Avery is a tenant in Berkeley who works as a Tenant Organizer for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. She is also the Chair of the Berkeley Tenants Union and head of the Berkeley Tenant Organizing Task Force.

She is a formerly homeless tenant who has faced landlord negligence, and has firsthand experience using the resources offered by the Rent Stabilization Board to advocate for her rights. Avery has also formed a Tenant Association in her building, which remains one of the largest unionized buildings in Berkeley. Through this, she utilized the power of that union to get health and safety problems – including a severe cockroach infestation and heating issues in the building  – resolved, while negotiating a rent reduction for her neighbors. Her experience as a tenant strongly informs the urgency of her advocacy for tenant protections on the Rent Board. She has direct knowledge about the reforms needed to improve access to tenant services in Berkeley.

Across Berkeley, through her work helping hundreds of tenants form building-wide tenant unions under the Berkeley Tenant Protection and Right to Organize Act framework, she has routinely encountered housing conditions unfit for life. From tenants who have developed medical issues and asthma as a result of black mold in their apartments, to mobility-impaired seniors forced to scale multiple flights of stairs during frequent elevator outages, time and time again, tenants are surviving in uninhabitable conditions and paying rents that are far too high. Avery is running to hold slumlords accountable, and to make housing more affordable for Berkeley tenants.

Paid for by Avery Arbaugh for Berkeley Rent Board 2026

FPPC Pending

Contact: averygrahamarbaugh@gmail.com