Oakland double-crosses tenant and affordable housing activists

Oakland double-crosses tenant and affordable housing activists

By Lynda Carson - April 20, 2016

Oakland - On Tuesday April 19, the City Council double-crossed the low-income renters of Oakland by allowing funding from the affordable housing trust fund to be used by middle class income earners making around $110,000 per year to assist them in buying their housing. The affordable housing funds being grabbed from the poor can be used by middle class home buyers who do not even reside in Oakland.

In a vote of 7 to 1, the council passed a motion that allows $2.4 million from the affordable housing trust fund to be divided into four different pots of money. The money may be used differently from the original intended use of building so-called affordable housing units for low-income, and very low-income renters.

The motion that passed was proposed by Councilmember Larry Reid who spoke out viciously against the activists who opposed the plan to grab $2.4 million from the affordable housing trust fund.

Around 56 speakers opposed the council’s actions, and they left the council meeting in protest. “We walked out in protest of the council’s actions,” said James Vann of the Oakland Tenant’s Union. “This just shows that it was the people who recently pushed the council into passing a 90 day moratorium on rent increases, but when it comes down to it the council and city leaders do not care about the renters who are being pushed out of Oakland by the thousands. City officials are very supportive of the wealthy developers driving the poor out of Oakland with high rents, and market rate housing most people in the city cannot afford.”

The council also voted on impact fees for market rate housing developments that will be phased in, in three different areas of town. Activists believed that the impact fees were not high enough to make a dent in the housing crisis that is forcing thousands out of town.

The struggle of the rich versus the poor, was apparent at Tuesday’s April 19th, City Council meeting. The wealthy realtors, housing developers, and speculators spoke out against any impact fee proposals for their market rate housing projects being developed.

In contrast, the supporters of affordable housing pushed for higher impact fees on market rate housing developments as a way to raise funding for more affordable housing. Additionally, they also spoke out against any proposals to use the funds from the affordable housing trust fund for purposes other than building more so-called affordable housing projects.

Supporters of impact fees, who also denounced the proposals to grab the affordable housing funds included former Mayor Jean Quan, James Vann, Gloria Bruce, Pamela Drake, Jeffry Levin, and many others. As a compromise, Levin even suggested that there should be a cap on how much in affordable housing funds could be used for so-called moderate housing, if the council voted to allow affordable housing funds to be used by those earning 120 percent of AMI.

Some of the tenant and low-income housing activists speaking out against the council’s actions were part of Mayor Schaafs “Housing Task Force,” and felt betrayed by the proposal to grab $2.4 million from the affordable housing trust fund.

Greg McConnell of Danville, a lobbyist for the market rate housing industry and real estate industry, joined the wealthy developers in threatening the council by claiming that market rate housing projects will not be built if Oakland adopts the proposed impact fees being proposed. McConnell also claimed that Oakland has 1,800 market rate housing units in the pipeline because of the lack of developers impact fees.

The struggle over affordable housing projects for the poor has increased through the years. Subsidies for affordable housing programs from the federal government have diminished. The so-called affordable housing industry in California also lost around a billion dollars in subsidies a year when Governor Jerry Brown shut down the redevelopment agencies across the state.

This was after former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown exploited the Oakland Redevelopment Agency and used over $60,000,000 in affordable housing funds to finance some billionaires involved in the upscale Uptown Project and his 10 K plan, to bring in wealthy renters to the downtown area.

The privatization of public housing has also added to the housing crisis in the Bay Area.

Additionally, the use of low-income housing tax credits for so-called affordable housing projects has resulted mostly in housing projects that exclude the poor, who have an income below 30 percent of AMI.

The average monthly Social Security retirement benefit for January 2016 is only $1,341 per month, and for the disabled on SSI their income is only $889 a month.

Eviction stories are all over the news wires lately, revealing that the majority of people being evicted from their housing all across the nation are women with children. According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, there is a shortage of 7.2 million affordable housing units across the nation. With sequestration budget cuts devastating the nation’s subsidized housing programs while executives in the so-called affordable housing sector continue to receive hefty pay increases, the homeless shelters remain filled with the poor because millions of dollars are being diverted from the section 8 program, to pay the exorbitant salaries of the executives in the so-called affordable housing industry.

Oakland’s choice to grab $2.4 million from the affordable housing trust fund is a blow against the poor and those who oppose the economic cleansing going on in this town.

Presently activists are trying to pass renter protections in Richmond, Alameda, and Oakland, and volunteers are free to assist by contacting the people listed below.

Richmond
Contact: 510-621-7566, Fair & Affordable Richmond Coalition

Saturdays 10am-2pm
Sundays 12pm-4pm
1021 MacDonald Ave., Richmond


Alameda
Contact: Brad Hirn - brad.hirn [at] gmail.com, Alameda Renters Coalition

Saturdays, 9a-5p
South Shore shopping center in Alameda all day, typically near the Safeway and Trader Joe's.

Sundays, 9a-1p
South Shore shopping center, Alameda

Sunday, 1p-5p
Walgreens and Starbucks on Webster St. Alameda


Oakland
Contact: Becki - becki [at] cjjc.org, Causa Justa Just Cause


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

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