Community

New Councilmembers Reid and Fife Pledge Action in 2021 on Housing, Homelessness

Published

4 years ago

November 25, 2020

Kiki

Trevia Reid, Councilmember Elect

Treva Reid, District 7, and Carroll Fife, District 3, are the two new City Councilmembers elected in November pledging to use the power and resources of local government to help Oaklanders turn a corner on the multiple, intertwined poverty-fueled crises that impact the city.

Among the issues their top priorities for 2021 are rampant homelessness and housing insecurity for many thousands more.

Reid, who is new to public office, formerly worked as a staff member for Assemblymember (now State Senator) Nancy Skinner. She notes that official homeless rates have increased by almost 50% from 2017-2019 and that 70% of those unhoused and unsheltered in Oakland are Black and primarily Black men.

“My goals are strategic community-driven approaches to addressing some of the challenges before us,” she said.

Many families can’t pay the rent, have been forced out of the market, and many homeowners are worried about losing their homes to predatory actors much like in the past recession….We must actually implement and fund policies that reflect that Black lives really matter,” Reid said.

Below are some of her proposed solutions:

Examine the budget to reallocate funding to produce, protect, and preserve affordable housing; prioritize the use of public land and increase the Housing Trust Fund.
Fully utilize the three hotels leased in partnership with Alameda County and the state. Also, secure funding to purchase underutilized hotels and convert vacant property to provide housing.
Remove barriers and enforce policies to ensure residents with criminal records can access secure permanent housing.
Change restrictive zoning to allow churches and places of worship to build low-income homes and affordable units on their property.
Expedite completion of 25 tiny homes being prepared to house young adults in District 7.
More city-owned land for RV parking/shelter locations
Pass and enforce laws to protect tenants from illegal evictions and advocate for programs to prevent homeowners from foreclosures.
Launch the City of Oakland’s NOFA (Notice of Available Funding) to help fund a pipeline of new multifamily affordable housing.
Advocate for tax abatements, increased federal and state funding for permanent subsidized low-income housing and affordable homeownership programs.

While new to the City Council, Fife has spent years at council meetings and organizing in neighborhoods, demanding affordable housing, fighting against displacement and pressuring banks and corporations to block housing foreclosures.

She is the director of the Oakland office for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE).

She recently won national attention as a leader with Moms 4 Housing, a group of women who occupied a vacant home in West Oakland last year that was owned by a real estate investment firm.

“In order to halt the tsunami of homelessness that is sweeping Oakland and other areas, we need to keep people from becoming homeless in the first place,” she said.

“Once they become homeless, it’s a lot harder to get them into adequate housing. This means stronger local and state laws protecting renters, “pushing back against companies that are trying to get as much money as they can” from their properties.

The community has to demand to protect renters after the moratorium on rents expire, she said.

People are going to need protections to keep from losing their homes. “In the 2008 crisis, we saw what happened. We can’t let that happen again,” Fife said. “Homeowners became renters, and many renters became homeless. The banks were bailed out. People need a bailout to prevent homelessness,” she said.

Recently, West Coast political leaders signed a letter calling for a federal bailout. ACCE was part of that.

The city needs a tough public land policy, Fife believes. “There should not be any sale of public land to private developers, unless it is to house the homeless,” she said.

“There should also be an audit of every empty space of and every empty parcel of public land so everyone can shelter in place,” she said. “That’s what is right for our overall health and safety during this public health crisis.

Fife pointed out that Oakland is the largest city in the county but does not receive from the county the investment that it needs in terms of resources, programs and funding.

If we understand that “housing is a human right,” said Fife, “we must understand” that housing can no longer be sold as an unregulated commodity or traded by speculators.

“Speculations hurt residents,” Fife said in an interview on KQED FM “Speculation harms entire communities and entire neighborhoods. When people are engaged in buying up residential property for the sole purpose of flipping it and making as much money as they can, then that leaves out an entire group of individuals who cannot compete in that type of market.”

Kiki

Posts by Kiki | Website

Up Next

Alejandro Mayorkas, First Latinx Chosen to Head Dept. of Homeland Security

Don't Miss

Contra Costa County Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis

Kiki

Click to comment

City Government

San Pablo Appoints New Economic Development and Housing Manager

Kieron Slaughter has been appointed as the economic development & housing manager for the City of San Pablo. Since 2017, Slaughter has served as chief strategic officer for economic innovation in the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development. Previously, he served in a 2.5-year appointment in the Pacific West Region as one of 10 Urban Fellows in the United States National Park Service.

Published

7 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Kieron Slaughter. Photo courtesy of the City of San Pablo

The Richmond Standard

Kieron Slaughter has been appointed as the economic development & housing manager for the City of San Pablo.

Since 2017, Slaughter has served as chief strategic officer for economic innovation in the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development. Previously, he served in a 2.5-year appointment in the Pacific West Region as one of 10 Urban Fellows in the United States National Park Service.

Before that he was an associate planner in the City of Richmond’s Planning and Building Services Department from 2007-2015.

San Pablo City Manager Matt Rodriguez lauded Slaughter’s extensive experience in economic development, housing and planning, saying he will add a “valuable perspective to the City Manager’s Office.”

Slaughter, a Berkeley resident, will start in his new role on Nov. 12, with a base annual salary of $164,928, according to the City of San Pablo.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

City Government

Aaron Osorio Rises Up Ranks to Become Richmond’s Fire Chief

For Aaron Osorio, it started with a ride along on a firetruck at age 10. “I thought it was the coolest job,” he said, adding, “I knew being in fire service would make a big difference in the community.” Now a 27-year fire service veteran, Osorio appears to approach his work with the same youthful exuberance. And that’s good for the city as Osorio was recently named chief of the historic Richmond Fire Department.

Published

8 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Richmond Fire Department Chief Aaron Osorio. Courtesy photo

By Mike Kinney

The Richmond Standard

For Aaron Osorio, it started with a ride along on a firetruck at age 10.

“I thought it was the coolest job,” he said, adding, “I knew being in fire service would make a big difference in the community.”

Now a 27-year fire service veteran, Osorio appears to approach his work with the same youthful exuberance. And that’s good for the city as Osorio was recently named chief of the historic Richmond Fire Department.

Osorio is a San Francisco native who rose up the ranks in the Richmond Fire Department over the last 21 years before being elevated to chief.

He joined the department in 2002 and has served in multiple roles including firefighters, engineer, captain, battalion chief, training director and deputy fire chief. He said he truly loves working in this community.

While it isn’t common for a fire department to hire a chief that came up through its ranks, Osorio was credited by the city for serving Richmond well during uncommon times.

The city lauded him for developing internal policies and vaccination clinics during the initial COVID response, for supporting activation of the emergency operations center in response to a potential mudslide disaster in Seacliff last year, helping to draft mutual aid agreements and working to increase fire response capabilities for industrial incidents.

He’s also led departmental hiring and recruitment since 2018.

Osorio said it is an honor to be hired as chief and has big plans for the department moving forward. He said he wants to continue hiring and promoting for vacant positions, and also completing a strategic plan guiding the direction of the organization.

He also aims to replace and renovate a number of fire department facilities placed on the Capital Improvement Plan and create new ways to recruit that will enhance the diversity of the department.

Osorio said his experience within, and love for, the city of Richmond puts him in a good position to lead the department. He says he knows what is needed and also the challenges that are unique to the city.

“I look forward to utilizing that institutional knowledge to move the fire department forward in a positive direction and enhance the services we provide to the community,” the chief said.

Osorio holds a bachelor of science degree in Fire Administration and is also a California State Fire Marshal-certified chief officer, company officer, and state instructor.

He also holds numerous certifications in fire, rescue, hazardous material, and incident command.

The chief has been married to his wife, Maria, for 26 years and they have two sons, Roman and Mateo.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Reflects on Historic Moment Less Than One Week from Election Day

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

Published

8 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm:

“As Election Day approaches, I’m reflecting on a few dates and numbers that mean something to me.

Zero: the number of Black members in Congress 56 years ago. Next Congress, we hope to swear in over 60 members in the Congressional Black Caucus.

Three: The number of Black women to ever serve in the United States Senate since the first Congress in 1789.

Two: The number of Black women that will be elected to the Senate this year alone if we do our job.

1972: The first time a Black woman, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, ran for president in one of the major political parties of the United States.

Zero: the number of Black women to ever serve as president of the United States.

IF we do the work, we can change that with President Kamala Harris.

As I reflect on what would be Congresswoman Chisholm’s 100th birthday next month, I could not help but remember that my first official involvement in U.S. politics was working for her presidential campaign in 1972.

Over 50 years later, I have been involved in every single campaign since. Shirley was my mentor — she was a bold visionary, a progressive woman who understood that working together in coalitions was the only way to make life better for everyone, to build an equitable society and democracy that lived up to the creed of “liberty and justice for all.”

The historic moment we are in today is not lost on me. I have had the privilege to have known Vice President Kamala Harris for over three decades. She, after all, is a daughter of the East Bay. She, like Shirley, truly is a fighter for the people.

And I know she can move our country forward in a new way. As a member of her National Advisory Board, I have campaigned across our country to help take her message, her legacy of service, and her “to-do list,” as she says, to voters who were almost starting to feel hopeless, but are now feeling hopeful once again, captured by the politics joy and the bright possibilities brought upon by a possible Harris-Walz administration.

Recently, I visited churches in North Carolina with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The chair of our CBC political action committee, Chairman Gregory Meeks from New York’s fifth district, eloquently and powerfully presented a vision of what Dr. Maya Angelou wrote in her famous poem, “And Still I Rise:” “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

Meeks remarked that on Jan. 20, 2025, we will observe the birthday of our drum major for justice, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He also described that on Jan. 20, IF we do the work — if we knock on doors, if we make those phone calls, if we spread our message — standing on the podium at the U.S. Capitol will be the first Black speaker of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.

In the wings will be over 60 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Holding Frederick Douglass’ Bible will be the first African American woman appointed to the highest court of the land, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She will be swearing-in the first Black woman to serve as president, Kamala Harris, in front of the shining white dome of the United States Capitol, built by enslaved Black people.

In front of her and beyond, the tens of millions of Black men and women who voted for her. The world will witness the hope and the dreams of our ancestors ushering in a new way forward.

As I sat in front of the stage this week at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., as Vice President Harris delivered remarks with the Oval Office behind her, I could not help but feel that our country was ready for this historic moment.

We are not only voting for a Black woman as Commander in Chief of the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. We are definitively stating that we will not allow the clocks of freedom and justice to be turned back.

We are voting for our ancestors’ hopes and dreams. We are voting for the generations that will come after us, long after we are gone. We are voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Let’s get this done.