City Government

City Council Declares Oakland Housing State of Emergency

Published

8 years ago

April 7, 2016

The unanimous vote of the City Council to declare a housing state of emergency Tuesday night marks an historic step for Oakland, representing an unprecedented level of citywide unanimity and determination to halt the displacement that is shredding local residents’ lives and neighborhoods, according to leaders of the coalition of groups that worked with city council members to pass the ordinance.

“People are hurting…. This (housing crisis) is tearing our community apart,” said coalition leader James Vann, speaking at the meeting. “We came here with the request for a moratorium to say: stop, pause, take a breather.”

“Let’s stop this madness for a while so the council can have time … to discuss and deliberate some measures that can affect this crisis,” said Vann, one of the authors of the 90-day moratorium on rent increases above 1.7 percent and evictions without cause.

Hundreds of residents and representatives of groups that supported the ordinance lined up to speak Tuesday night, while community members packed the council chambers and galleries, filled the lobby outside the chambers and packed the hearing rooms that provided television access to the meeting.

Community members wait to enter the City Council chambers to speak on the moratorium. Photo by Tulio Ospina.

Many stayed until nearly 1 a.m. when the council unanimously approved the ordinance.

Speaker after speaker demanded that councilmembers respond to the plight of the community, to address the needs of the 60 percent of the residents who are renters and unable to pay for market rate or “workforce” housing.

A sizable contingent of landlords and their supporters also attended. A number of owners of rental units spoke against the moratorium.

“These kinds of phony ‘remedies’ do nothing to address the real supply-and-demand issues facing Oakland. It’s time our elected leaders stopped scapegoating small and medium-sized property owners and started addressing the city’s housing shortage with meaningful actions,” according to a statement sent to the Post by the East Bay Rental Housing Association.

Speaking in favor of the resolution, activist Kitty Kelly Epstein talked about the impact she believes the moratorium will have.

“I think (it) will make a big difference – it’s going to stop some evictions, it’s going to (receive) national and regional attention, and it’s going to make something happen because people in the public are going to know they have more rights than they ever knew they had.”

“You all (on the council) have seen the extent of passion on the part of the people who have come here,” Epstein said. “This movement has become united enough that I think we can move forward.”

Speakers of all backgrounds and ages spoke at the City Council meeting about their experiences with displacement. Photo by Tulio Ospina.

Coalition leader Carroll Fife emphasized the connection between the housing crisis, poverty, unemployment and other social problems.

“It’s all connected: housing, displacement, joblessness, despair,” she said.

“We want you (the council) to take action not only on this moratorium but also on the unilateral budget cuts that the mayor has made to job training that keeps children off the street, that trains them to do work,” said Fife.

She also underscored the significance of the fight against displacement.

“City workers cannot afford to live here,” she said. “Our teachers cannot afford to live here. Do something today.”

“The great migration up from the South brought people here to build this city,” she said. “We want those people to have the first dibs on living here, not Oakland being sold to the highest bidder.”

Calling on people to register to vote, Fife told the council, “If you do not do right by the people who live here, you will not sit in those seats. I guarantee that.”

Groups that came to the meeting to speak in support of the moratorium included SEIU, Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA), Block by Block Organizing Network, Post Salon Community Assembly, Oakland Alliance, East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO), Oakland Parents Together, Wellstone Democratic Club, John George Democratic Club, Causa Justa: Just Cause, Oakland Tenants Union, E12th Coalition, Qilombo, Green Party, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), OaklandWorks and the Oakland East Bay Alumnae Chapter of the of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Lynn Haines Dodd, president of the Delta Sigma Theta chapter, told the council, “What is asked today is simple – the preservation of the heart of the city. Elderly working class and professionals need places they call home. We stand with the people of Oakland. We ask that you do the same.”

Members of the Oakland East Bay Alumnae Chapter of the of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority spoke Tuesday night in support of the housing state of emergency. Photo of Tulio Ospina.

SEIU 1021 representative Felipe Cuevas said he was a city worker and a member of the craft bargaining unit. “Most of my coworker cannot afford to pay rent or buy a house to live in Oakland,” he said.

“I have been a resident of Oakland all my life. I am 52 years old and homeless,” said Judy Tomlinson. “I stay in a shelter now. When I was little, I didn’t say that I want grow up and be homeless.

“You are forcing me out of Oakland.”

“The housing crisis has to do with greed,” said Towanda Sherry, another longtime resident. “I see kids sleeping outside my apartment door on the ground or people sleeping in cars. I see seniors riding busies all day long (with no place to go).”

Holly Fincke said, “I’m not likely to be homeless, (but) I will be way, way out there (in the suburbs). I would like you to consider the long view, the type of city we want to have. Tenant protections are the bedrock.”

Clifton Harrison said he is in a fight with his landlord over a 112 percent rent increase. “I’m a senior citizen. The unit I’m in was rented in 1988 for $800. Now it’s going for $4,000.”

A lot of the people who are being victimized are not just the low-income residents, he said. “It’s teachers, nurses, senior citizens.”

Kin Folkz (right) talks about how many LGBTQ people of color have been displaced from Oakland in recent years. Photo by Tulio Ospina.

In their statement against the moratorium to the Post, the East Bay Rental Housing Association wrote:

“(The) Oakland City Council continues to use small rental property owners as the scapegoat for the city’s housing problems. Placing a moratorium on units already under rent control restrictions defies logic and only serves to further punish small mom-and-pop property owners who provide the bulk of the affordable housing in Oakland.

“New units built after 1983 are exempt from the moratorium under current state law (Costa-Hawkins). The moratorium will therefore have zero impact on those units most affected by market pressures.

“Prohibiting responsible property owners from passing on the capital improvements will result in properties across the city falling into disrepair.”

Councilmembers Desley Brooks, Rebecca Kaplan and Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney strongly supported the passage of the housing state of emergency.

“We have a serious, serious housing problem in our city… and a lot of what we’re doing isn’t helping people stay here,” said Brooks, who backed the motion to discuss the Protect Oakland Tenants Initiative ballot measure on the April 19 council meeting. “It’s paramount that we pass this state of emergency.”

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A New Coalition Says: ‘Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!’

Opposing the recalls of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and labeling the efforts as a new form of voter suppression, the coalition, “Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!” kicked off its organizing efforts last Saturday, Aug. 17, with a mass, public meeting, attended by over 100 people in East Oakland at At Thy Word Ministries Church, 8915 International Blvd. in East Oakland.

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Jess Inson, Rev. B.K. Woodson, Sr., Stewart Chen, and Mariano Contreras answer questions at the kickoff meeting of “Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!,” Saturday, Aug. 17, at At Thy Word Ministries Church, 8915 International Blvd. in East Oakland. Photo by Ken Epstein.

By Ken Epstein

A broad, diverse coalition has come together to mobilize local communities to vote against the recalls of two East Bay reform-minded leaders, who could potentially be thrown out of office in November after serving less than two years in office.

The recall effort is a result of multi-million-dollar campaigns that the coalition says are fueled by fearmongering with funding from a Piedmont financier and promoted by a public relations campaign in the corporate media.

Servant B.K. Woodson, Sr., pastor of the Bay Area Christian Connection in Oakland and chair of the coalition, links the surging national movement to reject the fearmongering and hateful agenda advocated by Donald Trump and the rightwing authoritarian proposals of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 to their own battle against the efforts to unseat progressive leaders in Oakland and Alameda County.

“This is a powerful moment, (and) across the nation you can feel it,” he said. “There’s joy, there’s hope, there’s expectation. We Oaklanders are at the center of the universe right now because the joy that’s bubbling up against the antipathy and the anger and the mindlessness, the battle for hope is being waged right here (against those) who profit by our poverty.”

“This is the inaugural event of ‘Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!’ because we want all people’s votes to be respected,” Pastor Woodson continued. “We are a diverse coalition, and we are open to more.”

The coalition already has the participation of the Wellstone and John George Democratic clubs, the Latino Task Force, and the Asian Americans for a Progressive Alameda, as well as active involvement of African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, whites, and others, he said.

“(Together), we want to expose what’s happening,” Woodson said. “The vehicle of recall (was intended to be) a people’s device against entrenched power (but) has been co-opted by billionaires,” who have funded these campaigns.

Those attending the meeting raised concerns about Foundational Oakland Unites, a political action committee that received $605,000 from Piedmont financier Philip Dreyfuss, which contributed $480,000 to back the Sheng Thao recall.

Dreyfuss also contributed to recall Price. A political action committee, Supporters of Recall Pamela Price, which Dreyfuss helped create, received about $400,000 to pay for signature-gathering, as well as a $200,000 loan.

Other speakers at the rally included Stewart Chen, president of the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council; Carmen Peng of Asian Americans for Progressive Alameda; Jess Inson, lead organizing fellow for Oakland Rising Action; Chaney Turner, chair of the City of Oakland’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission; and Mariano Contreras, member of the Latino Task Force and co-chair of the African American Latino Action Alliance.

Contreras said in past decades, voter suppression was mostly designed to keep African Americans, immigrants, and poor people from being able to vote.

“(But) now we’re seeing a new type of voter suppression, the denial of our vote after we cast it,” he said.

“The recall process was (originally) designed to ensure that elected officials would represent the interests of their constituents. But the recall process has been hijacked by shadowy, conservative money that finds defeated candidates (and others) who are willing to deny you and me our vote as we originally cast it,” he said.

“This is a new, dangerous voter suppression that exists right here in our city,” he said, adding that: “We are seeing the use of fear and misinformation to attract spokespeople to promote attacks and charges that are nothing more than smokescreens to roll back progressive alliances that have been built in our local government.”

Chen said that there has been a “false narrative” about rampant crime, which is a “bunch of baloney.”

There have long been problems with crime in Oakland, and the recalls against Price and Thao began shortly after they were elected and before they had a chance to do much, he said. “Unequivocally, the people who lost wanted their candidates to win. These are sour grapes.”

“This is undemocratic. We have to stand together, unite together,” Chen said. “That’s why I’m here.”