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by Lynda Carson
Oakland, CA -- With so many people being homeless in Oakland and the Bay Area, it's hard to imagine that
any non profit Housing Authority would have enough
funding in reserve to spend a fortune on evictions.
In Oakland however, that’s just the case and on a recent January 16, the Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) memorandum detailed just how the authority plans to splurge a minimum of $400,000 to evict many of it's public housing tenants during the next 2 years.
For that kind of money the OHA could house alot of people, or use the funding to fix and repair many of their public housing units all across the City of
Oakland.
It was only as recent as January 9, 2007, the OHA sent out a press release claiming how impoverished it was, and how it will receive $2.9 million less than it was entitled to for it's public housing program, during FY 2007. Services and particularly property improvements will seriously be reduced, the press release cried out in anguish.
But a mere 7 days later, the OHA sends out a memo
declaring that they plan to spend $400,000 during the
next 2 years, to evict some of the very same people
that will be residing in the very same locations that
will lack the funding needed to maintain their housing
units properly.
It's clear that the funding priorities of the OHA
paint a bleak future for its public housing tenants
during the next 2 years, and something is wrong with
this picture.
The OHA has a choice. It can use the $400,000 to
repair it's public housing units, or it can force
hundreds of families out of their public housing units
by wasting good money that could have been used to
maintain the housing of Oakland's poor, elderly and
disabled community.
Making matters worse, the OHA has just spent a huge fortune on trying to evict 35 families accused of
being squatters at it's Lockwood Gardens public
housing units, despite the fact that the OHA had
accepted rent payments from these same families for
months before this accusation.
As it turned out, the courts have repeatedly refused
to allow the OHA to evict, and the latest ruling (a
few days ago) has once again shot down an appeal by
the OHA, to evict all those families residing at
Lockwood Gardens.
Despite the latest defeat in the court of appeal and
the ruling against the OHA, on February 13, an OHA
spokesperson (Ms. Hogan) stated that the OHA plans to
pursue a course to evict the Lockwood Garden's
families all over again.
Since the courts have repeatedly denied the OHA from
conducting mass evictions at Lockwood Gardens, Ms.
Hogan's public comments are nothing less than pure
harassment on the part of the OHA, as a brutal means
to frighten the lawful tenants into giving up their
rights to remain in their housing.
The recent January 16th OHA memo and eviction scheme,
shows that the OHA plans to funnel wheel barrows full
of money to five different law firms during the next 2
years, if the eviction scheme is approved.
The firms include, Edrington, Schirmer and Murphy,
Beckman and Marquez LLP, the Law Office of Charles
Ramsey, Law Offices of Arnold W. Evje II and Cindy
Lee, and the Law Office of Judondi Bolden.
The January 16th OHA memo does not state where the
$400,000 will be coming from to evict all those public
housing tenants, nor if they will have to raise the
rents on the poor tenants in order to pay off these
blood suckers who profit on the forced relocation of
Oakland's renters.
Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule@yahoo.com
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