AROUND 50 PEOPLE gathered at Oakland City Hall on Tuesday to demand that the city address code infractions in various buildings across the city by fully funding Oakland’s Proactive Rental Inspection Program.
The protest came just before the Oakland City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee was set to vote on its annual housing action plan, a report that requests funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development toward various grant programs.
“For far too long, landlords have been allowed to have inhabitable conditions within their apartment buildings, leaving tenants with concerns around their own health and their own family stability,” said Valarie Bachelor, Oakland director for Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. “This is completely unacceptable, and we demand change.”
Many residents who were in attendance live at The Oakland Station, a five-year-old affordable housing complex in East Oakland at 1428 105th Ave. that is managed by CONAM, a real estate investment and property management firm. The company has received recent scrutiny from residents who have alleged dilapidated conditions at their complex without sufficient response from their landlord, including garbage, rodents, roaches, and broken security gates.
Other residents such as Teresa Coleman, who lives in the Acorn Apartments located in West Oakland, managed by BRIDGE, a San Francisco based property management company, pointed out similar conditions at her residence and invited councilmembers to come and see the state of the apartments themselves.
“You have made Oakland a living nightmare as it relates to the real estate in Oakland… You have failed greatly.” Coleman said. “You’ve sold Oakland to the lowest bidder, and you care not about investing in the city nor the property in which we live in.”
Rahman Popal, founder and owner of The Law Firm for Tenant Rights, added that he would be filing a lawsuit imminently on behalf of over 40 current and former tenants at Oakland Station against CONAM.
After the protest, the protestors moved into the city council chamber to enter their demands into the public record during the committee meeting.
“You have made Oakland a living nightmare as it relates to the real estate in Oakland… You have failed greatly.”
Teresa Coleman, Acorn Apartments tenant
The city’s annual action plan includes a $7.56 million Community Development Block Grant for which a portion would go toward “anti-displacement and tenant stabilization” including code compliance relocation.
Assistant City Administrator Chuck Baker noted that he and other councilmembers had visited the Oakland Station themselves and marked down several code violations at the housing complex. Baker said that the current issues fall outside of what code enforcement can do at this time without reforms.
He added the city has put the extent of pressure they are able to provide on CONAM with fines and notices and suggested to residents that they file police reports and 311 complaints to document the various violations.
District 3 councilmember Carroll Fife went a step further, and suggested residents take “direct action” against the landlord and said that she would join them if invited.
“I’ve heard about the conditions that you all are experiencing far too often sitting up here, and I don’t have to tell you that you deserve none of this,” Fife said. “I’ve been through this and I got y’all’s back, just tell me where to show up and I will be there when y’all get ready to do some direct actions.”
The committee voted 3-0 to approve the annual housing plan to the full city council for a vote on July 7, with Fife, Rowena Brown and Zac Unger supporting, and Janani Ramachandran absent.
