City Government

After Forcible, Armed Eviction by Local Law Enforcement, Moms 4 Housing Win a Victory

Published

7 years ago

January 23, 2020

Homeless moms who were forcibly evicted from a vacant Oakland house where they lived for two months without permission from the home’s corporate owner, announced on Monday that Wedgewood Inc. had agreed to sell the home to a community nonprofit.

Wedgewood will sell the house on Magnolia Street to Oakland Community Land Trust, Mayor Libby Schaaf announced at a press conference earlier that day. The nonprofit plans to renovate the house and allow the Moms 4 Housing group to live and operate their organization out of the property.

“This is what happens when we organize, when people come together to build the beloved community,” Dominique Walker of Moms 4 Housing said in a statement on Monday Jan. 20, the holiday honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. “Today we honor Dr. King’s radical legacy by taking Oakland back from banks and corporations,” said Walker.

Surrounded by a cheering crowd at a press conference Monday, Walker thanked the numerous supporters who had stood in solidarity with the moms over the two-month period.

“This movement does not end today, with us, with that house on Magnolia street, we will not stop organizing and fighting until all unhoused folks who want shelter have shelter,” she said.

The moms were surrounded by supporters, who included City Council President Rebecca Kaplan (bottom right) and Councilmember Niki Fortunato Bas. Photo by Saskia Hatvany.

Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas and Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan were present to show their ongoing support for the movement, and announced that they are working on a “Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act”— a local piece of legislation that will give tenants the opportunity to purchase their homes with land trust and co-operatives.

“Today we are taking a moment to celebrate this incredible victory that was accomplished by community acting together,” said Kaplan, who also said that she and Bas had been calling for Wedgwood to sell the house to the moms for “weeks.”

“We can’t let homes sit vacant while people are living on our streets. And we can’t keep allowing homes to end up in the hands of flippers who won’t make them available for our community,” said Kaplan.

Member of Mom’s 4 Housing Misty Cross said that the moms are still recovering from the whole process. “We’re still hurting, there’s still pain here. We went to jail, we were dragged out, we were taken away from our kids, we stood up and put our bodies on the line for something that should not have happened,” she said. “No-one has given us a public apology. There is a problem there with that.”

But Cross also urged the public to stay focused on the bigger picture. “Why don’t we ask [Wedgewood] what changed their heart — ask our mayor what changed her heart?”

Carroll Fife, director of the Oakland office for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) criticized the city’s overall handling of the affair. “The way that the Alameda county sheriffs came in to enact an eviction notice on mothers and children is shameful…there is nothing they can say to justify the use of tanks, with a Tourette that shoots out military-grade weapons…we demand accountability,” she said.

The path to this victory was paved by a lot of hard work. ACCE campaigned for a year with the Oakland Community Land Trust to create a city fund to take land off of the speculative market by acquiring properties. With the leadership of Councilmember Bas, the city council in June passed a balanced budget with $12 million allocated to create a municipal fund supporting community land trusts and limited equity housing cooperatives.

Saskia Hatvany and Ken Epstein

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of July 15 – 21, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 15 – 21, 2026

Published

7 days ago

July 18, 2026

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

From Disparity Study to Solutions: Oakland Coalition and Mayor Barbara Lee Renew Commitment to Reform City Contracting

She committed to ensuring the coalition has direct access to City leadership by designating Assistant Deputy City Administrator Chuck Baker the primary liaison. Working alongside Deputy City Administrator Sofia Navarro, DWES Director Emylene Aspilla, Race and Equity Director Darlene Flynn, and other City departments, the coalition will continue advancing these priorities while maintaining regular communication with City leadership.

Published

1 week ago

July 15, 2026

Oakland Post

Present at the recent meeting on implementing recommendations on Oakland’s Disparity Study on city work contracts were (first row, l. to r.): Chuck Baker, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and Darlene Flynn. Second row, l. to r.) Samuel Adams, Erica Astrella, Chadwick Spell, Cathy Adams, Stanley Cooper, Maria Wagner, Len Turner, Derek Barnes, Paul Cobb. Photo courtesy of Oakland Mayor’s Office.

Special to The Post

On June 30, a coalition of minority business leaders, contractors and others met with Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee to discuss the City’s commitment to implement recommendations outlined in Oakland’s Disparity Study and eliminate barriers that have historically prevented Black and minority-owned businesses from fully participating in public contracting opportunities.

Representatives of the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce (OAACC), National Association of Minority Contractors Northern California (NAMC NorCal), Construction Resource Center (CRC), and the East Bay Rental Housing Association (EBRHA) said the meeting represented an important milestone in a process that has been underway for several months.

On April 21, the Oakland City Council’s Life Enrichment Committee received a progress report from the Department of Workplace and Employment Standards (DWES), where Director Emylene Aspilla presented the coalition’s working document and outlined a collaborative implementation plan between the coalition and the City. That report established 30-, 60-, and 90-day objectives focused on five key priorities:

Reforming Local and Small Local Business Enterprise (L/SLBE) waiver practices
Strengthening prompt payment compliance
Improving procurement forecasting and transparency
Expanding contractor capacity building and business development
Increasing oversight, accountability, and public reporting

A series of working sessions was scheduled between coalition representatives, DWES, and the City Administrator’s Office to begin implementing those priorities but were temporarily delayed by the resignation of former City Administrator Jestin Johnson.

Rather than allowing that momentum to stall, OAACC President and CEO Cathy Adams requested a meeting with Lee to gain clarity on the City’s direction and reaffirm its commitment to implementing the recommendations contained within the Disparity Study.

Coalition leaders described the meeting as productive, candid, collaborative, and encouraging.

During the meeting, Lee spoke not only from her role as mayor but also from her experience as an 8(a) contractor and business owner, sharing that she understands firsthand what it takes to build and grow a successful company, employ a substantial workforce, compete for public work, and navigate the complexities of municipal contracting.

Mayor Lee also expressed her commitment to personally participate in future working meetings with the coalition.

“This meeting represents a renewed commitment to partnership,” said Adams. “Mayor Lee listened, engaged, and demonstrated that she wants to move beyond conversation and into implementation.”

CRC’s Len Turner said the roadmap is already in place. ““The City already has the evidence. What’s been missing is execution. …Now it’s time to deliver results.”

Mario Wagner, president of NAMC NorCal agreed that the next phase must focus on implementation, funding, and accountability.

“The coalition is ready to get to work. …The next step is ensuring these initiatives receive meaningful funding in the upcoming fiscal budget cycle. Just as important, the City must establish transparent reporting mechanisms that keep the public informed through regular progress reports, measurable benchmarks, and accountability.”

Coalition leaders also acknowledged that while City leadership has indicated it is reviewing Local and Small Local Business Enterprise waiver practices, the community continues to seek a formal response regarding existing long-term waivers, including waivers extending 10 and 25 years. The coalition believes those waivers should be comprehensively reviewed and, where appropriate, rolled back as part of the City’s broader contracting reforms.

The coalition is also calling on the City to include meaningful funding in the upcoming fiscal budget cycle to support implementation of the Disparity Study recommendations and establish better methods and mechanisms to keep the public informed through regular progress reports, measurable benchmarks, and transparent accountability.

The coalition’s immediate next step is to schedule a working meeting with Baker, Aspilla, Lee, and the appropriate City staff to review what has already been accomplished under the implementation framework.