This month’s episode of The Response features an interview with Noni Session, the executive director of the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EBPREC), which “facilitate[s] BIPOC and allied communities to cooperatively organize, finance, purchase, occupy, and steward properties, taking them permanently off the speculative market.”

The interview, originally published as a Q&A on Shareable last year, explores Oakland’s affordable housing crisis, how EBPREC is working to address the situation as part of a broader Just Transition movement, and what people can do to get involved and invest in this transformational work.

For the past two years, The Response podcast series has explored the remarkable communities that come together in the aftermath of disasters (and how they are building increased resilience before disasters and other disruptions occur).

While much of the show has focused on the response to acute events that are often framed as “natural disasters” (tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, etc.), we feel like ongoing structural inequalities that pervade capitalist economic systems can be just as catastrophic. Furthermore, it is often these existing social and political factors that exacerbate the negative effects of disasters and other disruptions when they occur.

The conversation with Noni Session is part of Shareable’s special series exploring the history of land use and housing policy and solutions to the housing crisis (with a focus on increasing equity).

The entire series has been wrapped up into an eBook with the title “How Racism Shaped the Housing Crisis & What We Can Do About It”. You can download a free copy right now here.