BERKELEY, CA (August 6, 2018) — In a milestone moment, over a dozen Berkeley worker-owners gathered Monday to testify before Berkeley City Council members during a Small Business Subcommittee meeting.

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, a champion for worker cooperative businesses, presided over the meeting. In 2016, Arreguin sponsored a City Council Resolution to support worker cooperatives, and is now sponsor of a proposed ordinance that would solidify Berkeley’s place as a national leader of grassroots economic development.

“Worker cooperatives present an opportunity for upward mobility at a time when our broader economic model creates broad disparity and inequality,” said Mayor Arreguin. “This is a progressive strategy that represents our values and will make Berkeley a model.”

By Chris Tittle, Sustainable Economies Law Center Housing Program Co-director

All politics are local. No matter what your feelings on the Presidential race or the state of our national political discourse, there are likely many important decisions on the rest of your ballot this November. As an Oakland-based organization, Sustainable Economies Law Center endorses Oakland Measure JJ, the Renter Protection Act.

Sarah Kessler of Fast Company covers the obstacles facing home-cooks and the online platforms they use. She follows the story of the start up Josephine, and what they're doing to change the laws of homemade food regulation so that they can resume operations. Sustainable Economies Law Center and our Resilient Communities Legal Cafe is mentioned briefly. 

If you live in a fairly populous city, or you like to travel off the beaten path, you've probably heard of Airbnb-style short-term rentals (STRs). Residential housing that is rented for short periods of time, STRs were once a niche way to travel, but are now available for rent all over the world. 

The evolution of STRs is a success story for the many STR platforms that broker transactions between STR hosts and guests, but for cities and communities dealing with the adverse social and economic impacts of the activity, STRs pose a unique new challenge. 

Araz Hachadourian of Yes! Magazine covers the passing of a co-op resolution in Berkeley, CA which requires the city to create an ordinance that supports worker owned cooperatives. Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) Policy Director, Yassi Eskandari-Qajar, is quoted extensively about how worker cooperatives benefit cities and communities.

View or download the report here.

If you live in a fairly populous city, or you like to travel off the beaten path, you've probably heard of Airbnb-style short-term rentals (STRs). Residential housing that is rented for short periods of time, STRs were once a niche way to travel, but are now available for rent all over the world. 

The evolution of STRs is a success story for the many STR platforms that broker transactions between STR hosts and guests, but for cities and communities dealing with the adverse social and economic impacts of the activity, STRs pose a unique new challenge. 

On the one hand, STRs have a strong contingent of proponents, including the well-resourced STR platforms themselves, and property owners who benefit from the flexibility and economic opportunity STRs afford them. On the other hand, unbridled STR activity has led renters and tenants rights advocates to argue that profit incentives and lack of regulation have led many property owners to evict tenants and convert long-term residential rentals into STRs – removing bedrooms and entire units from the rental market and displacing and driving up housing costs for local residents. Renters are not the only stakeholders with concerns. Hotel interests argue that unregulated STRs unfairly compete with established hotels, local regulators contend that STRs reduce local business and hotel tax revenues, and neighbors complain that a constant turnover of transient STR guests adversely impacts neighborhood quality and cohesion. 

Now that the peer-to-peer economy has collided with housing, cities are being called upon to find solutions that protect public interests and meet the needs of all residents in a climate where some criticize governments for failing to adequately regulate STRs, while others criticize government for failing to embrace them.

How can cities regulate STRs in ways that generate inclusive opportunities for local wealth-creation, while still balancing the needs of all members of the community? The Sustainable Economies Law Center has some suggestions.  

This guidebook will equip cities to respond to STRs in ways that protect public interests – including housing affordability, health and safety, neighborhood quality, and municipal revenues – while retaining reasonable latitude for city residents to host and earn money from short-term guests. Regulating Short-Term Rentals: A Guidebook for Equitable Policy identifies key issue areas, incorporates references to sample STR ordinances from around the US, and provides the Sustainable Economies Law Center's recommendations for best practices.

Because there is no one-size-fits all ordinance for STRs, we strongly encourage community stakeholder participation in the formation of any STR policy so that it accurately reflects local circumstances. Please share this guidebook widely: with neighbors, with community organizations, with city councilmembers, and with mayors. We created this guidebook for people like you. 

CONTACT: Yassi Eskandari-Qajar ([email protected])

Building an economy that is truly just and resilient means putting worker ownership at the center of economic development policies. Local governments can play a critical role in cultivating a friendly policy environment for worker cooperative development. The question for cooperative advocates is, where do we start? This page provides some helpful resources for jump starting local campaigns to promote and remove barriers to worker-owned businesses.

The free advocacy materials available throughout this page are intended to help you start your own campaign! All of the content created and published by the Law Center is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).

In 2015, the Sustainable Economies Law Center started building a sample "City Ordinance for the Promotion of Worker Cooperatives" with the support and collaboration of cooperative allies across the country. We used Oakland, California as a case city, and tailored the ordinance to fit Oakland's municipal code. By going through this exercise, we had created an ordinance that would lead to our local campaign, and created a model for others to use in other cities. To discuss the ordinance in more detail, please contact Sara Stephens.  

>> Click here for the sample city ordinance.

>> Click here for the sample city ordinance summary.

In collaboration with our partners, we have compiled an informational packet aimed at educating local legislators about worker cooperatives and their local economic development benefits. We offer this here for cooperative advocates who aim to introduce policies to promote cooperative economies. 

Packet includes: What is worker cooperative, economic and social benefits, how local governments can support business conversions to worker ownership, and more! 

      >> Click here for the informational packet. 

Berkeley, CA

Click here for updates and milestones from our Berkeley campaign. 

Background:

Following on the heels of the Oakland Resolution Supporting Worker Cooperative Development, the Sustainable Economies Law Center and our allies worked with then Berkeley City Council member (now Mayor) Jesse Arreguín to develop a Berkeley resolution to promote worker cooperatives.

On February 9, 2016, Berkeley City Council unanimously voted in favor of the resolution. Not merely a symbolic gesture, Berkeley's resolution directs City staff to develop a comprehensive policy package that supports and incentivizes the growth of local worker-owned cooperatives. The policy package would, at minimum, add a worker cooperative preference to the existing Buy Local contracting preference, create business tax and land use incentives for worker cooperatives, and develop cooperative-specific educational materials to supplement the City’s business support services.

Evolution:

Visit our press release page to read about major campaign milestones from 2016 to present. Highlights include a $100,000 budget appropriation for worker cooperative technical assistance and innovative changes to the City's revolving loan fund to expand business lending to worker cooperatives. 

>> Click here for the Berkeley City Ordinance. Check out our two page summary of the Berkeley ordinance here. 

>> Click here for the Berkeley City Council resolution and informational packet we provided to Berkeley City Council.

Oakland, CA

The Sustainable Economies Law Center worked with Oakland City council members and a coalition of supporters to introduce a Resolution Supporting the Development of Worker Cooperatives on September 8th, 2015. This resolution was an important step toward adopting a more substantial policy in that it publicly recognized the positive impact of the local worker cooperative ecosystem, and built momentum for the ordinance, which will be introduced in 2017.  

>> Click here for the press release for the resolution's passage.

>> Click here for the text of the Oakland City Council Resolution.

>> Click here to watch the resolution hearing (fast forward to minute 52)!

Worker cooperative legislation is spreading like wildfire as cities and states recognize the profound positive role worker cooperatives play on the individual and community levels.

For information on policy efforts across the country, we recommend visitng the Democracy at Work Institute's Becoming Employee Owned, Community Economic Development, and Tools for Communities.

Do you want to stay up to date with our city policy work promoting resilient economies and worker cooperatives? Do you want to join the movement of worker coop policy activists pushing for an economy that is truly just? Sign up below to hear important updates and calls to action!

OAKLAND, CA (September 8, 2015) — The day after Labor Day, Oakland City Council made a bold proclamation in support of democratic and equitable workplaces, passing the “Resolution Supporting the Development of Worker Cooperatives In Oakland.” The Sustainable Economies Law Center championed this resolution in partnership with District 4 Councilmember Annie Campbell Washington, Council President and District 3 Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney, and many organizational partners and allies.

SELC's City Policies Director, Yassi Eskandari, has helped lead the Oakland Climate Action Coalition (OCAC) to success in an eight-month planning process for Oakland's new Priority Conservation Areas. Read more about PCAs and the Coalition's wins.

By: Tim Logan, LA Times

"Airbnb profits from transactions," said Yassi Eskandari-Qajar, city policies program director at the Sustainable Economies Law Center in Oakland. "There's no incentive for them to put limits on how many people can do this, how much they can charge or how many homes they list."

But, she notes, Airbnb is mindful of political pressure. And when pushed, it has agreed to changes.

Read the full article on latimes.com