Oakland Housing Authority To Spend $400,000 On Evictions

Oakland Housing Authority To Spend $400,000 On Evictions

By Lynda Carson February 14, 2007

Oakland, CA -- With so many people being homeless in Oakland and the Bay Area, it's hard to imagine that any non profit Housing Authority would have enough funding in reserve to spend a fortune on evictions.

In Oakland however, thats the case and a recent January 16, Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) memorandum details how the authority plans to splurge a minimum of $400,000 to evict many of it's public housing tenants during the next 2 years.

For that kind of money the OHA could house alot of people, or use the funding to fix and repair many of their public housing units all across the City of Oakland.

It was only as recent as January 9, 2007, the OHA sent out a press release claiming how impoverished it was, and how it will receive $2.9 million less than it was entitled to for it's public housing program, during FY 2007. Services and particularly property improvements will seriously be reduced, the press release cried out in anguish.

But a mere 7 days later, the OHA sends out a memo declaring that they plan to spend $400,000 during the next 2 years, to evict some of the very same people that will be residing in the very same locations that will lack the funding needed to maintain their housing units properly.

It's clear that the funding priorities of the OHA paint a bleak future for it's public housing tenants during the next 2 years, and something is wrong with this picture.

The OHA has a choice. It can use the $400,000 to repair it's public housing units, or it can force hundreds of families out of their public housing units by wasting good money that could have been used to maintain the housing of Oakland's poor, elderly and disabled community.

Making matters worse, the OHA has just spent a huge fortune in trying to evict 35 families accused of being squatters at it's Lockwood Gardens public housing units, despite the fact that the OHA had accepted rent payments from these same families for months before accusing them of being squatters.

As it turned out, the courts have repeatedly refused to allow the OHA to evict, and the latest ruling (a few days ago) had once again shot down an appeal by the OHA, to evict all those families residing at Lockwood Gardens.

Despite the latest defeat in the court of appeal and the ruling against the OHA, on February 13, an OHA spokesperson (Ms. Hogan) stated that the OHA plans to pursue a course to evict the Lockwood Garden's families all over again.

Since the courts have repeatedly denied the OHA from conducting mass evictions at Lockwood Gardens, Ms. Hogan's public comments are nothing less than pure harassment on the part of the OHA, as a brutal means to frighten the lawful tenants into giving up their rights to remain in their housing.

The recent January 16, OHA memo and eviction scheme, shows that the OHA plans to funnel wheel barrows full of money to five different law firms during the next 2 years, if the eviction scheme is approved.

The firms include, Edrington, Schirmer and Murphy, Beckman and Marquez LLP, the Law Office of Charles Ramsey, Law Offices of Arnold W. Evje II and Cindy Lee, and the Law Office of Judondi Bolden.

The January 16, OHA memo does not state where the $400,000 will be coming from to evict all those public housing tenants, nor if they will have to raise the rents on the poor tenants in order to pay off these blood suckers who profit on the forced relocation of Oakland's renters.

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com