Community Justice Action Alert!
Oakland has lost 36,559 African Americans since 2000, a 26% decline. Homelessness has surged by 39% in 2 years! Oakland is now the epi-center for the national displacement and racial injustice crisis. $5 million for 2 years is available in the City’s budget to fund proven anti-displacement strategies that would help over 7,000 tenants and 300 elderly homeowners at severe risk of displacement and homelessness.
We need YOU to contact the Oakland City Council and tell them:
Fund proven anti-displacement and homeless prevention strategies—housing counseling, legal services, and emergency housing funds for low-income tenants and homeowners.
Council President Larry Reid, District 7, 510.238.7529
CM Dan Kalb, District 1, 510.238.7001
CM Abel Guillen, District 2, 510.238.7002
CM Lynette McElhaney, District 3, 510.238.7003
CM Annie Campbell-Washington, District 4, 510.238.7004
CM Noel Gallo, District 5, 510.238.7005
CM Desley Brooks, District 6, 510.238.7006
CM Rebecca Kaplan, At Large, 510.238.7308
Here’s WHY:
· An ounce of prevention is better than a ton of cure: it costs $500 to keep a family in their home versus $500,000 to build a new housing unit or $100,000/person to provide homeless wrap-around services. AND most of all, we can prevent human suffering and trauma from losing one’s home and slipping into homelessness or displacement.
· Investing in anti-displacement prevents homelessness: Oakland recently passed policies to protect tenants—Measure JJ and the Tenant Protection Ordinance. But what’s needed to make these protections real is funding frontline housing defenders—housing counselors and lawyers—as well as emergency housing funds to help cover rent during a financial set-back or for security deposit. There are over 3,500 tenants facing evictions annually who do not have legal representation. And there are over 9,000 Oakland elderly homeowners, disproportionately African American, who are at risk of losing their homes.
· City funds are available for anti-displacement: The City of Oakland has $5 million available over the next 2 years, housing boomerang funds used to build affordable housing, that can be used instead to keep people in their homes and prevent more homeless. Through new housing bond measures and new housing impact fee, the City will have over $200 million for affordable housing development. But it will take time to build more units—meanwhile, people are losing their homes every day. By funding anti-displacement, these funds could prevent displacement of over 7,000 tenants and 300 homeowners!