Organizing and Communications Associate

The National Homelessness Law Center (Law Center) seeks a strategic, collaborative, mission-driven thought partner to serve as our Organizing and Communications Associate. The Law Center serves as the legal arm of the national movement to end homelessness and is looking for an Organizing and Communications Associate compelled by the national housing crisis and energized by our vision of housing as a human right and dismantling structural racism as we seek to end homelessness.

ABOUT THE LAW CENTER

Founded in 1989, the Law Center fearlessly advances federal, state, and local policies to prevent and end homelessness, while fiercely defending the rights of all unhoused persons. Our work has put unhoused children back in school, won new resources for affordable housing, prevented homelessness for renters, overturned laws that criminalize homelessness, and built support for the human right to housing, now a major component of federal domestic policy. We play a critical role in protecting, defending, and promoting the rights of unhoused persons to ensure they can lead national, state, and local efforts to end homelessness.

Our core conviction is that no one should have to go without safe, affordable housing, especially in a country as wealthy as ours. The Law Center’s work, in partnership with national, state, and local partners, is critical now more than ever as the eviction and affordable housing crises, exacerbated by the pandemic, push record numbers of people and families into homelessness. People of color, people living with disabilities, women, children, the elderly, victims of interpersonal violence, and members of the LGBTQ+ community are disproportionately and uniquely affected by homelessness, and our work consciously and affirmatively seeks to address these interrelated inequities. In April 2021, the Law Center welcomed its second Executive Director, Antonia Fasanelli, a national leader recognized for her expertise in housing and homelessness law and policy. The Law Center elevates the power and voices of persons with lived expertise in working toward systems change.

We are proud of our high-quality and committed team of 16 staff persons and our large corps of volunteer attorneys. The Law Center’s budget for 2025 is $2.3 million. The Law Center is financially sound and maintains a reserve. For more information on our work, explore our website at www.homelesslaw.org.

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW OF POSITION

The Organizing and Communications Associate will join a small but mighty team leveraging communications, narrative change, and power building to solve homelessness. Building relationships with local, state, and national partners is key to this work. The Organizing and Communications Associate will work with an interdisciplinary team of internal and external stakeholders to blend legal, organizing, advocacy and communications strategies to further our shared goal of ensuring that everybody has a safe place to live. This position will employ a movement-building approach to elevate causes and solutions to homelessness and support ongoing communications and narrative change work to change public opinion and build political will for housing, not handcuffs. A large scope of work focuses on utilizing a wide array of tools to expose and defeat the growing billionaire backed movement to pass anti-homelessness laws at the local, state, and federal level and to bolster our litigation and policy efforts to end and prevent youth homelessness. This fast-paced work differs day to day and requires someone who takes initiative, is self-motivated, and excels at working on a team.

This is a full-time, non-exempt role that is part of the Law Center’s Bargaining Unit, reporting to the Communications and Campaign Director and working closely with internal teams and external partners. Preference will be given to candidates who live within 1 hour of commuting distance of Washington, DC and are able to work out of our DC office 2-3 days per week, but fully remote work is an option. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Build and maintain relationships with local, state, and national stakeholders to grow the movement to solve homelessness;
• Support the communications team through database management, media tracking, and list management;
• Assist in planning and attending direct actions, media events, and other community gatherings to promote Housing not Handcuffs and support partner organizations;
• Assist in the creation and distribution of internal and external communications materials, such as website content, graphic design, media pitches, one-pagers and toolkits;
• Support and grow the Housing not Handcuffs Campaign through relationship building, organizing, partner recruitment, and material creation;
• Assist with day-to-day website management;
• Represent the Law Center and Housing not Handcuffs campaign before various stakeholders;
• Collaborate with the Communications Team around communications requests;
• Support the Law Center staff in tracking relevant legislation;
• Provide administrative support to the Campaign and Communications Director;
• Additional duties as needed.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• 1-3 years experience in community organizing, advocacy, and/or communications and narrative change required;
• Experience writing across digital platforms for diverse audiences, including social media content, email advocacy, or web content required;
• Demonstrated commitment to/background working with homelessness, social justice, and/or poverty related programs strongly preferred;
• Capable of occasional (a few times a year) travel to different states for events such as conferences, rallies, and retreats required;
• Strong relationship-based competencies (verbal and written communication, empathy, conflict resolution, collaboration, trust building required;
• Strong administrative skills (scheduling, file management, notetaking, organization) required;
• Strong editing, and proofreading skills with an eye for detail required;
• Ability and willingness to perform occasional evening and weekend work required;
• Preference for candidates within 1 hour commuting distance of Washington, DC.

Technical skills (the ideal candidate may have at least 4 but not all of these skills)

• Experience with graphic design software preferred;
• Experience with website building tools preferred;
• Experience with public speaking to various audiences preferred;
• Experience with facilitation and popular education techniques preferred;
• Familiarity with Office 365, Sharepoint, Zoom and other remote work technologies preferred;
• Experience using Customer Relationship Manager Tools and other database platforms such as Voter Voice, Fiscal Note, and AgilityPR or similar tools preferred.

WHO YOU ARE:

• You excel at building relationships and coalitions with diverse stakeholders;
• You place a high value on internal and external collaboration;
• You excel at managing multiple priorities, attention to detail, and staying organized to meet tight deadlines, Ability to act quickly and effectively in rapid response environments;
• You exercise good judgement and sound decision making;
• You take initiative and think quickly on your feet;
• You support unions/unionized workplaces;
• You have a justice-oriented understanding of how race and power impact relationships, organizational culture and partnerships. You are committed to personal and professional practice around deepening this understanding, through continuous learning, reflection, and growth;
• You have a strong commitment to social justice and the values and mission of the Law Center, viewing homelessness through a structural and anti-racist lens. The Law Center strongly encourages those who have experienced homelessness or housing instability to apply.

SALARY, BENEFITS AND LOCATION:

Salary: To ensure equitable compensation, the Law Center uses labor market benchmarking as the basis for establishing the salaries of employees across all roles at the organization. Aligned with this practice and in support of upholding internal equity, we do not negotiate salaries above the range for this position. The salary range for this position is $61,000-$65,000.

Benefits: Health, dental, vision, life, short and long-term disability insurance, all fully employer paid and a 403(b)-retirement plan with supplemental salary contribution. The Law Center has a 35-hour work week and provides vacation leave (20 days per year), sick leave (10 days per year), personal leave (5 days per year), all Federal holidays, and 12 weeks of paid parental leave. In addition, the Law Center closes two weeks per year and has flexible work schedule options. A work laptop is provided.

Location: The Law Center’s headquarters is in Washington, DC, but has staff working in various states around the country. Fully remote candidates will be considered, but candidates who live within 1 hour commuting distance from Washington, DC and who are able to work out of the DC office 2-3 days per week will be prioritized.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

The Law Center is most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may come from a less traditional background. We encourage all who feel capable of performing the necessary duties of the role to apply, even if you are unsure your experience exactly matches the criteria of the job description.

To apply, send a cover letter and resume to HR@homelesslaw.org with “Organizing and Communications Associate, Last Name, First Name” in the subject line. No phone calls, please.

The Law Center is an equal opportunity employer. The Law Center values an inclusive, diverse workplace and does not unlawfully discriminate on any basis prohibited by law. The Law Center encourages applications from all interested persons of any race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, personal appearance, family responsibilities, matriculation, political affiliation, genetic information, union activities, or any other legally protected status.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled with priority given to applications received by July 15, 2025.