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Episode Description

Imagine land without landlords. With shared ownership and without racialized displacement. Sounds too good to be true. The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative [EBPREC] is fighting for this future. Baratunde sits down with Executive Director Noni Session and learns how EBPREC is reclaiming their community, and building local ownership through real estate.

Guest: Noni Session Executive Director of East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative

Twitter: @NoniSession

Bio: Noni is a 3rd generation West Oaklander, Cultural Anthropologist and Grassroots Organizer. After a 2016 run for Oakland City Council in which she garnered more than 43% of the vote, Noni came to believe her community’s clearest pathway to economic justice and to the halt of rapid displacement was a cooperative economy.

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We are grateful to Noni Session for joining us! Follow her at @NoniSession on Twitter, or find more of her work at ebprec.org. You can also watch the full EB PREC intro video here.

ACTIONS

PERSONALLY REFLECT

Where is home?

Take a moment to reflect on where you live. How did you end up there? What influenced your decision to rent or buy in a particular place? Was it based on real estate speculation, rental prices, family history, relationship ties, or something else? Does it feel like home? Do you know any neighbors who have lived there for generations? Consider the role privilege has played in determining your place of residence.

BECOME INFORMED

Learn more about gentrification

Gentrification is happening all over the country, from big cities, to small towns, and even rural communities. And there’s a lot more to it, than just the buzzword. To learn more, check out the podcast, There Goes the Neighborhood. Watch the documentary City Rising produced by PBS and KCET. Or read the book The Color of Law, which you can find on bookshop.org/shop/howtocitizen and support independent bookstores instead of Amazon.

PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE

Invest in communities not commodities

Check out EBPREC.org and Sustainable Economies Law Center to find out ways you can invest in community based real estate or start this model where you live. If you’re in the Oakland area you could join the cooperative and become a community owner for just $10 a month. Or if you want to make a non-extractive, but savvy real estate investment you could also invest in one of EBPREC’s projects. We know there are more new models like this emerging to deal with our housing and ownership crisis. Please contact us if you know of other groups doing similar things across the country by emailing us at comments@howtocitizen.com.

If you take any of these actions, share that with us - action@howtocitizen.com. Mention Land Without Landlords in the subject line. And share about your citizening on social media using #howtocitizen.

Visit the show's homepage - www.howtocitizen.com - to sign up for news about the show, to learn about upcoming guests, live tapings, and more for your citizen journey.

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How To Citizen with Baratunde is a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts and Dustlight Productions. Our Executive Producers are Baratunde Thurston, Elizabeth Stewart and Misha Euceph. Stephanie Cohn is our Senior Producer and Alie Kilts is our Producer. Kelly Prime is our Editor. Original Music by Andrew Eapen. Valentino Rivera is our Engineer. Sam Paulson is our Apprentice. This episode was produced and sound designed by Stephanie Cohn. Special thanks to Joelle Smith from iHeartRadio.