Bay Area

Oakland Moves to Prohibit Landlords from Considering Criminal Histories in Rental Housing

Published

5 years ago

January 16, 2020

Members of the City Council’s Community and Economic Development (CED) Committee this week unanimously adopted a proposed Fair Chance Housing Ordinance that would ban landlords from considering criminal histories in screening applicants for rental housing.

The ordinance is designed to break down a major barrier, beyond high rental costs, that keeps many formerly incarcerated people from finding a place to live for themselves and their families, leading many of them to end up homeless after leaving prison.

A recent survey found that 73% of unhoused residents in Oakland encampments were formerly incarcerated, according to a city report on the proposed ordinance.

The proposal was originally brought to the city by the Alameda County Fair Chance to Housing Coalition, which includes All of Us or None, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and Just Cities. The coalition worked closely with City Attorney Barbara Parker’s office, which drafted the ordinance and co-sponsors District 2 Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas with Larry Reid and Dan Kalb. Also supporting the proposal at CED were Councilmembers Noel Gallo and Loren Taylor.

“The purpose of the legislation is to increase access to housing for formerly incarcerated persons and their family members, to decrease the homelessness and family separation that result from policies that exclude the formerly incarcerated from housing and to provide formerly incarcerated people with a fair opportunity to reclaim their lives and reintegrate into the community,” said Deputy City Attorney Laura Lane.

With a few exceptions, the law would prevent landlords from asking about or requiring the disclosure of an applicant’s criminal history, from advertising or using a policy that excludes people with criminal history or taking any adverse action against a tenant or applicant, based on their criminal history, such as evicting a tenant or charging someone higher rent or security deposit, Lane said.

Fines for a violation could cost up to $1,000 per incident. A violation would be considered an infraction, but knowingly or willingly violating the ordinance would be a misdemeanor. The ordinance provides for education and outreach so that members of the community would know their rights and landlords would know their responsibilities.

“We believe this ordinance is a valuable and immediate solution to the housing crisis,” said John Jones III, who is a staff member of Just Cities and campaign director of the Fair Chance to Housing Coalition.

“This impact does not lie solely with the individual who has a criminal record,” he said. “These barriers are extended to family members, to loved ones, to children.”

People coming out of prison face barriers in all types of housing: publicly subsidized nonprofit housing, the Public Housing Authority and Single Room Occupancy (SRO) residences, said Margaretta Lin, executive director of Just Cities.

In its research, Just Cities “discovered that the criminal background databases that landlords rely on are extremely flawed,” she said. “We also know that there are…extreme racial disparities…in every step of the criminal justice system.

Noting that the city is strapped for resources, Lin said that Just Cities is willing to provide a pro bono annual evaluation of the implementation of the ordinance for the first two years.

Among the other cities that are already acting on this issue are Portland, Seattle, Richmond and Berkeley, she said.

Succatti Shaw, a member staff of All of Us or None and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, spent five years in prison. She said that because of the way her charges were written, making it seem like she manufactured meth, she is ineligible for affordable housing.

“I have a lifetime ban against me. I served my time, but now I’m serving time because I’m not seen as a human being,” she said. “I’m thanking you all for a chance to house my children (and) myself. We thank you for being stand up men and women.”

Taqwaa Bonner of All of Us or None said, “I am one among thousands of men and women who have been forced to live out in the streets of Oakland. I just served 30 years and two months straight in our California prison system.”

Released three years, ago, he lived in transitional housing for three months and was then “kicked out,” he said.

He said he could not live with his mother because her private apartment complex had a rule against felons living there. “I couldn’t live with my two sisters or my daughter because all three of them have Section 8 housing,” he said.

“I was born and raised in Oakland,” Bonner said. “I have employment in Oakland, (but) I cannot live in Oakland, solely based on my criminal conviction 30 years ago, which had nothing to do with tearing up someone’s property or not paying rent.”

The ordinance is scheduled to be heard on the consent calendar at the Jan. 21 City Council meeting.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

5 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.