capital repairs. Familiarity with construction processes and vendors is a plus.
   4. Maintain accurate records of property transactions, leases, incidents, and maintenance activities.
   5. Ensure compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and building standards.
   6. Review and help develop property management plans and support updates to the operating budgets.
   7. Work with the team to ensure timely record keeping and accurate financial monitoring.
   8. Review and approve contracts.
3. Cooperate!
   1. EB PREC is a small team working in a dynamic field with ever-changing needs. In addition to our core responsibilities, we all carry the load collectively, and we all step into various support and leadership roles outside our major focus areas as needed.

QUALIFICATIONS/EXPERIENCE

Role-specific

• Proven tenant or grassroots community organizing, including campaigns and political education
  • Familiar with developing and executing base-building and mass organizing methods that emphasize leadership development
  • Within this cooperative, as well as in the networks we participate in, there are a wide variety of political lineages and ethos. Someone who would do well in this role can identify these differences and navigate towards clarity and unity that is effective to achieving our shared goals.
• Proven project management or property management experience, including managing timelines, budgets and contracts.
• Strong relational and interpersonal skills that can be applied to identifying methods for addressing resident life hardship challenges, such as rent nonpayment, resident conflict and domestic violence. Actual mediation skills to address situations such as domestic violence are not expected.
• Social service case management background is not required, but would helpful; specifically knowledge of city, county and federal resources supporting family well-being, employment and workforce development, educational opportunities and mental health
• High skill level at written communication that is direct, specific and considerate.
• Versed in methods the support generative communication and collaboration, such as constructive criticism, generative conflict and nonviolent communication methods
• If applying without property management experience, the ability to take classes and learn quickly.

General

• Adept at learning and using digital tools for communications, records, meetings, project and property management systems such as Google Suite, Asana, Buildium, etc.
• Experience with deep collaboration across multiple teams and stakeholders - residents, staff, vendors, contractors, service agencies, consultants.
• Strong commitment to anti-racism and anti-oppressive movement building
• Strong commitment to collective decision-making and working in a staff collective
• Highly attentive to accuracy, detail and nuance
• Skilled at time management with the ability to juggle both short and long term deadline and the ability to respond to organizational needs as they arise
• Strong ability to take notes, track tasks and follow-up proactively
• Ability to be timely, present and accountable to meetings and other work commitments
• Self-motivated, self-directed while being while being flexible and open to feedback
• Based in the Bay Area, proximity to Oakland strongly preferred

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Knowledgeable about EB PREC’s unique approach and programs especially our cooperative cultural and economic strategies
• Certified training and extensive experience in related fields (e.g. community organizing, community land trusts and cooperatives, social work project management, property management, construction management)
• Bachelor’s degree preferred
• Conversational Spanish a big plus

EB PREC offers health and dental insurance, Medical FSA, Dependent Care FSA, Paid Time Off (PTO), 11 paid holidays, flexible scheduling for work/life balance, professional development allowance, and home office reimbursement.

This position is hybrid, and mostly in-person at residential properties (ranging from deep East Oakland to San Pablo) and at EB PREC’s office in West Oakland or affiliate space in Temescal, with many resident meetings and member events taking place on evenings and weekends.