Overview

Community organizing is a method for building power, particularly for people and communities who have traditionally been excluded from decisionmaking. Also referred to as “base-building,” it involves community organizers working to build grassroots leadership to create and advocate for policy solutions and changes to systems that produce inequities. Organizers build relationships and develop leaders to engage in campaigns that advocate for changes that will improve their communities.  

Community organizing often happens at a local level, as organizers and residents in regions, cities, and neighborhoods work together and take action to call for policy changes. These local groups can form national networks (such as Right to the City, People’s Action, and Faith in Action) to expand their connections and influence. This broad-based organizing is necessary for the success of larger social movements, such as the fight for civil rights for Black Americans over the past 50 years.  

Community organizing creates opportunities for residents to connect with systems of power and enact change. Organizing groups have been at the forefront of efforts to advance housing justice in areas such as civil rights for people experiencing homelessness, policies to protect renters from high rents and evictions, acquiring property and land for housing, and protections against neighborhood displacement.

Examples of This Strategy in Action

• The Neighborhood Funders Groups’ Amplify Fund is a national place-based pooled fund that advances housing justice by strengthening conditions necessary for Black and Indigenous communities and communities of color to thrive and achieve equitable development. The fund focuses on eight regions across the US: California, Eastern North Carolina, Missouri, Nevada, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Western Pennsylvania. Each region builds on local grassroots movements to bring awareness to housing insecurity disproportionately faced by Black and Indigenous communities and communities of color. They aim to use philanthropic dollars more intentionally and direct funding into communities in order to empower and build capacity for grassroots leaders.

• The Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California (NPH) is a nonprofit dedicated to lifting the voices of marginalized community members in problem-solving and decisionmaking. In 2016, the NPH launched a political campaign to bolster public support for a $2 billion investment for affordable housing in the Bay Area. The NPH matched a list of subsidized apartment addresses to California’s voter database to identify key voters, developed a database to find 52,000 voters living in properties managed by NPH members, and knocked on people’s doors to reach key voters. This effort led to an increase in voter turnout for the initiative, which will fund more housing for low-wage workers, seniors, people with disabilities, and veterans.  

• People’s Action's Homes Guarantee is an initiative that pushes for a policy plan to ensure that every person in the country has housing that is safe, affordable, accessible, sustainable, and permanent. Homes Guarantee underscores the importance of building and investing in public housing to prevent homelessness. Its platform aims to put people over profit, decommodify housing, and advance restorative justice by addressing the past harms committed by racist housing policies. Homes Guarantee was assembled by grassroots leaders who have been affected by housing challenges. They believe people closest to the problems are best positioned to come up with solutions, an approach that demonstrates the power of being connected to community leadership through organizing for housing justice. 

Next intervention: Tenant Organizing