Charlotte Rosen is the Membership and Communications Associate for East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO). Some of her many duties are fundraising, event organizing and coming up with strategic communications to improve EBHO’s campaigns and programs.
EBHO focuses on advocating for and spreading the word about affordable housing for low-income people, including seniors, people with disabilities, working families, and many others. The organization publishes an Affordable Housing Guidebook, released each May.
The organization is trying to keep the people who have been in Oakland stay in Oakland; staff members are well aware that living expenses have increased dramatically over the years and have forced some of the former Oakland residents to move to more affordable cities like Antioch and Sacramento.
EBHO started in Oakland in 1984 and it has expanded to doing advocacy and education work in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.
“I do think that EBHO is stronger than ever, because we continue to build community power around affordable homes in the East Bay and beyond.,” Rosen said. “Because our housing crisis has gotten so dire, EBHO no longer has to convince people that affordable housing is a problem – but any efforts saved must go towards lifting up the most equitable and community-oriented policy solutions that will build and preserve affordable homes for many generations to come.”
EBHO has about 500 members right now and, together they work to educate the community about the benefits of affordable housing, pass affordable housing and anti-displacement policies and organize their communities. EBHO’s office is located on 9th Street in downtown Oakland, where members constantly meet up for debates. EBHO also works in coalition with other community-based organizations, unions, and health and environmental groups.
I asked Charlotte what she likes the most about her job and she told me that one of the things that gives her the most joy is to bring people together for the same cause of expanding and preserving affordable homes. She enjoys the moral values that every member of EBHO share with each other- they are all here to help the community and make sure people have an affordable place to live.
After High School I bought my own 35 mm camera, some lenses for it and I started taking pictures of random things trying to find a style for my photography. Most of my photos were close ups of abstract objects, dead/dried animals and plants, rusted metal, unusual shapes of items, double exposure photographs and anything that got my attention. I started putting a portfolio together with my best prints and continued to photograph. I like to slightly distort the way things really look and alter the colors and/or lights around my subjects to create some type of life or action within my photographs.
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