Court reorganization plan failed to consider needs of the poor

Court reorganization plan failed to the consider needs of the poor

There is no shuttle bus system to help people reach court in Hayward as was promised

By Lynda Carson — March 22, 2016

Oakland - When Judge Morris Jacobson and the court system planned for the reorganization of the Alameda County Superior Courts by consolidating the “eviction case system”, Family Law, and the Self-Help Center to the Hayward court, the concerns of low-income tenants facing eviction in Oakland and Berkeley, were not taken into consideration.

Making matters worse, a promised shuttle bus system that Judge Jacobson said would be in place to help people get to court in Hayward, does not exist, and may not go into effect for one to two years, according to Chad Finke, Court Executive Officer, of the Alameda County Superior Courts. The first eviction court case being transferred from Oakland to Hayward is expected to occur during the week of April 4, according to Finke.

Judge Jacobson has repeatedly stated publicly that there would be a shuttle bus system to help people using public transportation, and that a shuttle bus would be there at the Hayward BART Station to help people reach the Hayward courthouse.

But it turns out that there is no shuttle bus system in place to help the low-income, elderly and disabled tenants of Oakland and Berkeley who are facing eviction to get to the courthouse in Hayward. There is a shuttle bus system in place to help court employees go from BART to the Hayward courthouse, but it cannot be used by the public, according to Finke.

“We naively thought that this would not be a problem. We were advised by Aki Nakao, Director of the Alameda County General Services Agency, that we cannot mix the public with the employees of the court system on the shuttle bus that goes to the Hayward courthouse. We are caught in a bureaucratic loop. We did not expect to hit a brick wall. We hope the idea of a shuttle bus system is not dead. AC Transit will eventually have more busses going near the Hayward courthouse, but they presently they only run once an hour, and some run once every half an hour. We would like to have a shuttle bus system like the one in Oakland, that travels often on Broadway Street,” said Finke.

Judge Morris Jacobson did not reply to my email request for an interview for this story.

The Eviction System Is A Brutal System That Favors Landlords

The eviction system is brutal and a terrifying experience for many low-income tenants in Oakland and Berkeley. Once a tenant receives an Unlawful Detainer / 5 Day Summons, commonly referred to as a UD, the tenant has only 5 days to file a response with the court (clerk of the court), or they may lose the eviction case automatically by default.

It is a landlord friendly court system that favors the landlords who are evicting their tenants by using lawyers and big money, even if it is an unlawful eviction. Eviction cases are one of the quickest types of court cases there are in the court system in Alameda County, and many tenants cannot afford an attorney to represent them in court to fight against an eviction. Often before the tenant even receives an eviction notice (UD), the landlords are legally allowed to harass the tenants by serving as many 60 Day Notices as they want, before the tenant is eventually served a UD eviction notice. The 60 Day Notice is an advanced notice stating that the landlord wants to evict a tenant.

For the tenants who fight against an eviction in court and win, they still end up being blacklisted by the existing brutal system, with a blemish on their credit rating that reveals that the tenant faced an eviction proceeding in court. Landlords often exclude renters from consideration for a rental housing unit when the tenant has an eviction proceeding appearing on their records. The eviction appears on the tenant’s records for years after an eviction, even when the tenant wins against an unlawful eviction.

The whole “eviction case system” is corrupt and biased in favor of the wealthy landlords and the multi-billion dollar housing industry and real estate industry involved in economic cleansing, and the eviction for profit system.

Now comes Judge Morris Jacobson and his scheme to consolidate the eviction case system, by moving it from Oakland to the far reaches of Hayward. And the only consideration that took place was for the court employees and union members who did not want to make a long commute everyday, rather than the needs of the poor, elderly and disabled who are facing eviction in Oakland, and Berkeley.

According to sources, some of the employees of the court system resigned because they were in opposition to the court consolidation changes being made by Judge Jacobson, and that allegedly the judge served some memos in an effort to silence or intimidate the employees, and critics of the court consolidation plan.

Chad Finke said, “I have to sign all resignation notices of the employees, and as far as I know, none of the employees have resigned because they were opposed to the court consolidation plan. People have been saying that they do not want to travel to Hayward daily, if they live in Oakland. There is also a perception in court that management favors staff, and that some people would have to commute while others would not. I have not heard that Judge Jacobson went after any employees who are in opposition to the consolidation plan, and I would be very surprised if the judge sent a memo to the employees in an effort to intimidate or silence them.”

When I asked Finke if he had any comments about Judge Jacobson being admonished http://tinyurl.com/88fkhuv by the Commission on Judicial Performance http://tinyurl.com/7nxb6g2 , he said that he had no comment.

When I asked Finke if Judge Jacobson would reconsider his plan to consolidate the “eviction case system” in Hayward, and move it to Oakland, he said that would be very unlikely, and the chances of a reorganization plan are very few. “We did not hear of any concerns about low-income tenants in Oakland and Berkeley facing eviction until we heard from Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker. By then it was a done deal, and the decision was made with the unions to consolidate the court in Hayward. We had meetings with the Eviction Defense Center, Legal Aid, and the East Bay Community Law Center. We also heard concerns recently from the East Bay Community Law Center about their concerns for the poor being able to make it to court in Hayward, but we did not receive a letter from the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board as was mentioned in the East Bay Express recently. We also wish that we would have heard from the Oakland City Council before they voted to send a letter asking that the “eviction case system” and the Self-Help Center should be consolidated in Oakland, instead of Hayward,” said Finke.

On March 15, the full Oakland City Council voted 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, and instead to locate Oakland unlawful detainers and a Self-Help Center in an Oakland courthouse.

On April 5, the Berkeley City Council plans to vote on sending a letter to Judge Jacobson expressing their concerns about problems that seniors, the disabled and the poor would have in trying to reach the Hayward courthouse. The letter mentions a preference for eviction cases (unlawful detainers) to be held in Oakland, instead of Hayward.

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.”

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.”

As the feud over the consolidation of the “eviction case system,” and the Self-Help Center in Hayward continues, it is a disaster in the making for the poor, elderly, and disabled renters of Oakland and Berkeley who do not have a car, or a shuttle bus system available for them to reach the Hayward courthouse, when fighting against an eviction.

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