resideact.org

Volunteer roles

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Who this work needs

Two kinds of checking keep a screen like this honest: against what is on the ground in each city, and against what conversions actually produced.

Every role is unpaid and posted on Idealist, where applications are taken. Roles are listed there under Reside Act NOW, the volunteer group that publishes this site.

City Lead

One person per study area who knows that city's page best, checks it against what can be seen on the ground, and helps the people it is for find it.

The screen sees what a city publishes: footprints, heights, zoning, addresses. It cannot see which buildings are actually empty, which have sold, or which are already being converted. A City Lead checks the published numbers against what can be found locally, follows the zoning, permitting and incentive changes that affect conversions there, and gets the page in front of the planners, architects, developers and housing groups who would use it.

About 3 to 5 hours a week on your own schedule, plus a monthly call with the other City Leads, for at least three months. The role suits someone who lives in or knows the city well; a background in planning, architecture, real estate, law, journalism or local government helps but is not required. City Leads are credited by name on their city’s page.

Research Associate

Documents completed office-to-housing conversions from certificates of occupancy, permits and property records, for a study of how well screening rules predict what actually gets built.

A screen like this one estimates how many homes a building could hold. That estimate is only worth something if it holds up against conversions that were finished, so the comparison is being made as a formal study, with its method and tests written down and fixed before any results were seen. Each case is a building whose records show how many homes the conversion created and on which floors, whether floors were added on top of the original building, and that it was an office before.

The work follows a written protocol: read the certificate of occupancy and permits, record the homes floor by floor, note where records disagree and how that was resolved, and search the city’s permit data for conversions the starting list missed. Remote, within the U.S., about 4 to 6 hours a week for at least three months, with an undergraduate degree in any field. Everyone who contributes verified cases is credited by name, and strong contributors may be invited to co-author the paper.

How applying works

Each listing asks a few short questions and for a LinkedIn profile or résumé; the Research Associate listing also sets a short exercise in reading a certificate of occupancy. Every application gets a reply within a week. Reside Act NOW’s Idealist profile lists every open role. Questions before applying can go to contact@resideact.org.

This is an independent project, not affiliated with HUD, Congress or any city government. About and method sets out who publishes it, how its numbers are produced, and what they cannot tell you.