City Government

Oakland Council Seeks to Close Loop-Hole That Allows Unlawful Evictions

Published

9 years ago

July 14, 2017

Oakland City Council members are moving forward with a proposal that would close a loophole in the rent law that allows unlawful evictions. The Community and Economic Development (CED) Committee on Tuesday unanimously passed Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan’s resolution calling on the Rent Board to write regulations to protect tenants in owner-occupy duplexes and triplexes from landlords who fraudulently claim to be moving into their units in order to evict the occupants.

The regulations would be designed to confirm their owner-occupy status, thereby preventing landlords from dishonestly evicting the tenants. Oakland’s “Just Cause” Ordinance, which protects tenants from unlawful evictions, currently exempts buildings with two or three units form “Just Cause” protections if a property owner lives in one of the units as a primary residence, meaning that tenants in these two- or three-bedroom units risk no-fault evictions if an owner moves into one of the units, creating a loop-hole for unlawful, false “owner move-in” claims.

Kaplan’s resolution comes as Oakland is struggling with rising unlawful evictions.

“Concerns about false claims of owner occupancy are rising, and we lack a good system to ensure that owner-occupancy claims being used for evictions are legitimate,” she said. ““Therefore, I ask that we refer this issue to the Rent Board, which has direct experience and expertise in this area, to ask that they create regulations to protect against false owner-occupancies being used to evict.”

Kaplan’s Resolution calls for the Rent Board to come up with a system that will help determine genuine owner-occupy duplexes and triplexes. Once the Rent Board has a proposal, it will return to the full City Council for discussion and approval.

Oakland resident Karna Leggett told council members that her landlord told her and her father, who is 79 years old and has dementia, that they would have to move out so the building could be renovated. Her father has lived in the building since 1977. After she refused, the landlord claimed she and her father need to move out so one of the owner´s children could move in. Leggett, who lives downstairs from her father, fears that if she has to move, there will be no longer anyone to provide her dad with the round-the-clock care he needs.

In addition, they do not have the money to move anywhere else in Oakland. Rosalba Tapia, speaking with the aid of a translator from Centro Legal de la Raza, she said she has been harassed by her landlord for three years to try to force her and her four children out of their apartment. .

“I have been living for 15 years in West Oakland,” she said. “I need help. I have no place to go with my family, and I don´t want to be homeless.”

“My landlord kicked out the people downstairs pretending to (that he would be) living there. That is not true.”

Greg McConnell of the Jobs and Housing Coalition, which represents landlord interests, said he was not opposed having the rent board study the problem and propose solutions.

“If someone evicts and claims owner occupancy, and they don’t move in, that should unleash fines that make the tenant whole,” he said.

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 31, 2025 – January 6, 2026

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Oakland Council Expands Citywide Security Cameras Despite Major Opposition

In a 7-1 vote in favor of the contract, with only District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife voting no, the Council agreed to maintain its existing network of 291 cameras and add 40 new “pan-tilt-zoom cameras.”

Published

4 weeks ago

December 21, 2025

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At the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, Flock Safety introduces new public safety technology – Amplified Intelligence, a suite of AI-powered tools designed to improve law enforcement investigations. Courtesy photo.

By Post Staff

The Oakland City Council this week approved a $2.25 million contract with Flock Safety for a mass surveillance network of hundreds of security cameras to track vehicles in the city.

In recent weeks hundreds of local residents have spoken against the camera system, raising concerns that data will be shared with immigration authorities and other federal agencies at a time when mass surveillance is growing across the country with little regard for individual rights.

The Flock network, supported by the Oakland Police Department, has the backing of residents and councilmembers who see it as an important tool to protect public safety.

“This system makes the Department more efficient as it allows for information related to disruptive/violent criminal activities to be captured … and allows for precise and focused enforcement,” OPD wrote in its proposal to City Council.

According to OPD, police made 232 arrests using data from Flock cameras between July 2024 and November of this year.

Based on the data, police say they recovered 68 guns, and utilizing the countywide system, they have found 1,100 stolen vehicles.

However, Flock’s cameras cast a wide net. The company’s cameras in Oakland last month captured license plate numbers and other information from about 1.4 million vehicles.

Speaking at Tuesday’s Council meeting, Fife was critical of her colleagues for signing a contract with a company that has been in the national spotlight for sharing data with federal agencies.

Flock’s cameras – which are automated license plate readers – have been used in tracking people who have had abortions, monitoring protesters, and aiding in deportation roundups.

“I don’t know how we get up and have several press conferences talking about how we are supportive of a sanctuary city status but then use a vendor that has been shown to have a direct relationship with (the U.S.) Border Control,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Several councilmembers who voted in favor of the contract said they supported the deal as long as some safeguards were written into the Council’s resolution.

“We’re not aiming for perfection,” said District 1 Councilmember Zac Unger. “This is not Orwellian facial recognition technology — that’s prohibited in Oakland. The road forward here is to add as many amendments as we can.”

Amendments passed by the Council prohibit OPD from sharing camera data with any other agencies for the purpose of “criminalizing reproductive or gender affirming healthcare” or for federal immigration enforcement. California state law also prohibits the sharing of license plate reader data with the federal government, and because Oakland’s sanctuary city status, OPD is not allowed to cooperate with immigration authorities.

A former member of Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission has sued OPD, alleging that it has violated its own rules around data sharing.

So far, OPD has shared Flock data with 50 other law enforcement agencies.