With Oakland’s housing crisis showing no signs of abating, the City Council has broadened preferences for local residents seeking affordable rents.
Oakland residents and workers will now be given first shot at the city’s first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance program and at affordable apartment projects funded with city money.
Oakland has given priority to those displaced by city development projects or code enforcement since 2008.
The new regulations would add people displaced by no-fault evictions in the past 18 months.
And for the initial renting of newly constructed affordable housing, people who live in the same council district or within a mile of the housing development would be granted priority after displaced residents for up to 30 percent of the rentals. They would take precedence over people who live or work in Oakland.
“The sad reality is that there is not enough affordable housing in our city today to meet the current demands in Oakland,” Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney said at the council’s July 5 meeting.
“Many of our residents who were born and raised in Oakland or who have family and friends who continue to live here … have been pushed out of the city, largely due to no fault of their own,” she said.
“The city believes in rectifying this by allowing a right of return for people who have been displaced and by stipulating that they have the priority preference afforded to residents in competing for affordable housing units. This will allow us to maintain neighborhood cohesion,” McElhaney said.
A speaker at the meeting objected to the term “workers,” pointing out that rather than a preference for teachers, the legislation covered all workers and might be applied to newly arrived tech workers rather than existing residents battling displacement.
The regulations’ low-income criteria would make such workers unlikely to qualify for the programs, McElhaney replied.
Speaker Gene Hazzard also cited a “paucity of housing for teachers” and asked to make them a protected class.
The city is struggling to house nurses, teachers, support service and day care workers, McElhaney said. She suggested it would be ill-advised to discourage other similarly needful and needed workers.
“Compared to the existing situation, this does create more of a likelihood that those who will reside in these new projects will be people who have ties to Oakland or already live in Oakland or were previously displaced from Oakland. This is a substantial improvement over the existing situation,” Councilman Dan Kalb said.
“I’m very happy to support this,” he added.
Councilman Noel Gallo asked about enforcement, which would be left to the individual developers renting the units.
“We can’t do everything,” McElhaney said.
“I think this certainly is an improvement to our current system. It strengthens it and allows for a right of return,” she said.
The measure, which McElhaney first introduced in April, was passed unanimously by the six council members present and took effect immediately.
Contact Mark Hedin at mhedin@bayareanewsgroup.com.
