Tag Archives: Bay Area

Revolt of the Landlords

California’s housing crisis walloped 75-year-old Perry Angle and his wife in 2014, when the monthly rent for their one-bedroom apartment in a Santa Rosa senior citizen complex began to shoot up from $925 a month to $1,435 two years later. Angle, a retired account manager for Blue Cross, heavily depended on Social Security – his savings had been largely wiped out Read More


Oakland, S.F. neighborhoods fastest gentrifying in U.S.

Nearly one-third of poor neighborhoods in Oakland and San Francisco experienced gentrification between 2013 and 2017, the highest rate in the country according to a new national study. San Jose was also among the top 10 cities in the U.S. where families with low median household incomes were replaced by high wage earners with college degrees, according to a report released Read More


Housing Famous, But Winning Housing Rights in Oakland Will Make Their Impact Last

Teen Vogue article

As Black children slept in a quiet home on Magnolia Street, Oakland residents watched as militarized law enforcement officials from the Alameda County’s Sheriff’s Office arrived at the Wedgewood Properties–owned property to arrest Misty Cross, Tolani King, and Dominique Walker (who was absent at the time, due to an appearance on Democracy Now!) for the acquisition of a vacant residence — a charge Read More


Affordable housing can cost $1 million in California. Coronavirus could make it worse

LA Times article Housing Costs

SOLANA BEACH, Calif. — When developer Ginger Hitzke first proposed an affordable housing complex on a parking lot in Solana Beach, she envisioned building 18 new homes for low-income families and adults at a cost of $414,000 per apartment. More than a decade later, her project has shrunk in size by nearly half and become more than twice as expensive. 4/9/2020: Twitter Read More


‘There’s nowhere to go:’ Peninsula tenants face eviction as rent control expires

Mercury News article

Since the mid-1980s, Foster’s Landing has included 74 rent-restricted apartments, including De Leon’s, amid hundreds of market-rate units at the complex. But those restrictions are set to begin expiring at the end of 2020 and the current owner, San Mateo-based Essex Property Trust, can legally raise prices to the market rate. Dozens of families could soon be forced out of their Read More


A vestige of segregation that could go before California voters next year

Mercury News article

The repeal of a constitutional amendment discouraging public housing — a vestige of pro-segregation sentiment from the 1950s — could go before California voters next year. State lawmakers, backed by a coalition of developers, affordable housing advocates and cities, are considering approval of a ballot measure that would strike Article 34 from the California constitution.