Oakland City Council takes action on scheme to consolidate eviction case system in Hayward

Oakland City Council takes action on scheme to consolidate eviction case system in Hayward

By Lynda Carson - March 14, 2016

Oakland - On Tuesday evening March 15, the Oakland City Council is scheduled to vote http://tinyurl.com/zv8xjp8 on a final action to adopt a resolution urging the Alameda County Superior Court to reconsider its decision to relocate all unlawful detainer actions and the Self-Help Center to Hayward. The City Council wants the Alameda County Superior Court to locate the eviction case system and the Self-Help Center in an Oakland courthouse.

Recent actions affecting the poor as a result of a decision by Judge Morris Jacobson http://tinyurl.com/j8kdy79 of the Alameda County Superior Court to move all unlawful detainer actions (evictions) and the Self-Help Center to the Hayward Hall of Justice, means that it will be much harder for the poor in Oakland and Berkeley to seek justice in court, as a way to defend themselves from an eviction.

Since the Hayward courthouse is miles from the Oakland courthouse where tenants would normally go, it represents a severe problem for the tenants and low-income renters of Oakland and Berkeley who use public transportation to go to court to defend themselves from an eviction (Unlawful Detainer/5 Day Summons).

Our most vulnerable community members in Oakland and Berkeley may be deprived of their most basic constitutional and human rights, if the scheme to consolidate the eviction case system in Hayward is not reversed.

The impacts of moving the court services from Oakland to Hayward means that it is a 21.3 mile one way trip for 71,599 Oakland residents living in poverty, just to get to the courthouse if necessary to fight against an eviction. Additionally if necessary, it is a 20.2 mile one way trip for 18,707 Berkeley residents living in poverty, and a 23.3 mile trip for 1,533 residents of Albany living in poverty. This does not account for the long trip back home for the residents of Oakland, Berkeley or Albany, after defending their housing in court from eviction proceedings.

According to a letter from Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker to Judge Jacobson, “While Oakland has twenty-eight percent (28%) of Alameda County's households, it has a disproportionate percentage of renter households and low-income renter households. Oakland has thirty-six percent (36%) of the renter households in the County- nearly one-third more than Oakland's proportion of all households. In fact fifty-five percent (55%) of all Alameda County renter households live in Oakland and the northern Alameda County cities of Berkeley, Albany, and Alameda. Based on anecdotal information, we also understand that more than one-half of the County's unlawful detainer actions are Oakland-based.”

“We note that all the non-profit providers of legal services to tenants are located in Oakland and Berkeley: Centro Legal de Ia Raza; Bay Legal, Eviction Defense Center, and the East Bay Community Law Center. Requiring these critical service providers to take the additional time to travel to Hayward, rather than make court appearances in Oakland will seriously impair their ability to provide essential services to low-income renters.”

“Further, Oakland and the northern Alameda County cities have the largest population of low income residents. Nearly one-half (46%) of County renter households that earn $25,000 per year or less, are located in Oakland. According to census data sixty percent (60%) percent of Alameda County's residents living in poverty reside in Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, and Albany. These residents have the greatest need for self-help services.”

The Alameda County Superior Court reorganization scheme by Judge Morris Jacobson, http://tinyurl.com/hps7pgv , which includes the plan to consolidate eviction cases in Hayward, will severely restrict poor, elderly, and disabled tenants’ access to justice, according to the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board.

According to public documents from the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, http://tinyurl.com/zgab8mw , “Oakland and Berkeley are at the epicenter of the housing crisis in Alameda County. With roughly 46% of the county’s tenants and home to over half the county’s individuals in poverty, there are more evictions in Berkeley and Oakland than anywhere else in Alameda County.”

In a January 11, 2016, letter from the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board to Judge Jacobson http://tinyurl.com/zotmuk6 , the board points out that the Hayward Courthouse is not easy to reach by way of public transportation for tenants residing in Oakland and Berkeley, and will have a disparate impact on our county’s most vulnerable population. The board was notified of the planned actions of Judge Jacobson http://tinyurl.com/zgab8mw , and contacted the judge on the advice of Jay Kelekian, Executive Director, of the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board.

With such tight deadlines to meet, the consequence of being an hour late to a court date in an unlawful detainer action can make the difference between being housed or losing one’s home by default judgement, according to the board.

In a recent article by Spencer Wells http://tinyurl.com/hddcebt of the Nonprofit Quarterly he mentions that an “eviction is the central reality in a system of rental housing instability that consumes the lives of the low-income families that have been studied. Eviction is both a literal loss of a home and a metaphorical separation of families from the economic mainstream of the U.S., a form of secular ostracism.”

For those who want to fill out a speaker card for “Item #11” during the Open Forum to support the City Council in the effort to persuade the Alameda County Superior Court to reconsider its decision to relocate all unlawful detainer actions and the Self-Help Center to Hayward, click on this link http://tinyurl.com/7mkz7p5 .

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

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