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City’s Passes $2.4 Billion Budget, Leaving Some Residents Angry and Dissatisfied

Published

10 years ago

July 3, 2015

The Oakland City Council this week passed a two-year $2.4 billion budget based on a local economy that is rebounding from years of recession.

With input from councilmembers and the community, Mayor Libby Schaaf and Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney put together a budget that closes an estimated $18 million annual funding gap without making cuts to city services or staffing and pays for 40 new police officers.

The council also set aside $617,000 to pay for a new Department of Race and Equity.

In the final discussions leading up to the council vote on Tuesday night, the money was spread around so a lot of local needs ended up receiving a little of the city’s growing resources.

Mayor Libby Schaaf.

Mayor Schaaf praised the budget, saying it benefited from the collaborative input of many people.

“We closed that deficit. We kept our promises. We increased compensation for our workers and were able to make some strategic investments,” she said.

Six councilmembers voted in favor of the budget. Councilmember Noel Gallo voted no, and Councilmember Desley Brooks abstained.

Some people in the community were happy that the new spending plan is funding all or part of the programs that are important to them.

But the final budget left some of the hundreds of residents who spoke at council hearings over the past few months dissatisfied and angry that their neighborhoods and their needs are still being neglected.

“It is heartbreaking the number of things we cannot fund,” Council President McElhaney said.

Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney

Among the major issues were the inequitable division of services among the city’s neighborhoods, lack of resources for jobs for the long term unemployed, youth and the formerly incarcerated, the need for more staff to aggressively enforce the minimum wage ordinance and an affordable housing crisis that is impacted by tenant protections that are not enforced.

Speakers at the hearings called on the city to focus on the desperate conditions facing the most vulnerable residents: meals for some of the 200 Oakland seniors who go each day without food; shelter and support for homeless girls and sexually exploited minors; and funding for Central American children living in Oakland who need lawyers to help them win refugee status to avoid being forced to return to homelands they fled to escape violence and death.

Others called for brush removal to prevent wildfires like the firestorm that devastated the Oakland hills in 1991. Supporters of the Oakland Animal Shelter pushed the city to fund services to protect dogs and cats.

Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, who supported the budget, was pleased with some of the programs that were funded.

“I’m glad we were able to support some very important things in this budget including enforcement of laws that protect people’s rights: tenant protections and wage protections,” she said, also praising the decision to fund her proposal to go after illegal guns and illegal gun dealing.

A major problem, Kaplan said, is that the city’s tax income is not going up very much despite increasing rents and growing numbers of rental properties.

“If we don’t fix the revenue situation, we’ll be constantly in the situation where different vital needs are pitted against each other,” she said.

When councilmembers ask the city’s revenue department why revenue is not going up, she said, “They are told they can’t give us the data because the computers don’t work.”

“Why is it that the amount of money (staff) says we will be getting in rental property tax is lower than what we got in 2011?” She asked.

Councilmember Gallo said he opposed the budget, in part because of its failure to provide more resources to help sexually exploited girls and young women.

Councilmember Noel Gallo

“The council set aside $500,000 to build a shelter where the girls can stay,” he said, “But we need the services that go with it.”

“What the council offered was a good step, but it was a small step,” Gallo said. “We have to get serious about dealing with human trafficking in Oakland.”

“Everybody cries about it, feels sorry about, it’s still there – every day in the city.”

Not waiting for the council to move ahead on this issue, Gallo is holding meetings with Catholic churches in the area to ask them to open their doors so girls will have a place to stay.

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Uncategorized

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

6 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

11 months ago

January 30, 2025

Oakland Post

Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 city councilmember. File photo.

Special to The Post

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Published

11 months ago

January 11, 2025

Oakland Post

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.