California Hotel tenants receive favorable ruling

California Hotel tenants receive favorable ruling

Judge accuses OCHI of running a shell game

By Lynda Carson August 27, 2008

Oakland -- Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Keller made another ruling in favor of the tenants at the California Hotel by keeping in place a temporary restraining order against Oakland Community Housing Inc. (OCHI), stopping the corrupt nonprofit housing developer from evicting the tenants, or shutting off the gas, water and electricity at the historic hotel they reside in.

On Wednesday August 27, after accusing OCHI of running a "shell game," Judge Keller ordered the case to be continued until two months from now for October 29, at 2:30 pm, and the case is scheduled to be back in his court room in Department 510.

With more than 20 tenants in court from the California Hotel listening intently to the judge, the tenants were delighted to hear the judge claim that he is willing to appoint a receiver to run the old historic hotel.

The tenant's attorney John Murcko said, "This is positive. If the judge had a case against the tenants, he would have ruled against them already. Judge Richard Keller agreed that the tenant's of the California Hotel have the upperhand in this case because OCHI has violated the regulatory agreement involving low-cost loans, that stipulate that OCHI is required to provide housing to the low-income tenants of the California Hotel for a 30 year period. OCHI and their partners are corrupt, and abandoned the hotel. I want the judge to allow the empty rooms at the hotel to be rented out so that there is enough money coming in to properly manage the building, for the next 12 years. Theres no point in selling the building or forcing the tenants out of their housing, because theres no place for the tenants to go. Most of the tenants are elderly, and many are disabled. This is not about making money, this is all about housing the poor."

Currently, theres still around 52 residents in the 150 room historic hotel, fighting against the unlawful attempts to force them out of their housing.

OCHI has spent around $9 million in local, state, and federal loans for renovations to the historic hotel, after agreeing to offer 30 years of low-income housing to Oakland's renters in 1992.

Judge Keller said that he believes that OCHI has been running a "shell game," and that he sympathizes with the tragic plight of the renters, who are at risk of losing their housing. "OCHI and their partners got ungodly credits and tax benefits," said Judge Keller.

Like other local nonprofit housing organizations in Oakland and the Bay Area, OCHI established a nonprofit organization subsidiary for each property it developed through the years. OCHI then charged fees to each of the subsidiaries established at their many properties, and all the money disappeared from each location through the years, somewhere into the corrupt main organization.

For the California Hotel, OCHI set up a nonprofit organization called CaHon Associates, Inc., to run the California Hotel. Since OCHI reopened the hotel back around 1991, CaHon Associates only filed 990 tax forms with the IRS on two occaissions under the name of Cahon Inc., making it nearly impossible for anyone to see where all the money went through the years that was flowing into the California Hotel, and then disappeared into the nonprofit organization known as OCHI.

Due to a lack of oversight, many local nonprofit housing organizations have become totally corrupted, and often are in violation of state and local laws, while abusing the rights of their tenants who are often low-income, elderly or disabled.

As recent as July 15, OCHI, CaHon Associates, and the John Stewart Company abandoned the tenants at the California Hotel after trying to frighten them out of their housing, and threatening to cut off their water and utilities. The tenants fought back, and refused to move.

In addition, for breach of contract the tenants sued OCHI and the John Stewart Company for $2.5 million, and on August 6 the tenants filed an additional claim against Oakland city employees Sean Rogan, Marge Gladman and the City of Oakland for $53 million, for their involvement in the scheme to force the tenants out of their housing at the hotel.

After pulling in many millions in subsidized funding revenues to develop around 19 properties, in addition to the rents they have been collecting through the years, the corrupt nonprofit housing developer is now trying to claim that their broke.

"Theres no one left in OCHI, to run the organization," says Murcko. "They all ran off except for around one person, and it's basically only the tenants and the attorneys left to fight this out in the courts."

Since July 15, the tenants have been providing for their own security, and have been managing the hotel and keeping it clean, with the assistance of Anne Omura of the Eviction Defense Center in Oakland. John Murcko is one of the founding members of the Eviction Defense Center.

Over 500 low-income tenants are presently at risk of losing their housing in OCHI properties throughout Oakland, because OCHI tried to dump them out of their housing in a scheme to reuse the properties for bringing in higher revenues than they currently do. The scheme backfired on OCHI, when the tenants refused to be bullied out of their housing, and refused to move. OCHI is a member of the East Bay Housing Organizations.

On Wednesday July 23, the residents of the California Hotel at 3501 San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, celebrated their first week of resident control by dropping a large banner in front of the hotel that said, "We Will Not Be Moved." Just Cause Oakland continues to ask the community to come out and show their support of the tenants at the California Hotel.

Other community members such as "Food Not Bombs," has contributed free food to help assist the tenants at the hotel in their time of need.

The historic California Hotel was built in 1929 and became a popular Oakland location that catered to the African American community and many legendary performers such as Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Ike & Tina Turner, Fats Dominoe, James Brown and many, many others. In the East Bay, the California Hotel was the only full service hotel that welcomed African Americans during the 1950s.

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