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Nurses: Tragic Fire Highlights Need for Real Action in Oakland on Affordable Housing Crisis
The horrid loss of life in the Oakland warehouse fire Saturday night should be a call for first grieving followed by action on the broader problem plaguing Oakland and similar Bay Area communities – inadequate affordable housing, said the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United today.
Photo: Makeshift memorial near site of the #oaklandfire / KRON 4
NURSES ALSO DONATE $10,000 FOR AID EFFORT
CNA is also donating $10,000 for the fire victims and aid effort.
“This tragic fire is a bitter reminder that there are serious health consequences from a community’s failure to assure safe and affordable housing for all its residents,” said CNA co-president Deborah Burger, RN.
The Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most expensive housing markets in the U.S., augmented by public policies that encourage development and gentrification over affordable housing.
The result is sharp reductions in available affordable housing while rental prices are skyrocketing; average one bedroom rental prices alone increased by 19 percent to $2,190 in the past year in Oakland, reported SFGate.
Burger called on Oakland elected leaders to require developers of luxury condominiums and other higher cost housing to also subsidize lower income housing: “they have to give something back to the community.” CNA supports community benefit programs, taxing the 1 percent, and support for the artisan community, Burger added.
Tenant activists in Oakland have long raised concerns about city policies that fail to provide adequate protection for low income and vulnerable people.
Burger echoed statements by grieving artists quoted in the UK Guardian today who called on the city to ensure that ‘live work’ warehouses and overcrowded homes, a reaction to the housing crisis, are “safe without shutting down venues and evicting tenants.”
The Guardian quoted María Poblet, executive director of Causa Justa, a housing rights group who criticized those “blaming the victims” of the fire. “We shouldn’t have to choose between affordable housing and safe housing. If you can’t afford to buy a million-dollar home, then you can’t afford to live in this city unless you’re willing to risk your safety. And that’s unconscionable.”
California Nurses Association Press Release, 12/5/16
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/entry/oakland-fire-highlights-need-for-real-action-on-affordable-housining-crisis/
National Nurses United
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/
NURSES ALSO DONATE $10,000 FOR AID EFFORT
CNA is also donating $10,000 for the fire victims and aid effort.
“This tragic fire is a bitter reminder that there are serious health consequences from a community’s failure to assure safe and affordable housing for all its residents,” said CNA co-president Deborah Burger, RN.
The Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most expensive housing markets in the U.S., augmented by public policies that encourage development and gentrification over affordable housing.
The result is sharp reductions in available affordable housing while rental prices are skyrocketing; average one bedroom rental prices alone increased by 19 percent to $2,190 in the past year in Oakland, reported SFGate.
Burger called on Oakland elected leaders to require developers of luxury condominiums and other higher cost housing to also subsidize lower income housing: “they have to give something back to the community.” CNA supports community benefit programs, taxing the 1 percent, and support for the artisan community, Burger added.
Tenant activists in Oakland have long raised concerns about city policies that fail to provide adequate protection for low income and vulnerable people.
Burger echoed statements by grieving artists quoted in the UK Guardian today who called on the city to ensure that ‘live work’ warehouses and overcrowded homes, a reaction to the housing crisis, are “safe without shutting down venues and evicting tenants.”
The Guardian quoted María Poblet, executive director of Causa Justa, a housing rights group who criticized those “blaming the victims” of the fire. “We shouldn’t have to choose between affordable housing and safe housing. If you can’t afford to buy a million-dollar home, then you can’t afford to live in this city unless you’re willing to risk your safety. And that’s unconscionable.”
California Nurses Association Press Release, 12/5/16
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/entry/oakland-fire-highlights-need-for-real-action-on-affordable-housining-crisis/
National Nurses United
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/
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We have a Democratic president giving $1 trillion dollars a year to war, but nothing to affordable housing. We cannot have guns and butter. The War Resisters League pie chart at https://www.warresisters.org/resources/pie-chart-flyers-where-your-income-tax-money-really-goes shows that the military consumes a significant portion of our budget. Only public financing can solve the housing crisis. Begging profiteering housing developers for a few crumbs of affordable housing does not work as we see in San Francisco. The housing crisis is a direct result of the existence of the war machine. If you want affordable housing, you have to support the parties that support housing for the workingclass and oppose war, namely Peace & Freedom and the Green Party.
For more information:
https://www.warresisters.org/resources/pie...
The housing shortage in the Bay Area has existed for decades. The only real solution is to eliminate much of the regulation that's stifled construction and build literally thousands of units per year. Artificially deflating prices won't solve it.
Read the World Socialist Website
Housing crisis and neglect at root of fatal Oakland fire, one of the deadliest in US history
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/06/oakl-d06.html
Death toll at least 33 in Oakland warehouse fire
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/05/fire-d05.html
The Oakland fire tragedy and the housing crisis in America
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/07/pers-d07.html
Housing crisis and neglect at root of fatal Oakland fire, one of the deadliest in US history
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/06/oakl-d06.html
Death toll at least 33 in Oakland warehouse fire
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/05/fire-d05.html
The Oakland fire tragedy and the housing crisis in America
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/07/pers-d07.html
The housing crisis in the Bay Area has not existed for decades. We have not been asked to pay $2,000 to $4,000 a month for small apartments in old buildings for decades. These prices, the result of profiteering, namely buying cheap and selling dear, are only in the past 10-15 years. The solution to all housing problems is PUBLIC FINANCING. Democrat Jerry Brown has refused to release funds for public financing which would immediately relieve the housing crisis. It is thanks to rent control that I have a roof over my head, and that is true of hundreds of thousands of people in the Bay Area. Private profit builders cannot make a profit in building affordable housing. The only reason they build housing is to make a profit. It is the profits that have drawn them to the housing field. San Francisco gives $577 MILLION Dollars a year to the police, instead of paying for affordable housing, so as to terrorize the workingclass into accepting substandard living conditions. This country gives TRILLIONS of dollars to the war machine to machine to maximize the profits of the oil and munitions companies, the only reason the military exists, instead of paying for affordable housing. WE CANNOT HAVE GUNS AND BUTTER. Register Peace & Freedom or Green, the only parties that promote public housing instead of war and police.
Unfortunately, I was hearing 20 plus years ago that there was an unmet need of 10,000 housing units per year in the greater Bay Area. Given that supply and demand determines price, it's not shocking to me that housing costs have skyrocketed in recent years. Add decreasing income to these costs and you have the makings of a crisis. That and not gentrification is not the root cause of the housing shortage.
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