Housing Our Community - Exploring Different Approaches to Addressing the Housing Crisis

Our intriguing speakers from the Tech Equity Collaborative, Landed, and CA YIMBY spoke to the different ways they are using big tech, startups, and legislative advocacy to address the housing crisis and opportunities to work together.

Learn more about our speakers below:

Megan Abell

Director of Advocacy and Organizing | TechEquity Collaborative

The TechEquity Collaborative advocates for a tech-driven economy in the Bay Area that

works for everyone. They are a member-driven organization made up of individuals and

companies that share our values. They are organizing the tech community to advocate

for a tech-driven economy in the Bay Area that works for everyone. They believe the

tech industry can and should generate widespread opportunity instead of inequality and

displacement.

Megan is the Director of Advocacy and Organizing for the TechEquity Collaborative.

Before coming to the TechEquity team, she worked as Deputy Director of Mobilization

at Common Sense Kids Action, where she developed and launched an organizing

program to engage parents in advocacy around tech issues that affect their children like

cybersecurity, screen time, and tech addiction. Prior to her work with Common Sense,

Megan was an early employee of Airbnb’s Public Policy team where she co-founded

their first organizing and mobilization program. A unique initiative to deploy traditional

grassroots organizing tactics within a tech company, her initial organizing model in San

Francisco has now been replicated by Airbnb in markets globally. That work builds on

her more than 6 years of experience as an organizer and campaign operative for

unions, issue advocacy campaigns, non-profits, and candidates.

Aaron Eckhouse

Regional Organizing Director | California YIMBY

California YIMBY’s mission is to ensure that California is an affordable place to live,

work, and raise a family. They advance their mission by: addressing and correcting

systemic inequities in California housing laws, and in related laws and regulations;

empowering Californians across the state to engage their elected representatives at the

state and local levels on housing and related policies; ensuring that California housing

laws and local regulations are evidence-based, equitable and inclusive; and drafting and

advocating for proven legislative solutions that accelerate the pace of home building.

CA YIMBY believes that an equitable California begins with abundant, secure,

affordable housing. They focus on housing and land use policy at the state level to

ensure grassroots organizers and city leaders have the tools they need to accelerate

home building at the local level.

Aaron grew up in Iowa after his parents were forced out of the Bay Area by high

housing costs and underfunded public schools. He moved to California two years ago,

where he was taken by the beautiful landscape, amazing produce, and obscenely high

rent. He is excited to apply his organizing experience from the 2012 Obama campaign

and his YIMBY experience with East Bay for Everyone to the task of ending California’s

housing shortage.

Nikki Lowy

Partnerships & Business Development | Landed

Landed is on a mission to help essential professionals (starting with educators) build

financial security near the communities they serve. They invest alongside teachers and

school staff when they are ready to buy a home in expensive cities like San Francisco,

Denver, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Landed is always growing, and we now offer

financial wellness education and resources for essential professionals, too.

Nikki has spent her career at the intersection of real estate, education, and social

impact where she’s been driven to find innovative solutions to increase access and

equity across diverse communities. Her past experience includes stints at Project Frog,

where she worked with California public schools to replace aging portable classrooms

with greener, healthier, prefab buildings, and the Urban Land Institute (ULI), where she

co-developed programming and strategy with the Bay Area’s 2,000+ members. Outside

of Landed, Nikki is actively involved in her native Bay Area community where she

proudly serves as the programs co-chair for ULI San Francisco and an assistant swim

coach for the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco. Nikki holds an MBA from UC

Berkeley Haas School of Business and a B.A. from University of Pennsylvania.