Dear Members, Partners, and Supporters,
Last year, East Bay Housing Organizations celebrated a huge milestone: Our 40th anniversary! We spent the year lifting up the voices of those who were literally foundational to EBHO’s beginnings in 1984, when we started out as Oakland Housing Organizations (OHO) with just one part-time staff member and a whole lot of volunteer sweat equity.
From those humble beginnings, EBHO has grown tremendously—not just in staff size, but in membership, impact, and reputation. EBHO has grown from an informal, ad hoc lunch discussion to a professionalized regional advocacy organization with more than 400 members working to protect, preserve, and produce tens of thousands of homes for elders, families, and workers.
For 40 years, the EBHO community has demonstrated remarkable dedication, passion, and resilience in furthering our housing justice mission, and 2024 was no exception. This Executive Summary of our 2024 Impact Report highlights some of the measurable—and immeasurable—outcomes our movement achieved over the past year. Behind these numbers are countless stories of kindness, perseverance, and community that are the heart and soul of EBHO’s members working together in common cause.
We extend deep gratitude to EBHO’s Board and Staff members for their incredible contributions. Your leadership, dedication, and hard work have been vital to getting us that much closer to the manifestation of EBHO’s vision: A racially and economically just East Bay where everyone has a safe, stable, and affordable home.
In community,
William Goodwin, Board President
Lindsay Haddix, Executive Director
Building Community Power
EBHO’s 40 years of advocacy began with collaboration, and the lessons over these four decades have laid the foundation of our core principles, which are outlined in our 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. We believe collective action builds power, and more voices and representation lead to better outcomes. Throughout 2024, our broad membership coordinated across the East Bay using our core tactics of organizing, educating, and advocating to advance our work together for housing justice.
EBHO’s 🏆 Wins in 2024:
⭐️ Downtown Oakland Specific Plan is adopted
⬆️ Oakland Measure U Bond funds for affordable homes
✅ 6 voter registration drives
📝 47 State Legislation advocacy letters sent
📨 100+ post cards sent to key voters
🙌🏼 100+ attendees at our Faith & Justice Day of Action
🚪 500+ doors knocked
💡 780+ sign ups to our 12 Lunch & Learn sessions
🗳️ 1000+ views on our Election Hub resource page
🚶🏽♀️1,550+ walk cards distributed
📞 3,000 phone convos with local suburban voters
📱 100,000+ texts sent to voters
👀 1 million+ views of our digital organizing videos
In 2024, we continued multi-year advocacy and education campaigns that are a vital part of the long-term work needed to shape the communities our members live and work in. This is just a summary of some of the successes we had. For more information on each of these projects read our full 2024 Impact Report.
Onward for a Powerful Future
While we live in uncertain times with economic, political, and climate challenges on our doorstep, we have a plan and a team of staff and members ready to do what we must to build a powerful future.
We will continue executing our 2023-2026 Strategic Plan with a focus on deepening our impact in unincorporated Alameda County, Antioch, Richmond, and the Tri-Valley area. We will strengthen relationships with our individual and organizational members through community outreach, educational workshops, and continuing our Lunch & Learn series. We aim to diversify and engage more members of our community in conversation through targeted outreach to non-member supporters, connecting with new key community organizations for partnerships. Through these efforts, we aim to build stronger, more inclusive communities that actively contribute to producing, preserving, and protecting affordable housing opportunities for low-income communities in the East Bay.
We will bring together our members and neighbors to connect, share information, have meaningful discussions about our mutual challenges, and celebrate our successes. We will continue to advocate for effective and strategic policy changes that help expand the number of affordable homes, keep tenants housed, and use the resources our community has available to ensure everyone in the East Bay—no matter their zip code, income, or background—has a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.