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Since joining Public Advocates in 2007, Sam Tepperman-Gelfant has worked with grassroots groups to build community power and fight for economic and racial justice in housing, transportation, and climate issues throughout California. He is currently a managing attorney on our Metropolitan Equity Team.

7:08 am

My toddler wakes me up by opening his bedroom door and singing “The Daddy Song,” sung to the tune of Happy Birthday, but with “daddy daddy daddy” as the only lyrics. We read Bulldozer’s Shapes, Contando con Frida, and Pantone Colors on the floor of his bedroom, eat a pile of strawberries for breakfast, and then I make the long trek from the kitchen to my desk in the living room to start my workday.

I’m excited to connect with some of my favorite teammates and coalition partners and to dig into strategy development before “retreat season” hits this fall.

9am

I dig out my in-box and pull together onboarding materials for the two Law Fellows who will be joining our team in September.

10am

I meet with our awesome new director of communications, Sumeet, and two attorneys on our Metropolitan Equity Team, Andrés and Suzie, to debrief the campaign to pass a statewide Tenant and Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA/COPA) that we spearheaded with the Stable Homes California Coalition this year. This policy will help renters stay in their homes and increase the stock of affordable housing by giving tenants and nonprofits a chance to buy their buildings when landlords choose to sell. Sumeet has some great ideas about how we can use communications to engage coalition members, raise the profile of the issue politically, and ground our advocacy in shared values: everyone knows what it’s like to belong to a community; this work is ultimately about people rather than buildings.

11am

At a HousingNow! coordinating committee meeting, I learn about international tenant organizing solidarity from Walt, an amazing leader with the Los Angeles Tenants’ Union, and the group discusses how to engage key movement partners in helping the coalition identify 3-5-year strategic goals that are driven by the demands and energy of organized renters.

During this meeting, I also finished the first border on the blanket I’ve been knitting for the past few months. Early in the Pandemic, I took to knitting during my zoom meetings to dissipate my nervous energy and help me focus.

12pm

I join a meeting with the Alliance for Housing Justice, a national collaborative that Public Advocates staffs, focused on how best to support to local grassroots campaigns in redirecting federal funding to new models of permanently affordable and community governed housing — a priority that is bubbling up in communities throughout California and nationally. I also scarf down lunch.

1pm

The Alliance for Housing Justice legal/organizing committee meets to prepare a plan for mobilizing grassroots engagement in upcoming federal rulemaking on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, a powerful mandate in the 1964 Fair Housing Act that says government agencies must work actively to dismantle housing inequality for people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, and others who have been subjected to systemic discrimination.

2pm

I meet with Michelle Pariset, our team’s new senior policy advocate, to learn about work she’s leading to ensure that state and federal investments meet the needs of low-income people and communities. Unfortunately, a bill that would have implemented the Biden administration’s “Justice 40” initiative recently died in the legislature, so Michelle is strategizing about how to build a stronger coalition and develop alternative strategies.

3:30pm

Andrés, Suzie, and I meet to continue work on our TOPA/COPA, focusing on developing a campaign plan for passing a statewide bill in 2023.

4:30pm

Finally, I have some time to catch up on emails that have accumulated during all of those meetings!

8:30pm

My son is asleep, and I’ve got a batch of blondies in the oven for the Public Advocates summer outing tomorrow. I can’t wait to see friends I haven’t laid eyes on for two and a half years and to meet a handful of colleagues who joined Public Advocates during the Pandemic for the first time.

Sam’s work includes enforcement of state and federal housing and environmental laws and participation in numerous coalitions, including the 6 Wins Network, HousingNow!, and ClimatePlan. His cases and campaigns have supported power-building in low-income communities of color throughout the state, and resulted in concrete policy change including: a visionary redevelopment plan for the massive Concord Naval Weapons Station and; the end to a 39-year ban on multifamily housing construction in the City of Alameda; and a partnership between groups in East Palo Alto and Facebook to bring $20 million of corporate funding for affordable housing and job training into the local community; 

Sam’s legislative advocacy has included AB 686 (Santiago) requiring local and state agencies to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing, AB 1482 (Chiu) to provide statewide protections for tenants, and improvements in the Housing Element and Regional Housing Needs Allocation systems. He has also contributed to breakthrough litigation such as Urban Habitat v. City of Pleasanton, Peninsula Interfaith Action v. City of Menlo Park, and Williams v. City of Antioch, and is currently representing plaintiffs in Anderson v. City of San Jose, to enforce the state Surplus Land Act.