Oakland Residents Come Together to Support Mayor's Housing Plan,
Look to Council for Support

Imani Community Church was the location for organizers from Oakland Community Organizations and ACORN to have dialogue with Oakland's Vice Mayor Henry Chang to answer tough questions on his views on affordable housing. Chang was joined in the event by Councilmember Jean Quan (Montclair-Laurel District) who has been a supporter of affordable housing.

Chang said he would support working families in Oakland having a place to live in the city, but it was Chang's past stance on the affordable housing issue that drew the most intense questioning. Chang said he would support an increase in spending on housing for low-income families by contributing 35 percent of the city's redevelopment money to such programs; he said he'd support a plan to force developers to make at least 15 percent of their projects affordable, a concept called inclusionary zoning; he said he'd support a cap of 200 apartment-to-condo conversions every year, unless the number of affordable units built under an inclusionary zoning policy surpassed that mark. 

With five seats on the council up for election, this is a key time to get something like this passed" , said Quan.   OCO leader, Rev. Valerie Miles-Tribble said Chang's support for inclusionary zoning and a cap on condo conversions represented a "major victory" for housing activists. By and large, the people in the audience liked the answers they got.

OCO and the Housing Coalition Advance Housing Policy Ideas to the Mayor

"My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest." Isaiah 32:18

We have all been impacted by Oakland's affordable housing crisis: we struggle to pay our rent or mortgage, our families are moving away from Oakland, and our congregations lose members every day due to the high cost of housing. OCO leaders have been working toward solutions for providing quality, affordable housing for working families in Oakland. Recently we have begun to work more closely with the Mayor's office. The result of that partnership was a request from the Mayor's office to the People's Housing Coalition (of which OCO is a key member) to provide a set of policy recommendations around 5 specific areas of affordable housing: Inclusionary Zoning, Condo Conversion, Development Standards, Rent Adjustment/Tenant Protections, and Homeownership policy. It is our understanding that Mayor Dellums intends to use our recommendations to inform a comprehensive affordable housing policy that he will seek to implement.

OCO leaders worked diligently with the coalition to research and form policy proposals in response to the Mayor's request. Those have now been submitted to his office. We will stay in conversation with Mayor Dellums as he puts together his comprehensive affordable housing policy package. We anticipate that he will introduce this before the end of the year. It is important for Mayor Dellums to hear from OCO leaders. Please email him at officeofthemayor@oaklandnet.com and let him know that the continued loss of families from our congregations and communities impacts our ability to successfully carry out our mission and ministry in Oakland. We are counting on him to put forward meaningful housing policy before the end of the year.

If you have any questions about OCO's work on affordable housing, feel free to contact Amy Fitzgerald, OCO Organizer, at afitzgerald@oaklandcommunity.org or Pastor Lucy Kolin, OCO Co-chair, at lucyk@pacbell.net.

Residents Seek Design Change and Additional Benefits for
Massive Fruitvale Condo Project

OCO leaders and parents from the surrounding schools held a press conference on Tuesday, November 20th, at the proposed Pacific Thomas Capital's 810-unit Fruitvale Gateway condominium project site on East 12th and 29th Ave. With over 50 leaders and concerned parents in attendance, leaders presented an alternative design and proposal for a Community Benefits Agreement which would strengthen the project's current community benefits proposal. If the proposal is adopted by the developer it would bring additional community support to the project. "Pacific Thomas Capital wants a lot from the city. We should make sure that the residents of this community get treated fairly in return," said Rosa Garcia, OCO leader and parent at ASCEND school.

The developers' proposal includes one-to-three bedroom market-rate condominiums, selling between $450,000 to $500,000. Several of the buildings would be freestanding towers up to 16 stories tall. The alternative design OCO leaders and local school parents propose includes about the same number of units, but the building would be up to nine stories rather than 16, adding more affordable housing and open space, a larger community facility, more construction jobs for local residents, and a plan to protect the community's health during construction. "We're concerned about the impacts of a project this large and what it means for affordable housing, traffic, job training and local hiring," said Bea Bernstine, who has lived in the Fruitvale for 20 years and is a member of OCO. "We have put down roots in this community and we want to stay here."

"We have talked to more than 2000 people in this neighborhood about this project and the main issues were always protecting the health of our children, creating a center for positive youth activities and housing that we can afford" said Josie Cruz, OCO leader and parent at ASCEND school.