March’s Sketchy Rentals: Red Minivan Edition
New tenant protections may be coming to Oakland
The Bay Area housing crisis made national headlines in recent months after a group of homeless mothers, all members of Moms 4 Housing, were physically forced from a vacant West Oakland home they had been occupying. Ever since then, there have been increased conversations over the need to give tenants more protection.
Oakland City Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas is championing a number of ordinances to do that, including co-sponsoring the Fair Chance Housing ordinance, which the Oakland City Council recently passed. It prohibits landlords from running criminal background checks on prospective tenants. The ordinance is the first of its kind in any city in California. Fortunato Bas hopes the new law will help alleviate the homelessness crisis, given roughly three-fourths of people in encampments in Oakland are predicted to be formerly incarcerated.
“I’m passionate about making sure that when folks are returning home from the criminal justice system, they have a real opportunity to re-integrate into the community,” said Fortunato Bas. “It’s very important that they have access to the most basic human need: a roof over your head.”
Fortunato Bas is also working on an ordinance in conjunction with Moms 4 Housing that would provide tenants the opportunity to purchase the home they are renting first when it goes on the market before anyone else: “This isn’t about Oakland ‘taking people’s property,’ it’s about creating more community ownership in the midst of the housing crisis.”
We’ll be sure to keep an eye and share developments in future columns. For now, let’s take a look at the depths of Craigslist, as we do.
A half-studio in an SRO building
For those who can afford to live in a studio, the perks of having your own place may outweigh the lack of square footage. But because the housing crisis is as it is, sharing a studio is not uncommon. This one in San Francisco is walking distance to the Montgomery BART station and offers a…
