Note: The online Request to Speak window has expired.
Agenda Item
5.4 24-0002 Subject: Declaration Of A Local Emergency On Homelessness
From: Councilmember Kaplan
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Renewing And Continuing The City Council's Declaration Of A Local Emergency Due To The Existence Of The City's Homelessness Crisis
My name is Sara and I am a renter in D4. Our homelessness crisis is a human rights issue, and a public safety issue. As part of a coalition, I have been canvassing tenants facing eviction at the Hayward Hall of Justice with a survey we developed to get a better sense of the eviction crisis. 69% of tenants we surveyed said they do not have adequate legal representation for their eviction case. This is alarming because we know that if a tenant doesn’t have an attorney, they almost always lose by default.
In the criminal justice system, you have the right to a public defender even if you don’t have the funds - why is the housing justice system any different? Housing is a human right, and it's difficult to preserve that right when tenants are so disadvantaged in the eviction process.
57% of the tenants we spoke to have children in the home. I spoke to one mother who was despondent about having to take her daughter out of a school she has been thriving at because they were being evicted. For a child, an eviction means developmental trauma that could affect them for the rest of their lives.
44% of the tenants fighting evictions in this courthouse over the last month are Black. Black tenants are TWICE as likely as white tenants to be evicted. This is a racial justice issue. Amend the city charter for tenant rights to an attorney when facing evictions, and make developing deeply affordable housing the #1 priority. Thank you.
Declaring a state of emergency on homelessness is all well and good, but we need to do something about the crisis, we know, in fact we've know for decades that homelessness is primarily driving by lack of access to affordable housing not by whatever false narrative the media tries spreads, be it moral panics based on drugs, mental illness, satanism, avocados or anything else that deflects from the real cause, lack of affordable housing.
Obviously the best way to prevent homelessness is to keep people housed. Ensuring every tenant has access to a lawyer would go a long way to preventing unfair & unjust evictions, especially of people who work hard leaving them little free time to find one themselves, which is especially intimidating when English is not your first language. The great measures this council often pass are of no use if tenants are unaware or unable to use them.
As for the people already on our streets, sadly the last administration wasn't special, the practice letting developers get out of building affordable housing, then having the city fail to build enough permanent housing has been causing rents to sky-rocket everywhere right wingers have tried it, what would be special is if Oakland can break out of this gridlock and be a city that actually builds the housing we need to address our homelessness crisis, like they do in Finland.
My name is Sara and I am a renter in D4. Our homelessness crisis is a human rights issue, and a public safety issue. As part of a coalition, I have been canvassing tenants facing eviction at the Hayward Hall of Justice with a survey we developed to get a better sense of the eviction crisis. 69% of tenants we surveyed said they do not have adequate legal representation for their eviction case. This is alarming because we know that if a tenant doesn’t have an attorney, they almost always lose by default.
In the criminal justice system, you have the right to a public defender even if you don’t have the funds - why is the housing justice system any different? Housing is a human right, and it's difficult to preserve that right when tenants are so disadvantaged in the eviction process.
57% of the tenants we spoke to have children in the home. I spoke to one mother who was despondent about having to take her daughter out of a school she has been thriving at because they were being evicted. For a child, an eviction means developmental trauma that could affect them for the rest of their lives.
44% of the tenants fighting evictions in this courthouse over the last month are Black. Black tenants are TWICE as likely as white tenants to be evicted. This is a racial justice issue. Amend the city charter for tenant rights to an attorney when facing evictions, and make developing deeply affordable housing the #1 priority. Thank you.
Declaring a state of emergency on homelessness is all well and good, but we need to do something about the crisis, we know, in fact we've know for decades that homelessness is primarily driving by lack of access to affordable housing not by whatever false narrative the media tries spreads, be it moral panics based on drugs, mental illness, satanism, avocados or anything else that deflects from the real cause, lack of affordable housing.
Obviously the best way to prevent homelessness is to keep people housed. Ensuring every tenant has access to a lawyer would go a long way to preventing unfair & unjust evictions, especially of people who work hard leaving them little free time to find one themselves, which is especially intimidating when English is not your first language. The great measures this council often pass are of no use if tenants are unaware or unable to use them.
As for the people already on our streets, sadly the last administration wasn't special, the practice letting developers get out of building affordable housing, then having the city fail to build enough permanent housing has been causing rents to sky-rocket everywhere right wingers have tried it, what would be special is if Oakland can break out of this gridlock and be a city that actually builds the housing we need to address our homelessness crisis, like they do in Finland.