Affirmative Housing Attorney

Affirmative Housing Attorney

Full-Time, Exempt, Hybrid

(3 days/week in office)

About Us:

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” - Nelson Mandela

We believe that even the biggest problems can be broken down into small, achievable steps. Poverty and access to justice are part of the same problem. And we’re solving this problem together. At Open Door Legal (ODL), we’re pioneering the country’s first system of universal access to civil legal representation to dramatically reduce poverty and prove that the law really can belong to all of us. We’ve grown 150x in 10 years, and in the next 2 years, we hope to finish scaling across San Francisco. To achieve this goal, we’ve created an award-winning and best-in-class legal aid organization full of passionate, motivated, gritty, thoughtful, and team-oriented people. We believe that injustice is the heart of poverty, and we're looking for someone to join us in ensuring justice for all.

Overview of Position
Housing has the attention of everyone in the Bay Area. A safe and healthy home is a universal human right, yet it is consistently unrealized or threatened for those in poverty. Open Door Legal provides holistic, trauma-informed housing services, helping people access the legal services and advice that they need to feel safe and secure in their homes. We are hiring an Affirmative Housing Attorney who will work collaboratively with the entire housing team and with your clients to help ensure the rights of San Francisco low-income residents to keep safe and healthy homes. To be successful, you must be enthusiastic to engage and build trust with the community.

Housing law is one of many areas that Open Door Legal offers, and the housing practice team is the largest practice group at the organization. The housing team is split into two sections: the Unlawful Detainer (UD) section, which assists clients in defending their eviction cases, and the Affirmative Housing section. The Affirmative Housing team addresses issues such as, but not limited to, housing discrimination, illegal rent increases (under both the TPA and SFRO), landlord harassment, Rent Board petitions, constructive evictions, wrongful evictions, habitability, and UD restrictions.

While the housing practice team as a whole boasts a total of 10 employees, the Affirmative side has two dedicated attorneys who are passionate about this work and the clients we serve. Thriving in this role requires grit, dynamism, teamwork, care, and passion (our organization’s five core values). You will report directly to the Senior Affirmative Housing Attorney.

Responsibilities

• Embody our mission of universal access to civil legal aid and work with the team to make sure that the affirmative housing needs of all clients in our service area are met.
• Maintain a full caseload (as per team needs) while opening and closing cases in an efficient manner.
• Facilitate housing and brief service intakes across multiple physical Open Door Legal office locations and virtually.
• As necessary, represent clients at SF Superior Court, SF Rent Board hearings, SFHA administrative hearings, grievance hearings with subsidized housing providers, mediations with the Conflict Intervention Service, and California Civil Rights Department mediations to improve clients' living conditions.
• Provide services and support to our low-income clients with sensitivity and awareness to cultural, socio-economic, and disability differences. Maintain a high rating in the client feedback survey.
• Efficiently utilize Salesforce, our client management system (CMS), to document case activities, maintain accurate client records, and ensure timely record updates.

• Commit to leading the office in representing our mission and values externally to potential clients, clients, and others as well as internally to all teammates and volunteers. Our values are passion, grit, teamwork, caring, and dynamism.

Requirements:

• Membership in good standing with the California State Bar. Applicants without active California bar membership will not be considered. However, those without a license are encouraged to apply to volunteer with us at opendoorlegal.org/volunteer.
• At least 1 (preferably 2+) years of experience in either tenant-side housing law or similar field.
• Strong time management skills and the ability to handle quick timelines, manage diverse activities, organize case tasks, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Active demonstration of cultural humility and sensitivity to barriers low-income San Franciscans face when attempting to access the justice system.
• Demonstrated understanding of how to effectively provide trauma-informed advocacy for clients in crisis.
• Must genuinely enjoy and be motivated by working with low-income clients and be able to work competently with clients impacted by trauma (emotional, mental, and physical).
• Hybrid position: minimum of three days in-office in one or more of our Open Door Legal office locations.
• High level of comfort learning and using technology and cloud-based case management systems. We use Salesforce, Dropbox, and Google Suite.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the U.S without sponsorship.

Bonus Points

• Comfort translating and interpreting from English to Spanish or Cantonese and vice versa legal information without assistance.
• Speaks at least conversational Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog/other Filipino dialects, or Vietnamese.
• Experience with filing and interacting within the San Francisco Superior Court.
• Experience working with low-income and vulnerable populations.
• Experience working in a high-volume direct services legal aid or similar environment.
• Having lived a significant period of your life in San Francisco proper, specifically, a connection to the Bayview/Hunters Point, Excelsior, Sunset, or Western Addition neighborhoods.

Starting compensation (annually) is $83,500-$99,500 based on experience.

Benefits:

• Loan Repayment Assistance - for staff pursuing 10-year public interest debt forgiveness, we will pay the minimum payment on all qualifying loans so that you don’t need to worry about student loan debt (this is a conditional benefit).
• Medical/Dental/Vision Plan offerings at 100% coverage
• Generous paid time off (four weeks vacation and two weeks sick/care)
• Flexible work hours
• Generous paid parental leave
• 401K/Retirement Account
• We believe everyone is always learning. We financially invest in individual professional development for each staff member which can include mentorships, coaching, and learning opportunities (conferences, workshops, etc.).
• We are a fun and hard-working office with best-in-class technology solutions for anyone who’s passionate about making a meaningful and measurable difference.

Ideal Start Date: October 1, 2026

Applications submitted prior to September 9, 2026 will receive priority consideration.

Apply here:

To apply, submit your cover letter and resume. You may type your cover letter into the text box or combine your cover letter and resume into one PDF document for upload.

Open Door Legal is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law including the San Francisco Fair chance Ordinance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know at whitney [at] opendoorlegal [dot] org.