Bay Area

EB PREC’s Plan to Replace Landlords With Communal Ownership

Published

7 years ago

September 19, 2019

Gregory Jackson (bottom left), Marissa Ashkar (top left), Noni Session (center), Shira Shaham (top right) and Ojan Mobedshahi (bottom right), are all staff members of the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Collective, a collective that prioritizes serving Black and Indigenous residents and creates permanently affordable housing. Photo by Erin Conger.

The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EB PREC) is working to keep Black, indigenous, people of color and allied communities in the East Bay by communally purchasing and sustaining land and housing with local residents.

“The critical part of our project is that we take land and housing permanently off the speculative market,” said EB PREC’s Executive Director and third-generation West Oakland resident Noni Session. She, along with six other local residents, form the Black led and POC majority staff of EB PREC, and the growing cooperative currently has more than 125 other non-staff members including resident owners and investors.

In an interview with The Oakland Post, Session explained how EB PREC is replacing landlords with resident owners and investors who are driven by the desire to sustain the community as opposed to make money.

California residents can invest up to $1,000 in EB PREC’s collective fund and receive 1.5 percent in annual dividends, a rate similar to what many banks offer. After five years, investors can choose to sell their share, which allows them to get their invested money back plus any outstanding dividends. Local investors who own a share of the collective also can attend EB PREC events and vote on major cooperative decisions.

“If 100 of us can join together to create a pot of investment,” said Session, “that means…we don’t have to wait for organized capital, or follow the very poor advice of commercial developers, or wait for charity-based subsidies from our city in order to change our outcomes.”

In June 2019, EB PREC collaborated with the Northern California Land Trust (NCLT) and residents of a four-unit building in North Oakland called Coop 789 to purchase the building from their former landlord.

The residents now no longer pay rent but instead pay monthly lease shares. The lease share money goes towards the cost of the project, minimal property management fees, an emergency repair fund, and equity that goes into residents’ capital account that they can cash out if they want to move and sell their share back to the coop.

EB PREC’s mission is to keep these housing costs permanently affordable. The coop doesn’t allow the residents to ever sell the property, leaving it as a community resource as opposed to a commodity to be sold for profit.

“We feel secure in our housing situation,” said Coop 789 resident Tia Taruc-Myers. “And that feels really empowering.”

EB PREC is also interested in how its connections with local residents and organizations can create social capital to serve the community. Session insists that EB PREC can’t do this work alone and she never would have known how to go about starting the cooperative if it wasn’t for the example she saw in Mandela Foods Cooperative, the cooperative West Oakland grocery store that started in 2009.

EB PREC’s work also wouldn’t be possible if they hadn’t collaborated with The Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC). SELC pushed for the passing of California Assembly Bill 816, which has allowed residents to invest up to $1,000 in a cooperative housing endeavor. Before, the state had capped individual investments at $350. Without the law change, EB PREC’s method of communal housing investment wouldn’t have been possible.

Although EB PREC officially launched in Dec. 2018, it’s already on route to steward five different properties by the end of 2019 and has plans to add five to 10 additional properties in 2020.

As EB PREC works to obtain and steward these properties, it’s educating the public about stewarding land and communal ownership.

“Communities have not just been dispossessed of land and assets,” said Session. “They’ve been dispossessed of knowledge, skills, access, and information.”

EB PREC has formed the Collective Action and Land Liberation Institute, which is a platform for their outreach and educational efforts. Gregory Jackson, EB PREC’s partnership director, facilitates book clubs in East Oakland and Richmond. He’s currently teaching “Collective Courage” by Jessica Gordon Nembhard, a book that chronicles Black cooperative organization and its foundational role in the Civil Rights Movement.

“We want to communicate to our communities that not only are coops not a new thing, they’re not a white thing,” said Session.

Zack Haber

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Bay Area

IN MEMORIAM: Longtime OUSD Employee Debra King-Cooper, 73

Longtime OUSD Employee Debra King-Cooper, 73 Caption: Debra King-Cooper. Courtesy photo. Special to The Post Debra King-Cooper, a beloved mother, grandmother, queen, sister, church member, caregiver, and matriarch, transitioned peacefully on May 20 surrounded by family and love i

Published

4 days ago

June 17, 2026

bpusa-syndication

Debra King-Cooper. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

Debra King-Cooper, a beloved mother, grandmother, queen, sister, church member, caregiver, and matriarch, transitioned peacefully on May 20 surrounded by family and love in the comfort of her home. To her children, she was royalty, grace, strength, and unconditional love embodied.

Debra Diane Edgar was born on May 28, 1952, in San Francisco, California, to Charles Edgar Sr. and Mamie Arthur Edgar. She was raised alongside her younger brother, Charles Edgar Jr., affectionately known as “Little Brother” or “Lil Bruh.” She also shared close bonds with her older siblings Carol Edgar-Lang, Maryann Edgar Calloway, and Lonnie Lewis Sr.

A proud product of San Francisco’s historic Fillmore District, Debra attended Andrew Jackson Elementary School, where she met her lifelong best friend and adopted sister, Lynn Green, in the fifth grade. She later attended Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School, Roosevelt Junior High School and Thomas Jefferson High School.

Debra’s mother transitioned when she was only 17 years old, and her father transitioned when she was 23. Despite these profound losses, Debra remained grounded through the love and support of extended family and lifelong family friends,

In 1971, she married Harold King. On Sept. 24, 1972, they welcomed their first son, Dajuan Artese King, affectionately called “Pop” or “Poppa.” On Aug. 5, 1976, they welcomed their second son, Dante Dupree King, affectionately called “Tay” or “Taboocoo the Baby.”

After her divorce in 1982, Debra assumed full responsibility for raising her sons.

She supported Dajuan’s passion for football by purchasing sports equipment and attending games faithfully. She supported Dante’s love of music by enrolling him in the San Francisco Boys Choir, Oakland Boys Choir, and the Castlemont Castleers.

Professionally, Debra built an exceptional career. She worked at Blue Shield of California from 1973 until 1994, earning multiple promotions.

She later joined the Oakland Unified School District, initially in a temporary role before being promoted into management within the Labor Relations Department. She retired from OUSD in 2015 after years of distinguished service. During her years at OUSD, she built meaningful friendships with her colleagues.

Faith was central to Debra’s life. During the 1980s, following personal hardship, she joined Love Center Church under the leadership of Bishop Walter Hawkins, where she brought her children regularly. She later became a member of Triumphant: A Church Without Walls Ministries under Pastor Dr. Larry Short, who became a beloved spiritual mentor.

After Triumphant closed in 1992, Debra joined Cosmopolitan Baptist Church in Oakland under the leadership of Pastor Larry Ashley, where she remained for the rest of her life.

At Cosmopolitan, she worked in numerous ministries. She served on the usher board, sang in the choir, participated in the AIDS ministry during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, helped feed and support unhoused community members, and mentored and supported a group of young girls.

After retirement, she cared for older adults in her church community, driving them to appointments, cleaning their homes, managing finances, preparing meals, and helping families navigate funeral arrangements after loved ones transitioned.

Even while battling Stage 4 cancer herself, she continued caring for others.

Debra was preceded in death by her parents, Charles Edgar Sr. and Mamie Arthur Edgar; her brothers, Lonnie Lewis Sr. and Charles Edgar Jr.; her sisters, Maryann Edgar Calloway and Victoria Stephenson Knight; and her adopted mother, Clara Oliver.

She leaves to cherish her memory her beloved sons, Dajuan King and Dante King; grandson, Tiyler Dajuan Artese King; sister, Carol Edgar-Lang; goddaughters Monique Belle and Ricketa Matthews Jones (Leonard); daughter-in-love Quiona Sullivan; son-in-love Marcel Walker; sister-in-law Delores Lewis; adopted sisters and lifelong friends Lynn Green, Barbara Stephenson Hill, and Sarah Fine; a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, great-nieces, great-nephews, extended family members, her church family and dear friends.