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Opinion: Hold Mayor Schaaf Accountable for Housing, Police Reform Failures

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By Eric Arnold

The Mercury News (August 12, 2018) reports that as a candidate Libby Schaaf promised that 28 percent of the housing built in Oakland would be affordable.

The article also notes only 6 percent of housing currently in the pipeline is considered  “affordable.”

Most of that 6 percent “affordable” housing was generated by community-benefit agreements, and not solely by impact fees—which do not guarantee onsite affordable units in new developments .

How is that acceptable, if displacement and affordability are the top two issues in Oakland today?

If Lailan Huen, Ayodele Nzinga, Carla Service, Alvina Wong  and I had not personally negotiated those community benefit agreements, the affordable housing in the pipeline might be closer to 1 percent-2 percent.

The residents of Oakland are owed an explanation of why this 28 percent target was not even in the ballpark.

That is either incompetence or benign neglect or both. If private developers can hit 20 percent affordable housing targets, and BART can hit 30 percent, what is the reasonable explanation for Oakland’s poor performance in this area?

Remember, the 28 percent target was Mayor Schaaf’s own projection.

Meanwhile, development was accelerated at market-rate, resulting in a 76 percent increase in rents both commercial and residential and only a single-digit wage increase. I am using City numbers here, so there is no way any elected official can say they were unaware.

There are many things the mayor could have done but didn’t. She could have appointed Planning Commission members with deeper ties to the flatlands residents instead of contractors and developers more familiar with Piedmont than the Lower Bottomz.

She could have not given carte blanche to the Big Five developers.  She could have incentivized affordable housing units with a stronger impact fee law.

She could have bought instead of sold public land and turned those into affordable buildings. She could have prevented the loss of 50 percent of Single-room Occupancy (SRO) stock in downtown.

Oakland has known it would have to do this since 2012 when redevelopment was eliminated, and the writing was on the wall prior to Mayor Schaaf’s election.

She made affordable housing and not displacing current residents a talking point but did not manage to come up with anything concrete as far as policy initiatives, which is what the situation required.

This is one reason Oakland got an equity score of 33 out of 100 in a recent equity study.

Is anyone crunching the numbers and looking at Schaaf’s actual track record? Mayor Schaaf is also weak on police misconduct cases. During the OPD sex scandal, she was more concerned about PR than holding criminal officers accountable. She was ok with a cover-up as long as she had plausible deniability. She did not call on District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to prosecute those cops who had illegal relations with a minor. She was silent.

In 2017, OPD misconduct racked up another $12 million in legal payouts on top of the $1 million paid out to the victim in the case, Celeste Guap.

Meanwhile, OUSD is cutting sports programs and the homeless crisis has proliferasted on her watch.

Schaaf could not even keep coal out of the Port terminal.

Where, in what world, is this acceptable?

So, the question becomes, should we give an ineffective mayor who merely continued the agenda set by Jerry Brown for gentrification—and displacement—the benefit of the doubt when she has yet to craft effective policies?

Eric Arnold is an Oakland journalist, researcher, archivisit, cultural historian and multimedia producer.

Or do we hold her accountable for promises she made which she has not delivered on? How is she not responsible for the current homeless crisis and disproportionate displacement of African Americans?

 

 

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California Black Media

Report: Black Homeownership in Calif. for 25-35-Year-Olds Has Fallen by More than 50%

A report released last week by the California Community Builders Association (CBCA) presented a grim picture of home ownership for middle income Black Californians and other minorities. The report, titled “California’s Missing Middle,” revealed that the rate of homeownership for Black Californians ages 25 through 35 dropped by more than half — from 50% to 23% over a four-decade period, beginning in 1980 through 2021.

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“Middle-income California is shrinking, and the drop is all in the lower-middle-income group, from 6.7 million in 2000 to 4.3 million in 2019, a staggering 35% drop,” reads a CBCA press release.
“Middle-income California is shrinking, and the drop is all in the lower-middle-income group, from 6.7 million in 2000 to 4.3 million in 2019, a staggering 35% drop,” reads a CBCA press release.

By California Black Media

 

A report released last week by the California Community Builders Association (CBCA) presented a grim picture of home ownership for middle income Black Californians and other minorities.

 

The report, titled “California’s Missing Middle,” revealed that the rate of homeownership for Black Californians ages 25 through 35 dropped by more than half — from 50% to 23% over a four-decade period, beginning in 1980 through 2021.

During that same period, the rate of homeownership for Latinos also fell significantly — by 22 percentage points, from 52% to 30%.

According to CBCA, the study is based on Census data. It focuses on middle-income Californians because there are rapid shifts happening among that demographic and that sub-group gets the least attention in conversations about homelessness and housing affordability.

“Middle-income California is shrinking, and the drop is all in the lower-middle-income group, from 6.7 million in 2000 to 4.3 million in 2019, a staggering 35% drop,” reads a CBCA press release.

Middle-income Californians also receive the least amount of government funded subsidies aimed at making housing more affordable in the state.

“We have no idea whether these people left the state or changed income brackets. In fact, we know little about the demographics and housing challenges of this group, but the ‘shrinking middle class’ looks real. Knowledge gaps create policy gaps, and we have both,” the CBCA press release continued.

 Among key findings in the study are nearly 60% of middle-income Californians are people of color and California housing prices have increased eight times as much as California incomes.

The report recommends that the state create a housing policy that considers the needs of middle-income Californians. The majority of them, according to CCBA, earn too little money to compete in the housing market, yet their income is too high to qualify for income-based subsidies.

“Today, the needs of low-income families are often the primary source of discussion when it comes to housing policy and housing subsidy,” the report reads. “CCB agrees with this perspective and believes low-income families need far greater support than they receive today, but we also believe that the 17 million middle-income Californians also need care and attention, as our current housing market regularly fails them.”

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Bay Area

Berkeley Considers New Law to Help Tenants Buy Where They Rent

Renée, a Berkeley resident, was dismayed last summer when she saw the final sale price of the four-plex where she and members of her family have lived for 20 years. It wasn’t because the amount was high – it is Berkeley, after all. She was shocked because she’d bid on the property and offered $44,000 more than the new owner paid for it. It just didn’t make sense. Then she found out why her landlord wouldn’t sell it to her. “I didn’t want to sell to you because of [your nephew], I don’t trust him,” the landlord said.

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Displacement in Berkeley’s African American community is rampant, caused by the steep decline of renters who make up two-thirds of Black households in the city.
Street sign in Berkeley. iStock photo by SimeonDonov.

By Chris Schildt
Friends of Adeline

Renée, a Berkeley resident, was dismayed last summer when she saw the final sale price of the four-plex where she and members of her family have lived for 20 years. It wasn’t because the amount was high – it is Berkeley, after all.

She was shocked because she’d bid on the property and offered $44,000 more than the new owner paid for it. It just didn’t make sense. Then she found out why her landlord wouldn’t sell it to her.

“I didn’t want to sell to you because of [your nephew], I don’t trust him,” the landlord said.

An African American small business owner for many years, Renée was hardly unfamiliar with racist dog whistles and the stereotyping of her family members — but this one hit hard.

When the new owner took over, she started making troubling changes that threatened Renée’s ability to operate her licensed in-home daycare. With the help of the Eviction Defense Center and the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, she and her fellow tenants have been able to halt efforts to increase the rent and other unlawful acts. But if her previous landlord had sold her the building, she never would have had to deal with this harassment.

“I have felt discriminated against and harassed by these intimidating practices on the basis of my age, gender, race, and economic status,” said Renée. “I feel this type of intimidation is an effort to frustrate me into leaving the place my family and I have lived in for decades.”

Displacement in Berkeley’s African American community is rampant, caused by the steep decline of renters who make up two-thirds of Black households in the city. Like Renée, many have lived in their homes for decades. But even with the city’s robust rent control laws and anti-eviction protections, many find it hard to stay because outside investors buy homes and push tenants out.

This is especially true in historically African American South Berkeley, where Renée lives and where one-bedroom apartment rents have skyrocketed to $2,000 a month or more.

The Berkeley City Council is considering legislation that would help prevent the kind of displacement pressures Renée and other tenants face.

The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) helps tenants to become first-time homeowners by giving them an opportunity to buy their homes when their landlord decides to sell. If the landlord decides not to take the tenant’s offer, TOPA gives tenants a chance to match any other offer the landlord receives. For Renée, this would have given her the chance to own her home – and for $44,000 less than she had originally offered.

Another South Berkeley resident, Jonathan (not his real name), an immigrant from Africa, has lived in his apartment for over 30 years. When the property went up for sale last year, he wasn’t concerned – he’s lived there through three different owners and has gotten along with all of them in the past. This time, however, the new owners made it clear that they wanted him gone.

He looked for other housing options in South Berkeley near his job but found nothing at the price he currently pays for his rent-controlled apartment. The Eviction Defense Center was able to help him negotiate to stay in his own apartment, but he no longer feels welcome at home and worries that his landlords might try to force him out again.

TOPA allows tenants to work with land trusts and nonprofits to help fund the purchases and designates the home as affordable housing if public subsidies are used to buy it. In San Francisco, a similar law has helped preserve over 200 units as affordable housing since it passed in 2019.

TOPA was first introduced as an ordinance in 2020 in Berkeley and was reintroduced this past fall when investor purchases and a surge in evictions renewed interest in this policy.

TOPA is supported by the Berkeley NAACP branch, Healthy Black Families, the Berkeley Black Ecumenical Ministers Alliance, the Friends of Adeline, and others. Advocates for fairness and affordable housing are urging community members to contact Berkeley City Council members and ask them to support TOPA.

For more information on TOPA and guidance on how to take action, please visit www.yes2topa.org. To get involved, please contact the Friends of Adeline at friendsofadeline@gmail.com.

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Activism

Inheriting the Mantle: Who Will Carry the Legacy of John George?

Black political representation in Oakland and Berkeley was spurred by the Black Panther Party’s political organizing which began with the support of Shirley Chisholm’s bid for president in 1972 and an effort to elect Bobby Seale as mayor and Elaine Brown to City Council.  

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John George became the first African American to hold the District 5 seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. He was followed by Warren Widener and then Keith Carson who decided not to seek re-election in December 2023. File, Facebook and campaign photos respectively.
John George became the first African American to hold the District 5 seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. He was followed by Warren Widener and then Keith Carson who decided not to seek re-election in December 2023. File, Facebook and campaign photos respectively.

By LV McElhaney

This Black History Month, voters in Alameda County will be deciding which of eight candidates will succeed Supervisor Keith Carson in the District 5 race. Long considered a civil rights seat, this may be the first time in 30 years that there won’t be a Black leader at the helm since John George became the first African American elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1976.

Black political representation in Oakland and Berkeley was spurred by the Black Panther Party’s political organizing which began with the support of Shirley Chisholm’s bid for president in 1972 and an effort to elect Bobby Seale as mayor and Elaine Brown to City Council.

Before helping George, a young Black attorney who had sued Oakland over voter disenfranchisement and to create district elections, win a seat at the all-white Republican Board of Supervisors, the Panther organization was instrumental in electing Oakland’s first Black mayor, Lionel Wilson to office in 1977.

George was succeeded by another African American, Warren Widener, who served three terms from 1989 – 1992.  Widener also broke the color barrier when he became the first Black mayor in Berkeley. Widener would become a pioneer in what would become the affordable housing sector when he developed a program to build military housing on vacant land owned by the government working with his classmate, retired Navy Rear Adm. Robert Toney. That program produced more than 3,500 housing units throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and became a model for the nation.

When he sought a third term on the Board of Supervisors, Widener was defeated by newcomer, Keith Carson, a young mentee of Ron Dellums, who was viewed as more progressive than Widener.  During his 30 years in office, Supervisor Carson was known as a steady leader who sought to build an inclusive and accessible government.

He created AC Impact, a program that provides permanent supportive housing and services to chronically homeless adults in Alameda County and was instrumental in funding community-based organizations to deliver services for people returning home from prison.

Carson, who was set to run unopposed, decided in December not to seek reelection to the Board of Supervisors.  The decision shocked many in the African American community who are concerned that Black leadership is under pressure from neo-progressives and social democrats who pursue policies that threaten Black land and business ownership.

Among the eight competing to succeed Carson are two Black men, Berkeley Councilmember Ben Bartlett, and former Oakland School Board member Greg Hodge.  This diverse district includes the cities of Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont, and large portions of Oakland, namely the West Oakland, North Oakland, Rockridge, and Montclair neighborhoods, as well as portions of the Dimond, Bella Vista, and San Antonio districts.

Also running are Emeryville Councilmember Jon Bauters, Oakland Councilmember Nikki Fortunato-Bas, and social worker Ken Berrick, who previously served on the Alameda County Board of Education.

L.V. McElhaney served two-terms on the Oakland City Council and was the first Black woman to serve as Oakland Council President. She championed the establishment of the Department of Violence Prevention to channel investments into community-led solutions to eradicate gun-related violence and violence against women and children. LV. Holds a BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley and PhD from Mills College.

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