City Government

Op-Ed: 20 Steps City Council Can Take to Stop Displacement in Oakland Now

Published

9 years ago

February 4, 2016

By James E Vann

Oakland’s present rental and affordable housing crisis — which is particularly catastrophic for renters — is not new. Since the late 1970s, crisis conditions have been acknowledged by successive city councils.

Unfortunately, the distinguishing characteristic of the Oakland City Council, today and in previous times, has been that hearing after hearing and proposal upon proposal, the City Council has almost never taken appropriate action.

The crisis has reached catastrophic proportions, and there are many potential actions the council should consider immediately:

1. Enact immediately a resolution declaring a “State of Emergency” in rental housing with moratoriums on rent increases and no-cause evictions until effective protections for tenants are put in place.

2. Rescind and immediately replace Oakland’s current landlord-written Rent Adjustment Program with a proven Rent Control program. This change would virtually eliminate tenant petitions and workload backups and would finally establish equity and fairness in tenants/landlord relations.

3. Establish a cost to evict. Charge landlords $500 for each no cause, owner convenience, or “cash for keys buy-out” eviction; and $200 for each for-cause eviction. Use fees for a fund to assist tenant hardships due to the disruption of moving and relocation.

4. Require mandatory mediation between landlords and tenants be integral to the existing filing of three-day, seven-day and 30-day notices of “intent to evict” — and prior to filing “Unlawful Detainers.”

5. Implement immediately a stand-alone housing only impact fee of at least $20,000 for each unit in new residential developments, and for each 5,000 square feet of nonresidential development. Deposit fees in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

6. Strictly conform to the policy of “Public Land for Public Good.” Prioritize nonprofit housing developers for construction of affordable housing on appropriate city-owned lands.

7. Define “affordable housing” to require inclusion of at least five percent of units to be available to households at 15 percent to 30 percent of an area’s median income.

8. Require uniform compensation for each of the city’s four programs that authorize eviction, in addition to evictions caused by owner-elective improvements. Assure adequate compensation for evicted households for costs of moving, relocation, and resettlement.

9. Immediately implement the Condominium Conversion Ordinance, which already has been thoroughly reviewed and legally vetted but remains mysteriously stalled in City Council.

10. Enact the provisions of the Tenant Protection Ordinance, which were stripped by City Council from the ordinance at the time of its adoption in 2014.

11. Make it illegal for owners to deny receiving tenant rent payments. This ploy is used to evict innocent tenants.

12. Establish a fee for property speculation. The current practice of flipping rental properties creates enormous unmerited profits. The City should assess a two percent speculation fee of the sales price for any transaction that occurs within three years of a previous transfer.

13. Fund homeless housing and services programs with proceeds from speculation assessments.

14. Accumulate, land bank, and stockpile city-owned, purchased, surplused, or tax-forfeited properties to benefit affordable housing.

15. Lease stockpiled residential land and properties, or provide at no or low cost to the Oakland Community Land Trust, the only type of new housing that remains permanently affordable and within the financial capability of Oakland residents.

16. Stockpile city industrial and warehouse buildings suitable for conversion and low-cost lease as artists’ coops or for low-cost sales to Oakland artists.

17. Provide an option to developers of making 20 percent of proposed units affordable or, alternatively to pay an equitable “in-lieu” fee of at least $200,000 per unit into the City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund for each new market-rate housing unit.

18. Establish hardship rental assistance for seniors and households on fixed income. Require that CPI and other prospective increases be held in suspension by landlords until a future date. Consider limiting to 50 percent approved pass-thru rent increases to tenants who have resided in their units for ten or more years.

19. Help tenants purchase homes or condominiums by designating a part of the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund for matching grants for tenants who desire to make a shared purchase, and who agree to restrict the price at resale.

20. Monitor owner move-in evictions within the first two years to identify owner ploys and deceptions, carried out with intent to evict existing tenants. When deceptions are found, the City Attorney should sue for triple punitive damages for city and tenant, in addition to reimbursing losses to the tenant.

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Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

Published

3 days ago

December 26, 2024

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Glydways Breaking Ground on 14-Acre Demonstration Facility at Hilltop Mall

Glydways has been testing its technology at CCTA’s GoMentum Station in Concord for several years. The company plans to install an ambitious 28-mile Autonomous Transit Network in East Contra Costa County. The new Richmond facility will be strategically positioned near that project, according to Glydways.

Published

5 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Image of planned Richmond facility courtesy of Glydways.

The Richmond Standard

Glydways, developer of microtransit systems using autonomous, small-scale vehicles, is breaking ground on a 14-acre Development and Demonstration Facility at the former Hilltop Mall property in Richmond, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) reported on social media.

Glydways, which released a statement announcing the project Monday, is using the site while the mall property undergoes a larger redevelopment.

“In the interim, Glydways will use a portion of the property to showcase its technology and conduct safety and reliability testing,” the company said.

The new Richmond development hub will include “over a mile of dedicated test track, enabling Glydways to refine its solutions in a controlled environment while simulating real-world conditions,” the company said.

Visitors to the facility will be able to experience on-demand travel, explore the control center and visit a showroom featuring virtual reality demonstrations of Glydways projects worldwide.

The hub will also house a 13,000-square-foot maintenance and storage facility to service the growing fleet of Glydcars.

“With this new facility [at the former Hilltop Mall property], we’re giving the public a glimpse of the future, where people can experience ultra-quiet, on-demand transit—just like hailing a rideshare, but with the reliability and affordability of public transit,” said Tim Haile, executive director of CCTA.

Janet Galvez, vice president and investment officer at Prologis, owner of the Hilltop Mall property, said her company is “thrilled” to provide space for Glydways and is continuing to work with the city on future redevelopment plans for the broader mall property.

Richmond City Manager Shasa Curl added that Glydways’ presence “will not only help test new transit solutions but also activate the former Mall site while preparation and finalization of the Hilltop Horizon Specific Plan is underway.

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Alameda County

Last City Council Meeting of the Year Ends on Sour Note with Big Budget Cuts

In a five to one vote, with Councilmembers Carroll Fife and Janani Ramachandran excused, the council passed a plan aimed at balancing the $130 million deficit the city is facing. Noel Gallo voted against the plan, previously citing concerns over public safety cuts, while Nikki Fortunato-Bas, Treva Reid, Rebecca Kaplan, Kevin Jenkins, and Dan Kalb voted in agreement with the plan.

Published

5 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland City Council voted on a plan to balance the $130 million deficit at their last regular meeting of 2024. The plan reduces police spending by $25 million, temporarily closes two fire stations, and guts the cultural arts programs. iStock photo.

By Magaly Muñoz

In the last lengthy Tuesday meeting of the Oakland City Council for 2024, residents expressed strong opposition to the much needed budget cuts before a change in leadership was finalized with the certification of election results.

Oakland police and fire departments, the ambassador program, and city arts and culture will all see significant cuts over the course of two phases.

Phase 1 will eliminate two police academies, brown out two fire stations, eliminate the ambassador program, and reduce police overtime by nearly $25 million. These, with several other cuts across departments, aim to save the city $60 million. In addition, the council simultaneously approved to transfer restricted funds into its general purpose fund, amounting to over $40 million.

Phase 2 includes additional fire station brownouts and the elimination of 91 jobs, aiming to recover almost $16 million in order to balance the rest of the budget.

Several organizations and residents spoke out at the meeting in hopes of swaying the council to not make cuts to their programs.

East Oakland Senior Center volunteers and members, and homeless advocates, filled the plaza just outside of City Hall with rallies to show their disapproval of the new budget plan. Senior residents told the council to “remember that you’ll get old too” and that disturbing their resources will only bring problems for an already struggling community.

While city staff announced that there would not be complete cuts to senior center facilities, there would be significant reductions to staff and possibly inter-program services down the line.

Exiting council member and interim mayor Bas told the public that she is still hopeful that the one-time $125 million Coliseum sale deal will proceed in the near future so that the city would not have to continue with drastic cuts. The deal was intended to save the city for fiscal year 2024-25, but a hold up at the county level has paused any progress and therefore millions of dollars in funds Oakland desperately needs.

The Coliseum sale has been a contentious one. Residents and city leaders were originally against using the deal as a way to balance the budget, citing doubts about the sellers, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group’s (AASEG), ability to complete the deal. Council members Reid, Ramachandran, and Gallo have called several emergency meetings to understand where the first installments of the sale are, with little to no answers.

Bas added that as the new Alameda County Supervisor for D5, a position she starts in a few weeks, she will do everything in her power to push the Coliseum sale along.

The city is also considering a sales tax measure to put on the special election ballot on April 15, 2025, which will also serve as an election to fill the now vacant D2 and mayor positions. The tax increase would raise approximately $29 million annually for Oakland, allowing the city to gain much-needed revenue for the next two-year budget.

The council will discuss the possible sales tax measure on January 9.