Our Model

We engage in affordable housing advocacy and grassroots lobbying to share stories, hold elected officials accountable, and build power. Here’s how it works:
Regional organizing coordinators, or ROCs, at RUN’s six partner organizations connect with resident service coordinators at affordable housing developments, who know their communities well. They connect new RUN residents to our work – in good times, through in-person “Power Hours” and regional convenings where we eat and learn together, and in pandemic times, through virtual meetings where we get to know each other on screens. Then, RUN members from across the state come together to advocate for affordable housing, tenant protections, and an end to homelessness.
Two seniors, an African American man and a caucasian woman in glasses, study something on the woman's phone. They are wearing light-blue t-shirts and are attending Lobby Days.
New RUN members might be struck by the close connections many veteran members have with each other. They’ve been to the Capitol together, visited their legislators at home and in Sacramento, danced and laughed and practiced speaking up together at joint trainings with Community Change, and told their stories in public.
They take action locally, showing up for City Council meetings and local campaigns, and then connect with us to push for statewide legislation.
Through our leadership development process, RUN members learn essential skills, like how to communicate their interests to elected officials, how to strategize to get a bill passed, and how to participate in our democracy in an active way. Our veteran members join boards, facilitate policy conversations, and plan campaigns.
An African American woman with curly gray hair, red-rimmed glasses, and a light blue t-shirt, stands at a microphone. She holds a paper in her hand, her head is held high and she is talking to people off camera to the right of the image.
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There Ought To Be A Law

Each fall, we kick off the Residents United Network year with a giant brainstorm called There Ought To Be A Law. RUN members meet up in regional convenings across the state in English and Spanish and think together about what changes in housing they’d like to see happen in California. (Our record is 224 ideas, but we’ll probably beat that next year.)

Then, we narrow down the list of ideas together. We send out a survey to all RUN members. We use the results of that survey at our annual Summit, where senior leaders spend two days deciding RUN’s priorities – for both bills and the budget – for the upcoming year. Then we prep RUN members to fight for those ideas at the Capitol, culminating in a big Lobby Day in spring. After that, we run campaigns to get our bills across the Governor’s desk – and then start all over again.

Changing Laws

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