Oakland Renters Targeted As Being A Nuisance

Oakland Renters Targeted As Being A Nuisance

By Lynda Carson Febuary 12, 2004

In a bizzare twist to Oakland's war on the renters, the City of Oakland is attempting to grant itself the power to evict individual renters that it deems to be a nuisance. A power grab to evict them from their rental housing, condominium rentals and commercial rental properties across the City.

At the least, the City of Oakland is proposing an ordinance that would require landlords to evict renters that are considered to be a nuisance by the City of Oakland, and at most, the City wants the right to directly evict any or all renters being targeted as a nuisance.

In a proposed ordinance being dubbed the Nuisance Eviction Ordinance (NEO), Oakland Officials are demanding the right to evict or cheery pick which renters may remain at any or all of the privately owned rental properties across the City.

The vote for the NEO takes place at the Febuary 17 2004, Oakland City Council Meeting, and the bizzare power grab is being pushed forward by Larry Reid, the District 7 Council Member. The Neo and companion measures, are scheduled to be voted on as Agenda Items; #19, #19.1, #19.2, #19.3, and #19.4.

To be considered as a nuisance, the City must first allege that the renters being targeted are caught up into some sort of illegal activity that may or may not threaten the community at large.

Only time will tell wether the City plans to target the wealthy Hills People snorting up their ounces of snow flake cocaine, or the poorer flatlanders that may tend to smoke their rocks in a crack pipe.

If passed (NEO) as envisioned by it's backers, the City of Oakland may obtain the power to be able to directly serve eviction notices to individual renters anywhere in the City of Oakland, and even have the power to pick one renter out from a group of renters that may all be renting a residential or commercial property jointly.

As envisioned by the backers of the NEO, the evictees will first be targeted as being a nuisance by the City of Oakland, and a designee of the City Managers Office would be authorized to create files on the persons being targeted for eviction from a variety of sources. Sources including, but not limited to the Oakland Police Department (OPD), police informants, anonymous witnesses, relatives, neighbors, landlords, or public agencies may be called upon to cooperate in the scheme against the renters to fully implement a nuisance eviction program.

As being proposed by the NEO, the OPD will notify City Officials when the renters of Oakland are arrested for illegal activities, and at their own discretion City Officials will determine wether to invoke eviction actions or target the renters as being a nuisance. The City will have the authority to notify the property owners or agents of the property owners if or when a renter has been arrested for illegal activities. It is expected that most of the information to be used to evict the renters will come from the OPD.

When the City believes that it has dug up enough dirt or collected enough damaging information in their files to be used as a witch hunt against the targeted renters, the City will notify the property owners or their agents and insist that they are required to evict the targeted renters.

As proposed by the NEO, once the City demands that someone must be evicted, the property owners or their agents shall have up to 20 days to serve eviction notices to those being targeted by the City as a nuisance. The City may cite the landlords for maintaining a nuisance if eviction notices have not been served to those being targeted as being a nuisance.

In some cases the landlords may be allowed to have the City evict those being targeted as a nuisance, and then pay the legal fees being run up by the City.

The renters being targeted by the nuisance eviction program, need not be arrested, cited, or convicted of the conduct to justify removing the renters from any of the properties. Tenants may be arrested anywhere or not at all to face a nuisance eviction. Heresay may be used against the targeted renters, and the City is not required to reveal the names of any police informants or witnesses that may want to remain anonymous.

The NEO allows for eviction for off-premises illegal drug activities if the City believes that the renters residence may be used in furtherance of the alleged illegal activities, but the NEO fails to place a geograghic limitation on where the alleged activities may have taken place.

The NEO, if passed is to be enforced as a companion to Oaklands recent Public Nuisance Ordinance (PNO), which was adopted on November 4, 2003. The PNO targets people as a nuisance for such things as intentional obstruction of pedestrians or vehicular traffic, or acts of violence against the community, including, but not limited to making loud unusual noise that may disturb the peace and quiet of a neighborhood.

It may be possible that renters may be targeted as a nuisance for being part of a peaceful demonstration or protest that over flows upon the streets of Oakland.

If passed, the NEO and the PNO combined may allow the City of Oakland to require that landlords evict their tenants for a number of reasons that may be absolutely unconstituional, or may even result in the City obtaining the power to target and directly evict any or all renters being accused of being a nuisance.

The expected impact of the NEO and PNO upon the City of Oakland if fully implemented, may result in a full scale witch hunt type of assault upon the low-income areas of the City to target the renters as being a nuisance by those that may profit in the gentrification of Oakland.

For more on the NEO, go to http://WWW.oaklandnet.com to look up agenda items; #19, #19.1, #19.2, #19.3, and #19.4,.