Broadway & 14th St
Oakland, CA 94612
USA
Greetings friends, as you know, Oakland’s in a severe housing crisis.
Causa Justa and our allies have made demands on the City Council, Oakland’s Housing Department and the Mayor to address this issue through policy changes, and most importantly have demanded resources for services, tenants’ rights enforcement and to the creation of deeply affordable housing. We have been successful in getting a very small percentage of the funds necessary, but are constantly told that the City does not have the resources to enforce the laws on the books, or to build housing that meets the housing needs of Oakland’s long time residents.
This is false. The City of Oakland spends two thirds of it’s budget on police, and earlier this year spent an anonymous $750,000.00 grant to expand the police force, it becomes obvious that the problem is not a lack of resources, but a lack of political will to address this crisis.
We need your support to pressure the council and let them know that this is unacceptable, and that Oakland residents want to see funding for housing, not for cops!
We are inviting you to come out on Tuesday,12/8 when the Oakland City Council will review a recommendation from the City Administrator to receive a “grant” to fund 15 walking officers. This “grant” only covers 15% of the cost for these 15 officers, so requires the CIty to use $3 million from a hidden fund and borrowing $7-8 million from the 2017-2019 budget. You can see the report here.
*The item is number 13 (Subject: 2015 USDOJ/COPS Grant Acceptance), see agenda here for the Special Concurrent Meeting of the Oakland Redevelopment Successor Agency/City Council 12/8.
It’s clear that the City cares more about cops that they do about the working families being displaced, the more than a quarter of the Black community that has been pushed out, and the long term residents living in tents under the freeways. City officials allow this to continue while they go to extreme measures to expand cops. These are the decisions that fuel gentrification. The City is spending OUR money on cops, the same police force that killed 7 Black people this year, and who racially profile Black and Brown people on a regular basis. The police force has been identified as a spending priority at the expense of the Oakland residents who are in need of healthy housing. Why can’t the City use this hidden fund for deeply affordable housing? Why can’t the City use this fund to pay for staffing to enforce tenants rights, or to repair dilapidated housing? Why can’t the City borrow $7-8 million from the next budget cycle to address the housing crisis?
The answer is simple – decision makers in the City of Oakland don’t care about the impact of the housing crisis on Oakland’s long time residents, they only say that they do. And we need to make them put the money where their mouths are.
Following the item on the Police grant, item #14, Libby Schaaf along with Abel Guillen will declare a “Shelter Crisis” in Oakland to ease the permitting process to build shelters. Don’t let this false solution confuse you, building more shelters IS NOT AN ANSWER TO THE HOUSING CRISIS!
What is the answer?
- We need to put staffing and resources into making sure that we enforce the protections on the books – we have Just Cause evictions and a Rent Adjustment program, both of which are under funded and lack enforcement mechanisms. We need to enforce those NOW to help KEEP PEOPLE IN THEIR HOMES!
- Oakland needs to invest in alternatives to create deeply affordable housing! We need to start with the LOWEST incomes first!
- We need to stop rent increases! Rents in Oakland have more than doubled in some neighborhoods, THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!
Yes, we are in a STATE OF EMERGENCY – a HOUSING CRISIS! And we need the City to invest in SOLUTIONS!!! And fund housing, not the cops!
Enough is enough! We are asking you to join us to demand that the City of Oakland address the housing crisis! And not just with empty rhetoric, but with action and money!
Please fill out a speaker card online, you can get that here.
*City Council meetings start at 5:30pm, but since the item is number 13, I would suggest signing up online to speak and coming to council at 7:30/8pm.
Thank you for your work to fight displacement in Oakland, let’s continue to do that and spread the word!
Hope to see you Tuesday night!
Follow Causa Justa on Twitter – @causajusta1