Bay Area Tenant Organizer

Position Type: Salaried Contract with Benefits

Organization: The Debt Collective

Start Date: Immediately

Duration: 1 year, possible renewable

Location: East Bay or San Francisco, CA

Hours: Full-time, flexible working hours

Organizational Summary

The Debt Collective is a membership-based union for debtors. We use our collective power to fight for better conditions in our financial lives and a more equitable society: the cancellation and renegotiation of debts, access to publicly-funded goods (education, healthcare, housing, etc), anti-capitalist and anti-racist economic policies, and much more. Our current campaigns include the national fight for full student debt cancellation and publicly-funded tuition-free higher education, as well as campaigns around tenant power in California, and other campaigns in development.

Position Summary

The Debt Collective is seeking a full-time Tenant Organizer to build up the capacity of our Tenant Power Toolkit program in the Bay Area, and to implement our campaigning, organizing, and base building strategies beyond the Toolkit. We seek an experienced organizer who can work directly with Bay Area tenants impacted by eviction, collaborate with partner organizations, lead workshops focused on our Toolkit for tenants to fight their eviction, and help expand our housing justice campaign work to the Bay Area. This is an opportunity to bring your creativity and conviction to fight the housing crisis in California and beyond.

The Organizer will begin by focusing on our Tenant Power Campaign. This position will help the Tenant Power Team develop and implement a vision for infrastructure and programming that allows us to grow the name recognition of the Toolkit in the Bay Area.

The ideal candidate is an experienced tenant organizer who is highly motivated to help create a powerful multiracial base that wins changes for tenants and debtors across the country. They are a systems-builder comfortable mobilizing and growing a national network and an experienced base-builder skilled at building effective volunteer teams.

Key Areas of Responsibility

• Work with the Tenant Power Lead to develop & execute outreach plans
  • Work with the Tenant Power Lead to develop workable outreach strategies both to potential community partners & impacted tenants
  • Map out existing tenant support infrastructure - public as well as non-profit and community-driven - and develop strong relationships with these actors
  • Identify key community partners beyond the tenant or housing justice space who can help spread the word about the Tenant Power Toolkit and/or who can help spread awareness of the Toolkit to their constituencies. These partners can include labor unions, churches or other religious institutions, healthcare providers, and beyond
• Build and support tenants rights workshop infrastructure in the East Bay for tenants facing eviction using our Tenant Power Toolkit, in concert with select partners. This program will be responsible for:
  • Building out and facilitating at least two workshops a week in the East Bay where tenants can find support to use the Tenant Power Toolkit to respond to their evictions
  • Recruiting volunteers and local partners who would be interested in helping co-lead and maintain these workshops
  • Identify appropriate referral resources for tenants impacted by eviction to ensure they have adequate post-filing care
• Help train new partners in the use & troubleshooting of the Tenant Power Toolkit:
  • Support partner organizations and allies with in-person Toolkit trainings
  • Help troubleshoot issues related to the Toolkit for Bay Area partners
• Additional Duties
  • Support our broader Tenant Power campaigns to hold bad actors accountable
  • Mobilize people to take action with our Tenant Power Campaign and build their long term leadership and commitment to the Debt Collective.

Qualifications

• Spanish language fluency preferred
• Skilled relational organizer
• Has experience and success in building, leadership development and leading effective volunteer teams
• Confident and effective project manager
• Is excited about the Debt Collective’s long term vision, and wants to grow our Debtor’s Union
• A passion for economic justice, an interest in the way finance works and a commitment to devising and advancing innovative ways to transform our financial system
• Experience with data informed online organizing. Direct experience with EveryAction is a plus.
• Experience and skills to design and run rigorous experiments, document and report on learnings, and iterate and innovate based on lessons learned.
• Strong interpersonal skills: focused on building trust and knowing that everything starts with good relationships
• Problem solving skills, able to figure out how to get things done in accordance with deadlines, deliverables and changing circumstances
• Strong writing skills.
• Sees failure as an opportunity to learn and retool the approach, and is committed to ongoing learning in the field
• Has effective personal systems for project management - able to move multiple projects forward and hold relationships
• Maintains personal boundaries and engages with professionalism even when under pressure

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and skills required.

Application

Debt disproportionately affects the most marginalized people in society — including black and brown communities, people from working class backgrounds, women and LGBTQ+ people. These communities are centered in this work. People with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities are strongly encouraged to apply for this position.

To apply, please do so here on Idealist, or send a resume to rene@debtcollective.org along with a brief paragraph describing your interest in the position.