Soli Alpert was born and raised in San Francisco, California, coming to Berkeley in 2015 to attend Cal. He quickly became involved in local progressive activism, first with UC Berkeley Students for Bernie, which became the Progressive Students Association, and then with the campaign of now-Councilmember Kate Harrison in 2017. After her election, he joined her staff as a part-time Legislative Assistant. In 2018, Soli was elected to the Rent Board as well as working on the campaign of Councilmember Rigel Robinson. He then transitioned to working in Councilmember Robinson’s office full time. In 2019, Soli worked with his coworkers to unionize the Legislative Assistants with SEIU 1021, the union representing most City of Berkeley employees. He now serves as a Union Steward and COPE representative for SEIU 1021. He was elected Vice Chair of the Rent Board by his colleagues in 2020, and again in 2021.
Soli’s focus legislatively is on workers’ and tenants’ rights, affordable housing and anti-speculation and anti-displacement policy, and open and transparent governance reforms. As a Commissioner and now Vice Chair, Soli has collaborated on proposals to expand the coverage of eviction control to more Berkeley tenants, shone a light on government inaction to protect tenants facing dangerous and uninhabitable living conditions, and advocated for mitigations in City upzoning proposals to protect vulnerable communities from displacement.
Soli is a member of Local Progress, a national coalition of local progressive elected officials, the Berkeley Tenants Union, and East Bay DSA.
External Board Assignments
