Update – Founding Member promotion has ended
Housing lovers / rent haters,
Two and a half years ago, when we launched Abundant Housing LA in the (now deceased) Pitfire Pizza in DTLA, we never could have imagined how much impact we would make so quickly. Thanks to the massive grassroots energy of our members, we have won major victories like defeating Measure S, passing Measures H and HHH, up-zoning the Expo Line TNP to allow for more housing near transit, and fundamentally changed the conversation about housing affordability and scarcity in Los Angeles.
And we have done it all as a viral grassroots movement, with no staff and no budget. This organization has been member-driven from day one.
And now we are asking you, the members who make AHLA what it is, to help take our impact to the next level.
We are up against some of the most powerful political forces in America. Michael Weinstein has used $20 million from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (that was supposed to be for HIV/AIDS care) to fight against new housing in just the last two years. NIMBYs have dominated local politics in LA and throughout California for two generations. There is a reason we are
millions of homes short of what we need – the system has been rigged against new housing by powerful entrenched interests for a very long time.
Times are changing now, in large part because of the work we are doing together. But we can’t take our game to the next level without more resources to do this work.
We have big plans for the next few years at AHLA. We recently incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization, and we are going to hire our first-ever staff member to help us continue to build this movement. We are going to build and support local chapters all over Los Angeles, and make sure that pro-housing voices have real power to make change.
Doing this requires money, and not just the few thousand dollars that a few of us have kicked in for our web tools and meetings so far. That’s why we are asking those of you who are passionate about our mission to become dues-paying members and help fuel the next chapter of our work.
Our goal is to launch this next phase of Abundant Housing with 200 dues-paying members in the next few months.
Can you join today and help us reach that goal?
We aren’t asking for big checks (although we’ll take them!) This is a grassroots movement, and we want your support at whatever level works for you. If you can do $10 or $20/month, that’s amazing. If you can do more, fantastic. If all you can give is a few bucks a year, we still want you
as a member fueling this work.
In addition, the first 200 members will be AHLA’s founding members. Founding Members will get exclusive Dingbat pins, as well as unique badges to recognize their OG status on our member forum – see below for more information on the forum and our more open communication system. Click here to see the different membership levels.
What does it mean to be a member? Because this is a mass movement, as an official member you will continue to have a vote and a say in the future of this organization. All members will be invited to our exclusive online forum where we do all of our work. We’ve been trialing the forum as the communication system for all of us volunteers who run the org for the last couple of months, and we’re excited to open it up to members as well so that everyone can talk together. That will allow us to more openly discuss decisions, plans, interesting things happening in LA, or just have a good conversation. Members will also be able to vote on key decisions and organizational priorities throughout the year, and continue to be the backbone of our collective work together.
We are excited to build this next chapter of our movement together. Please become a Founding Member and join us today.
From all the volunteers at Abundant Housing, thank you!
