HJL Board Elections 2021

HJL is holding an election for new Board members in December 2021. Please read the candidate bios below and vote before December 31, 2021.
Check your inbox from an email from “OpaVote” if you are an individual member of HJL. Ask your tenant association leaders for a paper ballot if you are a member of a tenant association.

Candidates Running: Velissa Sims, Wingo Smith, Rhonda Robinson, Tanya Washington, Ali Ture

Candidate Bios

Velissa Sims: My name is Velissa Sims, and I am a current tenant at Trestletree Village Apartments. I have lived in this community for 13 years along with my three children. First I would like to say I am beyond grateful for the mission of HJL and very blessed to have met each of you and how you guys have made such a powerful impact in our life. Having HJL come into our community to educate us on our housing rights along with the numerous other things you guys have provided is much appreciated!

I have attended many HJL meetings to better understand the aim behind the mission. As a tenant leader, I have planned and organized meetings/events, canvassed, transported tenants, and most of all educated tenants all around Atlanta to understand their rights as residents.

Working more closely with HJL would be very beneficial to me; it means more education, more experience, and doing what I enjoy most -- a continued journey helping others. If elected, I agree to act in accordance with HJL mission statement, code of conduct, purpose and objectives.

Rhonda Robinson: I have been a member of Housing Justice League for 2 years. I have facilitated meetings and I completed the HJL fellowship a year ago. I am willing to do my part to educate renters/Tenants of their rights and help organize a city-wide Tennant Association.

I do agree to act in accordance with HJL's Mission Statement, Code of Conduct, Purpose & Objectives, and Bylaws if I am elected.

Ali Ture (Ali/Ture) is tenacious about building tenant power and leveraging that power to meet tenant demands. Ali began Ali’s community organizing journey in 2014 with Housing Justice League as a volunteer for the Beltline 4 All campaign. Ali canvassed, supported with public testimony at city council meetings and supported with phone banking efforts. Ali then branched out to student organizing on Georgia State University’s (GSU) campus by founding the on campus student organization, Panthers For Black Feminism (P4BF). P4BF contributed to the leadership development of Black and queer college students by moving them through the ladder of engagement, organizing our base for the withdrawal of GSU from the GILEE program, connecting “student” and “Atlanta” issues and contributing to the knowledge growth of P4BF members via our book club.  After graduating, Ali was hired as the community organizer and later promoted to lead community organizer for SPARK Reproductive Justice Now!. As organizer, Ali focused on advocating for Black queer, trans and cis women via lobbying against anti-abortion and anti-trans legislation. Ali also contributed to the leadership development of our base, Black queer, trans and cis women. After a year at SPARK, Ali was the campaign lead for Communities Over Capitalism with Asian Americans Advancing Justice. As campaign lead, Ali contributed to the leadership development of queer, Black, trans, people of color between the ages of 16-24 in North Atlanta, met material childcare needs of single mothers in Clarkston & worked to create tenant groups amongst single mothers in Clarkston to meet neighbor needs and tenant demands. More recently, Ali volunteered on the eviction defense hotline in 2020 and worked with multiple tenants to either create tenant associations and/or to support tenants with logistical questions regarding filing answers to evictions, handling landlord harassment, etc…. Seeking new challenges and different goals, Ali is currently the Abolishing Patriarchal Violence Table Coordinator at Movement For Black Lives. Ali is responsible for advancing the strategic priorities of the table via the 4 working groups of the coalition, launching the Kitchen Table Fellowship and advancing the strategic direction of the coalition by working with community leaders and organizations to amplify and share strategies.

Ali is passionate about base building, leadership development and sustaining members(ship) and would like to contribute to low income/housing insecure Atlantans to view HJL as an organizing home as Ali did, and still does, years ago when first getting involved with the organization. Ali is confident that Ali can build HJL’s volunteer list, intentionally develop the leadership of HJL volunteers and members and with the strength of that leadership development- sustain members. Ali is positive Ali’s previous organizing experience and love for HJL more than position Ali as a qualified candidate for the Membership Coordinator board position. 

Wingo Smith: I am a member of HJL in good standing and agree to continue acting in accordance with HJL's Mission Statement, Code of Conduct, Purpose & Objectives, and Bylaws if elected.

I have worked with HJL in several issue areas, including:

  • Canvassing with the Beltline For All team in Southwest Georgia and at TrestleTree. 

  • Helping write and edit portions of the Eviction Defense working group's guide for tenants on renting. 

  • Volunteering with the hotline and canvassing with HJL to raise awareness about the eviction moratorium. 

  • Providing limited legal support to HJL while attempting to organize lawyers in its support. 

I also am a practicing lawyer with 13 years of experience. For most of that time, my work focused on representing low-income tenants in subsidized housing.  However, I am not someone who has experienced housing vulnerability, and I am not a member of an Equity-Seeking group. I recognize that working for someone is very different than having their lived experience, and I will continue to keep that distinction in mind if elected to the board. I want to continue to support HJL's work by serving on its board.

Tanya Washington is a Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law.   She earned her J.D. from The University of Maryland School of Law and then clerked for Associate Judge Robert M. Bell on the Maryland Court of Appeals.  After practicing as a toxic tort defense litigator in the Baltimore office of Piper & Marbury, she completed two fellowships and earned her LL.M. from Harvard Law School.  

Professor Washington has taught Civil Procedure I and II, Family Law, Education Law and Race and Law at Georgia State for the past 18 years. Her research and scholarship focus on issues related to educational equity, domestic violence, racial justice, inclusion and diversity, marriage equality, and children’s constitutional rights.  Her articles and op-eds have been published in law journals and periodicals across the nation, and Supreme Court Justice Kennedy, cited her co-authored amicus brief in his majority opinion in the landmark marriage equality decision, Obergefell v. Hodges. 

Professor Washington believes the true value of the law lies in its capacity to improve the human condition and this creed animates her work.  She served for three years on the Atlanta Human Relations Commission, volunteered with various organizations that provide support to Atlanta’s unsheltered population, cooked and served food at area soup kitchens, filed several amicus briefs in Georgia appellate cases and in federal circuit and U.S. Supreme Court cases, and provided countless hours of pro-bono work.  Her work as an educator activist also includes serving for 2 years as Director of the John Lewis Fellowship Program, a Humanity in Action program funded by a grant to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights from the Mellon Foundation. Professor Washington's work as a public intellectual have been recognized and celebrated by the Gate City Bar, with the President’s Award for Excellence, and by Georgia State University, with the Alumni Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching and Scholarship.  Professor Washington currently serves as President of the Faculty of the African Diaspora Association (FADA) for Georgia State University and she frequently conducts team building and diversity trainings and workshops for organizations, law firms and university departments.

Election Timeline: 

  • Nominations are now closed.

  • December: All members will have four weeks to vote. Tenant Associations will be provided with paper ballots and bios of the candidates and individual members will vote online.

  • January: All results are tabulated and the announcement is made during the February Mass meeting

  • New Board members will have up to 4 months to train with their counterparts.

Board Positions Available:

  • Chairperson

  • Conflict Resolution Coordinator

  • Secretary

  • Treasurer

  • Tenant Representative

  • Membership Coordinator

The Board will prioritize the membership of individuals with past or present housing vulnerability and those representing each of the following groups:

  1. Equity-Seeking Groups, including but not limited to:

    1. Black people, People of Color, and other Racialized Persons;

    2. Persons with disabilities;

    3. LGBTQIA+ persons.

    4. Women 

    5. Seniors

Board members hold office for a minimum of 2 years from the time of their election. They may choose to run for a second term if they desire. 

Eligibility for the Board

In order to be eligible for nomination to the Board, an individual must:

  1. Be a member of HJL in good standing

  2. Provide a written statement summarizing the individual’s qualifications, experience, and desire to be nominated  

  3. Consent in writing to run for the Board and agree to act in accordance with the Mission Statement, Code of Conduct, Purpose & Objectives, and Bylaws of HJL if elected.

Duties of the Board 

The Board of Housing Justice League shall keep the integrity and goals of the organization at the forefront of every decision that it makes. It will also work to maintain and uplift the membership-led and democratic nature of Housing Justice League.

Some duties of the Board include:

  1. Attend quarterly Board meetings

  2. Work in collaboration with the Executive Director to stay up to date on the day to day work of the organization’s staff and membership

  3. Suggest work that can be more effectively carried out by organizing groups and help to establish and support said organizing groups for the long-term development of HJL

  4. Support grant writing 

  5. Support fundraising by networking helping with the logistics of fundraising events

  6. Organize and attend board development trainings for the continuing education of Board members including conflict resolution training

  7. Recruit new Board members

  8. Organize elections for new Board members

  9. Organize voting on other matters brought to Housing Justice League by the Membership or the Board

  10. Annually evaluate the performance of the Executive Director

  11. Support conflict resolution among members 

  12. Establish an annual budget and carry out an annual audit of the financial records

  13. Ensure that there is a signer and co-signer to the bank account and credit cards of HJL in case of emergency