The Alameda County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved the transfer of an abandoned East Oakland property to an Oakland-based organization for the development of affordable housing at the site.
The abandoned, tax-defaulted property located at 8215 MacArthur Blvd. will be sold to the Black Cultural Zone Community Development Corporation. The nonprofit developer revitalizes properties by building affordable housing. The nominal sale price will be $10.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time,” said Supervisor Nate Miley at Tuesday’s meeting. “We want to have other tax-defaulted properties being made available for affordable housing; this is a strategy we earnestly want to pursue.”
The property was previously owned by the Oakland Community Housing Inc., which dissolved in 2013. More than $1.7 million is owed on the parcel in outstanding taxes, penalties, and code enforcement liens, and the property failed to attract bidders at multiple tax auctions, according to a news release issued by the Black Cultural Zone.
In his letter to the board, Alameda County Treasurer-Tax Collector Henry Levy said that the outstanding sums will be canceled as part of the sale.
“These properties will become productive and will generate economic benefit once they are rehabilitated, developed, and rented or sold to low-income taxpayers,” Levy said in the letter.
It was Levy’s office that led the initiative to facilitate the transfer, under a provision of state tax codes.
At Tuesday’s meeting, members of Levy’s staff added that there are around 10 other properties that the county intends to transfer to developers similarly.